Gelonade is a sativa-dominant hybrid bred and grown by Connected Cannabis Co., the California company that grew out of Sacramento. It crosses Lemon Tree with Gelato #41.
Gelonade is also a trophy winner. It took first place for Best Sativa flower at the Cannabis Cup, a 2018 win, and Connected still carries it in its Legacy Strains collection.
A Connected Cannabis Co. legacy strain
Caleb Counts built the company, starting with Fruitridge Health & Wellness in Sacramento in 2009. The Connected brand launched as its own platform in 2018, and the company runs retail in Sacramento, Stockton and San Francisco.
Connected handles its own cultivation, manufacturing and distribution. It has expanded into Arizona and Florida through an exclusive partnership with Trulieve, and in 2025 it announced a New York grow with FLUENT at a new indoor facility in Buffalo.
Gelonade sits in the Legacy Strains lineup beside Biscotti, Gelato 41, Rainbow Sherbet 11 and Gushers. Connected sells it as flower, including a 10g bag, and judges singled out its tangy, floral flavor.
Lemon Tree meets Gelato #41
Lemon Tree is a balanced hybrid from Sour Diesel × Lemon Skunk, known for lemon and diesel character. It is also a parent of Melonade, the Alien Labs sativa, so the two strains share one side of the family. Alien Labs founder Ted Lidie partnered with Connected in 2017.
Gelato #41 comes from the Cookies Family in California, built from Sunset Sherbet and Thin Mint Cookies. It is a high-THC hybrid with multicolored buds that run from light green to purple.
Connected's approach is to settle on proven core parents and combine complementary profiles to find commercial keepers. Kind Green Buds points to Gelonade as an example of that method, pairing a citrus parent with a Gelato-family parent.
Tight buds with purple leaves and orange hairs
Gelonade grows cohesive, tight buds that glisten with sticky trichomes. Connected describes light green nugs set against dark purple leaves and bright orange hairs. Respect My Region notes green and purple hues with a pinkish tint, and a denser build that leans toward the Gelato parent.
Connected lists D-limonene, β-caryophyllene and linalool as the top terpenes. The flavor opens with tangy lemon and moves into smooth, honeyed Gelato notes with a light gas finish.
The effect is uplifting and motivating. Connected pitches it for creative work and says the balanced profile fits daytime and evening. Leafly users most often call it energetic, talkative and focused, with Leafly listing about 22% THC.
Gelonade as a parent
Gelonade has become breeding stock of its own. Lemonatti crosses Gelonade with Biscotti, another Connected legacy strain, and Leafly lists Illemonati as a second Gelonade descendant.
Lemonatti keeps the citrus direction, with limonene, caryophyllene and pinene as its leading terpenes and THC averaging 23%. Both offspring carry the Lemon Tree side forward into new crosses.
Connected still grows the original under its Legacy Strains banner, and Leafly notes the strain's popularity in California. Its descendants carry the same Lemon Tree × Gelato #41 base into newer work, years after the 2018 Cup win.