Maui Wowie

Maui Wowie Strain

The Maui Wowie strain is Hawaii’s most famous export that is not a pineapple, and funnily enough it tastes a lot like one. A near-pure sativa (80/20) that grew up on the volcanic slopes of Maui, it is a Hawaiian landrace crossed at some point with something nobody wrote down. At a gentle 19% THC it is all bright, clear, energetic daytime lift, the opposite of a couch strain.

We carry Maui in a couple of forms. Jump to where to find Maui Wowie.

The Maui Wowie Strain Story

Maui Wowie is one of the true originals, a piece of living cannabis history. It came off the volcanic hillsides of Maui in the late 1960s, where local growers spent the 60s and 70s hand-selecting the best high-elevation Hawaiian sativas, long before seed companies and lineage charts existed. The exact second parent was never recorded, which is part of the landrace charm: this is a plant the island shaped, not a lab.

By the early 1970s it had crossed the Pacific to California, where the climate and the scene let it spread fast, and in 1978 it earned permanent pop-culture status when Cheech and Chong name-dropped it in Up In Smoke. Decades later it is still the benchmark everyone measures tropical sativa flavour against.

The Nose

This is where the name earns itself. Maui leads with sweet pineapple, bright and almost juicy, over a clean citrus tang and a broader tropical sweetness, like a fruit bowl left in the sun. There is none of the heavy gas or funk you get from a modern hybrid. That sunny profile rides on Myrcene and a sharp hit of Pinene that adds a fresh, almost forest-air lift, with Caryophyllene grounding the base. The buds are long and airy, classic sativa structure, pale green with rusty orange hairs.

The High

Maui Wowie is a daytime engine. The lift is immediate, energetic and uplifting, with a bright happy headspace that makes it great for getting outside, getting creative, or just shaking off a slow morning. There is very little body to it and no sedation, which is why best time runs morning into the day. At 19% THC it is genuinely approachable, a fair 3 out of 5, so it suits lighter smokers too. One honest note: it is a clear, racy sativa carrying a medium anxiety risk, so if you run anxious, ease into it. For stress, a low mood, fatigue, or daytime aches, it stays one of the friendliest classics on the shelf.

Where to Find Maui Wowie at How High

The same Maui Wowie genetic shows up in more than one form on our menu. Here is what we carry right now:

Maui Wowie Strain Card

Strains Related to Maui Wowie

If pure, old-school landrace sativas are your thing, the natural next stop on our menu is Durban Poison, the South African counterpart to this Hawaiian classic: another fully natural sativa built for daytime energy rather than couch lock.