Author: Ed Murrieta

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Friendly Farms Powers Sherbinski’s ‘Product of the Future’

April 7, 2019 / / Comments Off on Friendly Farms Powers Sherbinski’s ‘Product of the Future’

Artisanal cannabis extractor’s latest live-resin collaborations with famed Gelato breeder drop in April

SHERBINSKIS master cultivator

Mario “Mr. Sherbinski” Guzman

BY ED MURRIETA

SACRAMENTO, March 1, 2019 — Friendly Farms, Sacramento’s leading artisanal cannabis extractor, once again is collaborating with famed San Francisco cannabis breeder Mario “Mr. Sherbinski” Guzman on live-resin extracts that capture flavors and aromas of designer strains in premium whole-plant vape oils and dab sauces.

Sherbinski calls Friendly Farms’ True Full-Spectrum extracts “a product of the future” that preserves flavorful, aromatic terpenes at their peak and provides maximum entourage effects.

“Essentially you’re taking the plant and harvesting it, freezing it and extracting it,” said Sherbinski, whose wildly popular Gelato strain has been name-checked in 200 hip-hop songs. “To me it’s really a product of the future.”

Friendly Farms’ latest vape oil/dab sauce collaboration with Sherbinski include Sherbidden, Sherbinski’s cross between his own Sunset Sherbert and Forbidden Fruit. Collaboration strains with Sherbinski’s Gelato lineage include Bacio, Gello and Mochi. Plants were grown from Sherbinski’s genetics at Sherbinski’s cultivation sites.

Packaged in Sherbinskis’ brand distinctive orange box co-branded with Friendly Farms powered-by logo, Friendly Farms’ Sherbinski collaborations will be available in half-gram vape oil cartridges and 1-gram dab sauces at state-licensed cannabis stores and delivery services in Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles.

“If you like my flowers, Friendly Farms’ vape oils and dab sauces give you the same effects you’re used to,” Sherbinski said. “Now you can enjoy them in different options.”

An Indica-dominant hybrid born of Sherbinski’s Sunset Sherbert and the Cookie Fam’s Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies strains, Gelato is prized by connoisseurs for dessert-like flavors and aromas, and potency.  Cannabis industry authority Leafly.com named Gelato its strain of the year for 2018.

“Friendly Farms is bringing Sherbinski to the California market big-time,” said Chaz Smith, Friendly Farms’ innovation officer. “Sherbinski’s flowers are highly sought-after and sell out quickly in stores. Friendly Farms is dropping 16,000 live-resin vape oil cartridges loaded with Sherbinski’s Gelato genetics.”

This is Friendly Farms’ second collaboration with Sherbinski, who recently announced a marketing partnership with Barneys of New York, the high-end lifestyles retailer that’s opening a haute headshop in its Beverly Hills store this month.

“You don’t have to shop at Barneys of New York in Beverly Hills to enjoy the same high-quality designer cannabis the Sherbinskis brand is famous for,” said Darrin Gatto, Friendly Farms’ CEO. “We’re thrilled to once again hook up with a world-famous designer cannabis breeder and bring Sherbinski’s live-resin extracts to California consumers.”

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About Friendly Farms
Friendly Farms is award-winning artisanal producer of live-resin cannabis extracts that capture full flavors, aromas and effects of designer strains in whole-plant vape oils and dab sauces. Friendly Farms currently collaborates with designer cultivator Connected Cannabis and previously powered Alien Labs’ extracts. Find Friendly Farms True Full-Spectrum live-resin vape oils and dab sauces on Weedmaps. Follow FriendlyFarmsCA on Instagram.

About Sherbinskis
Sherbinskis is a premium cannabis lifestyles brand founded by Mario “Mr. Sherbinski” Guzman, renowned cannabis breeder who created world-famous genetics Sunset Sherbert and Gelato.

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Vape Me Out to the Ballgame

April 1, 2019 / / Comments Off on Vape Me Out to the Ballgame

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San Francisco Cannabis Lounges and the Giants Fit Friendly Farms Like a Glove 

BY ED MURRIETA

SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants return on April 5. For baseball fans, the team’s home opener is cause for celebration. For cannabis fans, it’s cause for consumption.

You can’t smoke, vape, dab or legally eat cannabis at the newly christened Oracle Park, but you can consume pre-game  pot at nine San Francisco cannabis lounges — most of which are located within easy Uber, Lyft or public transportation distance from the South of Market stadium.

Here’s my batting-and-vaping order for San Francisco cannabis lounges and San Francisco Giants home games. Several lounges stock Friendly Farms’ award-winning artisanal cannabis extracts. 

1.
Urban Pharm
122 10th St.
Steampunky Urban Pharm is the closest lounge to Oracle Park and fills the lead-off spot with a staffed dab bar featuring Friendly Farms’ award-winning live-resin extracts. Find Friendly Farms’ vape pens and dab sauces at Urban Pharm.

2.
Vapor Room
79 9th St.
Small and appealing, Vapor Room recently returned from the disabled list. Find Friendly Farms’ vape pens and dab sauces at Vapor Room. Enjoy Friendly Farms’ artisanal live-resin extracts in tiny window-front lounge.

3.
Barbary Coast
925 Mission St.
The city’s most decadent full-service lounge, Barbary Coast begins the meat of the order. Blood-red banquettes and big-screen TVs beat bleacher seats and a monster scoreboard.

4.
Moe Greens
1276 Market St.
Moe Greens cleans ups as San Francisco’s newest full-service lounge and its most classy, classic and professional — like Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Gaylord Perry in one spiffy uniform.

5.
SPARC
1256 Mission St.
SPARC offers a little of everything throughout the day: Volcano vaping, staffed dab bar and full-flame toking after 4:20 p.m. Fridays-Sundays. Find Friendly Farms’ award-winning artisanal live-resin extracts at SPARC.

6.
Harvest on Geary
4811 Geary Blvd.
Intimate and upscale, Harvest on Geary’s earth-and-sea-toned lounge is newly opened to the public after a run at private membership.    

7.
Harvest Off Mission
30 29th St.
Intimate and upscale, Harvest Off Mission’s earth-and-sea-toned lounge is newly opened to the public after a run at private membership.    

8.
Bloom Room
471 Jessie St.
Enjoy use of Volcano vaporizers and the work of local artists in a small space.

9.
ReLeaf Herbal
1284 Mission St.
ReLeaf is the city’s Candlestick Park of cannabis lounges — a spare, outdated but serviceable throwback to San Francisco’s scruffier days.


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Friendly Farms Inspires Local Food Specials and Community

March 5, 2019 / / Comments Off on Friendly Farms Inspires Local Food Specials and Community

Sacramento’s award-winning artisanal cannabis extracts producer partners with like-minded local businesses to create specials “Inspired by Friendly Farms” and promote a sense of community.

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BY ED MURRIETA

SACRAMENTO, Calif., March 5, 2019 — Friendly Farms, the Farm-to-Fork Capital’s award-winning producer of farm-to-vape cannabis extracts, is partnering with Sacramento food businesses to promote menu specials inspired its food-friendly live-resin sauces, an artisanal style of extracts that captures plants’ full spectrum of flavorful and intoxicating terpenes.

For the month of  March, Creamy’s by Cayla Jordan and Backbone Cafe are featuring “Inspired by Friendly Farms” specials highlighting exotic fruit, spice and confectionery flavors of Friendly Farms’ decadent and indulgent Dessert Collection designer cannabis vape oil and sauce extracts.

  • Backbone Cafe, the organic downtown restaurant that appeals to vegans, vegetarians and meat-eaters alike, stirred up Forbidden Sunset, a luscious banana-berry-pineapple-citrus-coconut milk elixir spiked with ginger, turmeric, beet powder, cayenne pepper and pink Himalayan sea salt inspired by Friendly Farms’ Forbidden Sunset extract. Backbone Cafe’s Forbidden Sunset Smoothies are $9.50 each.
  • Sacramento’s Cheesecake Queen Cayla Jordan created Creamy’s Creme Brulee Cheesecake, inspired by Friendly Farms’ Creme Brulee strain. Bite-sized vanilla cheesecakes topped with torched sugar are $3.25 each or six for $18. Options include graham cracker crust and gluten-free crustless. Purchase at Creamy’s downtown food cart or order online at caylajordan.com.

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Unlike the 100-percent pure cannabis extracts that inspired Creamy’s Creme Brulee Cheesecake and Backbone Cafe’s Forbidden Sunset Smoothie, “Inspired by Friendly Farms” specials contain no cannabis.

“I personally do not consume cannabis but many of my customers do,” said Creamy’s Cayla Jordan. “I’m often asked if Creamy’s are ‘edibles.’ They’re not, but if you care about high-quality ingredients prepared with care, Creamy’s are made for the munchies after vaping Friendly Farms’ Dessert Collection.”

Creamy’s Creme Brulee Cheesecake and Backbone Cafe’s Forbidden Sunset Smoothie are the first two “Inspired by Friendly Farms” specials. “Inspired by Friendly Farms” specials will expand in the coming months with other Sacramento food businesses that share Friendly Farms’ community and business values.

“Friendly Farms’ Forbidden Sunset extract instantly inspired our Forbidden Sunset Smoothie,” said Tomas Woolston, a member of the family that owns Backbone Cafe. “Tropical fruit, uplifting spice and earthy funk appeal to cannabis and culinary senses.”

Said Darrin Gatto, Friendly Farms’ CEO: “It’s really exciting to work with companies outside of the cannabis industry. Our goal, really, is to introduce Friendly Farms’ customers to local business we love and build relationships with those businesses.”

friendly-farms-new-logoAbout Friendly Farms

Based in Sacramento, Friendly Farms is an artisan producer of award-winning True Full-Spectrum live-resin cannabis extracts containing all-natural flavors, aromas and effects of sought-after designer strains. Friendly Farms’ vape cartridges and sauces are available in state-licensed retail stores and via delivery services in Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles. Friendly Farms vapes retail for $50 per half-gram in convenient, lead-free cartridges enjoyable on the go or on the couch. Friendly Farms donates $1 from every gram sold to non-profit organizations combating homelessness. Friendly Farms’ whole-plant extraction process powers collaborations with noted growers Sherbinski and Connected Cannabis. In non-cannabis collaborations, Friendly Farms sponsored the Downtown Sacramento Partnership’s Ugly Sweater Christmas Crawl. 

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About Friendly Farms Dessert Collection

Friendly Farms’ Dessert Collection is a new limited-edition line of designer cannabis strains deliciously curated to evoke decadent indulgence. Dessert Collection strains include Forbidden Fruit, Creme Brulee, Forbidden Brulee, Raspberry Creme Brulee, Vanilla Sherbert, Raspberry Sherbert, Raspberry Kush, Ogre Berry and Headband.

creamys-logoAbout Creamy’s by Cayla Jordan

As Sacramento’s self-taught Cheesecake Queen and Instagram influencer who launched her own Internet baking show, Cayla Jordan got her sweet start in business while in high school selling caramel corn for $1 a bag. Today, after operating a pop-up store at Roseville’s Westfield Galleria, Cayla sells her Creamy’s cheesecakes, cookie/cheesecake sandwiches and cheesecake-filled donuts from a custom-made mobile bakery cart in downtown Sacramento.

Creamy’s by Cayla Jordan
12th and R Streets, Sacramento
Website | Instagram


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backbone-logoAbout Backbone Cafe

Backbone Cafe is casual counter-service cafe with a Burning Man vibe in downtown Sacramento serving organic foods that appeal to all diets — vegan, vegetarian, meat-eating omnivore and gluten-free. From breakfast to bone broth to smoothies to dinner, Backbone Cafe’s menu is a tour de force of human fuel for maximum performance, featuring vegetables sourced from small organic farms and meats from grass-fed, free-range ranches.

Backbone Cafe
729 J St., Sacramento, (916) 970-5545
Website | Instagram  


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Follow Friendly Farms

Find Friendly Farms

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If You’re Going to San Francisco, Be Sure to Vape Friendly Farms

January 28, 2019 / / Comments Off on If You’re Going to San Francisco, Be Sure to Vape Friendly Farms

Enjoy Friendly Farms’ True Full-Spectrum extracts in San Francisco cannabis lounges — and save 20% on Friendly Farms’ vape cartridges and sauces every Saturday near Union Square. By Ed Murrieta

Vapor Room

Recently re-opened in a new location after the feds shut down the dispensary/lounge in 2012, Vapor Room carries Friendly Farms’  vape cartridges and sauces immediately south of Market Street, a short walk from major entertainment, civic and cultural venues. Vapor Room offers a brighter, airier but more intimate lounge environment in its new location than it did in the Lower Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. Vapor Room’s new lounge area is fronted by a large storefront window  facing 9th Street, shining a light on the goings on within: adults responsibly consuming cannabis in a comfortable social setting. From inside, vapers and smokers can watch the city pass by. Vapor Room specializes in sun-grown cannabis and operates bodega style. Wander the store. Grab what you’re going to buy — say, a Friendly Farms’ vape cartridge or sauce — and pay at the counter.  Vapor Room is vape-only from opening until 4:20 p.m., upon which time smoking is allowed until closing.

The Vapor Room
79 9th St.
415-621-2100
vaporroom.com

Barbary Coast

Barbary Coast’s exposed brick walls, stained-glass chandeliers, flocked-velvet wallpaper and lipstick-red leather banquettes evoke classic San Francisco restaurants and bordellos where young Mark Twain or a modern-day tech titan might drop by to get high, not far from premium hotels and shopping. That gentle sucking sound beneath your seat? That’s part of Barbary Coast’s smoke-scrubbing ventilation systems that keep the room and your clothes from stinking. Barbary Coast carries Friendly Farms’ vape cartridges and sauces, the latter of which you can dab using Barbary Coast’s quartz-glass rigs and electronic nails.

Barbary Coast
952 Mission St.
415-243-4400
barbarycoastsf.org

Urban Pharm


Enjoy all forms of consumption — smoking, vaping, dabbing — in an intimate space accented with furnishings you’d swear were reclaimed from a Burning Man theme camp. Urban Pharm vibes steampunk: moody lighting, caged entry, reclaimed wood and cut metal accents throughout. Urban Pharm carries Friendly Farms’ vapes and sauces.  Forgot your dab rig? Borrow one from Urban Pharms.

Urban Pharm
122 10th St.
415-872-9488
urbanpharmsf.com

SPARC

Bring your own dab rig to consume Friendly Farms’ sauces purchased from SPARC or stick to Friendly Farms’ vape pens purchased from SPARC, half retail boutique, half sleek wooden-bench-and-table lounge.

SPARC
1256 Mission St.
415-252-7727
sparcsf.org

Moe Greens 

Moe Greens is the newest, largest and most ambitious cannabis lounge in a city that’s pioneered public cannabis consumption in America. Located on Market Street near major culture and entertainment venues, Twitter, Uber, City Hall and BART, Moe Greens is like three cannabis lounges in one: one lounge for vaping, one lounge for dabbing and one lounge for smoking. Designed in gleaming blonde woods, emerald leatherette, starburst chandeliers and golden accents against raw brick, Moe Greens vibes the best of old-school and modern-day San Francisco. Although no food is served (you can BYO within reason), Moe Greens is the most restaurant-like cannabis lounge. Coming soon: Reserve tables., order at tables, pay at tables. State-of-the-art tools and dab rigs are available for customer use.  Moe Greens doesn’t  yet stock Friendly Farms; until then, I recommend Moe Greens’ house-brand Gelato flower at $8 per gram.

Moe Greens
1276 Market St.
415-762-4255
moegreens.com

 No Lounge But 20% Savings

Pure 710SF  is not a lounge. If you visit the store near Union Square on Saturdays , you can save 20 percent on Friendly Farms’ award-winning True Full-Spectrum live-resin cannabis extracts.

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Pure 710SF
49 Kearny St.
415-654-5275
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Magnolia Wellness

Across the bay in Oakland, Friendly Farms’ sauces are served at $4 per dab  in Magnolia’s dab bar and lounge, along with other premium cannabis concentrates. Recent Friendly Farms’ strains include SFOG and Clementine.

Magnolia Wellness
161 Adeline St., Oakland
510-628-2119
MagnoliaOakland.org

Local Dessert Treats Await Rapper / Cannabis Mogul Berner in Sacramento

January 24, 2019 / / Comments Off on Local Dessert Treats Await Rapper / Cannabis Mogul Berner in Sacramento

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Yo, Berner: Sweeten your Sacramento stop with Friendly Farms’ dessert vapes and Creamy’s mini-cheesecakes, cookie-cheesecake sandwiches and cheesecake-filled donuts.

BY ED MURRIETA

California cannabis mogul and rapper Berner probably has most of his pre-show and green-room needs met. But if he or his entourage are looking for local dessert treats before or after Friday’s gig at Ace of Spades in downtown Sacramento, I’ve got two recommendations readily available nearby:

Friendly Farms’ Dessert Collection vape cartridges are sold near Ace of Spades at All About Wellness (a five-block walk) and Northstar (a short light-rail trip). Or contact Humble Root for delivery. Forbidden Fruit and Raspberry Creme Brulee are my favorites.

Creamy’s mini-cheesecakes, cookie-cheesecake sandwiches and cheesecake-filled donuts are sold in  Cayla Jordan’s dessert cart three blocks up R Street from Ace of Spades at 12th and R streets. Try ’em all.

Creamy’s is working with Friendly Farms on our #FriendlyLife #LocalLifestyles food and beverage promotion launching in March and featuring foods and beverages inspired by Friendly Farms’ Dessert Collection, extracted from strains curated for their fruity, spicy and candylike terpenes indulgently evocative of decadent desserts..


Get Friendly Farms Dessert Collection

All About Wellness

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Northstar

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Humble Root

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Vape at Home, Dine Downtown

January 17, 2019 / / Comments Off on Vape at Home, Dine Downtown

Friendly Farms’ artisanal True Full-Spectrum live-resin cannabis extracts pair perfectly with Sacramento’s fund-raising restaurant promotion

BY ED MURRIETA

There’s a lot of meat and even one totally vegan menu awaiting consumers of Sacramento’s 2019 Dine Downtown promotion featuring 35 restaurants offering three-course dinners — appetizers, main courses and desserts — for $35 each.

Not only is Dine Downtown, is a great way to discover new restaurants, it’s also a great way to enjoy great meals for just a few bucks more than regular menu prices for some higher-end entrees alone.

Friendly Farms’ award-winning True Full-Spectrum vape pens are great for preparing your appetites for dinner — and great for repairing your tummy after dinner if you order wrong.

As a former restaurant critic whose tools of the trade included cannabis and credit cards with fake names, I recommend enjoying Friendly Farms’ vape pens before hailing a ride-share vehicle or taking public transportation to dinner downtown.

You can find Friendly Farms’ vape pens — honored at the 2018 High Times Cannabis Cup and The Emerald Cup — at Sacramento stores and delivery services. If Friendly Farms vape pens are sold out, check out, check out Friendly Farms’ collaborations with Connected Cannabis, Sacramento’s leading designer cannabis brand.

$1 from every meal sold during Dine Downtown from Jan. 11 through Jan. 21 will be donated to social services and food literacy programs. Having sponsored the Sacramento Downtown Partnership’s Ugly Sweater Christmas Crawl last month and raising more than $1,000 for local homeless services, Friendly Farms will toke to that.

Here are seven Dine Downtown restaurants I recommend pairing with Friendly Farms’ award-winning True Full-Spectrum live-resin 100 percent cannabis extracts. Friendly Farms’ farm-to-vape ethos fits with many of these restaurants’ farm-to-fork bent.

Binchoyaki
Modern Japanese barbecue never tasted so hip. Start with crispy rice, charcoal chicken and prawn dumplings; dig into New York steak and roasted veggies; and finish with apple upsidedown cake, evocative of the bright apple notes beneath the berry sweetness of Friendly Farms’ award-winning Forbidden Fruit strain.

Camden Spit & Larder
Get the organic roasted half chicken, $26 on the regular dinner menu at Sacramento’s newest power-business restaurant that brims with bustling brasserie eye-candy decor. Start with wedge salad and finish with citrus olive oil, a match for Friendly Farms’ zesty Headband.

Empress Tavern
The pork porterhouse — two chops (loin and tenderloin) in one — is $31 on the menu and the butter lettuce salad is $11 on the regular menu so you’re pretty far ahead when an easy chef dessert like peanut butter and chocolate ice cream sandwiches arrive and you wish you could sneak tokes on Friendly Farms’ Raspberry Creme Brulee vape pen instead.

Frank Fat’s
Sacramento’s only restaurant honored to be honored by the James Beard Foundation is worth the trip for 90-year-old restaurant’s banana cream pie alone, but enjoy pot sticker and egg roll and honey walnut prawns. Friendly Farms’ Vanilla Sherbert would round-out a sweet Cantonese meal and slice of Americana.

Iron Horse Tavern
If Shrimp Louie wedge salad sounds classic and braised pork belly sounds modern, then French toast bread pudding will sound like it could use a scoop of raspberry — say Friendly Farms’ Raspberry Sherbert.

Mayahuel
Not only does Mayahuel serve Dine Downtown patrons a couple of extra nibbles, it’s serving a 100-percent plant-based menu — something that resonates and pairs with Friendly Farms’ 100-percent farm-to-vape cannabis extracts. Start with a spinach-watermelon-mango-agave-mint aperitif, blue corn mini tostada and black lentil soup; move on to Portobello mushrooms sauteéd in pistachio mole; and finish with hot chocolate and a churro. If you’re a flexitarian, the Impossible Cake on the non-vegan menu — flan on chocolate cake — is a mind-messing match for any Friendly Farms vape pen or, Friendly Farms’ Gelato #31 collaboration with Connected Cannabis.

Tiger
Served in a first-floor bar and dining area overlooks a sunken, basement-level bar and dining area, Tiger’s regular menu is what culinarians might dream up when high of mind and body. For Dine Downtown, it’s small bites (Thai fried peanuts, bacon-ranch cheese ball, beet poke) and small plates (poached prawns and chickpea stew, Crying Tiger Thai beef, and ham-and-broccoli Hock Pocket. Kabocha budino may not have a burned-sugar crust but the Japanese pumpkin pudding makes me think Friendly Farms’ sweet and exotic Forbidden Brulee.

About Friendly Farms
Friendly Farms is a craft producer of artisanal cannabis extracts that capture and retain premium plants natural terpenes — from farm to vape pen, featuring 100 percent natural cannabis and zero additives. Friendly Farms works with top California growers and has produced cannabis extract collaborations with leading designer cultivators Connected Cannabis, Alien Labs and Sherbinskis.

Ed Murrieta, a veteran food writer and cannabis journalist, is Friendly Farms’ media and culinary consultant.

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Friendly Farms’ Dessert Collection Sweetens Vape Pot

January 4, 2019 / / Comments Off on Friendly Farms’ Dessert Collection Sweetens Vape Pot

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New limited-edition True Full-Spectrum live resin artisan extracts capture decadent indulgence of designer cannabis strains’ dessert flavors

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Jan. 4, 2019 — Leading online cannabis lifestyles publication Leafly says the sumptuous dessert strain craze will continue in 2019 while manufactured extracts eclipse raw flowers in the regulated retail market.

Friendly Farms, Sacramento’s award-winning artisan producer of True Full-Spectrum live resin cannabis extracts, is capitalizing on both predictions.

Friendly Farms’ new limited-edition Dessert Collection captures decadently indulgent flavors, aromas and effects of exotic strains grown by top California cultivators, evoking sweet, tart, fruity, spicy dessert-like treats — all contained in affordable, convenient vape pens that are enjoyable on the go or on the couch.

Friendly Farms’ Dessert Collection flavors include seven strain combinations evoking desserts and three strains so dessert-like they stand on their own: Forbidden Brulee, Forbidden Raspberry, Forbidden Sunset, Ogre Berry, Raspberry Creme Brulee, Raspberry Sherbert, Vanilla Sherbert, Raspberry Kush, Headband and Forbidden Fruit.

New Dessert Collection flavors will be released throughout the year in small batches, curated from cannabis grown by top cultivators in the Emerald Triangle and Santa Barbara County.

“Dessert Collection flavors are crafted from whole plants that Friendly Farms’ artisans combine like chefs combine ingredients to create specific flavors and experiences,” said Friendly Farms culinary and media consultant Ed Murrieta, a trained baker and pastry chef. “Raspberry Creme Brulee is crafted from two strains: Raspberry Kush and Creme Brulee. Raspberry Creme Brulee vape pens taste like berries and custard, burned sugar and exotic spice.”

Friendly Farms’ Forbidden Fruit, Forbidden Brulee, Raspberry Kush and Headband were honored last month among the top 10 entries in live-resin vape pen and sauce categories of the 2018 Emerald Cup.

Forbidden Fruit, super fruity; Raspberry Kush, redolent of berries, vanilla, eastern spice and summer stone fruit; and Headband, full of lemon and earth, are so dessert-like they stand on their own.

“If you grew a Snozzberry strain, Friendly Farms’ Snozzberry vape pen would taste like snozzberries,” Murrieta said. “Friendly Farms’ Dessert Collection is the way to indulge your sweet tooth and enjoy cannabis at the same time.”

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FIND FRIENDLY FARMS’ DESSERT COLLECTION

Friendly Farms’ award-winning True Full-Spectrum extracts are sold in cannabis stores and via delivery services in Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles. Find Friendly Farms’ live resin vape pens and sauces on Weedmaps.

ABOUT FRIENDLY FARMS

As affirmed by collaborations with leading designer cannabis cultivators Alien Labs, Connected Cannabis and Sherbinskis, Friendly Farms and its True Full-Spectrum cannabis extracts stand out in a competitive market full of heat-separated distillates and pressure-separated CO2 concentrates.

Friendly Farms’ proprietary True Full-Spectrum extracts are crafted at sub-zero temperatures to preserve premium plants’ native terpenes and cannabinoids, ensuring natural flavors, aromas and effects are retained.

“Friendly Farms’ liquid-live vape cartridges and sauces are 100-percent cannabis and contain no distillate or any added terpenes,” Friendly Farms Chief Innovation Officer Charles Smith said. “We start with the best whole plants and finish with the best whole-plant extracts. We craft flavorful, aromatic and potent True Full-Spectrum cannabis extracts.”

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AWARDS AND GIVING

Six Friendly Farms strains placed in the top 10 of competitive categories at the 2018 Emerald Cup, including its Forbidden Fruit, which won 2nd Place in the live-resin vape pen competition. Friendly Farms’ Forbidden Brulee, Headband and Raspberry Kush placed 5th, 7th and 9th, respectively, in that category. Friendly Farms’ Headband and Citrus Sap placed 8th and 9th, respectively, in the sauce category. Friendly Farms’ Emerald Cup accolades followed three first place victories at the High Times Cannabis Cup in Sacramento in May 2018.

Independently funded, Friendly Farms contributes to services fighting homelessness through its community Give Back Program. Friendly Farms donates $1 from every gram sold to charity programs in Sacramento, the Bay Area and Los Angeles. Friendly Farms capped a year of giving in 2018 by sponsoring the Downtown Sacramento Partnership’s Ugly Sweater Christmas Crawl and raising more than $1,000 for local services preventing homelessness.

“Friendly Farms’ True Full-Spectrum artisan cannabis extracts deliver aroma and flavor experiences of designer strains in convenient, affordable vape pens,” said Darrin Gatto, Friendly Farms’ chief executive officer.  “Nothing’s lost. Nothing’s added. Friendly Farms’ extracts are pure, artisanal indulgence.”

GET FRIENDLY FARMS CUSTOM BATTERY AND CASE

Get Friendly Farms’ new battery, charger and case for only $20.

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Friendly Farms Gives Back in Mainstream Style

January 4, 2019 / / Comments Off on Friendly Farms Gives Back in Mainstream Style

Artisan cannabis extract maker sponsors charitable Ugly Sweater Christmas Crawl and helps raise more than $1,000 for homeless services

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Jan. 4, 2019 — The Ugly Sweater Christmas Crawl capped a big year of giving for Friendly Farms, the award-winning makers of True Full-Spectrum artisan cannabis extracts. Throughout 2018,  Friendly Farms gave back by raising funds at cannabis events for people in need. The Ugly Sweater Christmas Crawl on Dec. 23 marked the company’s first sponsorship of a mainstream community event in Sacramento.  

Charitable people wearing their best ugly sweaters beautified Sacramento’s  re-styled entertainment district for a good cause the night before Christmas Eve, raising funds for homeless services in an event presented by the Downtown Sacramento Partnership and HOF Media LLC.

The Ugly Sweater Christmas Crawl offered food and beverage specials at a dozen cafes, restaurants and bars from the K Street Mall through the Downtown Commons to the Old Sacramento Waterfront.  

Friendly Farms helped raise more than $1,000 for Sacramento Self Help Housing through $1 pre-event wristband sales and $5 on-site sales of wristbands that entitled wearers to discounts at participating businesses. Funds will assist local people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless find and retain stable and affordable housing.

“Every dollar from wristband sales went directly to help people in need,” said Darrin Gatto, Friendly Farms’ chief executive officer. “The Ugly Sweater Christmas Crawl aligns with one of  our top company values: giving back to the community.”

Previously in 2018, Friendly Farms raised funds for homeless and youth services at High Times Central Valley Cannabis Cup at Cal Expo in Sacramento in May and at The Emerald Cup at Sonoma County Fairgrounds in December.

“Friendly Farms’ community cares about our high-quality, all-natural whole-plant extracts and cares about the larger community everybody belongs to,’ Gatto said.

ABOUT FRIENDLY FARMS

Affirmed by collaborations with leading designer cannabis cultivators Alien Labs, Connected Cannabis and Sherbinski, Friendly Farms’ true full-spectrum cannabis extracts stand out in a competitive market full of heat-separated distillates and pressure-separated CO2 concentrates.

Crafted from cannabis cultivated in the Emerald Triangle, Santa Barbara County and other premium growing regions in California, Friendly Farms’ true full-spectrum extracts preserve native terpenes and cannabinoids of premium plants at sub-zero temperatures, ensuring natural flavors, aromas and effects are retained.

Six Friendly Farms strains placed in the top 10 of competitive categories at the prestigious Emerald Cup on Dec. 16, including its Forbidden Fruit, which won 2nd Place in the live-resin vape pen competition. Friendly Farms’ Forbidden Brulee, Headband and Raspberry Kush placed 5th, 7th and 9th, respectively, in that category. Friendly Farms’ Headband and Citrus Sap placed 8th and 9th, respectively, in the sauce category.

Friendly Farms’ Emerald Cup accolades follow three first place victories at the High Times Cannabis Cup in Sacramento.

“Friendly Farms’ liquid-live vape cartridges and sauces are 100-percent cannabis and contain no distillate or any added terpenes,” Friendly Farms Chief Innovation Officer Charles Smith said. “We start with the best whole plants and finish with the best whole-plant extracts. We craft flavorful, aromatic and potent true full-spectrum cannabis extracts.”

Friendly Farms’ award-winning true full-spectrum live-resin vape pens and sauces are sold in cannabis stores and via delivery services in Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles.

CONNECT WITH FRIENDLY FARMS

 

 

 

 

West Hollywood Radically Mainstreams Cannabis Lounges and Restaurants

December 25, 2018 / / Comments Off on West Hollywood Radically Mainstreams Cannabis Lounges and Restaurants

WeHo officials envision the high-energy city becoming a buzzworthy legal cannabis destination.

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BY ED MURRIETA

West Hollywood’s selection last week of 16 licensees to operate cannabis consumption lounges and cannabis restaurants in city business districts located on some of Southern California’s most famous streets revolutionizes and mainstreams public consumption in America’s legal cannabis states.

Eight licensees were approved to operate lounges that may allow all forms of cannabis consumption — smoking, vaping, eating edibles — as well cook and serve fresh-made “virgin” foods with THC and CBD sauces on the side. Eight licensees were approved to cook and serve cannabis-infused foods in restaurant settings and for private dinners not featuring smoking or vaping. All lounges will be tied to retail cannabis stores.

Other retail cannabis licenses issued include on the world’s first hotel-based cannabis boutique and white-glove delivery service, Lord Jones at The Standard Hotel on world-famous Sunset Strip.

Proposed lounge designs, environmentally conscious and alternative-energy aware, are contemporary eye-candy ranging from modest-chic to full-on lavish, befitting Sunset and Santa Monica boulevards, West Hollywood’s primary drags where lounges and retail stores are allowed, along with Melrose Avenue. Many lounges will feature entertainment. All will offer wellness and community services and will contribute to neighborhood security.

While licensees include veterans of Los Angeles hospitality, entertainment, wellness and cannabis industries, four of the best-known cannabis chefs in America — Jeff Danzer, Andrea Drummer, Holden Jagger and Brandon Allen — are involved in approved teams. One of Southern California’s best dispensaries, Greenwolf, and an owner of L.A.-based mids- and sub-mids bargain brands Loudpack and Dime Bag scored too, as did longtime medicinal cannabis activist Don Duncan of Americans for Safe Access.

When business secure locations and obtain operating permits in 2019, West Hollywood officials envision the high-energy city becoming a buzzworthy legal cannabis destination. WeHo leaders see WeHo cannabis lounge clientele and WeHo bar, hotel and restaurant clientele overlapping and visiting other businesses in the city that’s more stylish than nearby Hollywood and hipper than abutting Beverly Hills.

The story I propose highlights radically mainstreaming and consumer-and- industry-friendly aspects of West Hollywood’s lounge ordinance, which allows on-premises cooking and food service; attracted some of California’s top cannabis-cuisine talent; allows outdoor and rooftop smoking; allows operating hours 6 a.m.-2 a.m. seven days a week; and may rocket West Hollywood — home to the famed Sunset Strip and legendary music clubs Whisky a Go Go, The Viper Room and The Troubadour — to the top-ranking cannabis destination in America.

Meanwhile, for context, West Hollywood’s radically mainstreaming cannabis consumption lounge regulations advanced while Ontario’s clean-air smoking regulations are putting cannabis lounges out of business and Canadian cannabis consumers out on the streets; as Alaska just approved cannabis lounge regulations after two years of fits and starts; as San Francisco’s Vapor Room, now the city’s ninth lounge, reopened in a brighter space and climate six years after being closed by the feds; just before Tick Segerblom, the Nevada state senator who championed cannabis legislation, joins the county commission that controls the artsy part of old Las Vegas set to welcome lounges in 2019; and while consumption lounges aren’t sparking in Denver.

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Wear Your Ugly Sweaters to Eat, Drink and End Homelessness with Friendly Farms

December 19, 2018 / / Comments Off on Wear Your Ugly Sweaters to Eat, Drink and End Homelessness with Friendly Farms

Friendly Farms, the Community-Minded True Full-Spectrum Cannabis Extract Artisan, Sponsors The Ugly Sweater Christmas Crawl in Downtown Sacramento on Dec. 23.

By Ed Murrieta

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Ugly sweaters are beautiful when you wear them for good causes.

That’s why Friendly Farms is proudly donning its ugliest sweater this week while doing another beautiful community deed: sponsoring The Ugly Sweater Christmas Crawl in downtown Sacramento on Sunday, Dec. 23.

All ticket sales benefit Sacramento Self Help Housing, which assists local people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless find and retain stable and affordable housing.

“Giving back is a big part of Friendly Farms’ company culture,” said Darrin Gatto, CEO of the innovative artisan cannabis extracts maker that donates portions of its its sales to charitable causes. “We value our community.”

Presented by Friendly Farms in partnership with Sacramento’s Downtown Partnership, events producer HOF and Downtown Sacramento Ice Rink, The Ugly Sweater Christmas Crawl features food, drinks, music and holiday activities from the winter ice rink at 7th and K streets, through the brand-new Downtown Commons to the Old Sacramento Waterfront.

Purchase wristbands for $1. You’ll receive discounts at more than a dozen participating businesses and venues.

You’ll also get some cool swag from Friendly Farms, the award-winning artisan producer of true full-spectrum cannabis extracts that deliver flavors, aromas and effects connoisseurs and new consumers desire from convenient, on-the-go live-resin vape pens and dabble sauces crafted from designer cannabis strains.

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No Distillates, All-Natural Terpenes

Affirmed by collaborations with leading designer cannabis cultivators Alien Labs, Connected Cannabis and Sherbinski, Friendly Farms’ true full-spectrum cannabis extracts stand out in a competitive market full of heat-separated distillates and pressure-separated CO2 concentrates.

Crafted from cannabis cultivated in the Emerald Triangle, Santa Barbara County and other premium growing regions in California, Friendly Farms’ true full-spectrum extracts preserve native terpenes and cannabinoids of premium plants at sub-zero temperatures, ensuring natural flavors, aromas and effects are retained.

Six Friendly Farms strains placed in the top 10 of competitive categories at the prestigious Emerald Cup on Dec. 16, including its Forbidden Fruit, which won 2nd Place in the live-resin vape pen competition. Friendly Farms’ Forbidden Brulee, Headband and Raspberry Kush placed 5th, 7th and 9th, respectively, in that category. Friendly Farms’ Headband and Citrus Sap placed 8th and 9th, respectively, in the sauce category.

Friendly Farms‘ Emerald Cup accolades follow three first place victories at the High Times Cannabis Cup in Sacramento.

“Friendly Farms’ liquid-live vape cartridges and sauces are 100-percent cannabis and contain no distillate or any added terpenes,” Friendly Farms Chief Innovation Officer Charles Smith said. “We start with the best whole plants and finish with the best whole-plant extracts. We craft flavorful, aromatic and potent true full-spectrum cannabis extracts.”

Find Friendly Farms on Weedmaps and ask for award-winning true full-spectrum live-resin vape pens and sauces at your favorite cannabis stores in Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles.

Friendly Farms and Local Foods

While you can’t consume Friendly Farms’ full-spectrum extracts during The Ugly Sweater Christmas Crawl Sunday, I recommend consuming Friendly Farms’ vape pens and dab sauces for pre-func and after-party pleasures.

In between, here are my recommendations for eating, drinking and more during The Ugly Sweater Christmas Crawl. Please note, any suggested pairings are inspired by Friendly Farms’ menu and participating businesses’ menus. If only the twain could meet.

Creamy’s. Cheesecake and raspberry are a classic combination. Now imagine Cayla Jordan’s creamy mini cheesecakes drenched in Friendly Farms’ bright and fruity Raspberry Kush. Dig coffee and cannabis? Wrap your mouth around Friendly Farms’ Headband and Jordan’s favorite coffee cheesecake.

Vampire Penguin. Nothing’s forbidden at this daring dessert parlor except perhaps consuming and pairing Friendly Farms’ Forbidden Fruit with almost everything on Vampire Penguin’s shaved snow ice dessert menu, from Halo-Halo to Mexican Candy.

Burger Lounge. The beef’s grass-fed, a natural complement to the sun-grown goodness captured in all of Friendly Farms‘ true full-spectrum cannabis extracts.

Sauced. The name refers to the condiments that accompany smoked meats not the Friendly Farms‘ dab sauces that would stoke your appetite for ribs, brisket and pulled pork.

Punch Bowl Social. Sip non-alcoholic craft cocktails —Jalapeño Cucumber Limeade, Cilantro Fizz, Spiced Cranberry Soda — and imagine you could pair them with,Friendly Farms‘ Forbidden Fruit or Raspberry Kush vape-pen strains. 

The Pizza Press. You’re not stoned. The DoCo pizza joint has a vintage newspaper printing vibe. I’ll vape to that.

Pizza Rock. Gourmet pizza deserves gourmet cannabis. Any Friendly Farms true full-spectrum live-resin vape pen or dabble sauce would do. 

Tiger. Small plates — from peanuts to pickles to oysters to riblettes — are the culinary equivalent of quick pen-pen hits to get you through the night.

Coin Op. Classic video and pinball games are the perfect apres-vaping activity.

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Dedicated to Giving

Friendly Farms contributes to services fighting homelessness through its community Give Back Program. Friendly Farms donates $1 from every gram sold to charity programs in Sacramento, the Bay Area and Los Angeles. All proceeds from $1 dabs and vape-pen tastings at the High Times Cannabis Cup and The Emerald Cup were donated to services combating homelessness.

“With the support of our customers and retail partners,” Friendly Farms CEO Gatto said, “our community Give Back Program helps us help people facing the biggest social issues plaguing California: homelessness and the lack of youth support in our communities. We’re fortunate to be able to give back.”

Join Friendly Farms in Your Ugly Sweaters,
Raise Money for Anti-Homelessnes Services

WHAT: The  Ugly Sweater Christmas Crawl
WHEN: Dec. 23, 6 p.m.-midnight
WHERE: Downtown Sacramento Ice Rink at 7th and K streets Sacramento to Downtown Commons to Old Sacramento Waterfront
HOW MUCH: $1 for wristband + purchases you make
WHY: Wristband sales combat homelessness  
WHAT ELSE: Sponsored by Friendly Farms

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Friendly Farms on Instagram | Friendly Farms on Weedmaps

Friendly Farms’ Website  | Friendly Farms’ Email 

Ed Murrieta is a paid marketing, media and culinary consultant to Friendly Farms. 

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Friendly Farms Saturates The Emerald Cup

December 18, 2018 / / Comments Off on Friendly Farms Saturates The Emerald Cup

True Full-Spectrum Liquid-Live Extracts Recognized at Cannabis Industry’s Premier Competition

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Dec. 18, 2018 — Friendly Farms, the innovative craft producer of true full-spectrum cannabis extracts, was recognized in Santa Rosa on Sunday for 6 of 7 products it entered into The Emerald Cup, California’s longest-running and most respected industry competition and awards showcase, now in its 15th year promoting progressive cannabis agriculture and artisan consumer products.

Friendly Farms’ vape-pen cartridges and dab sauces placed in the top 10 of their respective highly competitive categories, led by Forbidden Fruit’s 2nd-place showing in the live-resin vape cartridge category. Friendly Farms’ Forbidden Brulee, Headband and Raspberry Kush placed 5th, 7th and 9th in that category. Friendly Farms’ Headband and Citrus Sap placed 8th and 9th in the sauce category.

The Emerald Cup’s recognition followed three first-place victories in May at High Times’ Sacramento Cannabis Cup, the historic first state-licensed event of California’s recreational cannabis era.

“The Emerald Cup’s world-class judges recognize Friendly Farms’ innovation in true full-spectrum concentrates,” Friendly Farms Chief Executive Officer Darrin Gatto said.“Our passionate team is honored to be recognized for the craftsmanship and quality we deliver to our dedicated community of cannabis connoisseurs who choose unique products that enhance their lifestyles.”

True Full-Spectrum Innovation

Affirmed by collaborations with leading designer cannabis cultivators Alien Labs, Connected Cannabis and Sherbinski, Friendly Farms’ true full-spectrum cannabis extracts stand out in a competitive market full of heat-separated distillates and pressure-separated CO2 concentrates. Crafted from cannabis cultivated in the Emerald Triangle, Santa Barbara County and other premium growing regions in California, Friendly Farms’ true full-spectrum extracts preserve native terpenes and cannabinoids of premium plants at sub-zero temperatures, ensuring natural flavors, aromas and effects are retained.

“Friendly Farms’ liquid-live vape cartridges and sauces are 100-percent cannabis and contain no distillate or any added terpenes,” Friendly Farms Chief Innovation Officer Charles Smith said. “We start with the best whole plants and finish with the best whole-plant extracts. We craft flavorful, aromatic and potent true full-spectrum cannabis extracts.”

Dessert Collection Coming Soon

The next Friendly Farms product line to hit California’s licensed marketplace is the Dessert Collection; small-batch exotic sativa, indica and hybrid strains whose flavors and aromas evoke decadent indulgence. Friendly Farms’ limited-edition Dessert Collection vape pens will be available at cannabis stores in Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles starting in January.

Giving Back to Local Communities

Friendly Farms donates $1 to local homeless and youth programs and charities in each market for every gram sold via retail stores and delivery services.

“With the support of our customers and retail partners,” Gatto said, “our community Give Back Program helps us help people facing the biggest social issues plaguing California: homelessness and the lack of youth support in our communities. We’re fortunate to be able to give back.”

Friendly Farms Media Contact

Brittney@FriendlyFarms420.com

Find Friendly Farms Online

Instagram | Website

 

Emerald Cup Attendees Taste True Full Spectrum in Friendly Farms’ Live-Resin Vape Pens

December 16, 2018 / / Comments Off on Emerald Cup Attendees Taste True Full Spectrum in Friendly Farms’ Live-Resin Vape Pens

100 percent pure whole-plant cannabis extracts — no heat-stripped distillates, no additives of any kind — impress palates at premier California event.

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Emerald Cup attendees approach the booth Friendly Farms shared with partner Connected Cannabis.

BY ED MURRIETA

SANTA ROSA, Calif., Dec. 16 — Tasting were rare at this year’s edition of The Emerald Cup, Northern California’s premier cannabis event showcasing and honoring artisan cultivation and production.

The lone legal standout was Friendly Farms, the artisan producer of true full-spectrum cannabis extracts. Tucked in a booth with Alien Labs and Connected Cannabis‘ jam-packed booth in the main exhibition building at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, Friendly Farms provided tastes and satisfaction to hundreds of people Saturday and Sunday.

For $1 each, Emerald Cup attendees tasted seven live-resin vape designer cannabis strains from Friendly Farms: White Fire, Fire OG, Smarties, Gelato33, Gushers, Wedding Cake and Biscotti. All funds raised from tasting fees will be donated to Cage-Free Cannabis as part of Friendly Farms’ Give Back Program helping people in need.

Not only was any sort of tasting rare at The Emerald Cup in its new regulated legal cannabis era, the tastings Friendly Farms provided were rare themselves: true full-spectrum cannabis concentrates whose flavors, aromas and effects are derived from whole plants — a rarity in a market swimming in inferior THC distillates stripped of original terpenes and reconstituted with non-cannabis terpenes to chemically resemble natural cannabis.

In totally unscientific terms, Friendly Farms proprietary true full-spectrum process hella captures the decadence of designer cannabis strains: sweet, fruity, herbal, spicy, exotic and indulgent.

Friendly Farms’ true full-spectrum live-liquid etracts are crafted from premium sun-grown cannabis that’s flash-frozen at harvest and extracted at a low-temperature to preserve natural terpenes and cannabinoids, the DNA of the flavors, aromas and effects associated with specific strains.

True Full Spectrum

While Friendly Farms blends cannabis strains, it blends whole plants, not industrial terpenes of the sort that lurk in popular distillates.

Touring The Emerald Cup trade-show booths, I learned you could pick almost any cannabis strain you can think of and buy the terpenes to create the flavors of that strain. Or you could Frankenstein your own “cannabis strain” by adding terpenes derived from other plants to THC distillate.

Think of that next time you vape or dab distillate that tastes like lemony furniture polish.

Also pay attention to how fast and well Friendly Farms’ true full-spectrum cannabis concentrates affect you: Pretty fast and wholesomely, like hitting joint in vape-pen form. Distillates don’t do that.

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Veteran food journalist, cannabis media producer and trained pastry chef Ed Murrieta is a paid consultant to Friendly Farms. Follow Friendly Farms on Instagram, Weedmaps and FriendlyFarmsCA.com.

Las Vegas Museums: The Artful Side of Cannabis Tourism

October 2, 2018 / / Comments Off on Las Vegas Museums: The Artful Side of Cannabis Tourism

Immerse yourself in cannabis and Instagrammable museums and art installations. 

BY ED MURRIETA

If you’ve been to Amsterdam, you know the allure of cannabis and museums.

Whether you’ve visited the Rijkuseum, Sex, Stedelijk, Van Gogh or Hash, Marijuana and Hemp museums, consuming the botanical drug deepened appreciations of art and culture.

Simply staring stoned at Vincent Van Gogh’s mad slathering swirls illuminating fields, flowers and famine immerses hedonistic art lovers in the visual, sensory and emotional relationships among artists, drugs and creativity.

And who didn’t crave a soothing spliff after two claustrophobic minutes inside the enervating Anne Frank House?

Las Vegas is America’s Amsterdam. While Sin City lacks the Dutch capital’s open sex commerce and legendary smoking cafes, museums of all sorts bloom in the desert, offering visitors curated glimpses of  Las Vegas culture and history in venues dedicated to the Mob, neon signs, pinball and more.

Las Vegas’ newest museum, Cannabition Cannabis Museum, celebrates cannabis in the most totally modern expression of immersive art: Instagrammability.

Here are five uniquely Las Vegas museums and art exhibitions, plus recommended cannabis pairings and social-media poses.

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Weed Weekend: San Francisco

May 16, 2018 / / Comments Off on Weed Weekend: San Francisco

Legal cannabis is best enjoyed in social lounges, with gourmet food and in the hands of five-star hotel spa masseuses.

BY ED MURRIETA

SAN FRANCISCO — Like Amsterdam, this lusty city-state boasts picaresque history, edgy authenticity, mind-blowing art and Instagrammable sights,  and among inclined travelers is a cannabis bucket-list destination. From Barbary Coast Bohemians to Beat generation poets and the Sixties’ Summer of Love to today’s legalized renaissance, cannabis has enshrouded San Francisco in intoxicating fog, a heady come-hither whether you wear flowers in your hair or Kate Spades on your feet. Once, tourists scored baggies of pot from hygiene-challenged ragamuffins on hippie-haven Haight Street; modern visitors marvel at the commercialization and wide-spread availability of California’s top agricultural product now that it’s taxed and regulated by the state and innovated by artisans and entrepreneurs. So dive into world-class cannabis retailing; decadent social-consumption lounges; gourmet meals and five-star hotel spa massages incorporating the plant; and local craft beer and cocktails spiked with cannabis extracts, toasting San Francisco’s gay and high history.

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Cannabis Tourism Is a Thing in California

January 28, 2018 / / Comments Off on Cannabis Tourism Is a Thing in California

San Francisco Chronicle Travel section dives into Golden State’s legal new attraction.

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BY ED MURRIETA

I’ve got two stories in the San Francisco Chronicle’s California cannabis travel package today.

Here’s my story on the Top 5 California cannabis tourist destinations.

Here’s my story on the best cannabis-friendly lodgings.

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San Francisco Scores First Public Cannabis Lounge in U.S.

January 12, 2018 / / Comments Off on San Francisco Scores First Public Cannabis Lounge in U.S.
Update 2/11: ReLeaf Herbal’s bare-bones lounge is now serving recreational adult-use customers.
Update 2/8: Green Door’s Lounge847 is now open for recreational consumers.
Update 1/18: Urban Pharm opened for recreational sales and lounge use today, Thursday Jan. 18.

Decadent, safe, comfortable and regulated, Barbary Coast is now serving recreational cannabis consumers.

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A view of the dab bar at Barbary Coast’s lounge. 

BY ED MURRIETA

America’s first legal cannabis lounge will not open in Denver.

America’s first legal cannabis lounge will not open in Las Vegas.

Forget about Alaska, Maine and Massachusetts, too.

America’s first legal cannabis lounge opened Thursday in San Francisco.

Actually, Barbary Coast Collective opened its luxe lounge next to its South of Market medicinal cannabis dispensary in March. Barbary Coast started serving adult-use recreational customers Thursday, making it the first legal, regulated cannabis lounge in America — the holy grail of the modern cannabis era.

“It’s something we’re proud of and excited about,” Barbary Coast director Jesse Henry told me. “I think we are going to get a lot of people who’ll think it’s like going to Amsterdam, and we’ll provide a safe, clean, comfortable place for folks to smoke.”

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Tokechella Is California’s Smoking-Hot Desert Cannabis Tourist Destination

December 23, 2017 / / Comments Off on Tokechella Is California’s Smoking-Hot Desert Cannabis Tourist Destination

Massive Cultivation, Most Dispensaries Per Capita
and Cannabis-Friendly Resorts and Rentals
Make Palm Springs, Cathedral City and
Desert Hot Springs a Pot, Pot, Pot, Pot World

BY ED MURRIETA

It’s high season in the Coachella Valley — for tourism and for pot.

Now’s the time to combine them both.

If you want to visit California next week for a taste of historic cannabis legalization in the Golden State, the Coachella Valley — in particular the resort-town cluster of Palm Springs, Cathedral City and Desert Hot Springs —  is one of the best places to plan a cannabis getaway for Opening Day of legal pot sales, better than other California cannabis travel destinations like San Francisco, Los Angeles and Lake Tahoe, all lagging behind the Jan. 1 start date.

A longtime playground for movie stars, mobsters, sunseekers and alternative lifestyles 100 miles southeast of Los Angeles, the Coachella Valley has the key elements intrepid cannabis travelers need to ring in California’s new legal era:

  • massive local cultivation;
  • most dispensaries per capita set to sell flowers, edibles and concentrates to adults age 21 and over;
  • cannabis-friendly lodgings, including two cannabis-friendly (and clothing-optional) hot springs resorts and a colorful mountain hotel with a vape-friendly cabin and smoke-friendly grounds;
  • and cannabis-fueled stargazing in Joshua Tree National Park.

Tokechella’s a pot, pot, pot, pot world for sure.

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The First Cannabis Lounge of the Legal Era in America Will Be in San Francisco

December 15, 2017 / / Comments Off on The First Cannabis Lounge of the Legal Era in America Will Be in San Francisco

‘We have eight existing lounges in the City, and they will be able to continue operating in 2018,’ S.F. cannabis czar says.

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BY ED MURRIETA

While Denver, Las Vegas and Massachusetts are racing to claim the honor of being the first place in America to host a legal, adult-use cannabis consumption lounge, eight San Francisco medicinal cannabis dispensary lounges are poised to give San Francisco claim to being the home of the first  legal, adult-use cannabis consumption lounge in America come 9 a.m. on Jan. 6, 2018 — the first day of the new legal era in which the city’s currently permitted medicinal social lounges can serve the recreational market.

Anyone wanting to be the first cannabis lounge in America has until 8:59 a.m. PST on the first Saturday  of January.  You’ll be competing with the Apple store of cannabis lounges, a Burning Man-inspired lounge that feels like a steampunk sex club and the newest most decadent lounge in town, which I just had the honor of helping to name the best cannabis lounge in the San Francisco Chronicle’s GreenState Awards.

“We have eight existing lounges in the City, and they will be able to continue operating in 2018,” San Francisco’s Office of Cannabis director Nicole Elliott told me in an email this afternoon.

California has not yet created a licensing scheme for cannabis lounges, nor does the state expressly prohibit cannabis lounges.  Absent state prohibition, local governments like San Francisco, Denver and Las Vegas can approve cannabis lounges.  San Francisco’s eight existing medicinal cannabis dispensary lounges — along with one that was shuttered by the federal government in 2011 and is preparing to re-open near Twitter headquarters — will be allowed to operate under city regulations they’ve operated under over the past decade.  Dispensaries that apply for new licenses in 2018 will be subject to stricter ventilation and  hermetically sealed smoking room requirements.

California pot czar Lori Ajax told regulators in Sacramento last week that when the state licenses cannabis lounges some time next year, lounge licenses will be tied to dispensary permits. There’ll be no stand-alone pot cafes in California.

San Francisco is the de facto model for pot lounges and social cannabis consumption in America.

Three of San Francisco’s leading dispensary lounges — Barbary Coast, Urban Pharm and Sparc — told they’re pursuing the state permit that’ll allow them to transition to the adult-use market. I’m checking with the other five dispensaries regarding their plans.

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Urban Pharm

Sparc

Sparc

Barbary Coast

Barbary Coast

 

Here’s a tour of San Francisco cannabis lounges  I wrote last year.Here’s one San Francisco pot lounge story I wrote for the Denver Post’s The Cannabist in 2015. Here’s another.

Which San Francisco pot lounge do you want to visit when the first recreational pot lounge(s) opens in America on Jan. 6, 2018?

Whole-Plant Cannabis Oils and On-Demand Vape Pen Are a Perfect Pairing

October 26, 2017 / / Comments Off on Whole-Plant Cannabis Oils and On-Demand Vape Pen Are a Perfect Pairing

Constance Therapeutics’ Patent-Pending Extracts
Meet Jupiter Research’s Elegant Fusion
of Science and Design

BY ED MURRIETA

Two companies whose highly regarded products previously have not been sold directly to consumers through medicinal cannabis dispensaries or delivery services are now partnered and bringing patent-pending, whole-plant cannabis oil extracts and cutting-edge vapor-on-demand pen and cartridge technologies to the consumer market throughout California.

Constance Therapeutics’ full-spectrum cannabis oil extracts previously have been available to qualified medicinal cannabis patients directly from the company and only to patients enrolled in Constance Therapeutics’ protocols and patient-support program.

Jupiter Research’s ceramic-core CCELL vaporizer pen, which features tamper-proof magnetic cartridges, breath-activated instant drawing, timed-signaled dosing, long-life battery and built-in mini-USB charger, previously have not been available in Northern California.

Now, in a partnership between two leaders in their respective sectors, Constance Therapeutics’ cannabis oil extracts are available in proprietary cartridges that magnetically attach to Jupiter Research’s vapor pens — .5-gram and 1-gram units of five different blends, including sativa-dominant, indica-dominant and hybrid strains, plus strains rich in the non-psychoactive cannabinoid CBD.

Constance Therapeutics’ cannabis oil extracts (priced $70-$132) and a Constance Therapeutics-branded version of Jupiter’s vape pen ($40) are now available in San Francisco at Octavia Wellness, a delivery service specializing in cannabis care for seniors and the first of Constance Therapeutics’ new distribution partners.

I recently evaluated Constance Therapeutics’ patent-pending, full-spectrum cannabis oil extracts and Jupiter Research’s Liquid 9 cartridges and ceramic-core CCELL vaporizer pen. Here’s my review:
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Burner Box Welcomes Pot Connoisseurs to the Playa

August 24, 2017 / / Comments Off on Burner Box Welcomes Pot Connoisseurs to the Playa

Cannabis essentials kit celebrating Burning Man experience on sale Friday in Nevada as Burners head to bacchanal of art and alternative cultures.

Photo by DopeFoto

Photo by DopeFoto

BY ED MURRIETA

Whether this is your first time or your 31st time attending Burning Man, you’ll be the envy of every pot-friendly theme camp when you open a Burner Box, a connoisseur-grade survival kit of cannabis products, tools and tips curated for the Playa-going experience.

Never mind that possession and use of cannabis and drug paraphernalia  are illegal on the federally managed Black Rock Desert.

Available starting Friday, limited-edition Burner Boxes are a collaboration between Blüm, a cannabis chain store with outlets in Las Vegas and Reno, and Vegas Weekend Box, a Sin City startup that curates and markets Nevada’s best-selling cannabis products packaged in consumer-friendly style for tourists.

Like the big-ticket curated theme-camp experiences that brought Silicon Valley bro-tech vibes to the annual bacchanal of art and alternative cultures in the past decade, Burner Boxes aren’t cheap — $299 — but they are loaded with cannabis oil, edibles, bud and joints from leading Nevada producers, along with a state-of-the-art portable vaporizer and a high-end mini-torch that’ll withstand desert windstorms.

Burner Boxes have no affiliation with the radically anti-commercial Burning Man gathering that runs Sunday through Sept. 4 125 miles north of Reno, save for some employees and investors of both Blüm and Vegas Weekend Box being Burners themselves.

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