In the early 2010s, you could find Mario Guzman growing high-grade cannabis in a garage on 20th Avenue in the Sunset District of San Francisco. He kicked off his cultivation career as many of us did, figuring it out on the fly and getting better at the craft with each harvest. The Bay Area weed scene was strong and getting stronger at this time, and the groundbreaking emergence of the region’s Girl Scout Cookies strain only served to further motivate growers and breeders like Guzman.
Today, California Bay Area breeder Mario Guzman is a well-known and highly respected thought leader and entrepreneur in the cannabis space. Also known as Mr. Sherbinski, Guzman blazed a trail for a breeder-to-market business plan, founding the retail cannabis brand SHERBINSKIS in 2015 after dropping back-to-back bangers with Sherbert (Girl Scout Cookies x Pink Panties) in 2012 and Gelato (Sunset Sherbert x Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies) in 2014.
Always with both hands in the grow, and both feet in the streets, Guzman’s game-changing Gelato and Sherbert strains were the product of an ongoing collaboration with the Cookies cannabis crew, who saw and supported his vision of creating a creamier, fruitier version of the mint and fuel-forward GSC options already on the market.
If you remember 2010-2015, OG variants were everywhere. The legitimacy of their lineage be damned, just slapping those two letters after almost any other word moved weed.
Over seven years ago, we launched the Cannabis Trail Blazers series with a two-part report on the origins of OG Kush and its cultural impact on the cannabis scene, pop culture, and beyond. Fans of that terpene profile savor the foresty, citrusy, earthy kick from a proper OG, which generally exhibits a Myrcene- and Limonene-dominant profile, with Caryophyllene usually coming in third.
With his breeding and selection of Sherbert in 2012 and Gelato in 2014, Mario Guzman flipped the script, with Caryophyllene and Limonene typically expressing more dominantly in these cultivars. This seemingly subtle swap made all the difference, as evidenced by the utter domination of “Dessert” flavored strains over the past 5-10 years, led by Guzman’s original Gelato and Sherbert to this day.
From the top-shelf menus at dispensaries to center stage at awards shows, the roots continue to grow for the Guzman/Sherbinski legacy.
The ‘Home Of The Original Gelato’ Is A Person, Not A Place
Raised in Sacramento, California, Guzman remembers sparking his first joint back in 1987, at the age of 11. However, that doob did not spark his love for the plant. That would come later, in his 20s, while working in real estate in the Bay Area. A good friend gave him the game plan to grow and sell ganja, so Guzman cashed out his 401k, built out a garage grow space, and after reading all the wise words from the Cervantes and Rosenthals of the world, he started harvesting Coke-bottle colas of Afgoo.
Guzman used the website for the San Francisco Department of Public Health to make a list of active dispensaries in the city, and with a backpack jammed with pounds of fresh flower and homemade hash, he set off to see if he could slang it.
That sort of initiative by one person with a garage and a green thumb is such a crucial thread in the fabric of cannabis culture, and it led Guzman to the Vapor Room, a stalwart for safe access to cannabis for the community in San Francisco. It was on that first visit that Guzman met Martin Olive, the founder of the Vapor Room and a leader in the compassionate cannabis movement.
Guzman left the Vapor Room that day with an empty backpack and $15k in his pocket and that familiar feeling of “I can do this again.” Beyond being mutually beneficial and lucrative, Guzman’s subsequent trips to visit Martin at the Vapor Room exposed him to an incredibly diverse customer base, putting him face-to-face with folks from all walks of life who all use cannabis for uniquely personal reasons. He realized that the value of the dispensary went way beyond just being a place that would buy his weed, and that a community outlet like the Vapor Room enabled hundreds of different people to benefit from each harvest.
Now a member of the Vapor Room community himself, Guzman witnessed the two-way exchange of gratitude during the store’s Compassionate Wednesdays, when customers and patients in need were gifted surplus cannabis products. Martin paired Mario with a local lady who graciously accepted his donation of one ounce of fresh flower each month. She eventually confided in him that his donations to her allowed her to save for and purchase simple quality-of-life items that the rest of us usually take for granted.
This is the rich soil of culture and legacy in which the creation of Sherbert and Gelato took root. It is commonly accepted in cannabis cultivation that Intention and Vibes are as important as any other variable in the grow space, so it should come as no surprise that Mr. Sherbinski’s flagship cultivars have enjoyed so much success and have helped so many people, as that was Mario Guzman’s intention.
The Voice Of The Plant & Protecting Genetics
Mario Guzman founded SHERBINSKIS with the intention of building more than a brand, but a community rooted in knowledge, care, and respect for the plant. His commitment to sharing the quality of his hand-selected genetics with as many people as possible has been undermined by bad actors in the cannabis space. Just as the popularity of “OG Kush” was diluted when renamed strains weakened its reliability, endless cannabis crosses now claim to feature original Sherbert or Gelato genetics while containing no such thing. This affects not only legitimate sources of Sherbert and Gelato, but also creates confusion between the ownership of the genetics and the use of a brand name, placing Mario Guzman’s legacy at risk of being misrepresented.
Voice of the Plant exists to clearly separate the stewardship of these genetics from the misuse of branding, and to affirm that the plant, its history, and its originators are not to be disrespected or placed in the hands of those who do not honor their responsibility.
[READ MORE: Famed Gelato Strain Breeder Clears the Air on Imposters]
The fact is that Mario Guzman is the only true source for original Sherbert and Gelato genetics.
Are there other cuts and cultivars out there that trace straight back to Mr. Sherbinski? For sure. But, if Guzman isn’t at its root, it’s not the real deal.
To help fortify the foundation of education, legacy, and truth that he built his business on, Mario Guzman and Victorine Deych-Guzman have launched the Voice of the Plant, a community-based platform that aims to provide peer-to-peer guidance for aspiring and established cannabis breeders and growers, both at the homegrow level and commercial scale. Voice of the Plant offers direct access to Guzman, as well as to his catalog of proven genetics, and encourages a plant-partnered lifestyle that integrates cannabis with art, food, and music in what they call a “cultural connection”.
Looking back at the journey so far, Guzman fondly remembers those simpler days, those Compassionate Wednesdays, those garage harvests… He admits that it can be hard to match that passion in today’s corporate cannabis scene, but he refuses to give in to the greed, and he refuses to give up.
‘The global legal cannabis market still hasn’t truly experienced the full expression of the Gelato lineage or a real Sunset Sherbert the way it is meant to be grown and shared. I have spent nearly two decades protecting, refining, and honoring those genetics so the dream that started in my garage can finally be realized the right way, by the right people, for the right reasons.’- Mario Guzman aka Sherbinski
You can learn more about Voice of the Plant at https://voiceoftheplant.net/
We would also like to send our love and healing vibes to Martin Olive, co-owner and founder of the Vapor Room in San Francisco, as well as to his staff, family, and friends. In January of 2025, Martin was shot seven times as he stood outside the store. Miraculously, he survived this seemingly random act of extreme violence, but the Vapor Room has been temporarily closed since the incident. Martin Olive represents all that is good in this world, and we hope that the Vapor Room can reopen and continue that legacy.
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