We had a little chat with Milo, the man behind Big Buddha Seeds, to ask him about the history of the famous cannabis strain Big Buddha Cheese.
Cheese is on of those classic marijuana strains that you immediately recognize if you smell it. Its dense smell is the symbol for many a smoker in and outside of the UK.
Big Buddha Seeds is the company that brought us seeds of this strain and is still famous for it. We had a little chat with Milo, the man behind the brand, to ask him about the history of the famous Big Buddha Cheese.
Interview transcript
Renzo: I’m here with the man himself, Big Buddha, Mister Milo. How you’re doing man? Thank you for having us. Everybody knows you and everybody knows your’ Cheese of course, but for the people who just came around the corner, maybe you could introduce yourself and give a little introduction on Big Buddha Cheese and Big Buddha Seeds?
Milo: First of all, for me it started a while back, back in 2002. We discovered friends who used to grow an amazing cloned called Cheese. Eventually after two years of begging and trying to buy it, we managed to get a clone of it. We developed it a little bit, worked it a bit and made the first seeds from what was originally just a clone.
This eventually won the Cannabis Cup in 2006. From then on we’ve been famous for the Cheese, but the Cheese is an original UK variety. It’s something unique and the only thing I can compare it to, is how famous the Kush is in America. In England there was literally a “Cheese Epidemic”.
All the people wanted to smoke with Cheese because of the way European and English people smoke; with tobacco. And Cheese was one of the few types of marijuana, which would cover the taste and smell of tobacco. And so people really loved it.
I learned from a long ago; good weed doesn’t lie. It doesn’t matter if you’re rich, super-rich, poor, it doesn’t matter what color or race or of what religion you are… And England has been a big melting pot of religions and cultures.
We continued to work with it (Cheese) and believed in the Cheese since we obviously won a few Cannabis Cups. And since then it has been taken up by so many companies, different associations, different groups of people out there and they are winning in general because of the flavour. So we are super proud to be one of the first innovators of the Cheese and the Cheese seeds. For us it has been an amazing journey in life.
Renzo: Whenever I smoke Cheese, I can tell that it is a fantastic crop, but for the growers, is it a difficult strain to grow?
Milo: As life continues, we continue to breed with it and regenerating it and basically trying to find the most potent one. And at the moment we still have original clones from 2002 and from before. It originated in England around ’89 or ’90. So we still those collections. Also as we grow as a company we obviously have a network of growers in the UK with whom we exchange things, so we have a library of Cheese.
A lot of our work is done from Amsterdam and Barcelona, but also San Sebastian, so we do keep the network together. Cheese is an amazing thing. It’s a real European thing.
Renzo: Is it better to grow Cheese indoors or can it also be grown outdoors?
Milo: It’s more better indoors. You can get a much better product indoors. But it can be grown outdoors as well. The problem with outdoors though is its high odour content. Indoors you already have trouble with it, but can fix it by using a carbon filter. But outdoors your neighbors are going to smell it. The smell goes wherever the wind blows so it’s a real outdoor nightmare.
You’ll be growing it all summer, but it’s not just you waiting for it. So when it finishes, it will probably be gone, stolen. We tent to tell people that its better to grow indoors, but it is possible to grow it outdoors as well. Right now we have a lot of clients from California and they start planting in January and bring it outside by spring. So they end up having 4 kilo (7-8 pound) plants.
We see this happening a lot now. It does have the ability to grow big , but more than anything, something I am really proud of, is the taste, the uniqueness of the flavour and the balance of the high. It’s something that made us, but also England famous. Something good can come from our country.
Renzo: How is the cannabis scene in the UK at the moment?
Milo: It is slowly getting there. Hopefully it will be good but there are some setbacks at the moment. The best role models I see at the moment would be something like Colorado, where it is State regulatory. Basically you pay the State, you pay your taxes., you have an above poor business, you bring jobs to the people and that’s good. That’s the way I see it.
The same thing is happening now in The Netherlands as well. They’re trying to close the old “backdoor system” and trying to add a little bit of regulation and I think this is the way to be successful in the future. To be able to say that you are ready to be regularized and to pay your taxes to the government so that in the end of the day any person can go to a bar to have a drink and to an association or a coffeeshop to have a smoke.
This is how I would love the future to be. But to get there it’s going to take a lot of time and you have to be smart about it. You can’t just be an oldskool hustler on the streets. But I think it’s possible if it is presented in a good way.
Renzo: Next to the Cheese, as it not your only strain, are there any other varieties worth mentioning?
Milo: We have a lot of new varieties. Last few years we have been working really hard with Californian genetics. And many things went well there, as California at the moment is one of the leading places for new genetics. And of course they’ve got the “hype factor”. And if you’ve got a hype factor, you see people running. Recently it was things like Girl Scout Cookies, now it’s the Gelato’s, the Sherbets, and the Wedding Cakes.
It’s the new modern day hype. Some are good, some are special, but with some things you will think that you’ve smoked it before in Holland when you were younger. But as long as the scene is progressing and always advancing, it’s fantastic.
Renzo: You guys have any new strains coming up?
Milo: We’ve got quite a lot of new varieties at the moment. This year we have the Purple Cheese and we also have the Black Cheese. We have Cookies and Cream Cheese, which is the Girl Scout Cookies and Cheese. We have also done a link-up with some of the guys who used to work for Flying Dutchmen Seeds, Eddy and all his brothers from the Cannabis College and we’ve got a Hindu Kush and the Pot of Gold. So these are some of our classics.
We also have a few more things in the pipeline. We’ve got a California Orange coming up. We also have a few more American clones like the Gorilla Glue and the King Kong, so have a lot of crosses and the future looks good.
Renzo: I might have to try some of the Cheese you have here on the counter tonight, because it looks and smells good Milo. As usual.
Milo: A big shout out to all the guys and gals at CannaConnection!
Renzo: Thanks for having us Milo! Cheese forever! One love.
