A few months back I made a trip down to Washington D.C. It’s been years since I have been to the nation’s capital, so I wanted to make a whole day of it. Looking like a full-blown tourist, I was snapping photos as I passed the monuments & the beautiful buildings.
This seems like as good of a time as any to mention that as a Maryland medical patient, our cards have reciprocity in the District. Meaning you can drive down to any of the D.C. medical dispensaries and purchase product with an entirely separate allotment.
Now, I didn’t go down to the capitol to sight-see. I was doing meet & greets with the dispensary managers & employees, handing out swag, and setting up events for 2021. What I noticed right away was that the dispensaries were all unique from each other. All offering generally the same selection of medicine, but in vastly different atmospheres. I really felt like I was on a scavenger hunt through the city. Many of the storefronts were not easy to find. I must have circled the block around Kinfolk Dispensary for 20 minutes before ultimately deciding to park my F-250 work van in the middle of the street with the hazards on (evidentially this is normal D.C. thing, but it still felt wrong). GPS kept saying I had arrived, but the street address belonged to a Popeyes. It wasn’t long before I noticed groups of people coming out with small brown bags- and it wasn’t fried chicken. Turns out the dispensary is upstairs, a genius marketing ploy if you ask me. Kinfolk Dispensary; a one stop shop for your medicine & munchies. I stopped by Takoma Wellness Center and was able to make my very first purchases in the District. I loaded up on all of the District Cannabis infused products: honey, tinctures, salves, chocolates, troches, and lozenges. My next stop was National Holistic Healing Center. It is tucked away in the basement level of a building off Connecticut Ave. Its underground, speakeasy energy gave me flashbacks to the younger years of my cannabis use. They were stocked with every flavor wrap & cone you could imagine. There were clear glass cabinets with humming florescent lights shining down on all the colorful glass pieces for sale. The nostalgia was overwhelmingly tranquil as I reflected on my most formative years as a cannabis consumer. It was such a fun day exploring the capitol and meeting all the employees who are so passionate about our products and plant medicine, in general.
This day wouldn’t be complete, however, without a grand tour of the D.C Phyto Facility- where all the magic happens. Grace Hyde, our COO, texted me the address, but when I arrived I wasn’t sure I had typed it in right. I was standing in front of what looked like, an old car lot. The building was much smaller than I had imagined. It backed up to the train tracks and was surrounded by a barbed wire fence. She met me out front and we suited up for the tour. Booties, hair net, lab coat- standard grow tour attire. Now, I will preface this by saying I have toured and worked in a few different grow operations here in Maryland, all with varying degrees of standards. They all produce great products, but they all have their own set of challenges specific to their work environments. With my first step into the facility I was really expecting to be met with the pungent odor of curing cannabis, but to my surprise it smelled like a candy shop! Grace explained that they were making the chewable troches today in the kitchen. She took me through the grow rooms and I was so surprised to see the amount of flower we were able to produce in facility a quarter of the size of Maryland’s. It was clear to me, in that moment, how and why the Maryland facility was designed to operate the way it does. A true testament to the phrase ‘work smarter, not harder’. She showed me their second floor expansion and we talked about the plans to re-configure their grow rooms to better utilize their small space. The tour ended where the smell originated, the kitchen. I met Frankie, the Kitchen Manager, and a few other dedicated employees who were hard at work wrapping the Blood Orange Troches. The smell was actually mouth-watering. What I noticed immediately was the dry storage shelf. These edibles were made using genuinely good ingredients- pureed and dried fruits, crystallized ginger bits- even soy lethicin, to help increase the uptake of the cannabinoids to your system. So much care & thought was put into each piece- the passion of our employees really shines through in our products. It reminded me of Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory- and I guess you could say I found the golden ticket.
I purchased Watermelon Mint Troches, which are chewy and covered in sugar, super tasty. I also got the Blood Orange- which was my personal favorite flavor! They also have Strawberry Basil, which I did not get but I’m looking forward to trying. The chocolates were amazing! Made with Ghirardelli Chocolate- their velvety texture just melts in your mouth. I picked up the Sea Salt & Plain- but we also offer Goji Berry & Crystallized Ginger. My favorite though, was the Lozenges. I picked up the 10mg THC in the Lemon Ginger flavor. What I love about our selection is that we have something for everyone. Many different strengths & ratios of CBD to THC so that you can dial in your perfect dose every time. For me, the 10mg came on stronger than I had anticipated, because most of the THC is absorbed sublingually. The flavor was also 10/10. I imagine it to be perfect if you have a sore throat.
If you’re wondering about the rest of our infused product line you can check it out here.
