Best in Grass is a people's-choice cannabis competition run state by state: brands enter, judge kits land at licensed dispensaries, and thousands of everyday consumers score everything at home before winners are crowned at a dress-code awards show. Built by former High Times competition executives, the 2026 circuit runs from Arizona to New Jersey.
Kits First, Trophies Later
The format flips the old cup model. Instead of a closed panel, Best in Grass builds judge kits from the entered products and sells them through licensed dispensaries on a first-come basis. Whoever buys one becomes the judging panel, scoring at home over a window that runs several weeks to two months.
The kits are the hook. Pricing lands 30 to 60 percent below what the same products cost individually, quantities stay deliberately small — roughly 100 to 300 kits per category in Michigan's 2026 round — and finishing the full judging card earns a seat at the awards show, often with a dispensary store credit on top.
The category map is wide by design. Michigan 2026 spread fifteen kit categories across roughly thirty dispensaries statewide: flower by type, pre-rolls, infused pre-rolls, solvent and solventless concentrates, rosin and non-rosin vapes, gummies, edibles and beverages, each judged on its own scorecard. New Jersey's cycle runs fourteen categories on the same model.
Who Is Behind It
The team comes out of the trade's biggest competition machine: Best in Grass was founded by former High Times executives, with co-founder Mark Kazinec running operations. The lineage shows in the scale. Arizona's first statewide competition in early 2026 put 115 entries from more than 58 brands in front of 2,600 consumer judges.
A Season That Ends in a Suit
Each state's cycle closes with a red-carpet awards night. New York's 2026 show lands at Sony Hall in Manhattan on August 20, the California awards show takes over the Globe Theatre in downtown Los Angeles on September 17, and New Jersey wraps the year at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville on November 12.
These nights run like an industry Oscars — red carpet and cocktail hour first, winners' speeches next, then a DJ carrying the room — but the verdict at the center belongs to consumers, not a jury. That inversion is the brand.
The cycle behind each show is long. New York's 2026 season put kits on sale at the end of May through more than thirty retailers, gave judges the summer to score, and closed judging in early August — a four-to-eight-week runway per judge before a single trophy moved.
Why the Format Travels
Every legal state has the same problem: shelves full of brands and no trusted referee. A people's-choice cup answers it with volume — hundreds of scorecards per category instead of one panel's palate. Brands get exposure and the raw customer feedback after the show; winners get a story retail buyers actually repeat.
The judges get paid in access. Kits run from around $30 for a beverage flight to a couple hundred dollars for the deep concentrate lineups, and judges who complete every card in some states walk into the awards show free.
The High Rise Take
A cup is only as strong as its inputs, and the rules here are the right ones: entries come from state-licensed operators with lab-tested, track-and-trace products, and the verdicts come from the people already buying weed in that state. New Jersey's 2026 round even required NJ-born brands only, with around 2,700 residents judging.
If you would rather judge than spectate, move on drop day — kits sell out fast and do not restock in most categories. Season schedules run through the official Best in Grass site, and our events calendar carries every awards night we track.