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Leafly crowned Hash Burger — a 33% THC indica-hybrid that tastes like garlic, cheese, and ammonia — Strain of the Year 2025. Plus: Virginia finally cuts a deal to legalize recreational cannabis sales, five years after legalizing possession.
This week we dig into Leafly's 2025 Strain of the Year — Hash Burger — and a long-overdue legalization deal out of Virginia. One smells like a 2am cheeseburger having a crisis; the other is five years late to its own party.
In this episode:
Sources:
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Daisy: —no but that's the thing, I genuinely thought it was a sandwich.
Astoria: You thought what was a sandwich.
Daisy: Hash Burger. I saw it on the menu at the dispensary and I was like, oh cute, the budtender's moonlighting.
Astoria: Daisy. It was at the WEED store.
Daisy: I know that NOW.
Astoria: Oh my god.
Daisy: In my defense, it's called Hash Burger. Like, the entire name is two foods.
Astoria: Hash is a weed thing.
Daisy: Hash is a breakfast thing.
Astoria: Okay sure, in your house.
Daisy: In every house! Hash browns? Corned beef hash?
Astoria: Corned beef— we are not doing this.
Daisy: We are doing this. Because this is Leafly's Strain of the Year. For 2025.
Astoria: Right.
Daisy: And it is named, officially, after a burger.
Astoria: It's named after a lineage of burgers, actually. Which I think is funnier.
Daisy: Wait, what?
Astoria: So I looked this up. Hash Burger is a cross of Double Burger and Han Solo Hash Plant.
Daisy: Han Solo Hash Plant.
Astoria: And Double Burger is Donny Burger crossed with GMO.
Daisy: I'm sorry, Donny Burger?
Astoria: Donny Burger.
Daisy: That's a guy. That's somebody's uncle.
Astoria: That's a guy who runs a body shop in New Jersey.
Daisy: Donny Burger has opinions about the Mets.
Astoria: Donny Burger has a very specific way he wants his lawn cut.
Daisy: Okay so the family tree is Donny Burger, Han Solo Burger, Double Burger, and then Hash Burger.
Astoria: Correct.
Daisy: The breeders just gave up. They were tired. They ordered off a menu.
Astoria: They were like, what if the strain... was also dinner.
Daisy: And then they bred it with Black Triangle Kush at some point in there, which sounds like a band that opens for a band you actually wanted to see.
Astoria: Stop.
Daisy: I'm just saying, the Black Triangle Kush guys are LOADING in right now while everyone's at the merch table.
Astoria: Okay but here's the thing that I need you to sit with.
Daisy: Okay.
Astoria: This strain tests around thirty-three percent THC.
Daisy: Oh no.
Astoria: On average. Some cuts are higher.
Daisy: That's not a strain, that's a CONSEQUENCE.
Astoria: That's a life event.
Daisy: Thirty-three percent. For an indica-leaning hybrid named after a sandwich.
Astoria: It's not a sandwich—
Daisy: It's CALLED a burger, Astoria.
Astoria: A burger is not a sandwich, that's a whole separate episode.
Daisy: You're right. Tabled. Tabled for later.
Astoria: But yes, thirty-three percent THC, indica-leaning. The Leafly write-up basically calls it couch-lock.
Daisy: So it gets you horizontal.
Astoria: Horizontal.
Daisy: And it tastes like a burger.
Astoria: Okay so I need to read you the actual flavor description because I cannot do it justice.
Daisy: Please.
Astoria: Leafly describes it as, quote, "a heaping helping of umami: garlic, onion, cheese, and pepper atop a skunky, ammonia-tinted base."
Daisy: ...ammonia-tinted.
Astoria: Ammonia-tinted.
Daisy: They put that in print. About a product. That people pay money for.
Astoria: And it has a four-point-seven out of five user rating.
Daisy: STOP.
Astoria: People LOVE it.
Daisy: People love the ammonia burger.
Astoria: People love the funk.
Daisy: Okay so this is the most American plant we have ever talked about on this show.
Astoria: Hands down.
Daisy: It's named after a burger, it smells like garlic and cheese, it gets you horizontal, and it's the strain of the YEAR.
Astoria: It's basically a Super Bowl ad.
Daisy: It's a Fourth of July parade in a jar.
Astoria: Stop.
Daisy: Okay so I have to tell you what happened.
Astoria: Oh god.
Daisy: Because I tried it.
Astoria: You tried Hash Burger.
Daisy: I tried Hash Burger. Last Tuesday.
Astoria: On a TUESDAY?
Daisy: Yes, Astoria, on a Tuesday, like a normal woman with a normal life.
Astoria: You are not a normal woman with a normal life.
Daisy: That's fair. So I get home, I have my little setup, I'm feeling cute, I'm feeling powerful.
Astoria: Mm.
Daisy: And I take ONE hit. One. Hit.
Astoria: At thirty-three percent.
Daisy: I did not know that yet! I did not have the research brief, Astoria, I am not a journalist.
Astoria: Oh my god.
Daisy: So I take one hit, and immediately the flavor hits, and I'm like, why does my mouth taste like a sandwich.
Astoria: Burger.
Daisy: Why does my mouth taste like a BURGER.
Daisy: And not even a good burger! It tasted like a burger that was going through something.
Astoria: A burger with personal problems.
Daisy: A burger that just got dumped. A burger with a journal.
Daisy: And then like four minutes later I am on the FLOOR.
Astoria: On the actual floor?
Daisy: On the actual carpet, looking at the ceiling, and the ceiling fan is doing a little dance for me.
Astoria: Was it on?
Daisy: ...I don't know.
Astoria: You don't know if the fan was on.
Daisy: I don't know if the fan was on, I don't know if I was on, I don't know if time was on.
Astoria: Oh my god.
Daisy: And my cat comes in, and she looks at me, and she goes—and I want to be clear, she did not say words—
Astoria: Okay good.
Daisy: —but with her EYES she said, "this is embarrassing for both of us."
Astoria: Your cat judged you.
Daisy: My cat filed a report.
Daisy: And then I tried to order food. Because OBVIOUSLY.
Astoria: Obviously.
Daisy: And I'm on the app, and the app is asking me to confirm my address, and I cannot remember if I live in apartment four or apartment five.
Astoria: Daisy.
Daisy: I have lived there for two years.
Astoria: Oh honey.
Daisy: And here is the punchline. Are you ready?
Astoria: I'm so ready.
Daisy: I ordered a burger.
Astoria: NO.
Daisy: I ordered a cheeseburger. At eleven PM. After smoking a strain called HASH BURGER.
Astoria: The branding worked!
Daisy: The branding WORKED, Astoria. They got me. They got me at the source.
Astoria: That's marketing.
Daisy: That is product-market fit.
Astoria: Okay but here's where I have to push back.
Daisy: Push back.
Astoria: You are framing this as the strain's fault.
Daisy: It IS the strain's fault.
Astoria: It's a little bit your fault.
Daisy: How.
Astoria: You took a full hit of a thirty-three percent indica without checking what it was.
Daisy: ...okay.
Astoria: That's a YOU problem.
Daisy: I will take ten percent of that.
Astoria: Ten percent.
Daisy: I will take ten percent. The other ninety percent is on Donny Burger.
Astoria: Fine.
Daisy: Speaking of things that are technically legal but functionally chaotic.
Astoria: Oh, smooth.
Daisy: Virginia.
Astoria: Virginia!
Daisy: So Virginia legalized weed in twenty twenty-one.
Astoria: Right.
Daisy: But they forgot the part where you can buy it.
Astoria: They forgot the store part.
Daisy: They forgot the STORE. For five years.
Astoria: That's so Virginia.
Daisy: That is the most Virginia thing I have ever heard.
Astoria: It's like inviting people to a party and not telling them the address.
Daisy: It's like saying "you can have cake" and then not having any cake.
Astoria: But now there's a deal.
Daisy: Now there's a deal! As of this month. The governor and the legislative leaders have a deal to actually let people buy it.
Astoria: Through the state budget, which is a very boring way to legalize weed.
Daisy: I love that. Tucked into the budget like a receipt in a glovebox.
Astoria: But there's a weird wrinkle.
Daisy: Tell me the wrinkle.
Astoria: So the governor is a Democrat.
Daisy: Mm-hm.
Astoria: And she wanted to ADD criminal penalties to the bill.
Daisy: Wait. To the legalization bill.
Astoria: To the legalization bill.
Daisy: She wanted to legalize it AND make it MORE illegal.
Astoria: At the same time.
Daisy: That is— okay, I'll be honest, I do not understand the politics of this enough to know if there's a reason that makes sense.
Astoria: That's fair.
Daisy: Like maybe there's a good reason. I don't know. I'm a comedian.
Astoria: A state senator publicly criticized it, and the final deal apparently includes some justice provisions to balance it out.
Daisy: Okay. Okay good.
Astoria: So it's not as bleak as it sounds at first.
Daisy: But on its face, "Democrat adds penalties to legalization bill" is a plot twist.
Astoria: It's a plot twist.
Daisy: That's M. Night Shyamalan writes a budget.
Astoria: And the wild part is the timing.
Daisy: What's the timing.
Astoria: The DEA is opening an expanded rescheduling hearing on June twenty-ninth.
Daisy: This month.
Astoria: This month. Same month Virginia gets its retail deal.
Daisy: So the feds AND the states are both moving in the same direction in the same two weeks.
Astoria: Which basically never happens.
Daisy: That never happens. The feds and the states normally cannot agree on what day it is.
Daisy: This is like... cosmic.
Astoria: It's a moment.
Daisy: Okay so hot take time.
Astoria: Hot take time.
Daisy: Hash Burger winning strain of the year, in the same month a Democratic governor is adding penalties to a legalization bill, in the same month the DEA is finally having a real rescheduling hearing—
Astoria: Mm-hm.
Daisy: —is the perfect snapshot of where weed culture is right now.
Astoria: Unpack that.
Daisy: It's chaotic, it's contradictory, it's named after a sandwich—
Astoria: Burger.
Daisy: It's named after a BURGER. And somehow it's all moving forward at the same time.
Astoria: That's actually a pretty good take.
Daisy: Thank you.
Astoria: I'm a little surprised.
Daisy: Wow. Thanks, Astoria.
Astoria: I mean it!
Daisy: Okay but here's MY pop culture hot take to close it out.
Astoria: Oh no.
Daisy: Cannabis breeders are now the best namers in America.
Astoria: Go on.
Daisy: Hear me out. Bands are naming themselves things like "the." Just the word "the."
Astoria: That's true.
Daisy: Tech startups are naming themselves with one vowel and a verb.
Astoria: Like a noise.
Daisy: Like a sneeze. But weed breeders? They are out here cooking. Donny Burger. Han Solo Hash Plant. Skunk Master Flex.
Astoria: Wait, Skunk Master Flex is real?
Daisy: Skunk Master Flex is one of the breeders involved. That is a real human credit.
Astoria: Okay.
Daisy: They are the last great namers. They should be naming hurricanes.
Astoria: They should be naming babies.
Daisy: Welcome to the world, Double Burger Garcia.
Astoria: Stop, stop.
Daisy: He's gonna be a star.
Astoria: Okay, takeaway. What's our one takeaway.
Daisy: Okay. Real talk.
Astoria: Real talk.
Daisy: If you are going to try Hash Burger, or honestly any strain testing in the thirties—
Astoria: Which is a lot of the shelf now.
Daisy: Which is a LOT of the shelf now. Take. One. Hit. And then wait.
Astoria: Wait the full time.
Daisy: Wait the full time. Not Daisy time. Real time.
Astoria: Real time.
Daisy: Set a timer. Be a grown-up. Because thirty-three percent THC in an indica-hybrid will put you on the carpet, and your cat WILL judge you.
Astoria: And do not, under any circumstances, order a cheeseburger.
Daisy: Do NOT. Eat what you have.
Astoria: Eat what you have.
Daisy: That is the rule. The Hash Burger rule.
Astoria: I love it.
Daisy: Okay, that's our show.
Astoria: That's our show!
Daisy: If you want more strain reviews, more bad decisions, more cat-based judgment—
Astoria: More cat-based judgment.
Daisy: —come find us at mncannabishub dot com.
Astoria: That's m-n-cannabis-hub dot com.
Daisy: Tell a friend. Tell Donny Burger.
Astoria: Tell Donny Burger.
Daisy: Bye!
Astoria: Bye.
A weekly Minneapolis lifestyle podcast for the 90s-baby mid-30s crowd. Concerts, restaurants, art fairs, Mystic Lake shows, what's actually good in MPLS this week — plus a strain review, a chaotic story, and a hot take you didn't ask for. Sponsored by mncannabishub.com, mplsveganhub.com, Dr. Bronson at Uptown Core (uptowncore.com), and Quiet Coyote (quietcoyotemn.com).