Animal Instincts

# Animal Instincts ## Quick Take Animal Instincts is High Season's cross of [Ice Cream Cake](/strains/ice-cream-cake) and Animal Mints, grown as indoor flower in California. The brand files it under a cookies-and-cakes terpene profile and sums the flavor up in three words: earthy, creamy, funk. Published effects data is thin — High Season does not report any. ## History and Background High Season is a California operator with licensed dispensaries in Adelanto and Fontana, and it cultivates out of Adelanto. Animal Instincts sits in its indoor flower lineup under the brand's own name rather than as a licensed outside cut. What the brand publishes is narrow but specific: the direct cross, a terpene category, four dominant terpenes, and a three-word flavor summary. There is no published breeding story, no release date, and no phenotype-hunt account. That is worth stating plainly rather than filling in, because a fair amount of secondhand strain copy has circulated an "Ice Cream Cake x Unknown" version of this cultivar. High Season's own page names the second parent: Animal Mints. ## Breeder, Brand, and Genetics High Season carries the documented brand and producer credit. Whether the company bred the cross or selected it is not something its published material establishes, so "producer" is the safer word. The genetics are Ice Cream Cake x Animal Mints. Both parents sit in the modern dessert lane — Ice Cream Cake is broadly associated with the [Gelato](/strains/gelato) and [Wedding Cake](/strains/wedding-cake) side of the family, and Animal Mints contributes Cookies-family dough, cool mint, and heavy resin. Pairing two resin-forward dessert parents is a well-worn move, and it explains the flavor direction more usefully than the strain's indica label does. ## Aroma, Flavor, and Flower High Season's official flavor note is earthy, creamy, funk — and the ordering is informative. Earth comes first, not sugar. The terpene category is cookies/cakes, so expect dough and cream over a darker base rather than bright fruit. The brand lists limonene, myrcene, caryophyllene, and linalool as dominant. That group maps to citrus lift, earthy weight, pepper, and a floral softening. High Season does not publish percentages, and any figure printed on a jar belongs to that batch alone. Structure, color, and trichome coverage shift with selection, environment, harvest timing, dry, and cure. ## Reported Effects and Best Fit Here the evidence runs out. Menu shorthand tends to file cookies-and-cakes indoor flower as evening-leaning, but that is a category assumption, not a finding about this cultivar. ## Awards, Press, and Cultural Footprint Animal Instincts is a house indoor release with a documented cross and a documented terpene profile. That is the whole verifiable record, and inflating it would not serve anyone. ## Final Take Animal Instincts is High Season's Ice Cream Cake x Animal Mints indoor flower: earthy cream, dessert dough, and funk from a cookies-and-cakes terpene profile. Published effects data is absent, so judge it by the batch.