- We visited the farm of the winners of the Emerald Cup 2018 in the category “personal use”
During the Emerald Cup in 2018, in Sonoma County, the Gold Country Cannabis collective took home first and second place in one of the most important cannabis awards in California.
It could be said that the winners of these awards gain the respect of millions of people but also, they grow the best flowers of the State.
Going to the aka “academy awards” of the cannabis mecca in America is not by coincidence. It is not given because you are not interested in the subject, or because you have the money to pay for it, the reason is that we understand the true value of what is considered the new green gold of a medicinal plant par excellence.
For many years I have asked myself: What makes the best cannabis in the world? This is the question that took me to the north for the first time. It’s been two years since doubt pursues me as existential grief.
A lot of things happened before we got here. Naturally, my understanding was approaching an ancestral knowledge that searches me and accommodates the moral. The heaviness of being a modern Central American individual grown and raised in the streets where the Jamaican brick weed dominated, a son of the prohibition.
For my luck, the world changed, and two years later with some customs encounters for my journalistic work, kilometers of kilometers with sealed passports, I was now; time and space, in the first Emerald Cup of the legal era.
Few will understand what I speak. But rarely do I live with optimism the future, and this was one of those times.
Two days after the award ceremony, I received a message. “Mae, it’s me Ital Balm, we were the winners of the Emerald with the Chile Verde. Are you guys here?”.
Amazingly, a Costa Rican was part of the collective of growers who raised, grew, harvested, dried and cured the best cannabis in California. Crazy!
I met Balm by mutual friends of the Costa Rican scene in one of the secret cups, where in fact, he went home with one of the prizes.
The next week, there we were. In the lands that were once exploited by the gold rush, the old west, between the wealth and greatness of California, lands that previously belonged to New Spain whose relationship with the Anglo-Saxon world remains endearing, today they are the cradle of the world of cannabis
And from there, of course, comes its name: Gold Country Cannabis.
The land of “crafted cannabis”
When we arrived, the first thing we saw were rows of abandoned plants, on one of the properties of an old American retired from war who has just surrendered to legalization.
“It’s a lot of work to do it alone as he wanted. He surrendered, “Balm tells me that during the work season he usually gets up at dawn to work in the Gold Country Cannabis garden.
As well as any other trade that is passed from generation to generation.
Balm is apprenticed to aka JD, local grower. Before him, a Jason King, an OG (original grower) Californian cultivated the land and creator of the CannaBible.
This year, the collective planted several special genetics. Among them, Chile Verde, Orange Crush, Cherry Pie, Choco Frost and others, that we could taste during our visit.
In the modern world, the best cannabis is not the one with the highest THC levels in history capable of letting you lie down at the first smoke. That still happens in countries where there’s no education, meaning: where cannabis it’s still illegal.
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At these levels, concentration and quality go through other nuances.
But first, start by understanding that the medicinal spirit of the plant is the most important. The principle of “crafted cannabis” is the quality and production of terpenes that are the true medicinal components of the plant.
“Quality and the treatment given to the plant is our priority. I think that’s why we have not gone down from the top 10 since 2016 in Emerald Cup or in the Humboldt Cup “
After three years I was facing the crème de la crème, the future and the root and energy that for centuries has evolved with humanity.
In other words, “the crafted cannabis” is what makes the difference between the industrialization of the legal era and right there, the differences between “sun grown” and “mix light”.
But it was not until I visualized, after a few puffs of smoke, the maximum medicinal power.
A heavy and complete profile of terpenes protrudes through the dense spectrum of smoke that, by opening the keys of the central system, cleans the airways to give way to a clear and full state of mind as the state of post-meditation.
This material will give extracts that will cure cancer, treat epilepsy, provide quality of life and relieve hundreds of people’s chronic pain.
“We connect deeply with its medicinal value and in that sense we have to do it well, with love, protecting nature, the sun and giving thanks for having space and nature to be able to do it. This is our philosophy, “says Balm, giving us a tour around the garden.
These lands will continue to lead and influence the global cannabis culture, despite the fact that legalization has forced thousands to retire. The “crafted” is the new face, the specialization and the sign that the prohibition lost the war and the new era in the cities and towns has begun.
Crafted Cannabis: refers to those cannabis growers who combine the art and science of cultivation to produce the finest cannabis with the best aroma, flavor and exceptional effects. His philosophy and meticulousness express to the maximum the potential of genetics.
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in Costa Rica. 
