We could not find any public New York sales figures by strain, so the question of what the city smokes usually gets answered with guesses. We answered it by counting. On Oct 8, 2026, we read the public flower menus of 32 state-licensed dispensaries across all five boroughs and logged every strain name on them.
The answer: Blue Dream is the most widely stocked strain in NYC dispensaries. It was on 23 of 32 menus, or 72 percent. Jack Herer, Permanent Marker and Sour Diesel tied for second at 15 menus each. The full count is in our NYC weed strains database, which lists all 1,033 strains and where to buy each one.
The most stocked strains in NYC dispensaries
This is every strain that was on nine or more of the 32 menus as flower: 21 in all. Type is the label the menus used most often.
| Rank | Strain | Menus | Share of 32 menus |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Blue Dream | 23 | |
| 2 | Jack Herer | 15 | |
| 2 | Permanent Marker | 15 | |
| 2 | Sour Diesel | 15 | |
| 5 | Lemon Cherry Gelato | 14 | |
| 6 | Blue Nerdz | 13 | |
| 6 | Gorilla Glue (GG4) | 13 | |
| 8 | Cap Junky | 12 | |
| 9 | Ice Cream Cake | 11 | |
| 9 | White Widow | 11 | |
| 11 | Blue Lobster | 10 | |
| 11 | Durban Poison | 10 | |
| 11 | Maui Wowie | 10 | |
| 11 | Northern Lights | 10 | |
| 15 | All Gas | 9 | |
| 15 | Apple Fritter | 9 | |
| 15 | Cereal Milk | 9 | |
| 15 | Gelonade | 9 | |
| 15 | Kush Mints | 9 | |
| 15 | Mule Fuel | 9 | |
| 15 | Trop Cherry | 9 |
Source: Just Weed Strains count of public dispensary menus, Oct 8, 2026. Tied strains share a rank.
Two things stand out. First, the top of the list is old. Blue Dream, Jack Herer, Sour Diesel, White Widow, Durban Poison and Northern Lights have been around for decades, and they still out-stock most of the dessert-named newcomers. Second, the list is short at the top and very long at the bottom: only 14 strains were on ten or more menus.
Why we count menus and not sales
“Most popular” should mean best selling, but that number is not public. The state’s open data covers licenses, and its public market dashboard reports aggregated totals and leaves out shop-level data. What anyone can check is what the shops put on their shelves. A strain that 72 percent of shops choose to stock is a strain those shops expect to sell, so shelf presence is a fair stand-in. It is still a stand-in, and we label it that way.
How the shelves compare with what New Yorkers search for
Leafly published the ten most viewed strains in New York in February 2025, based on its own search data. We checked each one against our menu count.
| Leafly rank | Strain | NYC menus | Our rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lemon Cherry Gelato | 14 of 32 | 5 |
| 2 | Blue Dream | 23 of 32 | 1 |
| 3 | GG4 (Original Glue) | 13 of 32 | 6 |
| 4 | Wedding Cake | 7 of 32 | 34 |
| 5 | Permanent Marker | 15 of 32 | 2 |
| 6 | Gumbo | 5 of 32 | 66 |
| 7 | Sour Diesel | 15 of 32 | 2 |
| 8 | Runtz | 5 of 32 | 66 |
| 9 | Super Boof | 7 of 32 | 34 |
| 10 | Gelato | 5 of 32 | 66 |
All ten are on NYC shelves, and five of them sit in our top ten by menu count. The gap is at the top: Lemon Cherry Gelato leads the searches, while Blue Dream leads the shelves by a wide margin. Wedding Cake, Super Boof, Gumbo, Runtz and Gelato all draw more searches than shelf space. Search interest follows what is new. Shelves follow what sells every week.
Does NYC still stock its own strains?
Mostly yes. Sour Diesel, the strain most tied to the city, was on 15 of 32 menus, level with the second most stocked strains in the city. NYC Diesel was on 2 menus. Uptown Haze and NYC Haze, two names that point back to the uptown haze trade, were on 2 and 1.
What you will not find is the old vocabulary. No menu listed flower as Piff, and none listed Original Diesel, Daywrecker or East Coast Sour Diesel. We traced who claims what about each of those in the section on New York City strains missing from the menus. For the backstory, see our guides to Sour Diesel and Piff.
The most stocked strains by borough
- Manhattan (13 menus): Blue Dream (10), Blue Lobster (6), Cereal Milk (6), Lemon Cherry Gelato (6), Sour Diesel (6).
- Brooklyn (11 menus): Blue Dream (8), Jack Herer (8), White Widow (7), Durban Poison (6), Permanent Marker (6).
- Queens (6 menus): Gorilla Glue (GG4) (5), Blue Dream (4), Sour Diesel (4), Blue Nerdz (3), Blue Zushi (3).
We read only one menu each in the Bronx and on Staten Island, which is too few to rank.
New York names on the shelf
Growers know where they are selling. Alongside Sour Diesel, the menus carried a run of strains named for the city: NYC Diesel, Uptown Haze, NYC Haze, Madison Square Garlic, NY Cheesecake, Empire OG, Empire Candy, NY Zushi, NY Kush, NYC Runtz, BX Runtz, Canal St. Runtz, 5th Ave Candy Gas, Dumbo Gumbo, Dumbo Express, Knickerbocker OG. Most are on one or two menus, so check the database before you travel for one.
Half of NYC’s strains are on a single menu
Of the 1,033 strain names we logged, 513 appeared on exactly one menu. That is the real shape of the New York market: a small set of names nearly every shop carries, and a very long tail of grower-specific cultivars you can buy in one place only. By label, 54 percent of the strains were sold as hybrids, 25 percent as indica and 20 percent as sativa.
How we counted
- We started from the state list of licensed adult-use retailers in the five boroughs and read the flower menu of every shop whose own website we could open: 32 menus in all. Our NYC dispensary list has the full set of licensed shops.
- Flower only. Pre-rolls, vapes, edibles and infused flower are excluded.
- A strain counts once per menu, however many growers or sizes the shop carried.
- Obvious spelling variants were merged. Names are otherwise as the shops printed them.
- Menus change daily, and 32 menus are a sample of the city’s licensed shops, not all of them. The ranking will move.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most popular weed strain in NYC dispensaries?
By shelf presence, Blue Dream. It was on 23 of the 32 licensed NYC dispensary menus we read on Oct 8, 2026, which is 72 percent of them. Jack Herer, Permanent Marker and Sour Diesel tied for second with 15 menus each.
Is Sour Diesel still sold in New York City?
Yes. Sour Diesel was on 15 of the 32 menus, tied for the second most stocked strain in the city.
How many different strains do NYC dispensaries carry?
We counted 1,033 different flower strain names across 32 menus. About half of them, 513, appeared on only one menu.
Does New York publish sales data by strain?
Not that we could find. The state publishes license data and aggregated market figures, so counting menus is the most direct public measure of what shops stock.
Strain guides for names in this count
We have longer guides to several of the strains counted here: Sour Diesel (15 of 32 menus), Strawberry Cough (6), Jealousy (4), Lady Madonna (3), NYC Diesel (2) and Piff, the uptown haze now sold as Uptown Haze and NYC Haze.
Sources
- Just Weed Strains, NYC weed strains database, menu count of Oct 8, 2026.
- Leafly, Top 10 cannabis strains in New York, February 2025.
- NY Office of Cannabis Management, Current OCM Licenses.
- Metrc, New York Cannabis Market Landscape dashboard bulletin.
For information only, not legal or medical advice. Adult-use cannabis in New York is legal for people 21 and older.
The Just Weed Strains editorial team writes our strain profiles and consumer guides. Strain profiles summarize publicly available information, including breeder and dispensary descriptions. Effects vary from person to person, and nothing on this site is medical advice.