Higher Ground: A Celebration of Coffee & Cannabis
Exploring the Aromatic Connections Between Coffee & Cannabis
There are few rituals more precious to a cannabis and coffee connoisseur than the legendary wake and bake, wherein quiet moments of morning enjoyment set the stage for two iconic botanicals to become a sum greater than their parts. Coffee, a renowned stimulant, merges with myriad of effects offered by unique cannabis cultivars, and together, they can awaken the senses, invigorate the mind, and set the tone for the whole day. Whether it’s a moment of peace before getting up with the kids, an essential part of your yoga practice, or how you kick off Sunday Funday, the intersection of these two plants is deeply rooted in cannabis culture.
On a quest to more meaningfully explore the connection between these two plants, Budist recently joined forces with The Woods West Hollywood to celebrate the opening of its adjacent coffee shop, Cafe Woods, for a one-of-a-kind experience designed to deepen appreciation of these complex and connoisseur-worthy flora. Produced by Budist and led by Colleen King, a Budist, Certified Ganjier, and coffee expert with a background in global sourcing for Intelligentsia Coffee, the event offered a unique opportunity to engage with both products in a blind, unbiased way, guided solely by aroma and personal preference.
As an audience of foodies, coffee lovers, and cannabis connoisseurs gathered at The Woods, they embarked on a sensory journey through meticulously sourced single-origin coffees, carefully cultivated cannabis flower, and an assortment of concentrates, all served alongside an assortment of high-end pastries and four signature drinks featured on the Cafe Woods menu. King, who also developed the menu for Cafe Woods, was joined by Budists Lori Hirsch and Lucas Indrikovs to guide guests through a series of sensory explorations.
To fully explore the full flavor spectrum of coffee and cannabis, the experience was structured to move through two different aromatic experiences, followed by a tasting. This framework empowered guests to first trust their senses in considering what they like best without any influence from factors such as packaging and brand recognition. By connecting this exercise across coffee and cannabis, guests were also challenged to develop a deeper understanding of how aromas interact with each other and how different processing and cultivation methods influence scent.
Stage 1: Awakening the Palate
The experience began with a blind coffee cupping—a standardized tasting technique used by coffee professionals to evaluate the aroma and flavor of different coffee beans. Featuring 10 single-origin coffees freshly ground and served in neutral coffee cups, King led guests through a blind aromatic assessment, encouraging guests to distinguish their flavor profiles by nosing the cups and gently stirring the grounds. Attendees were asked to circle the two coffees whose aromas spoke to them the most.
The coffee selection showcased a range of processing methods, genetic varieties, and terroirs, offering a diverse spectrum of aromatic profiles. Featured coffees included:
- Heart Coffee Roasters Habtamu Fikadu, sourced from Ethiopia’s Yirgacheffe region and featuring Kurume, Dega, Wolisho varieties. This coffee is produced using a washed process, resulting in floral and citrus-forward notes.
- Heart Coffee Roasters Neguuesse Debela, offering a blend of Wolisho and Dega varieties from Ethiopia’s Denache region. These beans are treated with a washed process, offering delicate fruit and tea-like aromatics.
- Heart Coffee Roasters Ramon Hernandez, featuring Pacas beans sourced from Santa Barbara, Honduras and made with a washed process. Flavors offer bright acidity with sweet caramel undertones.
- Heart Coffee Roasters Natividad Benitez, a Santa Barbara, Honduras blend of Pacas and Bourbon beans with a balanced and nutty profile with hints of chocolate.
- Madlab Coffee Roasters Luz Helena Salazar, Caturra from Quindio, Colombia. Made with a washed process this coffee offers juicy and fruit-forward notes.
- Flower Child Coffee Edwin Carvajal, Pink Bourbon from Huila, Colombia featuring washed beans and resulting in a vibrant and floral cup with berry-like sweetness.
- Madlab Coffee Roasters Luz Helena Salazar & Bryan Smith, Caturra and Red Bourbon blend sourced from Quindio and Huila, Colombia and featuring a mix of washed and natural processing, offering complexity and depth of flavor.
- Be Bright Coffee’s Hiila, Colombia, Huila blend of Colombia, Castillo and Caturra. Washed beans undergo a secondary sugar cane process to decaffeinate, resulting in a naturally sweet, caffeine-free option.
- Swiss Water Decaf, Tolima Colombia, roast undergoes anaerobic co-fermentation with guava and banana, before a secondary Swiss water decaffeination process, resulting in a tropical fruit explosion of flavor and aroma.
- Madlab Coffee Roasters Jairo Arcila, Castillo beans are co-fermented with blackberries from the Quindio, Colombia, farm to result in juicy, wine-like aromatics.
Stage 2: Same Techniques, Different Categories
With their palates primed and tuned by the aromatic coffee cupping exercise, guests moved deeper into the sensory journey with a blind aromatic assessment featuring 10 cultivars of flower and 10 varieties of hash, each presented in unmarked frosted glass jars to eliminate visual bias. Like the coffee cupping experience, this blind sensory-led experience challenged guests to engage purely with aroma and personal preference before learning about the cultivars and producers behind each selection. Featured flower included:
- A Golden State Woods’s premium indoor flower transports your palate to the mountains with bright, invigorating aromas of bronchodilating pine. A hint of tropical sweet mango alongside fresh notes of cool mint showcase this cultivator’s fine tuned mastery of genetics.
- SOL Spirit Nimbus Snacks presents regeneratively farmed sungrown with bright, citrus-forward aromas with a touch of forest floor. Sun+Earth Certified out of Trinity County’s Willow Creek.
- A Golden State Shasta Bloom offers bright and fresh lemon zest that meet heady notes of fuel in this Super Silver Haze x Sour Diesel cross. Earthy notes up front fade into a smooth haze. A classic Sativa effect offers bright, clear-headed energy and balance in this indoor flower.
- Poet Moroccan Peaches is an aromatic explosion of fruit notes with citrus, sweet stone fruit, and juicy, ripe peaches with a dash of baking spices. A Spanish Barbara x Lemon Tree Skorange cross sungrown in Trinity County. Sun+Earth Certified.
- Poet Grandi Guava sungrown flower features fresh tropical notes, earthy herbs and a hint of wood and cream cheese. A floral underpinning peeks through dominant notes of island fruit. A mouth-watering cross between Guava and Gelato. Sun+Earth Certified.
- Poet Blueberry Trainwreck features flavors of sweet blueberry juice-meets-pine and herby wood, kissed with an undercurrent of spice. Herbaceous with ripe berry notes. Sungrown cultivated by Canyon Creek County Farms in Trinity County. Sun+Earth Certified.
- Poet Delicata Cookies offers sweet, juicy grape notes and creamy, indulgent chocolate chip cookie dough with an undercurrent of earthiness. Regeneratively grown at Canyon Creek County Farms in Trinity County. Sun+Earth Certified.
- Pacific Stone Wedding Cake is a classic favorite from this Santa Barbara County, Central Coast cultivator, and offers a sweet creamy aroma with earthy notes and vanilla undertones peeking through. A kiss of pepper lingers on the finish, mingling with subtle hints of citrus.
- A Golden State Alpine Sunrise’s premium indoor flower is cultivated with snowmelt from Mount Shasta and offers fine-tuned genetics such as this Paris OG x F1 Durban cross. Alpine Sunrise presents earthy, gassy aromatics with a rich undertone of creamy chocolate.
- Pacific Stone 805 Glue is the signature cultivar from one of California’s biggest legacy brands, offering notes of sour grapefruit peel, rich earth, heady fuel and hints of wood and lavender.
After exploring the aromatics of the flower presented, guests turned their senses to ten different concentrates, each representing a variety of styles and flavors. As they nosed through these potent expressions of cannabis flavors, guests continued to test their senses. Featured hash cultivars included:
- RosinTech Lemosa Live Rosin presented bright and zesty aromas mingled with sweet candied citrus notes and undercurrents of tropical fruits. This small-batch cold cure live rosin badder offers brilliant and bold aromas and flavors that jump out of the jar with intensity.
- Fire King Cranberry Jelly Live Rosin is handcrafted using Sierra Nevada snowmelt, resulting in pure, clean aromas and flavors free of solvents. Cranberry Jelly sources its sungrown flower from the POET portfolio, offering bright and fresh red fruit and citrus notes with ample sweetness.
- Papa’s Select Moroccan Peaches’ Live Rosin offers an expression of living extracts that translate juicy stone fruit notes into concentrated and bold zesty aromatics. Sweet, juicy fruit with warming spices mingle with aromatic candied citrus for a round, delicious flavor.
- Fire King Nectarine Dream Live Rosin presents stone fruit sweetness with an undercurrent of citrus and melon, offering a bright melange of fruit flavors and aromas. Tart juiciness cuts through sweetness for a pleasant fruit bowl balance.
- Fire King Peach Beach Live Rosin shows a melange of stone fruit and tropicality, offering bright, sweet-tart fruit flavors. A kiss of spice and earth balances out the sweet notes, with a slight gassy tease on the finish.
- Fire King Pie Face Live Rosin bursts forward with a bold cherry aroma, then offers a balanced earthy note running behind it. Sweet-meets-hashy tones offer balanced flavors from long cold curing in the cellar.
- Fire King Sour Royale Live Rosin is a Local Skunk x Sour Diesel cross that offers skunky notes of sour citrus and fuel for an intense, flavorful aroma and flavor. Hand-made using cold water extraction from sungrown flower by Canna Country.
- DB Sour Skunk Bubble Hash showcases pungent, sour, and skunky flavors with hints of citrus and gas. This bubble hash preserves the full terpene and cannabinoid spectrum by utilizing traditional hashmaking techniques.
- DB Permanent Marker’s chemical aroma is reminiscent of a permanent marker, this bubble hash also offers subtle notes of floral gassy skunk. Hand-sieved and triple-washed with mountain water, resulting in clean and pure hash.
- Nasha Rainbow Meltz Cold Cure Live Rosin demonstrates intense gassy notes-meet-sweet fruit and a hint of citrus. A bold aroma and flavor is derived from sungrown flower cultivated by Emerald Queen Farms in Humboldt County. Cold water hash is pressed into live rosin and then cured into a wet badder.
After selecting the two flower and two hash cultivars that resonated with them most, guests moved on to the Ganja Garden, where their selections would be revealed in a series of guided tastings.
Stage 3: Taste, Taste, Taste!
After selecting the two flower and two hash cultivars that resonated with them most, guests moved on to the Ganja Garden, where their selections would be revealed in a series of guided tastings. As part of Budist’s commitment to bringing out the best in each product, guests were offered a variety of accessories and consumption devices to take their tasting experience to the next level. Featured accessories included:
- Dr. Dabber Switch2, an eRig that combines induction heating and an infrared sensor to evenly heat up the sidewalls and base at the same time and offer precision temperature control.
- FlowerMill’s toothless design relies on flutes to gently break down buds quickly and easily. Ergonomically designed with high quality materials, this grinder is built to last.
- DaySavers’ line of pre-rolled cones, papers, tips make it easy for consumers to roll or pack their own joints, no matter their skill level.
- PAX Plus Dry Herb Vaporizer uses state-of-the-at technology to gently heat flower and offer a smooth, user-friendly and combustion-free vaporizing experience that maximizes flavor.
- Session Goods offered guests tastings out of modern and stylish bongs with modular features and vibrant colors.
As guests tasted, learned, and sipped specialty lattes, the connection between coffee and cannabis came full circle from exploring the nuance of their aromatics to understanding their expression on the palate. From there, the sensory journey shifted to the experience, with terpenes, cannabinoids, and caffeine combining with community, and the delight of a decadent environment to create a one-of-a-kind Budist Session that showed how the cannabis and coffee ritual can be so much more than routine.
Don’t miss your chance to join Budist for future Sessions that guide you through a wide variety of sensory experiences. Sign up today for our mailing list to be the first to find out about our upcoming events and tastings!