MJBowl Adds Colorado for Its Second Year

LOS ANGELES – The MJBowl, the Cannabis product competition co-presented by MJBizCon and professional review platform Budist, is returning for its second year, with Colorado joining California and New York in the competition pool for the first time.

Registration opens today, August 3, running through September 30, 2026. Entry costs $250 per product through August 31 under the early bird rate, rising to $300 through September 30. Product samples are due for transfer by October 23. Judging runs November 2 through November 20, and the awards ceremony is set for December 3 at the Las Vegas Convention Center during MJBizCon 2026. Now in its 15th year, MJBizCon remains the premier B2B Cannabis event in the world.

Colorado’s inclusion follows a stronger-than-expected reception for the inaugural format. As MJBizCon’s networking events page puts it, what started as the first bi-coastal Cannabis competition across California and New York “was such a standout success that we’re welcoming Colorado to 2026.” The inaugural competition concluded at MJBizCon in December 2025, where the top-performing Cannabis products across California and New York were honored with MVP, All-Star, and MJBowl Trophy distinctions across multiple categories. Eligibility requires an active cannabis license in the state of competition entry: California, Colorado, or New York.

For 2026, the category count expands from five to six, with a new Wellness track covering ingestibles and topicals joining:

• Flower (indoor, outdoor, mixed light),
• Pre-Rolls (infused, non-infused),
• Concentrates (solvent, solventless),
• Edibles (candies, chocolates, baked goods), and
• Cartridges (solvent, solventless).

The Wellness category addition is also worth noting. Ingestibles and topicals have historically occupied the margins of most cannabis product competitions, but their formal inclusion here reflects where both retail attention and consumer purchasing have been tracking for several years.

All judging runs through Budist’s standardized 100-point rating system, applied by professional critics embedded in each of the three markets. One winner per subcategory advances to compete for the MJBowl Trophy in its overall category. Budist critics include certified Ganjiers, longtime competition judges, Cannabis journalists, and industry tastemakers, operating under a standardized scoring rubric to ensure a consistent and credible process. Finalists from each state travel to Las Vegas for the December 3 awards ceremony.

The MJBowl’s expansion into Colorado is a credible next step for a format that built its legitimacy in year one by doing something the Cannabis industry has rarely managed at any consistent scale: applying professional, standardized product evaluation across state lines. Adding Colorado raises the competitive ceiling and produces a cross-market quality reference with tangible value for buyers, retailers, and investors trying to identify which brands actually hold up outside their home market. How broadly the format continues to grow will be the story to watch. For now, the MJBowl remains the most structured multi-state product benchmarking framework the legal Cannabis industry has produced, and Colorado’s inclusion makes that case more convincingly than year one could.

Image Credit: MJBowl