If you have spent any time around premium cannabis in the last few years, you have almost certainly run into The TenCo, whether the name registered or not. This is the California brand that created Zushi, the candy-terp strain family that took over dispensary shelves and Instagram feeds from Los Angeles to Bangkok. We carry a rotating handful of their jars at How High in Koh Samui, and they are consistently some of the most asked-about flower on our menu. So here is the honest rundown from behind the counter: who The TenCo actually is, where the Zushi hype came from, and which of their cuts are worth your baht.
The Story Behind The TenCo
Most cannabis brands start in California and stay there. The TenCo took the long way round, growing out of two people pulling from opposite sides of the Atlantic. Staks, originally from the UK, was one of the cultivators who first carried Cookies genetics over to Europe back in 2014, sharpening his craft in the European growing scene and especially around Barcelona. Gerry, a creative director out of San Jose, brought the branding, the culture and the eye that would make the brand look like nothing else on the shelf.
The operation began life in Europe as Team Ten around the start of the 2010s. Then, in 2017, Staks moved to America right as solventless rosin was blowing up and the old extract market was falling apart. He pointed everything at high-end flower instead, and by 2019 The TenCo in its current form was up and running. The idea behind it is simple and a little rebellious: take the best European genetics and the best California genetics and fuse them into something neither coast had on its own. They grow organically in living soil, release in small limited runs rather than flooding the market, wrap the whole thing in anime-flavoured artwork, and collaborate with names from music and streetwear, the rapper Coi Leray among them. You can see the brand and its current US drops over at The TenCo’s official site.
Zushi, The Strain That Started It All
Every brand has one release that changes its trajectory. For The TenCo it was Zushi, a cross of Original Z, from the famous Zkittlez line, and Kush Mints out of Seed Junky Genetics. On paper that is candy-sweet tropical fruit meeting a minty, cookie-dough Kush backbone. In the jar it reads louder than that: sweet and gassy at the same time, wrapped in the kind of dense, frost-caked structure that photographs as well as it smokes. The limonene gives it that bright citrus lift, while caryophyllene puts a peppery bite underneath.
Zushi became award-winning, hype-driven and deliberately exclusive, with The TenCo’s eighths regularly ranking among the highest-priced flower in all of California. That scarcity was the point. It also stopped being a single strain and became a whole family, with Blue Zushi, Pink Zushi, Yellow Zushi and more, each one a separate phenotype pulled off that same core cross. If you already love the sweet, fruity Zkittlez side of the cannabis world, Zushi is where that lineage got its modern, top-shelf glow-up.
The Zushi Family: Candy Names, Japanese Soul
Half the fun of The TenCo is the naming. The Zushi cuts lean hard into Japanese food and culture, and once you know the theme the menu starts to read like a sushi counter. Here is the core of the family you will see under the brand:
- Blue Zushi, the flagship. Indica-leaning, sweet candy and berry over an earthy pine base, with a warm, relaxed body settle. This is the one regulars ask for by name.
- Black Zushi, a darker, heavier expression of the line for late nights.
- Yellow Zushi, brighter and more citrus-forward, a touch more euphoric and up.
- Chiizu (Japanese for cheese), a bold, funky cheese nose sitting over a gassy backbone. Built for experienced smokers.
- Kabosu, named after the rare Japanese citrus, a tangy lemon-lime candy blast with a clear, happy head.
- Wazabi, which opens with a genuine spicy wasabi hit before mellowing into hazelnut and sweet fruit.
- The Nishi series (Melon, Peach and Watermelon), fruit-forward summer cuts that smell like the produce aisle in the best possible way.
The common thread across all of them is that candy-terp profile, driven by limonene, caryophyllene and a soft touch of linalool, so you get citrus, pepper and a gentle floral calm in varying measures depending on the cut.
The Other TenCo: A Fine-Dining Menu in Flower
Here is the part that catches people off guard. Running right alongside the Zushi family is a second naming universe built entirely around luxury food, as though the flower were a tasting menu at a Michelin restaurant. Escargot, Beluga Caviar, Fish Bone, Black Cod, Tomahawk, T-bone, Oysters, Alaskan Crab Legs, White Stilton Gold. It is a deliberate flex: treat top-shelf cannabis with the same reverence as fine dining, price it accordingly, and let the names carry the theatre. Because everything is grown in living soil rather than bottled nutrients, the terpenes come through rich and rounded, which is exactly what you want when you are paying restaurant money for a jar. We usually have one or two of these in at any given time, and they tend to be the priciest, most limited flower we can get our hands on.
What We Stock on Samui Right Now
Limited-drop brands move fast, so treat this as a snapshot rather than a fixed menu. As of this week, here is the TenCo sitting on our shelf at How High:
Blue Zushi, 7g jar, 6,200฿. The strain that started the whole family, and still the one people request first. Sweet, fruity and heavy in the best way.
Escargot, 7g jar, 6,200฿. Top of the fine-dining line, and every bit as loud and gassy as the price tag suggests.
Fish Bone, 7g jar, 5,800฿. Another jar from the luxury-food side of the house, dense and frosty with a rich, complex nose.
Pomelo Gumi Fizz, 3.5g pack, 2,900฿. The easiest way into the brand. A bright grapefruit-and-pomelo fizz at roughly half the outlay of the big jars, so you can taste TenCo quality without committing to a full 7g.
Whatever we have in on the day always shows up on our The TenCo brand page, and you can see the wider imported selection across our Cali packs.
Is The TenCo Worth the Price?
Straight answer from the counter: it depends entirely on what you are after. A 7g TenCo jar at 6,200฿ sits right at the very top of our menu, and there is no pretending otherwise. What that money buys is genetics that literally started a strain family, patient organic growing in living soil, and limited runs that sell through quickly. For the right person, on the right occasion, a jar of Blue Zushi is a genuine treat and worth every baht.
If you just want honest, everyday weed for a relaxed week on the island, though, we will happily point you at our Thai shelf, which starts around 150฿ a gram and delivers real value. And if you are curious about the TenCo hype but not ready to spend big, that Pomelo Gumi Fizz pack at 2,900฿ is the smart middle road. There is no shame in starting there and working up. A good budtender would always rather match you to the right jar than the most expensive one, and that goes double for a brand this premium.
Getting the Most Out of a Jar This Nice
One honest tip if you do splurge on a TenCo jar: treat it with a bit of respect and it pays you back. Flower this resinous smokes best ground fresh rather than torn by hand, and it shines at a lower flame or a lower vape temperature, where those delicate top notes survive instead of getting scorched off on the first hit. Storage matters too, especially here. The Samui heat and humidity are hard on terpene-rich flower, so keep your jar sealed, out of direct sun and somewhere cool, and it will taste as good on the last bowl as it did on the first.
Come Find It in Koh Samui
The TenCo is one of those rare brands where the hype and the actual flower line up, which is exactly why a fresh drop never lasts long on our shelf. If you spot one you want, do not sit on it. Come have a smell at How High in Chaweng or at Fisherman’s Village in Bophut, browse the current TenCo on our brand page, or message the team on WhatsApp for weed delivery in Koh Samui straight to your villa.
