Is Blue Sierraz the same thing as Blue Andeze?

Licensees in California choosing between nursery menus may have come across Phinest Cannabis’s Blue Sierraz as well as Conception Nursery’s Blue Andeze aka Blue Andeeze and wondered: What is the difference? Both companies list Thin Mint GSC x DJ Short Blueberry as the lineage and credit Kristian at Kounter Kulture as the breeder. At first glance, any reasonable purchaser may think these are the same plant so why do they have different names then?

Truth in marketing is important, especially when it comes to cannabis genetics. As has become expected in my quest to understand Post-Prohibition Changes in Cannabis Genetics, I’m exploring this simple, genetically based question while negotiating a minefield of soured business relationships. C’est la vie and that’s why this took a month and a half to be published.

Blue Sierraz Fiasco Post Mortem

On Friday, May 23rd, 2025 in a since deleted post, poetryofplants pointed out to the wider cannabis culture outside of California that Phinest Cannabis’s “strain page” for Blue Sierraz featured the exact same picture as Conception Nursery’s “strain page” for Blue Andeze. Onlookers viewing the Blue Sierraz launch were immediately given the strong impression that the Blue Andeze plant had been stolen (or licensed) and renamed to Blue Sierraz by Phinest Cannabis.

By the end of day on May 23rd, Phinest Cannabis had updated the Blue Sierraz page by removing the picture from Conception and replaced it with a “photo coming soon” placeholder.

Behind the scenes, Phinest Cannabis addressed the accusation with clients only via an official statement from Phinest’s CEO Fred which is published here on The Highest Critic (THC) for the first time:

“At Phinest, we take pride in offering world-class genetics and working with top cultivators, breeders, and legacy players from across the industry.

There’s been some recent online conversation regarding one of our newest cultivars, Blue Sierraz. I’d like to offer some clarity on this situation.

Like many genetics in this industry, the path from breeding to pheno hunting to nursery release isn’t always linear. We were given this pheno by a hunter who we understand purchased seeds last year from the breeder. We like the strain and want to offer it to our customers. We gave it a slightly different name to make clear that it is a pheno of Blue Andeze, and not the original cultivar. It was not our intent to mislead or misrepresent its origin. We have never been accused of stealing genetics in the history of the company.

Phinest also sold seeds of our genetics back in 2017-18. But I stopped the sale of seeds for this very reason. Once you sell seeds, the genetics are out there in the world for other people to breed with, pheno hunt, grow and do what they want with.

I have instructed our marketing team to remove any photos or media that we didn’t generate ourselves. Also, we want to acknowledge the breeder of Blue Andeze, and we are more than happy to pay him royalties from the sale of this pheno. If you know the breeder personally, please invite him to contact us and join our breeder program.”

The whole message including the last paragraph, a roundabout invitation from Phinest CEO to Kounter Kulture to join Phinest’s breeder program, was eventually relayed to Kounter Kulture, who commented that “they never reached out to me nor will they.” When asked if he would accept the invitation to reach out to claim breeder royalties, Kounter Kulture declined to comment.

So, what’s the difference between Blue Sierraz and Blue Andeze?

Back to the question at hand. Is Blue Sierraz the same as Blue Andeze? Kounter Kulture, speaking with THC via IG DM, expressed that he believes that they are the exact same cut, and that he has had the genetic fingerprinting done on Blue Andeze to prove it Jerry Springer style. One party says yes, they are the exact same plant. That is possibility #1. Possibility #2 is that they are sisters with the same parents – that is what Phinest and the phenohunter who licensed it to Phinest claims. Possibility #3 is that Blue Sierraz is a bagseed of Blue Andeze aka a Blue Andeze S1 (there are genetically relevant sub possibilities within here which we won’t go into). Possibility #4 is that Blue Sierraz is a bagseed of Blue Andeze with an unknown pollen donor. Possibility #5 is that it’s a completely different seedline and parental lineage altogether.

Kounter Kulture claims #1, while Phinest Cannabis is claiming #2. At the end of the day, buyers just want to know that it isn’t #5. Most growers don’t give a shit if it’s a bagseed, a sister, the same cut, the same cut but with stacked somaclonal mutations, the same cut but with stacked somaclonal mutations but properly “cleaned,” or whatever, as long as the end flower matches the flower that the buyer is expecting based on the name.

Having had conversations with many of the parties involved, I’m fairly comfortable narrowing down the possibility set to #2 and #1. An interesting point to make here is that neither Phinest nor Kounter Kulture are able to answer the question themselves, and you the reader are now tapped to answer the mystery. Phinest doesn’t have Blue Andeze to do a side by side grow off, and Kounter Kulture doesn’t have Blue Sierraz to do a side by side grow off or testing. All this to say, if you’re a farmer that has had experiences growing both Blue Sierraz AND Blue Andeze, sound off and let us know if they’re the same thing, or close enough, or which one’s better. Better yet, get me samples of the side by side and I’ll let y’all know :). Better yet, DNA testing could tell us directly, too.