The history of Blue Cheese

Timeline

1. Late 1970sSacred Seed Co. breeds Skunk #1 from Afghani, Acapulco Gold and Colombian Gold.⁶
2. Late 1970sDJ Short begins the breeding work that becomes Blueberry.⁷
3. 1988 or 1989A pungent female, later called Cheese, is selected from a pack of Skunk #1, according to a rumor reported by Soft Secrets.¹ Other accounts say around 1987 or 1989–90.^8,9
4. Jun 5, 1992The Exodus Collective forms as a sound system in the Marsh Farm area of Luton.³
5. Dec 31, 1992An Exodus free party on New Year’s Eve draws an estimated 10,000 people.³
6. Early 1990s or around 1995Exodus gets Cheese clones (early 1990s per Leafly, around 1995 per Soft Secrets), and the cut becomes known as Exodus Cheese.^1,2
7. 2000Blueberry wins Best Indica at the High Times Cannabis Cup.⁷
8. Late 1990s or 2002Big Buddha crosses Cheese with an Afghani male and backcrosses it to Cheese, the line behind the first Cheese seeds offered for sale: late 1990s per Soft Secrets, a first cross in late 2002 per the breeder’s profile.^1,10
9. 2006At the 19th High Times Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam, Big Buddha’s Blue Cheese places third in the Sativa Cup and Big Buddha Cheese wins the Indica Cup.^5,11
10. 2006Blue Cheese also places third among sativas at the IC 420 Growers Cup, per SeedFinder.⁴
11. 2013Big Buddha’s Blue Cheese Automatic takes second place in the hydro category of the Spannabis Cannabis Champions Cup, per SeedFinder.¹²
12. 2014Soft Secrets writes that Cheese “is regarded as the most famous variety” from the United Kingdom and lists Big Buddha’s Blue Cheese among its crosses.¹
13. 2015–2024State labs test Blue Cheese flower 288 times in our dataset, 269 of them in Maryland.¹³
14. Oct 3, 2026Weedmaps menus list Blue Cheese flower at 44 stores around Los Angeles and at no more than 4 stores in any other market we checked.¹⁴

Why it spread

Cheese spread as a clone first: Soft Secrets says the Exodus crew only ever offered clones, and Leafly says the cut “rapidly became one of the most popular and sought after varieties in the UK”.^1,2 Big Buddha Seeds was the first to offer seeds from it, and its founder told CannaConnection that in England there was literally a "Cheese Epidemic".^1,9

Blue Cheese came out of that line: Big Buddha crossed Blueberry with the Cheese mother it calls "the backbone of many of our breeding projects", and calls the result its most popular strain; Barney's Farm, Royal Queen Seeds and Dinafem sell their own versions under the same name.^{4,12,15,16,17}

The disputed parts of the story

• When and from what Cheese was selected: in 1988 or 1989 from a pack of Skunk #1 from The Seed Bank, a precursor of Sensi Seeds (Soft Secrets, reported as rumor); around 1987 from Sacred Seeds or Sensi Seeds (Alchimia); a packet of Sensi Seeds Skunk #1 (Leafly); around 1989 or 1990 (Big Buddha’s founder).^1,2,8,9
• Exodus's role: Leafly's UK Cheese page says Exodus originally cultivated it in the early 1990s, its Exodus Cheese page says the collective acquired clones in the early 1990s and calls the original grower's identity debated, and Soft Secrets dates the clone's arrival to around 1995.^1,2,18
• When Big Buddha first crossed Cheese: the late 1990s (Soft Secrets) or late 2002 (the breeder’s profile on SeedFinder); its founder told CannaConnection that his Cheese story began in 2002 and that it took two years of trying before he obtained a clone.^1,9,10
• Which Cheese went into Blue Cheese, and whether it was backcrossed (see genetics).^4,19,20