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 19, 2026, we read the public flower menus of 32 state-licensed dispensaries across all five boroughs, every page of every menu, and logged every strain name on them.
The answer: Blue Dream and Sour Diesel are tied as the most widely stocked strains in NYC dispensaries. Each was on 23 of 32 menus, or 72 percent. Gorilla Glue (GG4) was third at 19 menus, then Permanent Marker at 18 and Jack Herer at 17. The full count is in our NYC weed strains database, which lists all 1,219 strains and where to buy each one.
The most stocked strains in NYC dispensaries
This is every strain that was on 11 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 | |
| 1 | Sour Diesel | 23 | |
| 3 | Gorilla Glue (GG4) | 19 | |
| 4 | Permanent Marker | 18 | |
| 5 | Jack Herer | 17 | |
| 6 | Lemon Cherry Gelato | 16 | |
| 7 | Super Boof | 14 | |
| 8 | Cap Junky | 13 | |
| 8 | Durban Poison | 13 | |
| 8 | Northern Lights | 13 | |
| 11 | Blue Lobster | 12 | |
| 11 | Blue Nerdz | 12 | |
| 11 | Gelato 41 | 12 | |
| 11 | OG Kush | 12 | |
| 11 | Pineapple Express | 12 | |
| 11 | Strawberry Diesel | 12 | |
| 11 | Super Lemon Haze | 12 | |
| 18 | Coconut Cream | 11 | |
| 18 | Ice Cream Cake | 11 | |
| 18 | Super Silver Haze | 11 | |
| 18 | Trop Cherry | 11 |
Source: Just Weed Strains count of public dispensary menus, Oct 19, 2026. Tied strains share a rank.
Two things stand out. First, the top of the list is old. Blue Dream, Sour Diesel, Jack Herer, Durban Poison, Northern Lights, OG Kush and Super Silver Haze 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 31 strains were on ten or more menus.
What changed since our first count
Our first count, on Oct 8, 2026, found 1,033 strains. That read missed menu pages that only load when you scroll or click to page 2 at several shops, and it used the wrong Verdi menu (its Chelsea store instead of Park Slope). The Oct 19 read covered every page of all 32 menus, which is why most counts went up and why Sour Diesel, at 15 menus in the first count, now shares first place.
| Strain | Menus, Oct 19 | Menus, Oct 8 |
|---|---|---|
| Blue Dream | 23 | 23 |
| Sour Diesel | 23 | 15 |
| Gorilla Glue (GG4) | 19 | 13 |
| Permanent Marker | 18 | 15 |
| Jack Herer | 17 | 15 |
| Lemon Cherry Gelato | 16 | 14 |
| Super Boof | 14 | 7 |
| Cap Junky | 13 | 12 |
| Durban Poison | 13 | 10 |
| Northern Lights | 13 | 10 |
| Blue Lobster | 12 | 10 |
| Blue Nerdz | 12 | 13 |
| Super Lemon Haze | 12 | 8 |
| Gelato 41 | 12 | 8 |
| Ice Cream Cake | 11 | 11 |
| White Widow | 10 | 11 |
| Chemdawg | 10 | 7 |
Our strain guides quote an Oct 17 recount for their own strains, so their figures can differ from this table by a menu or two.
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 | 16 of 32 | 6 |
| 2 | Blue Dream | 23 of 32 | 1 |
| 3 | GG4 (Original Glue) | 19 of 32 | 3 |
| 4 | Wedding Cake | 10 of 32 | 22 |
| 5 | Permanent Marker | 18 of 32 | 4 |
| 6 | Gumbo | 5 of 32 | 116 |
| 7 | Sour Diesel | 23 of 32 | 1 |
| 8 | Runtz | 9 of 32 | 32 |
| 9 | Super Boof | 14 of 32 | 7 |
| 10 | Gelato | 9 of 32 | 32 |
All ten are on NYC shelves, and six of them sit in our top ten by menu count. The gap is at the top: Lemon Cherry Gelato leads the searches but ranks sixth on the shelves, where Blue Dream and Sour Diesel lead. Wedding Cake, 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?
Yes. Sour Diesel, the strain most tied to the city, was on 23 of 32 menus, tied for first place. NYC Diesel was on 4 menus. Uptown Haze and NYC Haze, two names that point back to the uptown haze trade, were on 3 and 1.
The old vocabulary is mostly gone. One menu, Fire Escape in the East Village, listed a flower called Piff Haze. 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), Sour Diesel (9), Blue Lobster (7), Cap Junky (7), Jack Herer (7).
- Brooklyn (11 menus): Blue Dream (8), Lemon Cherry Gelato (7), Permanent Marker (7), Pineapple Express (7), Sour Diesel (7).
- Queens (6 menus): Gorilla Glue (GG4) (5), Sour Diesel (5), Blue Dream (4), Durban Poison (4), Sunkist (4).
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 and state: NYC Diesel, NY Diesel, Uptown Haze, NYC Haze, Madison Square Garlic, NY Cheesecake, Empire OG, Empire Candy, NY Zushi, NY Sour Diesel, NYC Sour Diesel, NY Kush, NYC Runtz, BX Runtz, Canal St. Runtz, 5th Ave Candy Gas, Dumbo Gumbo, Dumbo Express, Knickerbocker OG, NY Block Berry, NY Cheddar, NY Super Glue, Manhattan Cream, NYC Confidential, New York Jet Fuel. Most are on one or two menus, so check the database before you travel for one.
Almost half of NYC’s strains are on a single menu
Of the 1,219 strain names we logged, 554 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, 57 percent of the strains were sold as hybrids, 24 percent as indica and 19 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.
- Every page of every menu, including menus that load more products as you scroll.
- Flower only. Pre-rolls, vapes, edibles, infused flower and two-strain packs 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 and Sour Diesel, tied. Each was on 23 of the 32 licensed NYC dispensary menus we read on Oct 19, 2026, which is 72 percent of them. Gorilla Glue (GG4) was next with 19 menus, then Permanent Marker with 18 and Jack Herer with 17.
Is Sour Diesel still sold in New York City?
Yes. Sour Diesel was on 23 of the 32 menus, tied with Blue Dream as the most stocked strain in the city.
How many different strains do NYC dispensaries carry?
We counted 1,219 different flower strain names across 32 menus. 554 of them 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 guides to 28 of the strains counted here, including Sour Diesel (23 of 32 menus), Strawberry Cough (8 of 32 menus), Jealousy (7 of 32 menus), Lady Madonna (3 of 32 menus), NYC Diesel (4 of 32 menus), and Piff, the uptown haze now sold as Uptown Haze and NYC Haze.
New on Oct 26, 2026: Strawberry Diesel (12 of 32 menus), Coconut Cream (11 of 32 menus), Trop Cherry (11 of 32 menus), Black Panther (10 of 32 menus), All Gas (9 of 32 menus), Mule Fuel (9 of 32 menus), Permafrost (9 of 32 menus) and Sour Jack (9 of 32 menus). Four of them, Coconut Cream, Black Panther, All Gas and Permafrost, come from the same New York grower, Nanticoke.
Sources
- Just Weed Strains, NYC weed strains database, menu count of Oct 19, 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.