Experience teaches one a lot of things. It can teach you how to emulate methods. It can teach you how to avoid others’ mistakes. And sometimes, it illuminates the road less traveled – allowing you to buck the prevailing trends.
It’s this sense of adventure born from experience that drives Raw Sins, the NorCal brand launched in Fall 2023 by Monte and Natalie Ferguson with their third partner, Inger Airheart.
After years in the industry (Monte notably had a stint as GM of 710 Labs), the group founded the dad-joke inspired, pun-intended brand to produce high-quality rosin priced reasonably in the $30-$40 range.
“Raw Sins is our attempt to bring a brand that is stripped of the bright and fruity frills that are too often the commercial path to marketing, and bring a high quality product for an extremely competitive price point,” said Monte. “[It’s] supposed to represent our roots and the raw nature that we came from, while also celebrating our extremely ancient need to get intoxicated in so many different ways throughout time – with Cannabis prevailing as one of the main options in so many cultures for over 10,000 years.”
Being one of the more affordable wash-and-squish brands on the market isn’t the only goal of the Raw Sins team. They also do something that most brands aren’t doing in the solventless dab space: They’re blending for flavor.
Rather than go single-strain, Monte and his team take a cue from the wine industry and blend rosins from multiple strain sources – or sometimes blend flower strains before washing and pressing into rosin – in order to discover new flavor combinations.
“We feel like the flavor range of Cannabis is amazing within a single strain selection,” said Monte. “However, we also believe that finding new exotic flavors that otherwise may not be achievable within a single strain, can be attained by curating a blend of two, or sometimes three, strains. We try not to get caught up in the dogma of it and leave the ego at the door about what is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ about making rosin and just focus on making rosin people are excited to smoke … ensuring that the rosin coming out is clean, attractive and delicious. And hopefully a unique experience too.”
They currently have a line of jarred small-batch rosins, offering Ghost Rainbowz (Ghost OG + Zkittlez), Cream Pie (Papaya Pie + Strawberry Bang), Poison Apple (Apple Tartz + Garlic Juice), Harambe’s Revenge (Grapes & Cream + Banana Punch), and the newest flavor, Fat Bastard (Fatso + Wedding Cake + Zkittlez).
We sampled the Ghost Rainbowz and loved the way the stank pine and fruit of the Ghost OG played against the bright candy Z terps of the Zkittlez. It was a creamy dab worth the experience.
The entire lineup coming out of the Raw Sins lab is nothing short of enticing. Keep an eye out for their line of hash holes and hash hole hemp-wrap blunts, their upcoming line of rosin edibles, and definitely don’t sleep on the new flavors Monte and his team are busy blending together for your dabbing pleasure.
This article was originally published in the March 2024 issue of California Leaf.
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