Wow…how time does fly.
Although our revolutionary product could be found in a few legal, medical cannabis dispensaries in Los Angeles in 2013, our first major event that introduced Honey® products to the world was the fifth HIGH TIMES Bay Area Medical Cannabis Cup from June 28th-29th 2014 in Santa Rosa, CA at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds. With over 250 entrants and dozens of vendors, this cup celebrated the 40th anniversary of the magazine’s publication and was an event for our company to remember.
Some perspective. In 2014, California was still the “Wild West of Weed” and all cannabis activity was regulated under the vague rules surrounding Proposition 215. The Adult Use of Marijuana Act and Proposition 64 would come a few years later so the industry was operating under a quasi-regulated market. Legal dispensaries and cannabusinesses were still getting randomly raided by local and federal authorities weekly. Despite facing these odds, we felt it was our duty to stay focused on our medical patients and provide them a clean and efficacious product with fantastic, authentic cannabis flavor. The dirty BHO craze was at its peak. We knew it was time for us to spread our wings as a Los Angeles based Pre-ICO non-profit and take a chance at our first ever public event.
Our products were very different back then. Although our cannabis oil has always been innovative and free of fillers like vegetable glycerin, polyethylene glycol and propylene glycol the cartridge hardware was still in the stone age! Our proprietary, ceramic, stainless steel and glass cartridges were yet to be invented so like most companies in the industry we were forced to use plastic, e-juice tanks which were notoriously difficult for vaping our thick oil. We would instruct our customers to warm their oil first by using various methods. Of course, back then no one minded because our vapes were so goldenly beautiful, tasty and potent!
Sonoma County is gorgeous!!! So we rented a huge house on the banks of the Russian River and filled it full our team; most who are still a part of our company today. While it was extremely fun to attend, it was extremely exhausting walking around in 90+ degree heat handing out samples to attendees; some of us forgot sunscreen and turned cherry red by Saturday afternoon. Like the hardcore #HoneyFam we were, we would get to the cup early, stay late, then party together all night before we collapsed into our beds/sofas/spare rugs on the floor. However, we were lucky enough to have our founder cook fresh, yummy, farmers market home-cooked breakfasts and dinners for us to give us the energy to work through the cannabis chaos. By the end of Sunday, we were all so exhausted from the event that we didn’t have time to clean up the house and racked up a huge cleaning bill!
It was truly a memorable and bonding experience for the whole company. If anyone reading this attended that event and remembers us please reach out share with us your memories. We would love to hear them!