Here's the short version: when the weather warms up, the big categories barely move — flower, vapes, and edibles hold roughly the same share of what people buy all year. The real summer story is quieter and more interesting. It happens inside those categories, plus one product that climbs every summer like clockwork: the pre-roll.
We know this because we looked at our own sales. Below is what actually changes when it gets hot, why we think it happens, and how you might use it to rethink your own summer rotation.
How we figured this out
These numbers come from our own transactions, not a survey or a study someone else ran. We measured each product category as a share of items sold — that is, out of everything that left the counter, what slice was flower, what slice was pre-rolls, and so on.
To find the "summer effect," we compared three windows: this past summer (June through August), the rest of the year leading up to it, and the previous summer. Comparing against both lets us separate a real seasonal pattern from normal month-to-month noise. We blended the data across all of our shops and stripped out anything tied to a specific place, so what you're reading is the broad pattern in what our customers reach for — not any one store or market.
One note before we dig in: this is about what people choose, not how it affects them. We're describing buying habits, not making health claims.
Does what people buy actually change in summer?
Less than you'd think — at the top level, anyway.
Flower stays the biggest category by far, holding around 37% of items in summer, almost exactly its share the rest of the year. Vapes sit steady near 27%. Edibles and other oral products land around 23%. If you only looked at the headline categories, you'd conclude summer changes almost nothing.
That stability is worth saying out loud, because it's the honest takeaway. Summer doesn't flip cannabis shopping on its head. What it does is nudge a few things — and a couple of those nudges are big enough, and consistent enough, to be real. Here's where they show up.
Pre-rolls are the clearest summer pick
This is the one category that genuinely climbs when it gets hot.
Pre-rolls go from about 5 to 6% of everything we sell during the rest of the year to more than 7% in summer. Against the previous summer, the jump is just as clear — roughly two percentage points higher. And it isn't a single hot week or a holiday blip: pre-rolls sat at that elevated level steadily across June, July, and August. Monthly sales volume was flat all summer, so this is a true shift in what people picked, not just more people shopping.
Dig into the pre-roll mix and the "why" gets clearer. Pre-rolls split into two types: plain flower-only pre-rolls (just ground flower in a paper) and infused pre-rolls (flower with concentrate added for extra strength). About 90% of the pre-rolls we sell are the flower-only kind. In summer, that tilts even further toward flower-only — the infused share actually dips a little.
So the summer riser isn't the heavy, high-potency option. It's the simple, grab-and-go one. That fits what our budtenders see: summer is full of plans that don't pair well with setup or cleanup — a hike, a backyard hang, a trip to the lake. A pre-roll is ready to go, easy to share, and there's nothing to charge or pack. When people are headed outside, the lowest-friction product wins.
If pre-rolls are new to you, our guide to cannabis pre-rolls covers how they're made and what to look for, and our cannabis flower primer explains the flower inside them.
In vapes, disposables take over in summer
The overall vape share barely moves in summer — but the kind of vape people grab changes more than anything else in our data.
Among vapes, disposable pens jump from about 35% of vape sales the rest of the year to nearly 39% in summer. At the same time, specialty pods drop by almost exactly the same amount, from around 17% to 14%. Standard cartridges hold steady. In plain terms: when it's hot, disposables quietly pull share away from the pod systems.
The logic mirrors the pre-roll story. A disposable is all-in-one — no battery to charge, no pod to load, nothing to forget at home. That's exactly what you want for a festival, a road trip, or a day at the beach where you're carrying as little as possible. Pod systems are great at home; they're just more to manage when you're out and moving. Summer rewards the option you can drop in a bag and not think about.
Flower leans a little more daytime — and builds into August
Flower's total share holds steady through summer, but the type people pick shifts slightly.
Within flower, hybrids edge up — from about 45% of flower sales to 47% — while indica-leaning flower slips by a similar amount. Sativa-leaning flower stays flat. It's a modest move, not a stampede, but the direction lines up with the season: lighter, more daytime-friendly choices over heavier nighttime ones.
A fair caveat here. The indica / sativa / hybrid labels are a rough guide at best. They describe a plant's lineage more than how any given product will actually feel, and two "hybrids" can land very differently. So read this as a gentle drift in what people gravitate toward in summer, not proof that one label "does" summer better than another. If you want to understand what those labels really mean — and don't mean — our sativa vs. indica vs. hybrid guide breaks it down.
There's also a within-summer wrinkle worth flagging: flower's share actually grew as summer went on, from about 36% of all items in June to over 39% in August. Edibles softened over the same stretch. We won't over-read a few weeks of data, but if you shop late in the season, expect flower to be front and center.
What about edibles and drinks?
This is where we'll push back on a common assumption. You'd expect a summer surge in cannabis drinks and a flight away from anything that melts. The data says: barely.
Within oral products, gummies stay dominant and even tick up slightly, holding around 84% of edible sales in summer. Chocolates and caramels dip a touch — the melt factor is real but small — and tinctures slip a little too. Cannabis drinks do rise modestly within the edibles group, but they're a small slice to begin with, so "modest rise" is the honest ceiling here. There's no summer beverage boom in our numbers, just a gentle warm-weather lean toward gummies and away from the things that don't travel well in a hot car.
If edibles are your lane, our cannabis edibles guide covers types, timing, and what to expect.
How to think about your own summer rotation
You don't have to follow the crowd, but the patterns above point to a few useful instincts when the weather turns.
Match the product to the plan. If your summer is full of out-of-the-house activity, the reasons pre-rolls and disposables climb probably apply to you too — they're the lowest-hassle options when you're on the move. Save the pod system or the bigger setup for nights at home.
Think about the heat itself. Chocolates and gummies left in a hot car don't fare equally; gummies generally hold up better. If you're packing edibles for the day, pack accordingly, and keep everything out of direct sun.
And don't overthink the labels. A "summer strain" isn't a real category. If you tend to prefer something lighter and more daytime-friendly when it's hot, lean that way — but trust how a product actually feels over what its tag says.
If cannabis is legal where you live, a good budtender can help you match a product to your summer plans in about a minute — that's what they're there for. And because rules differ from place to place, check your local laws before you shop; what's available and legal varies by state.
