Dan’s Dispatch 2/14/25
With Spannabis a month away, the cannabis community is starting to focus on Barcelona and the upcoming festivities throughout the city. During this week’s Dispatch we wanted to highlight a few of the groups local to Spain who are bringing top quality to the game.
The Ethereal Tree
An incredibly softspoken guy with incredibly loud herb, The Ethereal Tree has focused on gas for years. Because of his strict adherence to top quality, he has only attached his name to one of his strains, Lady Diana. This selection, whose genetics remain a secret, is incredibly loud fuel with ultra heavy smoke, reminiscent of Sour Diesel in effect. And it got me old school stoned.
Now with decades of experience, he popped his first seed when he was 12 years old and hasn’t stopped growing since. After years of honing his skills cultivating in the underground of the UK, he eventually moved back to Barcelona for more freedom. “It's a lot safer to be cultivating in Spain than England. It’s a slap on the wrist compared to the UK”.
While he first started producing high quality product by growing out bag seeds he found in flower, eventually Cali clones started to show up more regularly in Europe. Around 2017 he started seeing hop latent viroid in a cut of Kosher Kush, then it seemed like more and more genetics were coming in sick. Ever since then he stopped taking in clones from other growers, and only works from seed.
Currently he is several generations into his own breeding and selections, and the results speak for themselves. His plants are absolutely gorgeous in flavor and effect, and the bud is so loud it’s a liability.
All his flowers are small batch, with a focus on quality and effect, and all things gas. If you can find it, grab some Lady Diana for an incredibly gassy, powerful smoke.
RTZ
While the brand is only a few years old, the crew at RTZ have developed a huge following across Europe. Part of this is due to their obsessive focus on all things consumer facing, from quality of flower to design and marketing.
As part of the original cannabis associations in Tenerife, they spearheaded the social club movement that has really taken hold in the last few years. Most of his time these days is spent on quality control; from production, to packaging and merch, everything "from us to them" . While he grew his first plant at 16, he will tell you “The people I employ are 10x better growers than I am.” RTZ also puts on experiences that cater to the local communities, whether at Spannabis or Mary Jane. This year at Spannabis they are dropping a collab with Alchemist before his set at their party Friday night.
While they are active in Spain and have a solid presence throughout Europe, they have seen the ups and downs of the Thai market. “Thailand has some absolutely gorgeous facilities set in the jungle. While there is a lot of quality in the garden itself, they are not educated in storage, packaging and transport. Sure, you see some good weed being grown, but it all goes to shit after it's harvested”. Despite the ups and down of the market, RTZ is known to throw killer block parties outside their Thai dispensary.
While in Spain, be on the lookout for their selections of Amaretto Sour #12, Project 1, Dulce Azul, and La Bomba.
Sativa Engineering
Some of the most sought after flower and hash in Barcelona is made by Sativa Engineering. A true micro craft grower and hash maker, he delivers phenomenal quality to the market every single time. In addition to growing award winning Z, he has made a name for himself with Red Tiger, his selection of Exoitc² by Compound Genetics. With absolutely insane sweet tropical fruit punch terps, the flavor gives something “completely different than the Z.”
While branding his product has not been the main focus, he remains obsessive over quality at every detail of cultivation, especially when it comes to plant nutrition. He considers himself a plant physiologist above all else, and is constantly doing R+D to get the best expression possible, and the dedication shows. If you are lucky enough to find Red Tiger rosin, the flavor is mouth coating and unmistakable.
Recently his focus is less on brand building and more on supporting growers that he works with, helping to dial in their nutrition programs. He has designed a formula that works specific to his selections, and collectively they have won over 25 awards with phenomenal representations of Z, Blue Zushi, Blue Sherbert, and Red Tiger.
Today he splits his time between the garden and the music studio, working on creating drum and bass tracks. After winning 20+ prizes for his own work over the years, he wanted to step away from the Barcelona scene to focus on music and find a better work life balance. Lucky for us, there is still the occasional drop of incredibly elite flavors.
Despite its underground nature, the cannabis scene in Spain has some truly unique flavors that only come from years of dedication by talented producers, and a community that fosters and rewards high quality. It’s just a matter of time before some of these flavors make it onto the world stage.
