TL;DR
- Lean: Balanced hybrid (~55/45 indica), 20 to 26 percent THC
- Flavor: Sweet sherbet and cookie cream over soft pepper
- Effect: Quick mood-bright lift, soft social-couch close. Engaged, never knockout.
- Best for: Late afternoon, dinners, parties, casual hangouts, creative sessions
- Bottom line: The Larry Bird cut, the Gelato every other Gelato is descended from
Buy Gelato #33 Clones ($99)
HLVd-screened. Free 2-day shipping to all 50 states.
Verified Cookie Fam Larry Bird cut
Rooted and ready to plant the day it arrives
Shop Gelato #33 clones at GSRH.
Strain Overview
Gelato #33 is the cut. Not a Gelato. The Gelato. Cookie Fam Genetics ran a Sunset Sherbet over Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies hunt in the early 2010s, Mr. Sherbinski pulled the 33rd phenotype out of the pop, and the resulting clone became the strain that built the dessert wing of the modern catalog. She picked up the nickname Larry Bird because of the jersey number, and three years later half the strains on the West Coast had her in the lineage chart.
The flower itself is what most modern hybrids are trying to be. Compact, dense, tightly stacked calyx, with deep purple staining through the bracts on a cool finish, bright orange pistils that pop hard against the dark backdrop, and a frost layer that builds early and keeps stacking through the cure. Bag appeal is at the top of the catalog. She is the photo on the bag that other strains are trying to match.
For the grower, she is a benchmark cut, intermediate to dial in but rewarding once you have her in the right environment. She wants a screen, conservative feed, and a slow cure. Run her right and she produces flower that holds in glass for months without losing the front end of the nose. For the smoker, she is the standard. Sweet citrus and cookie cream up front, soft pepper through the middle, a long candy-cream fade on the exhale.
What earns her shelf space, after all this time and all the descendants she has produced, is that nothing has actually replaced her. The Gelato family tree is enormous. Gelato 41, Gelato 45, Bacio Gelato, Lemon Cherry Gelato, Acai Gelato, hundreds of named offspring. None of them are #33.
Quick Facts For Smokers
| Price | $99 (free 2-day shipping) |
| THC | 20-26% |
| Dominant terpenes | Beta-caryophyllene, limonene, humulene, linalool, myrcene |
| Lineage | Sunset Sherbet x Thin Mint GSC |
| Breeder | Cookie Fam Genetics (Mr. Sherbinski) |
Quick Facts For Growers
| Flowering time | 56-63 days indoor |
| Yield | Medium to high, 1.3 to 1.6 oz per square foot indoors |
| Stretch | 1.5x to 2x |
| Difficulty | Intermediate |
| Climate | Indoor, light dep, outdoor in long-season climates |
Lineage & History: The Strain That Built the Dessert Wing
The Sunset Sherbet side is the citrus-and-sherbet half. Sunset Sherbet is a Pink Panties cross out of Sherbinski’s earlier work, dialed for sweet, sherbet-forward terpene loud and a soft body close. She gives Gelato #33 the citrus-cream front, the floral lift, and the sherbet pastel color expression that runs through the family tree.
The Thin Mint GSC side is the cookie-and-mint half. Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies is a phenotype out of the Cookies catalog that came out of the original Forum Cut hunt, a cross of OG Kush, Durban Poison, and Cherry Pie genetics dialed for resin and dessert character. She gives Gelato #33 the structural compactness, the trichome density, and the cookie-cream-gas backbone that lets the candy front sit on top without falling apart.
Stack those parents and you get a hybrid that runs 20 to 26 percent THC most batches, with caryophyllene leading the terpene profile, limonene playing a clear secondary role, and humulene, myrcene, and linalool filling out the bottom end. Total terps land in the 2 to 3 percent range on a dialed cure. The hybrid lean is slightly indica, the opening is bright and conversational, and the close lands gently social-couch. The Strain of the Year recognition came early, and the genetic legacy keeps building. She is the parent in more modern crosses than any other named clone in the post-2015 catalog.
Flavor & Aroma
Open the jar and the first wave is sweet citrus and cookie cream. Sherbet on top. Vanilla and a soft cookie-dough base through the middle. A faint pepper from the caryophyllene, plus a thin gas note that grounds the sweetness without taking over. Some phenos lean harder into the citrus side, others into the cookie-cream side, both expressions sit inside the same recognizable Gelato character.
Smoke her and the inhale opens with sweet sherbet and a cookie-cream lift. Mid-palate brings the pepper forward, plus a hint of pine from the humulene. The exhale finishes with a long candy-cream fade and a faint floral lift on the tongue. The smoke is exceptionally smooth for a flower running in the mid-20s. She is the strain that established the modern smoothness benchmark for Cookies-family hybrids.
She presses to a benchmark rosin. Full sherbet front, full cookie-cream finish, almost no harshness. The Gelato character translates across format better than almost any other line in the catalog, which is part of why she is the parent of choice for boutique breeders who want a known-good base for new crosses. Live resin keeps the citrus and the cream both clean. Carts hold the profile without flattening.
Effects & What to Expect
Onset is fast. A few minutes after the first inhale, she lands as a clear, mood-elevated lift, conversational, music-friendly, the kind of opening that pairs with company and creative work. The first 20 to 30 minutes lean toward the bright, social side. Headspace is creative without being scattered, and the body is light enough to stay engaged.
Past the half-hour mark, the slight indica balance starts showing in the body. Shoulders soften, posture relaxes, a comfortable steadiness settles across the upper body. She does not roll into a heavy couchlock. She holds the social-couch register, content and engaged, the kind of close that keeps you in the conversation without pushing for sleep. Total experience runs 2 to 3 hours.
Late afternoon, evening, social-night flower. She works for dinners, parties, casual hangouts, creative sessions, and any setting where you want to be present and engaged without being overstimulated. New consumers should respect the THC number. The smoothness can mask the strength, and the second bowl hits harder than the first.
Growing Gelato #33
She is intermediate, with a forgiving veg and a precise flower window. Cookie Fam selected this cut for resin and density above all else, and the dominant phenos express tight to the bag photos in skilled hands. She is not the cut to learn on if you have not run a Cookies-family hybrid through a full cycle.
Top her at node 4 and install a screen at flip. Stretch in early flower runs 1.5x to 2x, and untrained phenos will dominate the central cola. SCROG her into a 4×4 with 6 to 9 plants in 3-gallon pots, weave actively for the first three weeks of flower, and the canopy fills evenly. Branching is solid once topped. The laterals develop strong, evenly-sized colas under quality light, and the structure stays compact through the back half.
Indoor flowering finishes 56 to 63 days. Outdoor harvest comes down late September to mid October in long-season northern hemisphere climates. Yields run medium to high, roughly 1.3 to 1.6 oz per square foot indoors, with outdoor plants pulling up to 18 oz in a strong long-season year.
Feed her conservatively. Run nutrients at 75 to 80 percent of your standard Cookies feed and watch the leaf tips. She tip-burns on aggressive nitrogen, particularly in the front half of flower, and the signal shows up faster than most cuts in the catalog. Bud density at finish is heavy, calyx swell is pronounced, and humidity management is the priority in the last three weeks. Drop RH to 45 percent for the final stretch and run strong oscillating airflow under the canopy.
Cool finish, slow cure. Drop nighttime temps to 62 to 66 degrees Fahrenheit in the last two weeks. The purple staining deepens through the calyx, the frost sets harder, and terpene preservation jumps. Cure her at least 14 days in glass at 58 to 62 percent RH, burping daily through the first week. Patience is what unlocks the full Gelato character. The front end of the nose comes in around day 10 of cure. The back end fills in by day 21.
Buy Gelato #33 Clones ($99, the cut every other Gelato is descended from)
Order Gelato #33 clones today. Free 2-day shipping to all 50 states.
Verified Cookie Fam Larry Bird lineage cut
Rooted, screened for HLVd, ready to plant the day she lands
Shop Gelato #33 clones at GSRH.
If You Like Gelato #33, Try
- Cookies , Thin Mint: another menthol cut in the catalog, similar peppermint front with its own back.
- Mint Chocolate Runtz: stays in the menthol lane, similar handling with a different finish.
- Mint Chocolate Chip: a mint cousin in the catalog, swap the host’s expression for a different cool front.
FAQ
What is Gelato #33 a cross of?
Sunset Sherbet x Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies. The cross was made by Mr. Sherbinski under the Cookie Fam banner in San Francisco in the early 2010s.
Is she indica or sativa dominant?
Balanced hybrid that leans slightly indica, roughly 55/45. Bright and social through the first half hour. The back half settles into a content, social-couch state.
What THC range should I expect?
Most batches land at 20 to 26 percent. Dialed cuts on a careful cure can push into the upper end. Total terpenes frequently
