This is our Lake City Market Call for Wednesday, June the 1st, our new regular series where our experts give you a frontline look at market strategy, new products, and exciting tips.

The largest category of growth in April came from Pre-Rolls. The month of May showed a similar trend however lessened in the second half. We saw numerous new pre-rolls come to the market with plenty of new cultivars and new formats. We saw Valens launch their re-brand of Verse to Versus with a 20 pack of .035g joints of Super Lemon Haze. They also dropped two joints under the more premium side with the brand Contraband. One infused joint, the Big Willie, and a 1g pre-roll with a sample of the 3.5g CNDYLND. They have received fair reviews and praise; however, no significant traction came from them. King packs of Redees dropped in the Sativa formats to a happy, loyal base of customers.

Infused Joints continue to be the current craze. Arguably, Dab Bods have become the big winner in the growing crowd with some fantastic, tasty offerings across the line. Honeydew Boba from General Admission continues to be a big favourite, without losing any steam from past months. We saw several other companies coming into the fray, including Weed Me. They launched new diamond-infused three packs as well as infused multi packs. All of them received decent reviews but no big standouts in the crowd.

The place where you’re seeing big things happen is in Blunts. We arguably believe that what we see in Blunts represents what we saw in the early days of infused joints; however, we believe this market is where the real strength is. Only tiny players have entered the market thus far, and the customer engagement is very high. Companies like Pura Vida, Rad, and Natural History will enjoy a little sales bump. Blend that with some healthy scarcity, and you have a great recipe. Products in the Blunt category will move cases quickly, and we suspect they will overtake infused in the coming months. The magic comes in a few parts, but the first is the taste. Hemp wraps have a warm and tasty reminiscence and offer a more mature taste. They traditionally burn very evenly and stay lit a little easier. Users prefer the 1g, but we think a cigarillo-style multi-pack would do very well. Maybe similar to Redees. Customers at this point can’t get enough of the units we receive, and we often sell out in days. There’s more than enough time for a leader to emerge in the space, but we think Pura Vida has a great head start.

We are still highly focused on leveraging 7g and 28g, as higher velocity movement. Milled is affecting the 7g market, but we saw a brand new offering drop this month from Potluck. They dropped four new cultivars starting with Banana Cream, Frosted Cherry, Orange Layer, and Pineapple Express. Across the board, our team was very impressed with the quality. The hydration was perfect; the bud structure and nose were terrific, all at a price point that takes a shot at Pure Sunfarms.

On ounces, Big Bag of Buds is refreshing with their GMO and Pink Cookies, but Freedom Cannabis is moving the needle, prooving that the ounce doesn’t need to be under 100m dollars to see significant movement. Birthday Cake and Slurricane have been dominant high THC offerings for over $120. Humidity has been acceptable and overall value has been a winner for customers. The biggest untapped market remains relatively untouched in premium ounces. Customers are thirsty for those beautiful offerings and are willing to pay a little extra to get them. We believe the top might be $250, but be cautioned that coming into this world truly means you have to be premium: no low THC, No bad terps, No machine trim.

We will wrap it up in our vape category as it seems to be levelling out, and customers are now open to more diverse products. At least at this point, we believe vapes are either full flavour or Live Resin/Rosin. Anything in the middle of that is not on customers’ radars. Both Sticky Greens and Lamp Lighter offer some fantastic flavours partnered with a great product and hardware. Boxhot takes our top spot for innovation by launching a 1.2g cart that’s more of a tank. It has an attractive design but an even better taste across its offerings. As retailers, we love Boxhot as they give excellent customer value while also bumping that average cart. The big winner to us might surprise you, but it’s Kolab. Their new Wedding Pie Live Rosin vape is FANTASTIC. Brilliant quality with fantastic taste. Kolab knocked it out of the park with this premium vape. We think this opens the doors for even more dab-level experience carts to enter the market.