French Lotus is a hybrid from Maven Genetics, the indoor grower and breeder based in California's San Fernando Valley. Maven made it by crossing FKAFL with Blue Lotus, two plants that both came out of its own library.
The cross earned a spot in Maven's Kings & Queens collection. There, two phenotypes, French Lotus #7 and #9, anchor a line Maven calls La Fleur Royale.
FKAFL, the parent formerly known as French Laundry
FKAFL is Maven's cross of The Soap and L.A. Rouge. It first went to market as French Laundry, a nod to laundry detergent rather than the famous restaurant. Maven's own page describes plumy, multicolored buds draped in white trichomes.
The strain had a big 2023. Forbes lists wins at the Farmers Cup, the Transbay Challenge and the Zalympix. It also took second at the High Times Cannabis Cup and fourth at The Emerald Cup.
That December, The French Laundry Restaurant Corporation in Napa Valley sent Maven a cease-and-desist letter. The three-Michelin-star restaurant had held the trademark since 1998. Maven pulled the old branding and renamed the strain FKAFL, short for formerly known as French Laundry.
Blue Lotus and the Black Box Series
Blue Lotus is the other parent. Maven lists it as an indica from XXX OG and Blue Gelato #41. It was the second edition of Maven's limited Black Box Series, picked as the winner from 12 phenotypes.
Blue Lotus has become one of Maven's busiest breeding plants. Blue Agape pairs it with White Runtz, and Black Lotus pairs it with Black Diamond X. Maven's library also carries Parisian Kush, a limited edition built from the same FKAFL × Blue Lotus pairing as French Lotus.
FKAFL has its own run of offspring too. Dirty Laundry, another Maven hybrid, crosses Prizm with FKAFL.
La Fleur Royale: French Lotus #7 and #9
Kings & Queens gathers one-off selections chosen for exceptional quality and rarity. Maven says their low yields make a full release highly unlikely. The collection runs three lines side by side.
House of Prizm holds FKAFL × Prizm #30 and Lipsmackerz × Prizm #13. New Money covers two phenotypes from a Compound Genetics collaboration built on Black Amber × Eye Candy. La Fleur Royale holds the two unreleased French Lotus cuts.
Maven's notes give each cut its own character. French Lotus #7 leans savory, with a diesel edge and hints of citrus. French Lotus #9 stands out for its dense structure.
On its main strain page, Maven describes French Lotus as violet-hued flower with dense nugs. The same page files it as a hybrid, matching its listing in the strain library.
A San Fernando Valley breeding program
Maven says it began as a small, closet-grown passion project in the Valley. A 2023 Forbes profile traces its cultivation roots to 1993, when CEO David Bosworth started growing. The operation grew to multiple Valley sites in 2005 and opened its flagship Maven Store in Tarzana in 2022.
At the time of that profile, Maven ran three cultivation sites with 1,600 lights and harvested six times a year indoors. It was testing 140 flavor profiles, and the team said a hunt takes 8–12 months or more before a keeper emerges.
That process explains how French Lotus came together. Maven bred both parents, crossed them in-house, then held back numbered selections for its smallest releases. Every batch is hand-trimmed before it leaves the building.