Blue Dream – Modern Classic or Overhyped?

If you were a smoker between 2005 and 2016, you definitely remember a lot of Blue Dream on the menus of your local dispensary or in the bag of your favourite plug. Coming out of the Santa Cruz medical scene in the early 2000’s Blue Dream became so popular it was almost a joke amongst heads. In fact, the good name of Blue Dream by the late 2000’s had already become a punchline, much like “White Runts,” “Purple Punch” or other hype boy strains more recently.

The sativa dominant flower that tastes of berries and other more complex notes is still shrouded in mystery despite the popularity it enjoys. Adding to the confusion is the fact that the cannabis industry as a whole is notorious for repackaging flower that’s not selling well under a more popular strain name to move units. This common practice means that perhaps most bags of Blue Dream are in fact, something else all together. This practice of re-branding losers into winners often helps tarnish the good name of strains that are popular for a reason.

What makes real Blue Dream in particular even more rare is that it is a clone only strain. That means, the true cut of blue dream is genetically identical to the first plant. If you find yourself shopping for blue dream seeds, recognize that what you’re purchasing is either a “selfed” Blue Dream clone (a process where plants are forced into hermaphroditism to seed itself, i.e. inbreeding), an approximation of genetics that a breeder thought Blue Dream incorporated or a complete lie to sell other seeds that weren’t as popular.

The fact that it is a clone only strain is probably the only reason we know the region it came from. The cannabis industry can be so shady that lesser growers and breeders are constantly trying to take responsibility for work that isn’t even their own. There are famous strains that have been dug out of dumpsters of competitors, renamed and sold at top dollar. The industry is cut throat and the plants are secondary to the profits often. But because this plant had to be shared person to person, we have at least a trail of evidence of where it came from.

It’s crazy to think that a varietal like Blue Dream can be bred in Northern California and within a few years time become a household name like “Bubba Kush” or “Northern Lights” in a matter of years. So the haters must be wrong right? They must be only smoking fake Blue Dream right? To be fair, with the amount of fake Blue Dream on the market, maybe they are. And, of course the haters are wrong. Real Blue Dream grown correctly with love is a phenomenal strain. There is a reason classics are classics and it’s usually because it’s been a proven winner over an extended period. Blue Dream is no different.

So how do you know if you get the real Blue Dream. Listen, you don’t. Let’s be real. Unless you can go back to 2003 and buy an ounce from the first few dispos in Santa Cruz that were selling the cut, the rest is lore and hopefully you get the real thing. As a smoker during that time, I remember getting many, many different looking bags of “Blue Dream,” but sometimes I got what I believe was the real deal. This opinion is based off the consistency of the “good” bags versus the inconsistency of the other so-called “Blue Dreams” I received.

What I believed to be the real Blue Dream was a light green coloured bud with small orange hairs. Cured correctly, the smell was potent, but not insanely so. It smelled just like blueberries, like marijuana blueberries. The effects were on the strong side of mild if that makes any sense. It wasn’t the hardest hitting bag, but it wasn’t disappointing. Usually I would feel uplifted and sociable.

The best bag I ever received was gifted to me in Oklahoma, an ounce of beautiful, sticky pale green buds in a ziplock bag. Some of the worst I’ve gotten was purchased in Southern California at a dispensary, so really you can’t judge the authenticity by the point of purchase even. Perhaps the only way to find the elusive strain is to try a lot of “Blue Dreams” until you find a consistent set of traits within a few different growers. Even then you only really know that all those growers are growing the same cut of something named “Blue Dream” but if the look, smell and effect all line up it’s a decent bet you’ve got the genuine article. After all, as a clone only strain, they should all be fairly homogenous. The only variations would be in growing and curing, which to be fair can make something dank into something terrible.

All that said, this here looks like some Blue Dream. There’s only one way to find out I guess.

By the Potmaster General, for Potsmart