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5 Questions Articles Skunk Magazine

GETTING GRANULAR IN FIVE QUESTIONS: TIMELESS FOUNDER ROCKY HUANG


I love to see great marketing in action. But the product at hand cannot be just a pretty picture and nothing behind it. The inside is just as important as the outside!
The fine extractions utilized by cannabis superstar; Rocky Huang are just that. Gourmet extractions and augmented pre-rolls, all fabricated with passion.

It’s important, actually vital, for any “gourmet” cannabis company to set itself apart from its peers in the industry of the plant. I love creativity, and I’ve been known to enjoy a vape cart from time to time. They certainly make the art and science of cannabis easier to enjoy because they don’t shout- I’m smoking a joint. This is especially important around people who eschew the scent of cannabis in a public place. The creative side of the equation is the artistic slant of the product. I dig it. Maybe someday I can taste their infused flower? They have to be good to stand out in the marketplace.

Let me be the first to tell you that Timeless is classic old-school piquancy enrobed in a richly modern ethos.

cannabis world news interviews Rocky Huang sitting in chair
Photo Credit: Timeless

Warren Bobrow: Please tell me about yourself. Where are you from? When did you discover cannabis? Why cannabis?

Rocky Huang: I was born in San Francisco and grew up in Arizona and was introduced to cannabis in 1994 through smoking recreationally with friends. From there, I consumed frequently throughout high school and college. When I went to college at the University of Arizona, I met friends with family in Humboldt, CA, and Portland, OR. I was fortunate to be introduced to the deep legacy of cannabis culture. With the relationships I cultivated, I was taught how to extract cannabis oil and fill vape cartridges in 2011.

cannabis world news interviews three packages of Tumble Cannabis
Photo Credit: Timeless

WB: Please tell me about your business. What’s the inspiration behind your company name?

RH: The Timeless brand was started in 2011 initially as a streetwear clothing company. While clothing & accessories were the primary focus, we learned that the most important part of the business was the culture surrounding the industry. Cannabis was an intricate part of the culture, so naturally, it became part of the brand, so when Arizona legalized in 2012, we transitioned the core business to cannabis. When we first transitioned, we believed that consumers would eventually want to be associated with a brand that they could resonate with. In the beginning, the industry had challenges just keeping products on the shelf, so we had to strategically balance brand-building and consistently supply our dispensary partners. Today, Timeless provides leading cannabis packaged goods to licensed dispensaries in AZ, CA, OH, MO, and OK. We stay focused on providing quality products and cultivating strong relationships with our partners and customers, so we believe we are positioned well in a constantly evolving industry.

WB: What kind of products do you produce? What sets you apart from your peers?

RH: Timeless is now the parent company of multiple high-quality cannabis brands offering options for every type of consumer, including Timeless Vapes (distillate), NOIR (live resin), Joilo pre-rolls in CA, and Tumble THCA diamond infused-pre rolls in AZ. Soon we’ll be launching live rosin vapes in AZ as well. We believe the combination of quality products, multiple product offerings, consistent community engagement specific to each market, and superior customer service from our dispensary partners sets us apart from our peers. Community is a key pillar of our company, and we recognize that marketing resonates differently in each region, so we cater our offerings accordingly, whether it be products or activations. Right now, we’re gearing up for our Timeless Summer Road Trip, where we’ll be hitting each market with special product drops and fun things to do, like our partnerships with the Venice Basketball League in LA and Terp Float in Oklahoma.

cannabis world news interviews packaging for Timeless vape pens
Photo Credit: Timeless

WB: What are your six and twelve-month goals?

RH: We plan on opening in 2 more territories in the next six months and an additional 2-3 within 12 months. In that timespan, we’ll also release more collaborations from our Artist Legacy Program, developed to support creatives and provide them with a canvas through cannabis. Recently we’ve partnered with artists including Skinner, Tatiana Suarez, John Malta, and APEXER on limited-edition vape flip cases and battery combos from the Timeless Vapes brand.

WB: What is your passion? What is your favorite place in the world to visit?

RH: I personally enjoy spending time with my family, playing basketball, and golfing with peers and friends. My favorite place to visit is Florence, Italy.

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Reviews Skunk Magazine Tasting Notes

BOMBATTA “NERVE GAS” TASTING NOTES AND COMMENTARY

Second in a series of tasting notes and effects for Bombatta Premium Cannabis Flowers… I’ll keep reviewing them as I receive them. Each one has amazing sense of place and time in the cannabis universe. The mesmerizing physical effects of each strain have blown me away.

This was named Nerve Gas, and it’s deliciously named. I’m very aware of my third eye with each toke.

Sitting in front of me is a glass container with a curious lid. Popping open the substantial magnetic top, I discovered a clever little perk. A built-in grinder. Not a cheap item- this one possesses large, extremely tactile prongs that will gently break up the perfectly cured, pungent nugs contained just within.

Cannabis of this quality offers more than just beauty and convenience; it encapsulates the emotion of cannabis as more than a passing metaphor. Cannabis can be a multitude of things to many people. I find it deeply personal. It unlocks my creative side, which is buffered by my even more creative side. Two creative sides? Well, it’s true. Is there no other one that speaks to being “Adult” …. Cannabis again? Six books, mocktail and cocktail bar programs in California means logical agility. All from cannabis?
Yes.

Say it isn’t so for those who still believe that cannabis makes you an underachiever.

It’s true. This is zealously cerebral cannabis, and it works to make me more aware of the air surrounding me. This is such a vehicle for intellectualism, at least in my brain.

Perhaps I should discuss the flower at hand. Bombatta is the brand name, and it is just marvelous stuff. A nice sample of the Nerve Gas strain is punctuating my late morning.

Piquant in the nose, melting into freshly snipped French tarragon, scraped nutmeg, zesty Greek oregano, and finishing with dollops of both European petrol and crushed minerals down my throat- this cannabis is deeply bemusing, Even cracking open the jar for a quick sniff is a marvelous thing.

cannabis world news interviews commentary big cannabis bud next to container
Photo Credit: Warren Bobrow

What morsels await my lips and lungs? Read on.

Nerve Gas- The Marijuana Retail Report offers some clues to the lineage of this bemusing strain. They say that it is Girl Scout Cookies and Chemdawg with Lemon Cherry Gelato. Usually, the effect of these strains represents sleepy time for me- but in a good way. Each represents a tangible metaphor, a feeling. When combined, they become “Nerve Gas,” which is weaving a fuzzy path through my brain right now.

What a gorgeous-looking flower as well.

Tinged with green and orange hairs, a good flash photo reveals deeper coloration of dark. What kind of dark? I’d have to crack open another nug, and I’m pretty stoned right now without the need to smoke any more—at least not this very minute— that might change in the coming moments.

Oh, cancel that. I just took a deep lung hit- no coughing ensued. This is cannabis of operatic quality. It sings to me of patience and intensity. Thank you to whoever crafted this luscious beast of a flower. If my twenty-one-year-old self could smoke cannabis of this quality- what I smoked back then was pretty good, don’t get me wrong- but this is other-level stuff entirely.

What could I have achieved with cannabis of this depth? Who knows. It’s really knowledgeable stuff. Thank you for growing it for my perusal. I’m very impressed.

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Events

Love.Life

I created the cocktail and mocktail program for @theofficiallove.life. This project changed me forever. No longer am I just one thing in beverages. I can do many things and hopefully do them well.

Love.Life
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Articles

Bon Appetit, Klaus!

Pickett’s Ginger Beer is Flying High. Excited to share that cannabis cocktail expert Warren Bobrow’s Klaus brand THC canned cocktails were featured in Bon Appetit’s February issue. His Mezzrole features 10mg THC for “mind-opening euphoria” and is made with Pickett’s Hot & Spicy Ginger Beer.  If you’re in California, check out Klaus at your favorite dispensary. We hope that other states soon follow suit because Warren has created a truly elegant and delicious cocktail and we’re so grateful for his partnership. 
Pickett’s has officially joined the 30,000 feet club with a really nice showing in United Airline’s Hemisphere magazine. Hoping you high-fliers take a peek and use the code to refresh your inventory with Medium Spicy and Hot & Spicy, in cans or bottled syrup.
 
Please visit Hemispheres Magazine pg 99 to view the feature.
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Events Interviews Klaus Podcasts

Warren Bobrow and The Leaf; Chip Z’Nuff

PLEASE WELCOME to the LEAF

Legendary “Cocktail Whisperer” and “Cannabis Whisperer” and famed mixologist WARREN BOBROW

with weed stories, NYC club stories, and the do’s and don’ts of creating your own finest cannabis cocktails

This Wed High Noon PST (3pm EST) with our smokin’ Host CHIP Z’NUFF (Link Above!)

on the Monsters of Rock channel on Dash Radio – https://dashradio.com/monstersofrock

Much more to come on THE LEAF!!  You ain’t seen nuthin yet!!

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Klaus Reviews

23 Valentine Gift Ideas for Him or Her

https://ganjly.com/12-thoughtful-and-one-of-a-kind-cannabis-gift-ideas-for-valentines/

Cannabis Cocktails, Mocktails and Tonics Recipe Book by Warren Bobrow,

Cannabis Cocktails Mocktails & Tonics Warren Bobrow

Warren Bobrow is a chef, mixologist, and a 6-time published author. He came up with a recipe book called Cannabis Cocktails, Mocktails, and Tonics – The Art of Spirited Drinks and Buzz-worthy libations. This book is amazing and has a collection of 75 unique drink recipes including coffee, tea, lemonade, and milk-based beverages. In this book, Warren will also teach you how to de-carb cannabis in the correct way to release its full psychoactive effects. Get it for your loved one for $15.

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5 Questions Skunk Magazine

FIVE INTRIGUING QUESTIONS FOR CHRIS MARROQUIN, DIRECTOR OF MANUFACTURING/ROVE

Recently I had the good fortune to taste through the line of Rove cannabis products, specifically the vape cartridges. These ultra-luxe products are by far, some of the most authentically reproduced cannabis vape carts I’ve ever enjoyed. I think what makes them so intriguing is the “taste of the place” or in layman’s terms, the terroir of the plant. These carts are so good. They taste like smoking a fat bud, instead of layering your palate with candy flavors. Rove has harnessed the art of the plant, in a simple-to-use format, its well-designed vape pen. Kudos to them!

Warren Bobrow: Chris, please tell me about yourself. Where are you from? Why cannabis? When did you first discover the plant? Do you remember what you were listening to? 

Chris Marroquin: I am the Director of Manufacturing here at Rove. I grew up in Nevada after my family relocated from LA in 1993, and Las Vegas will always feel like home. I first discovered cannabis in high school, when my classmate’s dad was growing it and introduced my friend to growing. I was fascinated with all aspects of the plant: how to grow, cure and store it, its effects, how to cook with it, and how to make extracts. Back then Green Day, Bush, and MxPx would be spinning on my portable CD player.

Photo Courtesy of Rove

Warren Bobrow: Tell me about your Ice Hash and Live Rosin. I’ve been sampling the goods and they are incredibly terroir-driven. I can really taste the plant and I find that quite beguiling. Your thoughts on the process? 

Chris Marroquin: We are lucky to have strong relationships with our farm partners, and I’m regularly out in the literal field meeting new and up-and-coming farmers and touching the plant. When I do this, I’m looking at both the overall health of the grow and focusing on the terpene profile’s potential for becoming a well-balanced flavor profile in any one of our different Rove product lines.

The process for our rosin starts with perfectly ripened plants. Once ready for harvest, they are picked and immediately flash-frozen. This technique preserves the flavor profile of the plant at its most pristine without degrading any core properties. From this stage, the plant is ready to be mechanically separated into bubble hash using water as a carrier. The hash is then filtered and freeze-dried before being pressed into rosin. Terroir is a huge part of rosin. Growing medium, growing practices, environment, and light affect the plant’s ability to achieve its genetic potential.

Cannabis production, when optimized through a careful and hands-on process, can produce high levels of terpenoids, flavonoids, and cannabinoids. Creating the perfect environment and set of protocols, combined with some of our proprietary Rove techniques to decrease degradation and maintain freshness and purity is what gives the rosin that lip-smacking taste. The result is that the original plant profile can be experienced on a level far beyond its original plant form.

Warren Bobrow: Do you have a mentor?  What are your six and twelve-month goals? What obstacles do you face? How do you anticipate removing them? 

Chris Marroquin: My dad has been a lifelong mentor to me, for pretty much everything. His attention to detail and empathic intelligence really resonate with and inspire me. As far as work goes, our CEO Paul Jacobson has been an integral mentor in helping me understand the business side of cannabis. And beyond my family and close colleagues, I’ve followed The Rev for a long time, reading his books and articles. Haven’t met him yet, but True Living Organics is my favorite cultivation book.

Personally, in six months I’d like to have closed on at least 10 more acres of land. I believe land gives you freedom, and because it’s a finite resource I see it as an investment, too.
My twelve-month goals are to maintain balance at Rove while expanding the brand to other states and possibly internationally.

Currently, we are in the final stages of R&D to infuse our Drink Loud with Live Rosin. Edible rosin is a fast-growing market for good reason, it provides a full-spectrum experience in edible form.

I am also researching the potential for CBG eye drops. I’ve had success in microencapsulating the CBG to allow it to blend with water, but the formulation and process still need work. My father lost his vision in his right eye due to glaucoma, and ever since I’ve looked for ways that cannabis could help others struggling with what he did.

Photo Courtesy of Rove

Warren Bobrow: What is your favorite food to complement your creative extractions? Do you have a go-to restaurant that you want to share?

Chris Marroquin: I go for hydrating fruits like watermelon, passionfruit, mangoes, and berries. I tend to eat in excess when complementing with extracts, so I keep it light and hydrating to remain productive and maintain mental clarity. As far as favorite restaurants, I love Garden Grill in Las Vegas. It happens to be vegan, and my favorite thing on the menu is its crispy chicken sandwich and beer-battered avocado tacos. It’s my favorite sandwich, vegan or not.

If we are talking about a bigger meal, say after enjoying several joints or a cannagar, I like to start with a palate cleanser because I know instead of getting “fuller” my appetite will increase. If I’m consuming live resin or rosin it’s a lot easier to go with a richer dish, such as croquetas or a ribeye steak. With edibles, I like to keep the dishes light and nutritious until I’m ready to ‘give in’ to the edible and eat something heavier, like lasagna or pasta.

Warren Bobrow: What is your passion? 

Chris Marroquin: I love to garden and cook. It’s about the experience for me, whether it’s growing heirlooms/rare genetics of a plant/fruit, or learning a new cooking technique. The most recent cooking skill I’ve been learning is Mornay sauce. It’s basically a béchamel sauce with grated cheese. I love nachos and this is the perfect consistency of nacho cheese sauce. It’s a pretty basic technique but I just recently learned both. It’s so satisfying for me to learn new techniques and then make a beautiful meal using the best ingredients.

https://rovebrand.com/
https://www.gardengrilllv.com/

https://www.skunkmagazine.com/five-intriguing-questions-for-chris-marroquin-director-of-manufacturing-rove/
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Reviews Skunk Magazine Tasting Notes

RYTHM CRAFT CANNABIS: TASTING NOTES FOR TWO STRAINS

I’d like to discuss some really fine cannabis for a moment. No, it’s not from my usual array of fine flowers from California, Colorado, Oregon, Massachusetts, or even Michigan. This flower, showing beautifully, jam-packed full of juicy terps, oozing liquid droplets that coat the inside of my nose- extending up into my nasal passages… Well, it has to come from someplace, right?

I’ve been fortunate to write about the fine flowers from Rythm in New Jersey a few months ago, but the flowers that are filling my small office with their perfume are even on a “higher” level than the ones I tasted several times before. These beautifully cured, perfectly trimmed buds elevate my experience with flowers grown in… New Jersey!

Guess what? I’m impressed by Rythm and how their flowers treat my brain and body.

Rythm Cannabis Jar

Tasting Notes for two Rythm strains:

Ice Cream Cake. This Indica dominant strain is not my usual forté. My taste buds usually call out for cultivars that are less sweet-smelling (and tasting). It’s just my way. But maybe I should re-examine this metaphor for sweet- the name Ice Cream Cake, to me, says sweet. And although the words do carry meaning for me, I’m undecided that the name means candy sweet. Because this strain is not like candy. It has a deep earthiness and a tinge of milk chocolate at the very finish. It is not off-putting in any way, quite the opposite, really. This is another intellectual high, reaching deeply into the nether regions of my foggy brain, unlocking rationality and inquisitiveness in equal doses. The flowers are perfectly cured. This is truly gourmet cannabis that is on par with anything grown in Southern California. Care is definitely shown here. The dark labels are stunning against black glass jars protecting the fragile buds held within.

Nose: Salty sweet notes of freshly cut garden herbs, stone fruits, crushed stones, European diesel, tangles of freshly shaved papaya doused in Vietnamese caramelized shallots, and tarragon. This is lip-smacking cannabis that sings a song not yet translated from a place not yet discovered. If cannabis like this quality is grown in New Jersey, I want more of it. This is the good stuff.

Palate: Richly textured against the tongue and lips, the curing of their flowers is lovely to experience as it is patiently executed. Fissures of Asian spices come into view, offering scrumptious mementos that what you are smoking, however cleverly it is named, is not like biting into a heaping slice of ice cream cake. Quite different in reality. I smoked my small sample out of a Stonedware-“purse” pipe so I could get the pure flavor of the flower deeply into my brain without tainting it with a nasty tobacco wrap or sucked through flavor dulling water in a bong. As disappointing as it seems, I cannot roll a decent joint, nor do I enjoy vaporizing my cannabis, too much of a disconnect from the plant for me. This sample of Ice Cream Cake has a richer element that reveals itself over time. You need to take only a couple of hits to experience this rationality. Be patient, and you’ll understand the flavors at work here.

The Stone: As you can tell, I’m enjoying this excursion into the realm of dream time. Ice Cream Cake from Rythm is more than just a panacea for your ills, the pleasure of feeling yourself transcend the normal to some deeper place inside your mind, well, to me, it’s fun. I cannot say it makes me younger or more intellectual, but I can say that it is very encouraging to smoke cannabis of this quality. The experience comes on slowly but with deep reverence. This is a mind experience, leading to the body and a nice colorful expression within my mind’s eye. Lucky to experience this cannabis? Anyone can. Just go somewhere that sells Rythm Ice Cream Cake in New Jersey, and let me know what you think about this strain.

I have some “Brownie Scout” cannabis in front of me right now. Also carefully propagated by the mad botanists at Rythm, this strain says Indica, but to my palate, it feels like a sativa-dominant strain. No matter because it’s absolutely ravishing to my brain. If you remember walking through a freshly mowed field on a hot summer day, you’d understand the all-enveloping experience that shines through every puff of this beautifully sourced strain. Really talented growers are at work here. They are dispelling the axiom that New Jersey cannabis has a long way to go because it is here, and now you can buy it legally.

Brownie Scout is a combination of Platinum Girl Scout Cookies and something called Kosher Kush. These strains usually offer a more sedative effect on my body, but today for some reason, they are doing just the opposite. I’m excited not to spend the rest of my day IN DA Couch. I have things to do and words to capture. This is how we should always get things done, puff a bit of Brownie Scout and watch your day become a much more adventurous place!

Nose: Hints of bittersweet chocolate abound along with earthy, floral notes. There is plenty of plum pudding escaping up my nose, sizzling hot, fried hush puppies woven of cornmeal and bathed in duck fat. That golden ticket of aromatics offers a superhighway to my brain. Succulent ribbons of late summer slaw swirl around my nasal passages. I haven’t coughed at all. Curing is job one at Rythm. Patience, weed hopper!

Palate: Brownie Scout is a “wee heavy” against my palate and not in a bad way. As mentioned above, their curing is spot on, humidity, time, and patience. It’s all there. The buds are carefully trimmed and very pungent. If I were to smoke this in a public place, there would be no doubt about what I was involved in. The clouds that emanate from the compact, fluorescent green buds are impressive, to say the least, and no coughing at all!

The Stone: Brownie Scout offers a richly surfaced experience for your tongue and throat. This is not like other “fruit salad” style California Cannabis strains that offer and deliver on their lineage. What Rythm has created here is purely New Jersey. It is not like any other place that I’ve experienced recently. Tough to say one is better; Brownie Scout, grown here in New Jersey, tastes like it hasn’t been handled as much. Maybe it’s the distance to my home from the dispensary? I see it kind of like seafood or poultry, or beef… Keep your hands off of it, gets tough that way. Brownie Scout brings me to a place of calm as well for my head and neck, and shoulders. This is very relaxing, yet not sleepy time for me as it’s still morning.

I’m nicely stoned and still able to work for a bit longer without the need for an early lunch, either. Really nicely done!

You really must try their Gumbo. Rythm’s strain library is far more than just the sum of its parts. It’s educational and just stupendous indeed. Click on through.

Just one more thing!

With a tip of my hat to the TV Show; Columbo, I’ve been overdue writing some thoughts on Cannabolish, and there is no excuse for me. I’m sorry that it’s taken me so long because this is the very best cannabis smoke-eradicating product that I’ve ever had in my life. It may have made my entire prep school experience different because no one would have known I was getting high out in the barn on our farm in 1971, I was, and they smelled it. It wasn’t pretty. They yelled and didn’t get through to me, obviously…

I can be smoking a joint in my small office with this little candle burning, and even I cannot smell the often skunky/gassy aromas from whatever I happen to be smoking for very long. It’s truly uncanny.

Their lavender scent is also quite beguiling and not too sweet; both the original and the lavender are really nice candles, well poured, including nice heavy, quality glass. I’ve bought several for myself, and they are really incredibly well engineered to work every time. I do have a suggestion.

When burning your candle for the first time, make sure that you burn it until the wax is completely melted on the top. That will take about twenty or so minutes, maybe longer. Be patient…

Candles have a memory… If you burn it the first time and then blow it out immediately, the candle will never burn correctly. Let it gel over completely before blowing any candle out. You’ll get a better burn!

Rythm’s strain library is far more than just the sum of its parts. It’s educational and just stupendous indeed. Click on through: //rythm.com/strain-library

Thank you!

All Photographs Courtesy: Rythm Cannabis

https://www.skunkmagazine.com/rhythm-craft-cannabis-tasting-notes-for-two-new-strains/?v=7516fd43adaa

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Events

Clio Cannabis Awards!

https://www.cliocannabisawards.com/juries_2022

About Clio Cannabis Awards

Expanding on Clio’s enduring reputation for establishing best-in-class programs honoring creative ideas in a variety of specialized verticals, Clio Cannabis celebrates the creators at the forefront of cannabis marketing and communications. Launched in 2019, Clio Cannabis sets the bar for creative work in a rapidly growing industry, builds a greater understanding of a developing category, and elevates creative contributions from top talent and agencies.

2022 Jury

Design & Innovation Jury

Warren Bobrow

Warren Bobrow

CEO

Klaus the Gnome Inc Read Bio