The Errl Cup is Arizona's cannabis awards festival, running twice a year since 2016 on a premise no other cup fully commits to: organizers secret-shop dispensary shelves, lab-test the buys blind, and hand free judge kits to registered Arizona patients. Entry costs nothing for adults 21 and over, and Fall 2026 lands October 24 in Mesa.
Judged Off the Shelf
Most competitions judge what a brand chooses to submit. The Errl Cup buys its samples the way any customer would — secret-shopping dispensaries across greater Phoenix — then routes everything through a sponsoring laboratory for blind testing before a single score is written.
Those buys become free judge kits, issued at random to Arizona patients who register ahead of the event and scored on a standard scorecard. Brands can still enter voluntarily, but volunteer entries run the identical lab-and-judging path. Awards land across 25 dispensary categories and 9 patient categories.
The structure closes the loophole most cups leave open: there is no way to submit a showcase batch. The shoppers buy what any customer could have bought that week, so a trophy reflects the shelf — not a hand-cured jar that never sees retail.
Accountability Is the Point
The Cup frames its own mission as consumer appreciation and dispensary accountability, and the results read that way: the awards name who is stocking Arizona's strongest shelves and, just as publicly, who is coasting. A scoreboard built from retail buys instead of hand-picked submissions is the most honest signal a shopper in this market can get.
That twice-a-year cadence matters too. Twenty-plus editions deep, the Cup has scored this market season after season for a decade, which means a dispensary cannot win once and coast on the plaque — the secret shoppers come back within months, every time.
Free Is the Whole Model
Ten years in, admission still costs nothing for adults 21+ and valid MMJ cardholders — the detail most people do not believe until they walk through the gate. A free ticket does not mean an afterthought of a day, either; it means the Cup wants the actual market in the building.
Paid tiers only buy time, not access: VIP runs $75 and enters at 9 AM, Fast Passes run $25 for the mid-morning waves, and general admission lands at noon, each ticket carrying its own printed entry hour. MMJ cardholders get their own dedicated morning wave, which tells you whose event this was first.
Around the judging, the day runs like a festival — cannabis exhibitors, live music, local food, giveaways, contests, games and a VIP lounge. Two house rules are worth knowing before the drive out: no pets beyond licensed service animals, and no weapons of any kind.
Pulling Up in October
The Errl Cup Fall 2026 runs Saturday, October 24 at Scarizona, 1901 N Alma School Rd in Mesa, from 9 AM to 4 PM, and this round puts concentrates under the microscope — the secret shops target concentrate cases across the greater Phoenix market. Brands that want the voluntary-entry lane have until September 9 to submit through the official Errl Cup site, where judge registration also opens.
A Cup That Audits the Market
Plenty of cups sell trophies; this one audits a market. Secret-shopped buys, blind lab work and patient judges make the Errl Cup closer to investigative journalism than to a brand showcase, and it has kept that shape for a decade without charging the crowd a dollar. If a dispensary near Phoenix brags about an Errl Cup win, that award was earned off the shelf you shop from. Our events calendar tracks the rest of the Arizona run.