HighLife Cup 2025: Marbella and Dizzy Duck Take Top Honors as Seed Banks Join the Stage
The HighLife Cup 2025, held on June 6 in the Netherlands, brought together the best of Dutch coffeeshops and—for the first time ever—seed banks, competing side by side in Europe's longest-running cannabis competition. The expanded format gave breeders a chance to showcase their genetics under the same judging framework that has defined the cup for decades: blind tastings, lab tests, and a fierce but friendly rivalry among the country's top cannabis names.
This year's big winners reflected both tradition and innovation. Coffeeshop Marbella (The Hague) claimed the overall Weed / Wiet Cup with Apple Banana Ice, while Dizzy Duck (The Hague) secured the overall Hash / Hasj Cup with Fruit Joy—a strain that perfectly captured the modern Dutch hash renaissance. Meanwhile, Dutch Passion made history by collecting four trophies in the seed categories, signaling a new era in which breeders now stand shoulder-to-shoulder with coffeeshops on the awards stage.
Coffeeshop Winners — Weed / Wiet
Mostly Indica
- 🥇 Zowanami — Dizzy Duck (330.1 pts)
- 🥈 Red Red Wine — Club Animo (325.9 pts)
- 🥉 Dream's Gold — Relax Zuid (324.8 pts)
Mostly Sativa
- 🥇 Zprite — Meetpoint Den Bosch (313.3 pts)
- 🥈 Doctor Haze — Fly (309.7 pts)
- 🥉 Tropicana Cherry — De Ambassade (309.4 pts)
Oldskool
- 🥇 Super Silver Haze — Hunter's (321.3 pts)
- 🥈 Chemdawg × Tangie — Dizzy Duck Downtown (311.5 pts)
- 🥉 Dream's Gold — Empire (311.1 pts)
Import North America
- 🥇 Gelonade — Solo (312.3 pts)
- 🥈 Zowahh — Dizzy Duck Downtown (311.7 pts)
- 🥉 Super Buff Cherry — Genesis (307.4 pts)
North America / EU grown
- 🥇 Apple Banana Ice — Marbella (331 pts)
- 🥈 Subzero — Genesis (324.6 pts)
- 🥉 Bio Piñata — Dizzy Duck (320 pts)
Outdoor Wiet
- 🥇 Sour Dreams — Empire (286.5 pts)
- 🥈 Skunk XL — Genesis (261.5 pts)
- 🥉 Passion #1 — Dutch Passion (259.5 pts)
House Favorite Wiet
- 🥇 Tropicana Cherry — Marbella (329.9 pts)
- 🥈 Sunsetz — Dizzy Duck Downtown (318.2 pts)
- 🥉 Cherry Grapefruit — Club Animo (311.6 pts)
Overall Winners
- Overall Weed Winner: Apple Banana Ice — Marbella (331 pts)
- Potency Cup (Weed): Rucu Cucu OG — Seed Stockers
Coffeeshop Winners — Hash / Hasj
Oldskool Hasj
- 🥇 Shaher Beldia — Magic (279.6 pts)
- 🥈 Banana OG — Barney's (275.8 pts)
- 🥉 King Hassan Primero — Cremers (266.8 pts)
Modern Hasj
- 🥇 Mela Verde — Media (293.5 pts)
- 🥈 Pistacho — Solo (289.5 pts)
- 🥉 Melonatta × Gelato 41 — Fly (285.4 pts)
House Favorite Hasj
- 🥇 Forbidden Fruit Calippo — Dizzy Duck (296.7 pts)
- 🥈 Mandarim Jam — Media (273.7 pts)
- 🥉 Dosidos — Solo (273.5 pts)
Special Hasj
- 🥇 Fruit Joy — Dizzy Duck (320.5 pts)
- 🥈 Nam Wah — Solo (309.2 pts)
- 🥉 Lemon Cherry Gelato — Fly (284.8 pts)
Overall Winners
- Overall Hash Winner: Fruit Joy — Dizzy Duck (320.5 pts)
- Potency Cup (Hash): Lemon Cherry Gelato — Fly
Seed / Breeder Categories
Dutch Passion swept their debut year in the cup with four trophies:
- Mostly Indica (Seed) — Slush Mint Cake 🥇
- Autoflower (Seed) — Auto Frozen Biscotti 🥈
- Outdoor (Seed) — Auto Cinderella Jack 🥉
- Outdoor (Weed) — Passion #1 🥉
A Maturing Dutch Cannabis Scene
The 2025 results show a maturing Dutch cannabis scene—where coffeeshops, legacy breeders, and modern genetics share the spotlight. Dizzy Duck's hash artistry, Marbella's sweet-leaning powerhouse flowers, and Dutch Passion's precision breeding underline a simple truth: the Netherlands remains the beating heart of European cannabis culture.