“‘Trout’ was the family nickname my father had as a boy — due to an obsession with fly fishing — and a name he would later use as a grower in the ’80s and ’90s,” Steve Tworig, founder of Trout & Co., said. “I was ‘Little Trout’ growing up.”
Ask any hash head who is savvy about the New York legal market which brands they recommend, and no doubt Trout & Co. will be on the small but growing list of makers. With a very strong seventh-place showing at the Masters of Rosin NY for their first-time entry — the Guava Glaze, one of Tworig’s new personal favorites — anyone who was sleeping on them is watching now.
“Next, we are coming for the top spot,” he vowed.
“It has taken truly dedicating my entire life to the craft and the industry for the past 10 years to get to where Trout & Co. is at today,” Tworig said. “Putting out top-level product on the legal market requires an experienced team with a ruthless dedication to quality.”
Over a decade of experience across all markets in multiple states and almost as much time cultivating and making hash led Tworig to Outcast Acres Farm in the southern Adirondacks, where he is head of production. In the earliest drops, he washed and pressed everything himself.
“I’ve worked over the past year with a small but fantastic crew to implement our SOPs across cultivation, extraction and packaging to bring everything to life, he said. “The production staff at that facility is possibly the most hardworking, dedicated and goal-oriented crew I have ever worked with in Cannabis. They deserve all the credit for the product we are getting to the market right now.”
Meet the Tier 1 GMO rosin. Trout’s tier pricing is based on quality judgments of all single-source batches, which are smoked by the team before release to determine where they should be placed. The GMO was a selective run of fresh frozen flower from their outdoor living soil beds, pulled at 73-120 microns, first wash.
The nose on the jar is classic GMO: strong garlic terpenes, a sweet bite of onion and that Chem D funk. The rosin itself could be mistaken for a dollop of pale, slightly golden honey; its surface is shiny but not wet. When nudged with a tool, it is a little sticky and returns to its shape.
The smell translates to flavor, with a lingering Chem breath after the exhale. I took multiple solid dabs (finished the gram over two days — for science), and it burned fairly clean, with a bit of residual dark amber in the banger. The high is that heavy brain-body slowdown that GMO is known for. The tension in my back and jaw released. After a few dabs, I was truly comfortably numb.
Placing top 10 in a field of over 70 submissions for MOR NY had my expectations high. It’s clear from the quality of this jar that Trout & Co. is bringing consistent excellence to the mat. For “Little Trout,” that’s tradition.
“Legacy pioneers were the people who helped me to learn and love this craft, and we all stand on their shoulders,” Tworig said. “I have to shout out Sherpa Seeds (@sherpa_seeds) for really teaching me about cultivation, genetics and extraction early on. That had a huge impact in pushing me to where I am today.”
Trout & Co. is “dedicated to bringing some of the best hash cultivars in the world — many of which mainly flow through traditional markets — into dispensaries,” he said.
We’ll be watching — and smoking — it all.
This article was originally published in the May 2026 issue of Northeast Leaf.
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