FIND MORE MARIJUANA COVERAGE AT WESTWORD.COM/MARIJUANA MARIJUANA TOKE OF THE TOWN Hot Leaf BY CLEO MIRZA After years of trying to start a cannabis company in California with no luck, Bran- don Epley decided to give the Colorado market a shot. Teaming up with his long- time friend Eryc Klein, Epley set out to cre- ate a brand focused exclusively on extracts, but instead jumped at the opportunity to purchase a cultivation facility and medical dispensary in Lakewood over fi ve years ago. The duo’s brand, Leiffa, is now much more than a dispensary. Leiffa’s fl agship store in Lakewood carries house-grown fl ower, solventless concen- trates and rosin-infused edibles, all of which are sold in dozens of partnering dispensaries around Denver. And thanks to new laws in Lakewood, Leiffa is now able to serve recre- ational customers, as well. We sat down with Epley and Leiffa marketing director Hillary Rowe to fi nd out what makes Leiffa special and what they have planned for the future. Westword: Brandon, why did you want to start your own cannabis company in Colorado? Brandon Epley: I grew up on the East Coast, and in 2010, I moved to California. I opened one of the fi rst fi ve dispensaries in San Francisco when they lifted their regulations, and that got shut down. I had a couple of different delivery services, which were shut down. I had a couple of differ- ent cultivations in Northern California, which also got shut down. California was very gray at the time. They hadn’t actually started issuing licenses yet, so none of them were illegal, but none of them were fully licensed, legally operating facilities. My best friend from when I was eighteen years old, Eryc Klein, had moved to Denver, and he was attempting the same thing that I was attempting in California. He had a couple different opportunities at dispensary openings that fi zzled out. So he was already here, and we had the opportunity to get a license. We made the decision to team up, and I moved here from California. Did you always plan to focus on extracts, particularly solventless extracts? Epley: Initially we were going to just be 32 an extracts company. While we were trying to get the extracts company off the ground, we found the opportunity to purchase the Patient’s Choice/LiveGreen cultivation, and that was connected to the medical dispen- sary in Lakewood. We acquired those two facilities while we were getting our lab up and running. When we fi rst started, we had plans to do cartridges, because that’s what was really popular at the time. Then we were personally introduced to the solventless ex- perience, and we felt that it was a more user-friendly product to create. It was also a lot safer to produce. When you say safer to produce, what do you mean? Epley: The extraction process only uses ice, water, heat and pressure, rather than needing to build a C1D1 extraction [laboratory] booth for bu- tane or CO2 extraction. At that time, we were pretty confident with the in- crease in technology that we would be able to mimic the solvent-based extrac- tion skews with a solvent- less extraction process. What are the benefi ts of cultivating your own fl ower for Leiffa’s extracts? Epley: With a solvent- less style of extraction, there’s a lot of different factors that play into the outcome of the fi nal product. By having our own cultivation and control of our input material, we’re able to control the [integrated pest management process], which is basically what’s sprayed on the plants. Our IPM process is pretty much non-existent. If you spray anything on plants intended for solventless extraction, you can taste what’s been sprayed on them in the fi nal product. So by having a really clean garden and having complete control over the material coming out of the garden, it gives us a really clean, quality product to start with for concentrates. By having complete control of the input material that’s going into our lab, we’re able to harvest through specifi c careful har- vesting techniques and processes to ensure that the heads of the trichomes stay intact through the freezing and transportation process into the washing process. Since we’re totally vertical, we’re doing all of those parts ourselves, including the transportation in a frozen van. Once our fl ower is cut and goes into freeze, it never defrosts. We always make sure that whatever temperature it starts at, it goes down in temperature through the entire process and stays frozen rock-solid until our extractors receive the product. Leiffa makes strain-specific gummies on the recreational side. How can strain- specifi c edibles change the edible experience for consumers? Epley: With the gummies, we try and pick strains that will complement the fl avor of the gummy. When you’re using a product like rosin, it’s a full-spectrum concentrate, so you’re still going to taste a lot of the fl avors Leiffa is now open for recreational sales at 6900 West Colfax Avenue. of the concentrate in the edible. We don’t do strain-specifi c with our chocolates, because the chocolates have a more robust fl avor, so you’re not able to taste the specifi c terpenes of a particular strain. Is there a certain technique or specifi c ingredients you use to neutralize the taste of the rosin in your edibles? Epley: No, we actually try to embrace it. We’re only using top-quality fi rst-press [rosin] in all of our edibles, so we don’t feel the need to hide anything. We want to high- light what’s in there. Does Leiffa ever do collaborations with other companies? Hillary Rowe: We just did a concentrate and cartridge collaboration with Olio. We took half of their product, half of ours, and pressed it. It was a really fun collab that led to some unique fl avor profi les that haven’t been offered before. Epley: Since we’re solventless-only with our extraction methods, we give some of the solvent-based producers our material to run and turn into live rosins and waxes and shat- ters. We’ve done gummy collabs with Rob- hots, Green Hornet, Äkta and Cheeba Chews. We also do seasonal collaboration edibles with Sweet Mary Jane. They’ve been an amazing partner for us, and they’ve helped us with a number of our edibles throughout the years. They make an all-around solid product, and I can’t speak highly enough of everybody on their team. Have you considered opening up another retail location? Epley: We look at that pretty regularly. I feel like we’ve found a nice balance with having one fl agship store, but then being available at hundreds of stores across the state. I wouldn’t say that it’s in our goals right now, but it is something that we’ve thought about. I think the next step for us is probably going to be an expansion into another state. What new products do you have in the works? Epley: We have live rosin cartridges coming out soon that we’re really excited about. We have what we’re calling “rosin rolls,” which are infused joints, that we’re releasing soon, and also pre-packed fl ower. We’re also expanding our medical chocolate selection. Rowe: The pre-packed fl ower will feature new strains that haven’t been released yet from us. We also have a vegan edible coming up, too. That will be available on both med and rec, and it’s going to be like a chocolate wafer cookie. It’s something that will be shelf-stable, so it’s something you can leave in your car and it won’t melt. We were defi nitely looking for a product that you could take with you when you’re traveling, so portability is something we’re starting to think about with products, too. We know our gummies and chocolates aren’t good in high temperatures, so we wanted to offer something that does better at higher temperatures but also fi lls that void of a vegan edible, which we don’t have right now. Read the full Q&A at westword.com/ mariuana. Suggest future interview subjects at [email protected]. JULY 28-AUGUST 3, 2022 WESTWORD | REAL ESTATE | RENTALS | HEALTH WELLNESS | SERVICES | EMPLOYMENT | ADULT | MUSIC | CLASSIFIED | westword.com DANA GAERTNER
