Edibles are often flavored to mask the taste of cannabis, but a Southern California-based company won gold by doing the opposite. Earlier this month, cannabis industry leaders took home more than 150 medals and the prestigious Golden Bear awards in nine categories, including pre-rolls, beverages, wellness products and edibles, at the California State Fair.
The cannabis competition was added to the fairgrounds in 2022, joining traditional agricultural industries like craft wines and cheeses. More than 600 entries in the competition were judged on a 100-point rating system assessing aroma, flavor, appearance and experience.
Among the top honors in the edibles category were Kiva Lost Farm’s Strawberry × Pink Jesus Live Resin Chews (bronze), Spinello’s Prickly Pear Liquid Diamond Infused Fruit Chews (silver) and Ay Papi’s Whitethorn Rose Single Origin Live Rosin Infused Gummies, which won both the gold medal and the Golden Bear.
“There are a lot of variables that go into making an award-winning product, and it starts with the genetics and the craft farms,” Justin Lee, founder of La Habra-based Ay Papi, said..
What makes an award-winning edible?
For Lee, the foundation of a good edible isn’t its THC potency but its flavor. “What makes a great edible is that it has to taste good,” Lee said. While most edibles add flavoring, either artificial or from purees, Ay Papi’s gummies take their profile directly from the cannabis plant. The Whitethorn Rose strain, bred by Huckleberry Hill Farms, is known for its layered floral, savory and fruity aroma. Lee said the Whitethorn Rose strain is concentrated into a rosin, a solventless extraction using water and ice. Rosin differs from other cannabis concentration methods, which use solvents such as butane or propane.
Ay Papi’s final product contains seven ingredients: water, pectin, tapioca syrup, sodium, citric acid and the Whitethorn Rose concentrate. Lee said he credits the edible’s flavor to Huckleberry Farms’s regenerative farming practices, such as cultivating “living soil” or soil full of microorganisms that reduces the need for synthetic fertilizers. “If the cannabis isn’t clean, has pesticides, has mold or something like that in it, now you just concentrated that,” Lee said.
