MoCannTrade and MJUnpacked partner to create MJU MoCann Cup
Partnership aims to give Missouri cannabis products credible recognition on national platform
For years, the Missouri Cannabis Trade Association has watched cannabis competitions come and go without lending its name or resources to any of them.
That will change this fall with the inaugural MJU MoCann Cup, an industry-focused product competition developed through a partnership between MJ Unpacked and MoCannTrade.
The competition will recognize products made by Missouri-licensed cannabis cultivators and manufacturers. Winners will be announced during MJ Unpacked Kansas City, scheduled for October 14–15.
Andrew Mullins, Executive Director of MoCannTrade, said the association had previously been approached more than half a dozen times about becoming involved with a cannabis cup. None offered the professional structure, impartial evaluation, or focus on Missouri’s regulated industry that the organization wanted.
“We’ve been witness to a number of different kind of haphazardly assembled cups that didn’t necessarily, in our mind, represent a credible, professional, well-judged cup that would really work to not only celebrate the hard work of everybody in the industry here in Missouri, but also do it in a way that everybody felt like, ‘Oh, okay, there’s a process, the judging is unbiased, there’s professionalism here,’” Mullins explained.
MoCannTrade is a business-to-business organization representing Missouri’s licensed and regulated cannabis industry. Mullins said the association wanted any competition carrying its name to reflect that identity.
“With us being a B2B organization, we’re all about both promoting and celebrating the commercial cannabis industry here in Missouri, the licensed and regulated industry,” Mullins stated. “That’s everything that we’re about.”
The MJU MoCann Cup grew out of cannabis competitions MJ Unpacked held in New Jersey in 2025 and 2026.
George Jage, co-founder and CEO of Jage Media, said the New Jersey competitions were created in response to interest from companies entering that market. The events drew approximately 120 product entries during the first year and nearly 150 during the second, according to Jage.
After seeing the response in New Jersey, Jage and Mullins saw an opportunity to bring a similar industry competition to Missouri.
“We thought it’d be a great idea to bring an industry cup to Missouri,” Jage explained. “We wanted to have one that was truly judged by the industry and something where brands compete against each other to claim the best cannabis in Missouri.”
Mullins echoed that and told Greenway that MJ Unpacked’s previous work in Missouri helped distinguish the partnership from companies that enter a market only long enough to operate a competition.
“MJU as a partner has been members of MoCann for six-plus years,” Mullins noted. “They’ve really worked to bring attention to the industry here by bringing the whole rest of the industry around the country to the events that they’ve hosted in Missouri. To me, that’s not a grab-and-go.”
That established relationship and the results of MJ Unpacked’s New Jersey competitions gave MoCannTrade confidence in the new event.
“This was the one that seemed to check all the boxes and would work to accomplish and spotlight all the folks that work so hard here in the Missouri industry, and celebrate and recognize their work in a very professional and exciting way,” Mullins continued.
Creating credibility
A central component of the competition is the separation between the organizations producing and promoting the event and the people evaluating its entries.
Jage said MJ Unpacked will not judge the products or select the winners. Farechild Events will manage the competition, while entries will be evaluated by Level 2 Certified Ganjiers.
“As the event organizer, we wanted to make sure there was separation between us, who are selling people booths and sponsorships to our event, and the actual judging of the competition,” Jage explained. “So there’s never any question of undue influence or a pay-to-play type of competition.”
Each entry will be independently evaluated by at least three Certified Ganjiers. Judges will receive the products in their original packaging, which Jage said will help preserve the chain of custody and reduce unnecessary handling.
The judges must also disclose any financial relationships with participating companies. A judge with a relationship to a brand will be recused from evaluating the category in which that company is competing.
Judges will not be publicly identified until after the competition and must keep information about their assigned products and results confidential. According to Jage, MJ Unpacked will not learn the results before the awards ceremony.
“We try to minimize any type of adulteration and influence on this whatsoever from any type of corruption in the competition,” Jage emphasized. “Because if you don’t have integrity, why are you doing it?”
Jage said the judging process will use the Ganjier Systematic Assessment Protocol, or SAP, which was developed to create a repeatable framework for assessing cannabis products.
“They studied what they do in the coffee industry, in the wine industry, the chocolate industry, and the tea industry, that all have these standardized evaluations,” Jage explained. “It’s always hard to take the subjectivity out of any type of tasting experience because it is, to an extent, an emotional response to a product. But with the SAP, it’s repeatable. The judges calibrate themselves. Each product is independently judged by three different people.”
Four samples are required for each entry. Three will support the independent evaluations, while the fourth can be retained for an additional inspection if an unusual difference appears among the judges’ scores.
“There’s going to be a level of subjectivity,” Jage acknowledged. “If we have an outlier that’s statistically significant, we’ll go back and inspect the original. We have four products submitted, so three judges evaluate, and we keep one. If we have to go back and reevaluate that product, we will.”
Judges will document their observations and provide comments about each entry. Jage said participating companies will privately receive feedback describing what evaluators liked and areas where they found potential shortcomings.
“They write down notes, they take pictures, they zoom in, and they’re inspecting for mold,” Jage detailed. “They’re really doing a very thorough evaluation of the product.”
That feedback may carry value even for products that do not win an award.
“When you’re growing your own product, and you’re making your own gummy or whatever, of course it’s your favorite,” Jage continued. “You believe in the product. But to get that third-party feedback from people who really know their stuff, who are significantly experienced and trained in the evaluation of cannabis as an agricultural product or a consumer packaged good, I think it’s a huge value.”
Professional standards
Mullins said the professional evaluation was central to MoCannTrade’s decision to endorse the competition.
Some product competitions use kits distributed to consumers or determine winners through public voting. While those events can measure consumer enthusiasm and brand loyalty, Mullins said they do not necessarily provide the same type of product assessment.
“You can have consumer judges, and you could have fulfillment at dispensaries, and people buy the kit, and they get to judge the kit,” Mullins explained. “But those are very easy to game.”
Companies with larger audiences or greater marketing resources can encourage supporters to vote, creating an advantage that may be unrelated to the product itself.
“That’s fine if you want to have just a consumer-based competition and get everybody’s opinion,” Mullins acknowledged. “But to me, it’s a little less evaluative and really looking at the products for what they are, and more so just a popularity contest.”
The MJU MoCann Cup instead focuses on licensed products evaluated by trained industry professionals.
“This really is an industry-focused competition,” Mullins stated. “You don’t have consumers involved. It’s peer-to-peer.”
For MoCannTrade, the structure better reflects the work performed by Missouri’s cultivators, manufacturers, and other cannabis professionals.
“I look at what all of our operators, producers, and licensees put into the products that they sell to patients and consumers in Missouri, and it is amazing,” Mullins emphasized. “We have a very intimate industry here in Missouri, and we think this is a great forum to bring those efforts and that passion to the forefront.”
Impartial opportunity
The judging format may also create an opportunity for smaller Missouri companies to compete based on product quality rather than company size, distribution, or sales volume.
A company may not dominate statewide sales rankings or hold as much dispensary shelf space as a larger operator, but a well-developed product can still stand out when evaluated under the same standards.
“You have a licensee who maybe doesn’t have the sales volume, doesn’t have all the shelf space that some of the bigger companies might have, but they’ve got a product or products that, based on a standards-oriented evaluation, could stand out and really get the recognition that product deserves, even as a smaller or craft-oriented operator,” Mullins explained.
The same principle applies to the broader MJ Unpacked event, where companies of different sizes can interact with operators, buyers, investors, and prospective partners.
“Trade shows themselves are highly democratized open markets,” Jage observed. “It doesn’t matter how big your booth is or how small your booth is, or how big your operation is versus a smaller operation. You both have the exact same access to the people there buying your product.”
Jage said a smaller craft cultivator producing a limited number of cultivars may be able to devote attention to those products in ways that are difficult for companies managing much larger portfolios.
“I think that’s the biggest upside of competitions like this,” Jage said. “I’m always rooting for the small guy. That’s the American hero story. We want to see these companies make everybody level up their game and be financially and commercially rewarded because they won an award.”
Recognition during MJ Unpacked could introduce those companies to operators from outside Missouri.
“You’ve got a smaller organization that’s getting a lot of recognition on a big stage in front of the entire Missouri industry,” Mullins added. “I think that says a lot.”
Jage said an out-of-state company considering entry into Missouri could use the results to identify local brands producing highly rated products. Operators in other markets may also see opportunities to license, distribute, acquire, or introduce a Missouri brand elsewhere.
“I’m an out-of-state brand, I’m looking to get into Missouri, and I want to acquire somebody that’s creating a craft product in that market,” Jage said, describing one possible scenario. “I see that these two companies both won awards. I’m going to check them out first because I’m going to want to go in and have best in class.”
Competition winners will receive engraved awards. Jage said winning companies will also receive an official seal that can be used on packaging, websites, social media, and in-store promotional materials.
“It means something,” Jage stated. “Consumers are looking for that.”
He compared the seal’s potential value to wine ratings that help consumers recognize products evaluated by knowledgeable third parties.
“The fact that this is a legitimate industry award, they can stand behind that,” Jage added.
Celebrating the people behind the plants
“The way MoCann has always operated is it’s not about us, it’s about our members and the industry,” Mullins explained.
He described the Cup as a way to recognize the cultivators, processors, manufacturers, and other employees responsible for creating products sold throughout Missouri.
“I see this as just shining a very bright light again on all the people, the plants, the passion, and the effort that everybody puts into the products that they produce for patients and consumers here in Missouri,” Mullins said. “This is just a big celebration of that.”
Jage said legitimate recognition can become a lasting career achievement for employees involved in creating an award-winning product.
“This Cup truly belongs to the workers of the industry because these are the people who are making this product every day,” Jage stated. “They’re talking to the plants, they’re watering the plants, they’re curing, they’re drying the flower, they’re manufacturing, and they’re mixing this stuff up in a food kitchen.
“When you work somewhere, and you’re making a product that wins an award, and it’s a legitimate award, that’s the type of stuff that people are going to remember about their careers in cannabis. They were the guys and gals who made award-winning cannabis.”
Entries close September 10
The MJU MoCann Cup includes categories for flower, prerolls, infused prerolls, solvent and solventless concentrates, vape pens and cartridges, gummies, nongummy edibles, and beverages.
Additional flower awards will recognize fruit, fuel, earth, and floral aroma profiles.
All products must be produced by a Missouri-licensed cultivator or manufacturer. Entrants must provide a valid license number.
The entry fee is $295 per product. Companies submitting at least five products in the same transaction receive a 10 percent discount, while those submitting at least 10 receive a 20 percent discount.
At the time of the interview, Jage estimated that approximately 40 to 50 products had been pledged through early commitments. He expects many operators to wait until closer to the deadline while selecting which products to submit.
“There are probably about 40 or 50 products that are already kind of pledged,” Jage estimated. “We’ve had a lot of conversations with other companies going, ‘Yeah, we’re going to be in it.’”
Based on the New Jersey competitions and early interest in Missouri, Jage estimated that the inaugural MJU MoCann Cup could receive between 80 and 120 entries.
“It’s the first year we’re doing it, but there seems to be a lot of support,” he noted.
Entries must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. Central time on September 10. The deadline cannot be extended because products must be received, secured, sorted, and distributed to judges.
KC Cannabis will serve as the competition’s official intake dispensary, Jage said. Products will be received, secured, sorted, and distributed to the appropriate judges following submission.
“The biggest thing is just don’t wait until the last minute,” Jage advised. “That deadline comes up and you’re scrambling, you might not be putting your best product into the competition.”
Mullins encouraged Missouri operators not to use the shortcomings of previous competitions as an indication of what to expect from the MJU MoCann Cup.
“Don’t let the history of previous cups that didn’t deliver or underwhelmed folks here in Missouri be any kind of indication for what the MJU MoCann Cup is going to be all about,” Mullins urged.
“This is really a for-the-industry, by-the-industry type competition that demonstrates its professionalism and sophistication, and approaches a cannabis cup competition in a way that maintains objectivity and credibility,” he continued. “It’s the first time for us, and I think everybody else should recognize that this is the right opportunity.”
Competition details and entry forms are available through the MJU MoCann Cup website.
First-place and runner-up awards will be presented in each category. Winners will be announced during the awards ceremony from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. on October 15 inside the MJ Unpacked Experience Hall.
Organizers envision a continuing competition
MJ Unpacked has not finalized the location of its fall 2027 event, but both organizations intend for the MJU MoCann Cup to continue in Missouri even when the larger conference is held elsewhere.
“We plan on doing another MJU MoCann Cup in Missouri,” Jage confirmed.
“With us being an always Missouri-focused trade association, this particular program really fits well with what we’d be trying to do for our members and the industry here in Missouri. I think there’s a future for it,” Mullins stated.
Jage said MJ Unpacked wants to continue working with MoCannTrade and developing the competition after its inaugural year. The long-term vision is for the competition to become a recognizable celebration of Missouri’s cannabis businesses and the people responsible for their products.
“We want to see this evolve into an annual green-carpet, maybe green-tie event,” Jage envisioned, “that is kind of the Academy Awards of cannabis for the state of Missouri.”
Brandon Dunn contributed to this article.
