Even though cannabis is widely accepted, most mothers don’t confess to using it, even to their closest friends. According to a recent Harris Poll, they are afraid to talk openly for fear of being judged or accused of being an unfit parent. Even with legalization, mothers prefer to keep it on the down low and are turning to gummies for their cannabis consumption.
Two Women From Upstate New York Launch A Craft Cannabis Brand
Jaime Gorman, a former brand manager in the craft liquor industry, and Laurel Mason, an NYC-based lawyer, started eyeing the cannabis industry in early 2018 for business opportunities once Canada legalized marijuana and the United States legalized hemp.
Gorman and Mason became friends over their passion for making hash rosin, a cannabis resin regarded as the purest and highest-quality concentrate; they believe the plant has unique potential in plant medicine. They took their craft to the next level and partnered to become the first women-owned and operated cannabis processors in the Hudson Valley, and their brand, Highland Goat, was launched.
“When I met Laurel Mason, we embarked on a journey to make bubble hash, press it into rosin, and then use it in gummies and edibles, which we’re doing now,” said Gorman.
The West Coast has had a legal upper hand over The East Coast, allowing them to play around with artisanal edibles for years. But that just changed in New York as Jaime and Laurel introduced their first-to-market artisanal hash rosin gummies.
You Get What You Pay For
The most common, cheapest, and easiest way to infuse gummies is with a distillate concentrate made using chemical solvents like ethanol, hydrocarbon, and butane. These extraction methods mostly yield THC because the 100+ other valuable terpene and cannabinoid compounds can’t survive the harsh process. A distillate concentrate is perfect for those in it for the “high” only-pure THC.
Others desire the therapeutic benefits of cannabis and seek products with a full spectrum of terpenes and cannabinoids, like the hash rosin gummies from Highland Goat. Many believe it’s imperative to include all the plant compounds to create an entourage effect, a theory that the compounds work best together to get the ultimate benefits of consuming cannabis.
“We did a lot of research and landed on the solventless process because we think that is the best expression of the plant, and there is much more to it than THC,” Mason explained.
The difference between a distillate vs. rosin extraction process is similar to a mass-produced vs. craft-produced product. You get what you pay for.
Not Any Old Plant Will Do
The thing about hash is not all bud makes good hash. So, part of the challenge for the Highland Goat founders is locating the best strain type to make their hash rosin because growing techniques for mass-produced cannabis differ from craft cannabis and produce different results.
Gorman and Mason must buy plants with the best trichome makeup to create the high-quality hash rosin gummies they sell. They regularly visit different New York farms and take care to cherry-pick the perfect strain for their particular extraction process. They travel with a jar of ice water and test the buds by placing them in the jar to see how many trichomes fall off and gather on the bottom. That’s how they decide if the flower meets their criteria.
The Hash-Making Process
First, the plant is washed in an ice water bath, making the trichomes brittle and fall off the stem with gentle agitation, not burned off in a harsh chemical extraction process.
“Think of trying to shake an apple tree where you’re trying to shake off the apples without too many branches, leaves, and everything else you don’t want,” Mason described.
Once the trichomes have been gathered from the cold water bath, they are drained through a series of four to five filtration bags with different micron-size holes, depending on what you’re making, and they go from bigger to smaller size holes. And then you choose what you keep based on what you’re making.
“For us, we’re making an edible product, so we have a little bit more of a range but a smokable or dabbable product would demand more purity from the consumer,” said Gorman.
The hash is made by taking the trichome heads and plant matter left in the bags and hand-pack them into solid brown-greenish bricks of cannabis resin concentrate.
Creating Hash-Rosin Gummies
The hash is then freeze-dried to remove the moisture and turn it into a sand or sugar-like texture called bubble hash. It’s frozen to keep it brittle and less sticky until it is turned into rosin oil, meaning it’s made without chemicals. Solventless. Then Highland Goat takes the product and packs it into little mylar bags and runs it through a hot rosin press, and out comes the hash rosin, which is hopefully an even higher potency than the hash. You may end up with something between, let’s say, 60 and 75% THC or even higher, depending on what you’re material you’re working with.
The feeling or “high” you get from hash differs from smoking weed or distillate oils. It’s not like you get so high that you can’t function. It’s more of a full-body high perfect for moms on the go.
Women Like Hash Rosin
Highland Goat leans toward women in their branding but is not overly feminine. Jaime and Laurel ran hash-making and cannabis informational workshops in Westchester that were attended mainly by women and sold out.
“Women are the most interested in the quality of products, and I know that’s a sweeping generalization, but that’s what I’ve seen and observed for the past seven years. They’re the most interested in educating themselves on the plant,” Gorman said.
This article was submitted by a guest contributor to GreenState. The statements within do not necessarily reflect the opinions of GreenState, Hearst, or its subsidiaries. The author is solely responsible for the content.