This blog is a bit of a monster, I’ll admit. There’s a tonne to get through, so for those with a short attention span, or ones that don’t get paid bathroom breaks at work, the TL;DR is this.
New Mephisto Genetics x Grove Bag packaging, new pricing and at last, the 2.O’z release is all scheduled for FRIDAY AUGUST 21st 1pm EU, 12pm UK, 7am Eastern, 4am Pacific.
PLEASE NOTE: In preparation for this huge change, our store will be closed from Wednesday 19th until the drop!
For those of you with more time, let’s get into things.
The Search For The New
You might have noticed it was all a bit quiet on the Mephisto front recently, but that’s for a very good reason. We’ve been planning a packaging refresh for what feels like endless years now, but other things always got in the way of such a massive and time consuming task. Last year the team finally managed to make enough time to start thinking about it more seriously, and when we were chatting to Grove Bags about the new Mephisto 1/4lb bags, the stars seemed to align and now, we’re proud to reveal the latest Mephisto Genetics x Grove Bags collaboration.
Our packaging has stayed more-or-less the same since our very first real seed packs launched back in 2015. We gave it a minor update five years later, but all we really did was swap rectangular packs for square ones. So around 2021 or 2022 we started thinking about updating to something a bit more modern, more lavish, more Mephisto. We looked at everything on the market: tins, wooden blocks, blister packs, you name it, if it’s out there we looked at it. In the end, our goal was to find options manufactured in either the United States or Europe. We wanted a design that was unmistakably Mephisto, rather than something destined for a dumpster the moment it reached a Meph Head. We threw around ideas for a long time and could never really settle on the most immediate part, the material of the packaging, much less the design of the thing! We took a trip to MJBizCon, meeting with over 20 manufacturers, including a few specializing in compostable packaging, but nothing hit the mark. So when Sonja had the kinda out-there idea of using Grove Bags, everybody on the team had a collective facepalm moment for “why didn’t we think of that before?!”
So why Grove Bags?
Firstly, we love Grove. They make a great product, they source and manufacture in the US, and they’re all super passionate, friendly, knowledgeable and, most importantly, have a huge Meph Head on the team who originally reached out for a collaboration in the first place.
Secondly, although we’re not exactly eco-warriors, we did want a life for our packaging beyond its initial use. Our company has been built entirely on word-of-mouth and the passion and dedication of Meph Heads around the globe. We’ve always had the “sharing’s caring” ethos, our extra seeds and freebies were always given with the idea that if you have too many beans, share them with a friend. Well, with Grove using their TerpLoc® technology in our seeds bags, you can not only share beans with friends, but give them a stored and cured nug to sweeten the deal. Beyond looking great on the shelf, our hope is that as many Meph Heads as possible find their own unique and creative ways of re-using these bags, giving them a second life and helping cut down on a little extra plastic waste.
Did Grove Bags really use TerpLoc® on tiny bags?
Yes! Yeah, you’re not going to be able to fit your entire harvest in the bag your seeds came in (unless your name is DK), but you will be able to share a nug with a friend in something that will keep it in prime time fighting shape.
Use it to tuck away a choice sample before the rest of your stash gets smoked or pressed, think of it like a sticky little piggy bank, or a Mephisto scrapbook of past grows. They also make ideal travel pouches for parties, hikes, fishing trips, or, you know, when you’re trying to complete your history report in a Circle K parking lot. The world is your oyster, and your nugs can go with you.
But what actually is TerpLoc®?
In short, TerpLoc® creates the ideal microclimate for curing and preserving flower. No burping, no constant fiddling, and no guesswork. It’s set-it-and-forget-it moisture control, making these mini bags perfect for holding onto headstash samples or sharing your best work with friends.
The New Stuff
When we started Mephisto Genetics back in 2012, we were solely focused on developing genetics. We didn’t exactly have a clear roadmap for just how many strains we’d create, how we’d arrange them, which would stick around and which wouldn’t. We were far more concerned with keeping the plants healthy, keeping both the grow and non-grow lights on, and putting food in our, as well as Pigletta’s black hole of a tummy.
As you can imagine, after 14 years, a few things got a little… convoluted.
So, with our big packaging redesign and new collaboration with Grove Bags, we figured now was the perfect time to put the cat amongst the chickens and give the whole Mephisto catalogue a proper shake-up, our lines, pack quantities, pricing structure and how everything fits together.
Over the last few years, we’ve put a huge amount of thought and work in behind the scenes to make the entire Mephisto experience as primo as possible. That means not only continuing to push the genetics forward, but improving everything surrounding them too, from the packaging and presentation to how your order arrives at your door.
The Signature Series
Originals, Artisanals and Reserva strains will now all live together under one barn roof: The Signature Series.
Instead of maintaining three separate lines based largely on when and how strains entered the catalogue, the Signature Series gives our mainstay Mephisto genetics a permanent home.
There’ll be a little dynamic pricing within the series. Our older Original classics will be the most affordable, established core strains will sit in the middle, and our newest releases will carry a slight premium.
Same Mephisto standards throughout, the price simply reflects where each strain sits in its lifecycle.
The Limited Series
Limited Editions will become simply The Limited Series.
These are the fun, interesting, sometimes weird and wonderful projects that we love making, but which aren’t necessarily destined for permanent residency in the main catalogue.
Typically, a Limited will come from just one standout plant selected from a batch, the individual that catches our eye and has something special enough that we want to preserve and share it.
And, somewhat counter-intuitively for a company whose business is selling seeds, our aim with these is to make as few seeds as possible.
We don’t want “Limited” to be a marketing term slapped onto a release while tens of thousands of packs sit on a shelf. We want these to be genuinely rare, small-batch offerings. One special selection, one production run, made to the same standards we expect from anything carrying the Mephisto name.
The goal isn’t to make the most seeds we can sell. It’s to make the least seeds we can while still sharing something we think is genuinely worth growing.
When they’re gone, they’re gone.
The Medicinal Series
Our Medicinal Line gets a fresh lick of paint too and becomes The Medicinal Series. The strains, however, are remaining the same: they are our main catalogue, worked lines for more CBD focused strains. Given their nature, these strains take much longer to test and develop than anything else, especially for the CBD rich varieties as we need to have each generation of breeding analysed to keep the levels inline with our end targets.
Same purpose, simpler home.
Freebies
Yes, even our freebies will now be packaged in their own custom Grove Bags. Teal drip courtesy of Stan.
Less is More
If you’ve been following us for a while, you’ll probably have noticed that we’ve already been slimming down the catalogue. We’ve retired less popular strains and, a couple of years ago, abolished the Illuminautos line entirely. RIP. 🪦
Ultimately, we’d rather offer a tighter catalogue containing what we believe is the best of the best than have an enormous menu just for the sake of having one.
There’s also a whole world of decidedly unsexy logistics happening behind the scenes. We now operate four Mephisto distribution hubs around the world: US, Canada, Europe and the UK, and every additional line, pack configuration and SKU multiplies across all four stores. More stock sitting around. More labels. More packaging variations. More inventory to produce, count, move and manage.
Simplifying the catalogue means less of all of that, allowing our store teams to operate more efficiently and letting us focus our time, space and resources where they actually matter: pushing the genetics envelope and giving you guys the best possible experience when buying and growing them. It also means less waste, which is something we’ve been actively trying to improve across the business.
As Brad put it, we’re not exactly eco-hippies, but we’re also not ignorant to the amount of unnecessary waste a company can generate. Producing mountains of different packaging, labels and stock only for some of it to become obsolete or sit gathering dust doesn’t make much sense environmentally or commercially. So wherever we can simplify, reuse, produce more intelligently and generally chuck less stuff in the bin, we will. We don’t claim to be perfect, but we’d much rather keep moving in the right direction than pretend it isn’t our problem.
What You See Is What You Get
There’s one other change coming with the new packaging: simplifying both pack quantities and pricing.
Historically, a 3-seed Mephisto pack actually contained 5 seeds, and a 1-seed pack contained 2. Good old Meph Math. Going forward, what it says on the packet is what you get. Our standard pack sizes will simply be 2 seeds and 5 seeds, clearly labelled as such. Limited Series releases will contain 6 seeds.
Alongside the new packs, we’ll also be making our first price adjustment since 2022.
Rather than applying one blanket price across the catalogue, pricing will reflect where a strain sits within the range. Limited Series releases and our older Signature classics will start at the lower end, core Signature and Medicinal strains will sit in the middle, and our newest Signature releases will carry a small premium.
For 5-seed packs, that means a simple range of $50 to $55, with 2-seed packs, where available, priced at half the corresponding 5-pack.
We’ve tried to keep the adjustment sensible. It’s been four years since our last price change, and in that time the cost of everything has headed in one direction; be it soil, electricity, rent, shipping, customs (& now tariffs), wages, card processing fees, site hosting etc. At the same time, we’ve invested heavily in upgrading our packaging, presentation and the overall experience of ordering direct from Mephisto. Even with those changes, we’ve deliberately kept our pricing highly competitive with other breeders in the space. We’re not quite at the $60 5 pack just yet.
And don’t panic, freebies aren’t going anywhere.
Our tiered freebie system based on total order value remains in place, with minor adjustments, so there’ll still be extra Mephisto goodness finding its way into qualifying orders. We’re simply separating those freebies from the packs themselves.
Piggy Points aren’t going anywhere either. They’ll continue to be earned and redeemed as usual, and we’ll still run our usual drop-day offers, bundle deals and other discounts along the way.
All of those extras are an important part of buying direct from Mephisto. Between freebies, Piggy Points, bundles and promotional discounts, there are still plenty of ways to sweeten the deal and bring your real-world cost per seed comfortably below the price printed on the pack.
Five seeds means five seeds. $52.50 means $52.50. Freebies are freebies.
Simple as that.
Fourteen years in, Mephisto has grown a fair bit from two guys trying to keep the lights on and some plants alive.
The goal of this re-jiggle is pretty simple: a cleaner catalogue, clearer pricing, better packaging, smoother stores and more focus on the genetics that deserve to carry the Mephisto name.
Less clutter. Less waste. More primo. 🐷
2.O’z - The Return of MephistO’z
I’d have called you a madman if you’d have told me we’d be doing a second run out of MephistO’z Limiteds after its initial release. To say it wasn’t smooth would be a little bit of an understatement. But the Meph Heads gathered and grew and the results spoke for themselves. MephistO’z has cemented itself amongst the Pantheon of Mephisto strains, a first round draft pick to the Hall of Fame and is well on its way to getting a coveted place up on Mount Mephmore. In the two years since we first released MephistO’z (under a different name, for legal reasons) our social media has been bombarded with requests for practically every strain in the catalogue to be given the O’z treatment. Finally, we relented, and the only real solution to picking which strains got the second round of O’z was to put it out to a community vote.
An Ode to O’z
When we see that kind of fanbase for a strain and testers who only take the O’z cross in every tester round, we know we have a hit on our hands. Because this is our first ever release with a community selected batch of F1s, over the last few months, we asked a few members of our community to pen their own love letters to O’z and share what made it such a game-changer for them. I've posted a selection here, but you can follow this link to read all of them in one place.
Selecting the Selection
Meph Heads do community involvement like few others; the voting for the O’z crosses was a full on World Cup of Meph; we had group stages, groundroots campaigns, gangs forming, arguments, love-ins and a knockout round that got feistier than a lock-in in a Pitsmoor alehouse. Eventually the community managed to select their 8 champion strains to be crossed with O’z, and the Mephisto staff also selected their 4 worthy runners up to join the lineup.
The Final Lineup.
With a blend of sweet apple candy flavour and sour and gas undertones; her unique bouquet in the Mephisto catalogue, along with a healthy dose of campaigning from Stan meant she was a bit of a shoe-in for victory. So imagine the pairing of gassy apple Jolly Rancher with the cheese, cream and chocolate notes of the O’z, and now you’re thinking like the Meph Heads who joined Stan’s campaign.
One of 5 award winning parents in this line-up, Iced ‘n’ Baked was really the first in the new wave of Mephisto Signature Series strains. After picking up the award for Best Indica at AWC in 2025, it’s easy to see why she won the community vote to be part of the 2.O’z lineup. Iced ‘n’ Baked brings the sweetness, the cream and the fruit and gas, and with that O’z backbone? Sign me up.
A mainstay strain of Mephisto since her release almost a decade ago now; CDLC is one of our most loved and enduring strains. She’s also lent her parentage to some of the most popular modern strains in the Mephisto arsenal; Mephisto’s Wedding, Mango Runtz, Butters’ Breath and the upcoming OGKB cross we’ve been working on and plan to release some time in the next 12 months. Creme de la O’z will produce probably the most complex, and potentially the most challenging, bouquet on the whole line-up. Fuel, incense and that effervescence that’s so hard to put your finger on combining with a cheesy body, some spice, chocolate and fruit. Probably not one for the beginners as a more refined palate may be required to fully get your tastebuds around her.
The new kid on the block, but the original ‘gang war’ strain. A small but rabid following over on our Discord managed to convert the masses over and in turn started the turf war that is still simmering. The first Limited strain we’ve released back into the catalogue as a main strain for a long time, Grape Crush really was just that good. The super candied grape flavour of Grape Crush could dominate, but with the potential of some underlying funk, creaminess and cheesecake from the O’z parentage, Crushed O’z promises to be a standout in the lineup.
A multi-award winning strain, Mango Runtz was the standout release from 2025. Sweeping the Best New Strain category at both the Autoflower World Cup & American Autoflower Cup; Mango Runtz has sat at the tippy top of the Meph Mountain consistently in the two years since her release. Runtz lives up to her name, with her squat and stocky stature, so expect any O’z leaning phenos to gain some solid height but still retain that almost offensive candied fruit aroma and flavour of the Runtz.
Another cornerstone strain in the Mephisto lineup and a favourite for over a decade now. If you’ve ever wondered where all the grape terps in our catalogue come from, you can pretty much blame Sour Stomper and Grape Crinkle. Sour Stomper and MephistO’z have the two most obviously unique growth structures in our catalogue, so expect some funky looking and funky stinking plants from any pheno of this one. Dense frost coverage is also a dead cert.
Yet another award winning parent in the lineup. Sundae Thumper was the second of our Gelauto series to release, and she took home Best Hybrid at the American Autoflower Cup in 2025. Consistently a favourite amongst Meph Heads and no surprise she cleared the competition to be voted through as a winner. Expect a double dose of cream, with a chocolate sweetness and a lingering artificial grape.
The newest strain we had in the lineup at the time voting took place, Beary Berry Punch was stolen through the rounds mostly on the back of Jimbo’s excellent photography, write-up and campaigning to get her through. The insane reviews from our tester group also helped get the hype-train up the hill and over the finish line. You can almost guarantee the most insane frost coverage and bag appeal, with an absolutely wild bouquet and smoke to follow.
Staff Picks
This is a bit like strapping a rocket to MephistO’z and sending her into orbit. You’ll probably end up feeling like you’ve been launched into space too. 505 Headbanger won the Highest THC award at the 2026 edition of the American Autoflower Cup, and she has consistently been talked of as one of the strongest strains in the lineup since her release in March of 2025. If Sour O’z hadn’t already been selected as a name, that would be an incredibly apt name for this one instead. Sour Diesel and Oooze as grandparents? Count me in. There might be some packs left for sale once the staff have got their hands full.
Tim’s pick of the bunch. He’s long said his favourite Mephisto strain is Hubbabubbasmelloscope, and very little comes close to that 90s bubblegum flavour in Autoflower form these days. He really pitched for HubbaBubbaHaze this time round. I think he’s becoming a bit of a secret HazeHead in his old age, but don’t tell him I told you that. HubbaBubbaHaze really does bring you the best of those two classic flavours, a haze with a bit more depth, a bit more body, a bit more sweetness and fun. The nostalgia pick for our old school flavour chasers.
Despite being yet another award winning strain on the list, taking home Best Sativa at the Autoflower World Cup in 2024, Do-si-delirium has become a bit of a forgotten child of modern Meph strains. Now, I understand that’s probably down to the difficulty in anyone actually getting their hands on her (get those restock notifications ready though), she also hasn’t featured as a parent to an F1 since the Gelauto #33 drop at the back end of last year. Picked by a combination of Mitch and Jimbo, expect some citrus and cream, with spice and savoury notes to wash through.
I know I stated that Bubba O’z was the nostalgia pick, but this is the real nostalgia pick from the team. Championed by Brad and Stan, Northern Cheese Haze is a bit of a flavour throwback and something both of us have been trying to get more and more people onboard with. Down with the candy gas craze and up with the weird musky cheese thing! I probably need to work on my campaign slogan, but the message remains true. Pairing Northern Cheese Haze with MephistO’z is going to bring the cheese on cheese action, with some spice and that rich chocolate undertone.
As this release is a bit special for a number of reasons, we’ll be dropping the 2.O’z on FRIDAY AUGUST 21st 1pm EU, 12pm UK, 7am Eastern, 4am Pacific. Normal Monday releases will continue with our upcoming Mephmosa drop.
Final Housekeeping
There’s a lot of updates to get through on our store with all the changes we’re making, so to that end, our store will be closed from Wednesday August 19th until the drop on Friday August 21st.
UK folks - Our UK packing team has a non-refundable holiday booked for the exact wrong time of the year. All UK orders will start shipping in the week after the August bank holiday. Thank you for your patience and understanding!
