WHAT MAKES A CANNABIS BRAND GREAT?

In the world of cannabis, there are thousands of brands. When you’re first walking into a dispensary or shopping online, you might have no clue how to differentiate between the bad ones and the good ones.

This quick guide will tell you what to look for in choosing a worthwhile cannabis brand.

What a cannabis brand is and isn’t

The first step is understanding the difference between brands and dispensaries. In short, dispensaries are stores that sell products from cannabis brands.

Those products can be cannabis consumables like cannabis flower, concentrates, vape pens, and weed edibles. They can also be lifestyle products like hoodies, rolling trays, and other accessories.

In the early days of legalization, weed was just sold in ziploc bags and held behind the counter in huge jars. Over time, as legalization progressed, companies started packaging and branding their flower and concentrates to stand apart from everyone else on the shelf.

Nowadays, consumers are loyal to brands, and brand recognition is everything in cannabis sales. STIIIZY is one of the biggest and most well-known brands in all of cannabis. 

Strains of weed sold by cannabis brands

Cannabis consumers love having options, and they grow tired of certain products quickly. That’s why brands usually have so many different strains of weed available. The cannabis brands that can provide not only high quality, but also a wide range of products, are often considered some of the best brands out there.

When people say cannabis brand, they are usually talking about the ones that actually sell a variety of products. Those brands may grow their own flower, or they source it from growers that don’t have brands, and rebrand it as their own, i.e. white labeling.

Cannabis strains are rarely exclusive to one company. Even if a brand has the only cut of a strain, eventually it will make its way into other growers’ gardens.

Most companies buy seeds or clones from breeders and nurseries to grow as their own. This allows brands to keep up with the strains that cannabis consumers are obsessed with at the moment. Examples of these strains include Gelato and Rainbow Sherbet.

Gelato

According to Weedmaps, Gelato is a cross between Sunset Sherbet and Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies, named in homage to its sweet aroma. Also known as Larry Bird, Gelato (#33) was first cultivated in Northern California's Bay Area and is derived from a deep bank of genetics created by the Cookie Family, the Sherbinskis family, and cultivator Mario Guzman.

Rainbow Sherbet

According to Leafly, Rainbow Sherbet is an evenly-balanced hybrid marijuana strain made by crossing Champagne with Blackberry. Rainbow Sherbet is a notably tasty strain with hints of sugar and fruit. Smoking Rainbow Sherbet will have you feeling chilled out but focused enough to do something creative or inspiring.

Strains created by a company and grown by that company are called in-house strains, or proprietary strains. To create these, cultivators need a lot of expertise and experience in breeding, phenohunting, and selecting keeper cannabis strains. From there, high levels of quality control and tasting events take place before a strain hits the menu.

The differentiator between a strain from Company A and Company B will always come down to how the plant was produced. Just because a company has Gelato doesn’t mean that they will be able to grow it well.

Brands like STIIIZY separate from the pack with state-of-the-art facilities that enable ultimate control over the plants’ environment, tempeature, humidity, moisture content, and nutrient levels at all times. This control ensures that customers get consistent products that look, smell, taste, and feel the same every time.

Cannabis brands and cannabis tech

With the evolution of both cannabis brands, technology, and the overall market, we’ve seen many innovations.

Most of the tech has come in the form of hardware used to consume cannabis. Vaporizers, both for dry herb and those for cannabis concentrates, play a huge role in those technological advancements.

Proprietary vape pods and batteries are an excellent example of how technology has evolved with cannabis consumption. Batteries, like STIIIZY’s, enable consumers to maximize their oil’s experience without burning it. The temperature is always right. Plus, the attachment styles of the battery and pods allow for you to consume every last drop of oil that you paid for.

Cannabis brands and cannabis concentrates

Some brands grow their own flower and then have the facilities (and licenses) to process their own oil from dabs and vape pens. Some of them, like STIIIZY, can even take it a step further and sell products in their own brand’s retail dispensaries. These types of companies are called vertically-integrated, meaning they control the product’s creation, distribution, and retail.

Where cannabis brands sell their products

To buy cannabis flower, cannabis concentrates, edibles, vape pens, and any other cannabis product, people shop at dispensaries.

Brands sell their products in dispensaries and via online delivery services. Lifestyle products like merch and accessories can usually be purchased directly from a brand’s website.

You can usually access a dispensary’s active menu for pickup orders on sites like Weedmaps and Leafly. Online weed delivery services include Eaze, Emjay, and Grassdoor. These websites have online menus reflective of a dispensary’s inventory that let you place orders that will be brought right to your front door.

When choosing the best weed dispensary, it often comes down to location, product selection, and prices. The quality of products and helpfulness of the budtenders is also of the utmost importance.

At STIIIZY, we only use premium flower for all of our cannabis products including our proprietary pods and battery system.