I've been in the cannabis industry full-time for five years and it has been a whirlwind. After writing a license application in Illinois and working for two different Point-of-Sale companies, I started consulting and that was when I started being a full-blown active participant in the industry. I've been a cannabis consumer in California for many years and have been exposed to the culture but attending the Emerald Cup for the 20th anniversary was a master class in real Cali weed culture.
I'm not going to write my typical post-conference post where I go through the talks I heard and the events I attended but rather I want to give a high-level overview of what the Emerald Cup means and why it's important to the industry. Let's be honest, the Emerald Cup is different and should be treated in its own way.
The Emerald Cup began in 2004 as an underground event where farmers from the Emerald Triangle gathered to compete against each other but also collaborate and help one another. It has evolved over the years and become more mainstream while still celebrating the culture and the farmers and bringing together the industry in a festival-like atmosphere with music and entertainment including the awards show.
Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties make up the Emerald Triangle and are one of the best places on the planet to grow cannabis due to the climate and soil conditions. Sungrown, outdoor cannabis is the best flower when done right due to the sustainability and effects from natural sunlight. In addition, these people have deep cannabis history. Legacy farmers that have been growing in the shadows and have only recently been able to operate legitimately.
Our San Diego Farmers Cup also celebrated these cultivators during their 4/20 competition this year. There were 15 sungrown flower submissions that were all so interesting and diverse. Sungrown really demonstrates how it's not about how high the THC percentage is, it's about the quality of the flower, the terpenes, and the other cannabinoids, that make it the best.
One thing that stood out to me about the awards ceremony at the Emerald Cup was it wasn't just about the plant, it was also about the people. There were awards given for contributions to the industry, social equity, and for not just the best overall but also the highest quality products. It's not something I've seen in other competitions where awards more typically reflect the final product first and foremost.
And of course, education was a big part of the weekend. From the panels to the exhibits there was plenty to learn. I even had the pleasure of educating a couple of colleagues about hash holes! There was an event put on by Dunkz, Bosky, Kalya and Contraband Coffee that was called Donuts and Coffee featuring the Dunkz award-winning hash holes. The picture at the beginning of this post is of me with KC Santana who was part of the team that produced the Emerald Cup, moderated a panel, and judged the preroll competition. She's also the first person who brought Dunkz to my attention and I felt so fortunate to spend a little quality time with her during a crazy weekend.
Then there's innovation! My favorite new idea of the weekend was a sample I got from my Blunt Brunch gift bag. The Flavor Co gifted everyone their patent-pending Dose Easy innovation. I love drinks and this is genius! It's a little bottle that has a nozzle dispense system at the top that delivers the perfect dose every time. You squeeze the bottle and then the liquid will fill up in the top of it. When you let go the liquid settles to the correct level for the specified dose. I don't drink alcohol and dose my drinks quite often when I'm out but my usual method involves a syrup and a syringe. It's not convenient or discreet! Check out my little demo video.
Finally, I want to talk a bit about Oakland and the normalization that has been achieved. My attorney, who has been working in the industry for a while and has spent more time in northern California was telling me about how she worked with the police on cannabis events back when the Raiders still played in Oakland. There has been more normalization achieved compared to San Diego and I felt the difference. In addition, The Emerald Cup was held at the beautiful Henry J Kaiser Center for the Arts which recently reopened. For an event that started underground and that has become more widely known as legalization has progressed to be held at such a prestigious venue is pretty darn cool.
I've heard rumors that this may have been the last Emerald Cup and I'm really hoping that those rumors don't hold true. But if it was, it went out in style!
Some photos from the weekend.
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