Gary Payton

Berner and the Cookies operation have a long-standing connection to Bay Area / West Coast sports culture, and Payton signed off on the name as an officially licensed collaboration. The Glove built his Hall-of-Fame career on the Sonics' '90s teams in Seattle, which makes the strain particularly resonant for our SCC customers. The licensing deal pays Payton on every legal jar sold — unusual in cannabis where most namesake strains use the name unauthorized.

GP is the more functional Cookies cross. Where strains like Wedding Cake and Cherry Pie lean dessert-sweet and heavier, and Sherbet leans softer-creamy, Gary Payton holds onto enough head-up energy that customers reach for it earlier in the day. The diesel-pine top is the giveaway — most Cookies-family strains skip the pine note and lead vanilla-pepper. GP keeps a sativa-side fingerprint that the rest of the lineup doesn't.

Layered and complex. Top hit is sweet diesel — fuel-leaning but warmer than Sour Diesel's, with a sugar-cream sweetness keeping the gas from going harsh. Middle is fresh pine sap and a touch of lemon zest. Base is the floral-lavender linalool note with a peppery damp-earth finish underneath. Most customers describe it as 'the one that smells expensive' — which tracks; the layered terpene profile is what high-end Cookies-family genetics tend to deliver.

Closer than most. On the inhale, sweet diesel comes through first with the pine sitting just behind — the same opening you got from the jar, slightly softened by combustion. On the exhale, cream and a floral finish land, with the pepper-warmth registering on the back of the tongue. The diesel never goes harsh, which is what separates a clean GP cut from a poorly-cured one — if the diesel sharpens on the exhale, the cure was rushed.

Hybrid — balanced with a slight sativa lean. The Y parent contributes head-up energy; Snowman pulls the body-landing back toward Cookies-family character. Most batches read 55/45 sativa-side for the first 20 minutes, then settle into a mellow balanced finish. Different phenotypes lean different directions — Cookies-cut GP tends to read closer to balanced; some pheno-hunts lean more sativa.

Lab numbers run 20-25% THC — solidly upper-middle on a modern Washington shelf. Built-tolerance smokers find GP dependably predictable. Anyone newer to high-THC hybrids should start with a smaller-than-normal pull and hold off thirty minutes before going again, since the head-up open feels mild enough to mislead you. The body-side landing arrives after that window, and the combined picture at 30-45 minutes runs harder than the opening hit hints at.

Late afternoon and early evening, ideally. Functional enough to handle a social hangout, a creative project, or a low-pressure work session. Bad pick for early morning — the diesel-pine top reads too loud for most morning routines. Better pick for the transition from a workday into the evening, when you want something with character but don't need to power down for the night yet.

Three reasons. Licensed name (Payton gets paid on every jar). Cookies-family genetics tend to clock high THC and high terpene loads, both of which raise grower input costs. And the brand cachet of Cookies-collaboration strains keeps demand high. Whether the price premium is worth it depends on how much the specific flavor profile matters to you; the underlying effect is comparable to several lower-priced shelf hybrids, but the aroma is harder to replicate.