Runtz is a hybrid cross of Zkittlez and Gelato, brought to market by the Runtz crew of Ray Bama, grower Nick and Long Beach rapper Yung LB. The crew debuted it at the Emerald Cup in Santa Rosa in December 2017, and within three years it had become one of the defining California cultivars of its era.
The clearest marker of that rise came in 2020, when Leafly named Runtz its Strain of the Year.
A Gelato and indoor Zkittlez pairing
Ray Bama has described the starting idea simply: cross the Gelato with the indoor Zkittlez. Gelato traces to Jai Chang, the Cookies co-founder known as Jigga, and it was itself Leafly's 2018 Strain of the Year. Zkittlez brought a fruit-forward candy line to the other side of the cross.
Leafly credits the Cookies Fam with making the Zkittlez × Gelato cross and the Runtz crew, led by Yung LB out of Long Beach, with popularizing it. Purple Caper Seeds released the same pairing under a different name, Gelato Zkittlez.
Nick ran the plants and kept a low profile. According to Ray Bama, he dropped two phenotypes from the seeds, a #7 and a #3. The name itself came from Runts candy, respelled with a z to nod to the Zkittlez side and to the plant's small nug size and yield.
Five pounds in ten minutes at the Emerald Cup
Before the 2017 Emerald Cup, Bama and LB stayed up all night trimming flower for the show. They arrived with the manicured buds, a small crew and about 1,000 t-shirts. Bama later recalled that they sold five pounds in roughly ten minutes.
The timing mattered. California opened adult-use sales on January 1, 2018, and the crew filed for a California trademark early that year. The brand has been legally trademarked since 2020. LB started the Runtz Instagram account himself, and it had grown to 20,000–30,000 followers before his partners asked for access.
Social reach then pushed the name further. An untagged "Runtz in Paris" post from Migos member Quavo helped the strain go nuclear, and more than 100 rap songs have mentioned it by name.
Cups, Cookies and a family of spin-offs
Runtz joined the Cookies lineup in 2018, with Berner, the Cookies co-founder and rapper, championing it. White Runtz followed as an official release. At the 2019 Emerald Cup, southern Humboldt grower Ridgeline Farms won with its Runtz entry out of about 700 entrants, while White Runtz took 3rd place.
That same year, Kalya Extracts placed 7th in the rosin category with a Runtz rosin. The name has since spread across dozens of offshoots. Leafly counts at least 20 variations, including Pink Runtz, Azul Runtz, Zruntz from Zkittlez 2.0 × White Runtz, and Rose Gold Runtz from Apples & Bananas × White Runtz.
Yung LB went on to found Joke's Up, a company that supports marketing and cultivation for more than 50 brands. The crew has also worked on breeding projects with Seed Junky Genetics, crossing Runtz with Jealousy, and with Doja Cat.
How Runtz grows and finishes
Runtz can be grown indoors or outdoors and flowers in about 63 days, or 7–9 weeks. Outdoor plants finish in mid-October. Yields run smaller than average, roughly 30% below a typical strain, which is one reason for the name. In exchange, the buds come in heavily coated with resin.
Flower color ranges from rich purple to lime green. Leafly lists caryophyllene as the dominant terpene, followed by limonene and myrcene, and records average THC around 21%. Its flavor runs sweet, with tree fruit and apricot.
Leafly users most often describe the effects as talkative, giggly and relaxed. Longer sessions lean heavier in the body, which fits the Gelato side of the family.