Rose was founded by two childhood friends, Nathan and Scott, who together set out to create an edible they’d want to eat. All the edibles on the market were made from industrial ingredients and lacked anything resembling real food. 

They make a perfect creative duo. Nathan is the voice of the brand and creates many of the recipe ideas, and Scott creates and oversees the visuals and other creative assets for the brand.

In a conversation with Santa Cruz Naturals, the Rose team shares what makes their California edibles different.

SCN: What makes rose different?

Rose: We distinguish ourselves through an ingredient-driven approach, the exclusive use of flower rosin, and our collaborations with celebrated chefs and farmers.

Rose takes responsibility for every step of production. Instead of masking the plant’s flavor, we find beauty in it, exploring alluring ways to incorporate seasonal fruit that’s sourced from some of California’s most respected farmers into each recipe.

Our philosophy is rooted in the culinary tradition of seasonality and integrity of each ingredient, including unprocessed, organically-grown cannabis. We believe quality in is quality out. Our edibles are infused with single-strain whole flower rosin to preserve the beneficial properties of the plant providing a dynamic, integrative experience.

What is flower rosin? 

Rose is the first edible company in the recreational market to exclusively use flower rosin, a solventless extract that conveys the purest expression of the source plant. This results in clearer and stronger effects, enhanced therapeutic properties, and a true representation of the flower’s flavor.

 Most edibles are a mass-produced mix of leftover trim refined into a concentrate or extract using chemical solvents. We prefer our edibles to taste like what they are: a single strain flower grown at the Rose farm. We squeeze concentrate from this flower by hand in-house using a hydraulic press to preserve cannabinoids, terpenes, and other beneficially compounds in the plant.

 How did the collaboration between Rose and Chef Enrique Olvera develop? 

The first time we planted cannabis at the Rose farm, Wendy grew ground cherries to form a perimeter of lush vegetation around the base of some of the plants in the garden. When we hang out around the plants, we all snack on ground cherries incessantly. 

Cherries are fun to eat because they have an amazing flavor, but also because of the suspense of peeling away the husk to reveal the fruit inside: like shelling peanuts or popping bubble wrap.

One day, we asked Chef Enrique if he had an idea for how to incorporate ground cherries into a Delights recipe. He responded “Ground Cherry Cola to taste like a classic coke bottle gummy”. It was while after this short conversation before we connected with Hurik Palos and realized how much energy and work actually went on behind the scenes to develop this recipe before the idea was handed off to us. 

This video shares a bit of background and explains how Ground Cherry Cola Delights were developed.

Is there anything else you’d like to share? 

Rose is solventless, with no added flavors, colors, preservatives, or additional terpenes. We don’t partner with any third-party manufacturing. We offer a vegan, all natural, gluten-free cannabis experience, including compostable packaging. All our flavors are homemade, limited batches. Get them while they last. 

Rose premium edibles are sold at Santa Cruz Natural’s Aptos shop and come in a variety of flavors. Shop the collection on our online menu.