Featured Flower: Jean Guy

At a Glance

Aroma and Taste: Citrusy, Woody
Common Dominant Terpenes: Terpinolene, Limonene, Myrcene
Average THC: High     Average CBD: Low

What is Jean Guy?

To answer this question and more, we turned to some Licensed Producers who grow Jean Guy: 7ACRES, Canaca and Good Supply.

While its genetic background is a little hazy, Jean Guy is likely a descendant of the White Widow strain. Although it’s often described as a sativa-dominant hybrid, some variations can be sativa-, hybrid- or even indica-dominant.

History

This iconic Canadian strain originated in Montreal, where a plant was dropped off at the Montreal Compassion Centre in the early 2000s, or so the story goes. To pay homage to the strain’s background, the members came up with what they felt was a quintessentially Québécois name: Jean Guy (Jean is pronounced like “Shawn” with a J, and Guy like “ghee”).

Did you know? Ontario Licensed Retailers have sold 564 kg of Jean Guy in the past year, which is equivalent to 1 million joints.

Characteristics

Jean Guy is known for its citrusy and woody aroma, and its unique dense coating of crystal trichomes, though each brand’s bud has its own distinctive variations. Good Supply describes its Jean Guy as having a spicy citrus and lemon-pine scent, and 7ACRES offers a highly pungent sharp citrus aroma with sweet woody and floral notes, while Canaca’s gives off a fresh and sour citrus scent with pine undertones.

“Jean Guy has a unique and complex terpene profile and photoworthy buds, and who doesn’t love a Canadian success story? It was [arguably] one of Canada’s most popular strains in the legacy market, and it still remains a hit in the legal market — a testament to its unique profile and appeal.” — Good Supply

Thanks to its strong, unique aroma, Jean Guy is a joy to grow. Similar to the White Widow strain, Jean Guy has large fan leaves and a lot of foliage. It also has large, dense, conical flowers, and unlike other cultivars, these characteristics can be seen early on in the flowers’ development. While Jean Guy can have trouble rooting and is known to be susceptible to mould, LPs are committed to ensuring additional care and attention is made to produce a final mould-free product worthy of praise.

The team at Canaca greatly acknowledges this commitment: “When you look out into the crop, its beautiful buds and refreshing aroma are worth the extra effort.” For 7ACRES, it was an easy decision to grow Jean Guy, because of its “deep roots in Canadian history and its overall popularity.”

Tip: Sometimes you’ll see a cannabis strain referred to as a “cultivar,” which is a term used in botany (the study of all plants).

What is a strain?

To help you understand what a cannabis strain is, you can think of it like a breed of dog. While all dogs share similar traits, there are definitely differences among breeds (you wouldn’t confuse a Great Dane with a dachshund, for example). When it comes to different cannabis strains, this means one may have a sweet, lemony aroma, while another may boast a pungent, sour diesel-like scent. These differences have been fine-tuned by cannabis growers over many generations. Growers will choose two plants with desirable traits (for example, a strong diesel scent) and cross (or breed) those plants together, creating an offspring with a stronger expression of those desirable traits. When breeding cannabis plants, growers are often focused on the unique aroma, and taste, and potential THC and CBD content of a strain. And just like no two Great Danes are the same, strains can vary from lot to lot and grower to grower.

Will I like Jean Guy?

It may be a good choice if you like the taste and aroma profiles of White Widow, Lemon Skunk or Lemon Z. If you gravitate toward high-THC strains with little to no CBD, or you just have a lot of Canadian cannabis pride, Jean Guy is well worth exploring.