Maine gave hashmakers a proper stage at Culture Cup 2026. The field was stacked, the jars were serious, and the judges had enough quality in front of them to make every place count.
When the melt results landed, the full melt podium was:
- 1st Place: Cosmic Cheech, Lemon Royale
- 2nd Place: Doobie Dudes, Lime Burst
- 3rd Place: Electric City Hash Co., Lime BPPZ
First and second place were won by our friends Doobie Dudes and Cosmic Cheech. Doobie Dudes washed the Lime Burst on his recently purchased BubbleTek 30 gallon. Cosmic Cheech hand washed the winning Lemon Royale. He runs a Hashtek 85t at work with Sweetgrass Botanicals and had recently purchased a BubbleTek 30 Gallon for home, but his new machine had not arrived when he prepared this entry.
That is a clean one-two finish in a category where there is nowhere to hide. Full melt tells the truth about the resin, the wash, and the person running the process. Cosmic Cheech and Doobie Dudes earned those trophies against a field that one judge described as full of 9s and near 10s. He singled out Cosmic Cheech as a real resin whisperer. In a lineup that strong, the top two spots carry some weight.
The 2026 melt podium: Lemon Royale, Lime Burst, and Lime BPPZ.
Cosmic Cheech Goes Back to Back
Cosmic Cheech has been working with Lemon Royale since he hunted and selected this winning pheno in 2019, when he got back into making hash. The work has now paid off with back-to-back, coast-to-coast recognition for a plant he knows inside and out.
At Culture Cup Maine, Lemon Royale took first place in melt and second in rosin on Day 1. In the finals, it finished first in melt again and eighth in rosin. Winning the melt category twice at the same event is a strong result. Doing it with a pheno he personally selected years earlier makes it even more meaningful.
In his post after the win, Cosmic credited Cornbread Ricky and Swamp Boys Seeds for creating Lemon Royale. He also thanked The Culture Cup 207 for putting his work in front of respected makers and judges, and Hunter and the Hidden Forest Farms team for bringing the community together.
Cosmic is a Hashtek user, but this winning entry belongs to his hand-washing process. At Sweetgrass Botanicals, he runs a commercial Hashtek 85t. For his home setup, he recently purchased a BubbleTek 30 Gallon. It simply had not arrived yet when he prepared the Lemon Royale for Maine. The trophy is a testament to his resin selection, his experience, and the care he brings to every wash.
First place melt belongs to Cosmic Cheech and Lemon Royale.
This one feels especially good because it is a repeat win. Cosmic already showed what he could do with this material. Maine confirmed it again.
Doobie Dudes Makes the Jump
Second place went to Doobie Dudes with Lime Burst, and his path to the podium says plenty about what operators notice when they finally try a Hashtek.
Lime Burst comes from a cut he selected from Key Lime Pie x Starburst36 by Higher Ground Genetics. The cut is exclusive to his garden, where he has run it for several years. It has won multiple competitions and placed in the top 10 at nearly every event he has entered with it across the country.
He describes the profile simply as "lime candy." A lot of people who have tried it say the KC 36 influence comes through heavily.
He had been a long-time Osprey user. The turning point came after he watched our video with Lost Boys Rosin and saw how gently a Hashtek machine could agitate at the bottom of its range. That video planted the seed. He picked up a BubbleTek 30 Gallon, ran it once, and posted that he had seen enough. In his words, another Hashtek, a 65A, would be needed very soon down the road.
Then he brought Lime Burst to Maine and took second in melt, representing Colorado well.
The 30 Gallon BubbleTek is a serious craft machine. It has enough room for meaningful production, yet it still gives the operator the feel and control needed to protect exceptional resin. For a hashmaker changing platforms after years on another system, one run was enough to understand the difference.
Why the Low End Matters
Cosmic Cheech's hand-washed winning entry is also a good reminder that the machine is never the maker. Great hash starts with exceptional resin, careful observation, and experienced hands.
For operators who choose a machine, control at the low end matters. A lot of machines can move water hard. The difficult part is moving it gently and consistently, with enough adjustment that the operator can read the material instead of forcing it through one wash profile.
Hashtek machines have an exceptionally usable low end. You can keep the agitation soft, watch how the resin is releasing, and increase energy only when the material asks for it. That gives the hashmaker control while making the process easier to repeat at craft or commercial scale.
The Culture Cup trophies were as colorful as the field was competitive.
Rosin Winners
The rosin winners deserve some love too. Champaya is a strain that my friend Neil (aka Maple budder) has been cultivating for some time and I do really enjoy the profile. 
- 1st Place: Personals, Gary Payton
- 2nd Place: Portal Provisions, Champaya
- 3rd Place: Legendary Organics, Triple Burger
The 2026 rosin podium: Gary Payton, Champaya, and Triple Burger.
A Maine Podium Worth Celebrating
Congratulations to Cosmic Cheech, Doobie Dudes, and Electric City Hash Co. and all the makers involved. The Culture Cup brought out excellent work across melt, rosin, and flower, and the trophies looked as good as the entries deserved.
We build machines for hashmakers who care about the little decisions inside every wash. Maine showed that great results begin with good resin, experienced hands, and the ability to give the material exactly what it needs.
Happy Hash Making!
Aleks Hashtek Founder
