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The Official Cannabis collection · sheet 14No 14 · Pineapple Expressvs Sour Diesel

Comparison

Pineapple Express vs Sour Diesel

Sour Diesel and Pineapple Express were #4 and #5 in Leafly’s 2025 dispensary orders, and Leafly rates both as energizing; the difference is in the jar, fuel against pineapple.1,2,3 Sour Diesel tests higher in state labs: 21.68% median THC against 19.80% for Pineapple Express.4

Side by side

Pineapple ExpressSour Diesel
TypeSativa-dominant hybrid (Leafly)3Hybrid, energizing (Leafly)2
LineageTrainwreck × Hawaiian in most accounts3Chemdawg × Super Skunk2
Median THC (state lab tests)19.80% (461 tests)21.68% (1,071 tests)
Middle half of THC results17.54%–21.75%19.00%–25.30%
Top terpenes (median)β-Caryophyllene, α-Humulene, β-Myrcene (125 tests)β-Caryophyllene, Limonene, β-Myrcene (167 tests)
Leafly’s top effectsHappy, giggly, energetic3Energetic, uplifted, talkative2
FlavorPineapple, tropical, citrus3Diesel, chemical, skunk2
Popular sinceThe 2008 film, or the mid-2000s per G13 Labs3,5Early 1990s2
Leafly orders, 2025#51#41

Lab rows come from the same state lab dataset and matching rules for both strains.4

Lab-tested THC: Pineapple Express vs Sour Diesel

16% 18% 20% 22% 24% 26% Sour Diesel Sour Diesel: median 21.68%, middle half 19.00%–25.30%, 1,071 tests 21.7% n=1,071 Pineapple Express Pineapple Express: median 19.80%, middle half 17.54%–21.75%, 461 tests 19.8% n=461 Median total THC (dot) and middle half of tests (bar)
Median and middle half of total THC in state lab tests.4

The Illinois shelf

Leafly’s 2025 data put Pineapple Express first in Illinois; The Marijuana Herald’s September 2026 list, based on Headset, state and Leafly data, names Sour Diesel as the state’s top seller.1,6 Sour Diesel has its own guide in the Official Cannabis network at sourdiesel.com.

Which is easier to find

In Weedmaps snapshots from Oct 4, 2026 (Pineapple Express) and Oct 3, 2026 (Sour Diesel), 139 stores within 50 miles of Los Angeles listed Pineapple Express flower on Weedmaps, against 156 stores for Sour Diesel; around New York the counts were 76 and 125.7

More comparisons

Sources

  1. Leafly, The best-selling weed strains of 2025 (Morgan Rosendale) (2026-02-02). Accessed Oct 4, 2026.
  2. Leafly, Sour Diesel strain information. Accessed Oct 4, 2026.
  3. Leafly, Pineapple Express (aka Pex) strain information. Accessed Oct 4, 2026.
  4. Cannlytics (CC BY 4.0), cannabis_results: public state lab results (filtered and aggregated by Official Cannabis). Accessed Oct 4, 2026.
  5. Weedmaps, Pineapple Express strain page. Accessed Oct 4, 2026.
  6. The Marijuana Herald, The top-selling marijuana strain in all 23 states with legal recreational sales (2026-09-18). Accessed Oct 4, 2026.
  7. Weedmaps listings, compiled by Official Cannabis, Weedmaps flower menu snapshot, 27 US markets, Oct 4, 2026. Accessed Oct 4, 2026. Latest capture Oct 4, 2026.