Animal Instincts is a premium indoor flower from High Season, the Inland Empire cultivator that grows it at its Adelanto facility. The cross pairs Ice Cream Cake with Animal Mints, two staples of the modern cake and cookie family.
That pairing gives it an unusual pedigree. Animal Mints is a direct parent, and it also sits behind Ice Cream Cake through Wedding Cake, so the line appears on both sides of the family tree.
Grown under the Adelanto roof
High Season runs what it calls one of California's largest indoor grow operations, based in Adelanto. The company says three fresh rooms of premium indoor flower come down every week, which keeps harvests on a year-round cycle.
The brand's motto is Never Stop Growing, and it bills itself as the Inland Empire's top cannabis cultivator. Beyond the grow, High Season also runs two licensed dispensaries, one in Adelanto on Air Expressway and one in Fontana in the Sierra Crossroads Shopping Center.
Two house brands come out of the grow. The High Season label covers handpicked batches the company describes as the very top of what it grows, while Gratitude sits alongside it as a second line. Animal Instincts carries the High Season name.
Ice Cream Cake brings the cake side
Ice Cream Cake is the first parent. Leafly lists it as a cross of Wedding Cake and Gelato #33, classed as an indica-dominant hybrid averaging 22% THC.
Growers know it for light green and purple buds flushed with icy trichomes. Leafly puts flowering at 8–9 weeks, with a large yield on a medium-tall plant that works indoors or outdoors. It has a following among both intermediate and advanced growers.
Both Ice Cream Cake and Wedding Cake came out of Seed Junky, whose Weedmaps page lists them among JBeezy's signature creations. Wedding Cake, also known as Triangle Mints #23, was Leafly's Strain of the Year in 2019.
Animal Mints, twice over
Animal Mints is a cross of Animal Cookies and SinMint Cookies. Leafly classes it as a hybrid averaging 18% THC, though reviewers report samples between 20% and 30%. Its buds run bright green and brown with a light frost.
Users describe it as a creeper, with effects that build gradually into a strong body and head high. Leafly also notes that it handles hot climates well.
The same strain shows up one generation further back. Leafly lists Wedding Cake as Triangle Kush × Animal Mints, and Wedding Cake is a parent of Ice Cream Cake. Animal Instincts therefore draws on Animal Mints directly and again through its grandparent.
A Cookies and Cakes terpene lineup
High Season files Animal Instincts under a Cookies/Cakes terpene profile. Its dominant terpenes are limonene, myrcene, caryophyllene and linalool, and the brand sums up the flavor as earthy, creamy funk.
All four of those terpenes trace back to the parents. Leafly lists caryophyllene, limonene and linalool as the leading terpenes in Ice Cream Cake. Animal Mints leads with caryophyllene, myrcene and limonene, which fills in the remaining piece.