Is Forum Cookies indica or sativa? Its genetics, cut and family tree

A cut of GSC, not a cross

Forum Cookies is not a new cross but one plant out of GSC: Leafly calls Forum Cut Cookies one of the original cuttings of GSC, Weedmaps a widely shared, carefully selected cut of the Girl Scout Cookies genetics, and SeedFinder files it under clone-only strains.^1,2,3

Leafly’s genealogy traces it to cuttings of one plant: in 2008 two friends of the grower known as Ghost paid $3,500 for a cut from a relative of a grower in the original Cookies circle, and Ghost grew it out and shared cuttings with four close friends, who spread it through the network, one cutting as far as the UK.⁵ Another account, which SeedFinder repeats, says the Forum cut grew from a bagseed near a grow shop in Emeryville, California, and reached Ghost through a grower called Red Jay.^3,12

GSC’s parents

Leafly’s strain page says Jigga crossed a sub-type of OG Kush with an intermediate strain called F1 Durban; its genealogy names the OG as a Flo Rida OG, his favorite, crossed to his mix of a strain he called “F1” and another called “Durb.”^4,5 Leafly lists F1 Durb as a closely held cross of Jigga’s F1 and Durban that is generally not for sale, and says he also crossed it with Granddaddy Purple to make Cherry Pie.⁷

In 2014 the Cookie Family told High Times that their F1 was crossed with Durban Poison and stabilized, and that strain was crossed with a Kush a friend had brought to San Francisco around 1994.¹³ Prime Cuts Nursery’s guide says the Flo Rida OG was reportedly brought from Jacksonville, Florida, to San Francisco around 1994, and Leafly dates OG Kush itself to Florida in the early 1990s and lists GSC among its offspring.^14,15

How indica is it?

It depends on who labels it. For the Forum cut, AllBud lists 60% indica and 40% sativa, SeedFinder “mostly indica” and Prime Cuts Nursery’s guide 60% indica, while Leafly and Weedmaps file it simply as a hybrid.^1,2,3,6,19

For GSC as a whole, Leafly’s description says indica-dominant, AllBud 60% indica and Weedmaps sativa-leaning; seed versions run from 60% indica (Barney’s Farm) to 50/50 (White Label).^{4,16,17,20,21} Leafly’s calming-to-energizing scale rates both Forum Cut Cookies and GSC mostly energizing.^1,4

What our lab data adds

Our lab data keeps the cut and the family apart: a test counts as Forum Cookies when its name is "Forum Cookies", "Forum Cut", "GSC Forum", "Forum Cut Cookies", "Girl Scout Cookies Forum", "Forum GSC", "Forum Girl Scout Cookies", "Girl Scout Cookies Forum Cut" or "GSC Forum Cut" plus only non-name words such as "Buds", and as Girl Scout Cookies when the name is "Girl Scout Cookies", "Girl Scout Cookie" or "GSC", names that do not say which cut; that gives only 81 Forum Cookies tests against 567 for GSC.²⁴ A few labels that name the Forum cut still fall in neither count, such as "Forum Cut Cookie Buds" (2) and "Forum Cut G.S.C." (1): at least 3 results across all product types before duplicates are removed.²⁴ We also excluded 371 results (315 of them flower) under near-miss names, 361 of them a single cross, "95 FORUM COOKIES × ALIENDOG CHERRY".²⁴

The clone versus seeds sold as GSC

The original cuts were not sold as seed: in 2014 the Cookie Family told High Times that rather than selling seeds, they wanted Cookies to be a more intimate experience for growers, and Leafly says F1 Durb, one of GSC’s parents, is closely held and generally not for sale.^7,13

Seeds sold as Girl Scout Cookies are separate versions, and SeedFinder lists 33 breeders’ strains under the name.²⁵ Barney’s Farm describes its version as Durban Poison × OG Kush, White Label its own as Durban, Hindu Kush and OG Kush genetics, Nirvana as OG Kush × an African landrace, and Crop King’s autoflower adds ruderalis to OG Kush × Durban Poison.^20,21,26,27