Is your store ready to be more culturally relevant? Do you want to help Black-owned brands flourish by moving their products to the forefront of your store?
We can help you do that with information on popular Black-owned brands, along with tips on how to feature them at the top of your Dutchie menu. First, we’ll discuss which brands you should highlight and why. Then, we’ll show you how to feature them. We encourage you to reach out to local wholesale brands in your area to expand this list as you grow.
California:
1. Oakland Extracts offers more than their catchy tagline, “Terps from the Town.” Their mission is to bring high quality hash to the Northern California community. Oakland Extracts are single-sourced, high terpene extracts that include both shatter and their signature crumble.
Rolling Stone featured Oakland Extracts in their article 7 Black-Owned Cannabis Brands to Support This 4/20. They interviewed founder Terryn Niles Buxton about his struggle in raising enough capital for this Black-owned business to thrive in an oversaturated market. Oakland Extracts found a partnership that saved their budding business:
“The brand almost didn’t make it, but a partnership with Jetty Extracts allowed for a relaunch in 2020 with excellent results. Now Oakland Extracts’ small-batch, top quality products — which include wax and shatter — are taking Californians by storm, and giving back to the community by supporting local organizations such as the veteran cannabis support group Operation EVAC and SuperNova Women, which mentors women and entrepreneurs of color looking to progress in the industry.”
2. SF Roots views social equity as a necessary step in healing for communities and the cannabis industry at large. They are one of San Francisco’s first Social Equity Companies and they grow premium flower, pre-rolls, infused pre-rolls, and have their first line of tinctures underway.
3. California is making strides for equity throughout the cannabis space. Afrotech reports that The Parent Company, California’s leading vertically-integrated cannabis business, recently granted The Peakz Company venture fund investment.
The Peakz Company, founded by Jessie Grundy, will now have more opportunities to succeed in the Oakland area. “Grundy founded Peakz in 2018 after he won a distribution license under Oakland’s Social Equity Program.”
Peakz offers top-shelf luxury flower according to an article from New Cannabis Ventures. Grundy hopes to inspire other Black-owned businesses and use his own to boost the Bay Area economy.
Oregon:
4. Trap Private Reserve is another Black-owned company with a smaller web presence. Since the cannabis industry often relies on word-of-mouth advertising, this company seems to remain selective by marketing through their Instagram account. Trap Private Reserve is a Black-owned flower wholesaler famous for its remarkable strain called Biscuits and Gravy. The Oregon dispensary chain Electric Lettuce often has this strain on deck. Read our Dutchie menu description for more information on this tasty cultivar.
5. With a facility just outside of Portland, Magic Hour Cannabis is one of Oregon’s most diverse cannabis brands. PDX Monthly shares their accomplishments in 5 Black-Owned Cannabis Businesses to Support::
“Magic Hour Cannabis is one of the few Black-, Latinx-, and women-owned licensed cannabis producers in the country, let alone the state of Oregon. Owners/growers Adriana Ruiz Carlile and Will Perry are NYC transplants who left their corporate jobs in 2017 and for the past five years have been growing top-shelf organic cannabis flower on the West Coast.”
The brand also sells pre-roll packs that are named for the time of day you plan on indulging (dawn & dusk).
6. If you want to hear a mission statement “lowd” and clear, check out LOWD Cannabis’ stance on equity in the cannabis industry:
“We believe that the new cannabis market is not as strong as it should and could be due to a lack of cultural diversity, the abandonment of legacy growers, and the alienation of it’s pioneers... But the good news is, cannabis culture is not dead in this new era. LOWD™ holds the flag, high, proud, and with unapologetic humility.”
LOWD Cannabis offers premium flower sold in ultraviolet-resistant glass jars. With LOWD, not only will your mind awaken but your cannabis will stay fresh as well.
Colorado:
7. 4. Viola is a brand with another inspirational tagline: “One community at a time. One flower at a time.” Their multi-state mission is to increase minority ownership and reverse some of the harm done by the War on Drugs.
NBA player Al Harrington founded this cannabis company and named it after his grandmother. Their premium products include a plentiful line of extracts, vaporizers, and flower now available in California, Michigan, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, and Oregon. This multi-state brand is blossoming throughout the US despite its Colorado roots, but it is particularly popular right now for their high-quality diamonds and terp sauces paired with affordable prices. The Portland Monthly gave this brand a shoutout for their popular Blue Hashplant concentrate.
Rumblings from Forbes suggest that Viola has partnered with Avicanna and plans to launch a line of products in Canada as well.
8. Simply Pure is now a dispensary, but it began as an edible brand. According to Green Entrepreneur: “Its owners Wanda James and Scott Durrah are both military veterans and tireless advocates for Black rights. In the Denver industry, there was no one more powerful in the Black community for cannabis than James, who herself is a former political advisor to the Obama administration.”
Revolt notes Simply Pure in their article 9 black-owned cannabis companies you should know.
9. Established in 2015, Gentlemen Quinn’s is a Colorado brand for pre-rolled blunts. These artisan blunts are packaged like top-of-the-line cigars, and rightly named for a gentlemen’s evening or poker night.
Nevada:
Nevada has its own challenges in the cannabis equity space, and some of these challenges are moving slower compared to states that are more established in selling legal cannabis.
10. Zion Gardens is co-owned by the first Black cannabis “master grower,” Aaron McCrary. He spoke to MJ Biz in their article Scant minority ownership in Nevada’s cannabis industry, spurring calls for social equity reform:
“‘Because Nevada allows vertical integration and many of the recreational cannabis companies are well-established and growing larger all the time, “it’s almost an impossible head start to overcome,” McCrary added, noting those companies are well positioned with first-mover advantage.
“You only get one true bite at the apple,” he said.’”
11&12. East Coast states like Pennsylvania and Tennessee feature Black-owned CBD brands, Curated Flame and Inertia's Root, respectively.
Provinces in Canada are also proud to announce their diverse cannabis brands and processors.
Alberta, Canada:
13. CEO Keenan Pascal runs Token Naturals, a proprietary extraction brand in Edmonton, Alberta. Their facility produces the extract used in topicals, edibles, vapes, and more.
Toronto, Canada:
14. HRVSTR Cannabis is a new licensed producer referenced in Wink Cannabis’ blog 6 Black-Owned Cannabiz:
“HRVSTR is a family-owned Health Canada licensed craft cannabis cultivation facility that specializes in providing premium grade cannabis. From the skilled hands of artisan breeders, HRVSTR's cannabis is grown in an ethical manner, supplied to the Canadian market. With over 20 years of experience, their close-knit team of cultivation experts work extremely hard to provide clean, consistent, high quality cannabis.”
Run by Ashley and Michael Athill (pictured below), the duo is both skilled in management and the cultivation process. They are happy to see their brand bring a new perspective to ethical cannabis on the market.
What does this mean for your store’s Dutchie menu?
For Black Business Month, we want to help you bring these brands (and more) to the front of your store. Be sure to merchandise your brick-and-mortar location accordingly, and follow these tips for enhancing your digital menus to be more Black-friendly this month and throughout the year.
Consider adding these brands, and other Black-owned brands, to your Dutchie menu’s Staff Picks section. The Staff Picks carousel is a feature that allows these items to appear on your menu homepage.
Another way to feature Black-owned brands is by creating a Custom Carousel on your menu and naming it in terms that highlight diversity. To do this, simply go to your Admin>Settings, create a custom section, and start adding brands. You can drag items to this section in the order that you want them to appear on your menu homepage.
For those of you that are BIPOC-owned dispensaries and want to seek your own business opportunities, read about Dutchie’s Social Equity Program and apply here.
