The king of California, Cookies or Jungle Boys?.

The recreational cannabis scene has been booming since its legalization in January 2018, earning the state of California hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes in the first year alone. The two most popular brands currently are Cookies and Jungle Boys, both receive a cult like following with new flower drops usually selling out within hours. Below we look a little deeper into each of the dominating forces of California's, increasingly popular recreational cannabis market.

Cookies clothing store.

Cookies was started by rapper and longtime cannabis aficionado Berner real name Gilbert Milam Jr. This exciting cannabis brand has people queuing down the block for its clothing let alone its cannabis products which owner Berner regularly documents on his instagram page @berner415. Berner having gained much experience working in medical dispensaries had the foresight to be able to recognize that one day cannabis would be branded in the same way as cigarettes or alcohol. Using this experience Berner created his Cookies brand around a single strain of weed which he named girl scout cookies after its thin mint girl scout cookies like taste. Using this strain as the benchmark for breeding with other strains Berner created the now massively popular Cookies menu along with the Cookies brand. What started with a single strain now boasts a clothing line with its own independent store and two impressively stacked and ever growing menus, Cookies and Lemonade which can be purchased from the Cookies dispensary in San Francisco. Having watched various interviews with Berner it seems that he wants to ensure high quality, clean cannabis will always be available and having just entered into a nationwide distribution deal with Grandiflora it seems that will be the case for the next few years at the very least. The Cookies brand has some huge stars in the fan club including many rappers who document their frequent trips to the Cookies store along with posting it to their instagram pages and often mention the brand or strain names in their songs, not to mention the time Berner gave Wiz Khalifa a cannabis plant on stage, which is now known as Khalifa Kush or KK it is obvious that Cookies are not short of fans or publicity. It is hard not to be impressed with what the Cookies brand has achieved in a relatively short time, and why in my opinion definitely deserves a shot at the throne.

One of the rooms full of flowering cannabis plants at a Jungle Boys facility.

Jungle Boys are unique, just like Cookies this company's progression has seemed very organic and more of a snowball effect from the humble beginnings that Ivan owner of the Jungle Boys started out with, when compared to the huge facilities the Jungle Boys now run in Los Angeles.

Meeting now business partners The TLC Collective whilst in search of cannabis products that could help ease his father’s symptoms from his battle with terminal cancer, Ivan originally started out growing in his garage. Using the limited knowledge gained from having a few plants in his garden and some tips his mother had given him also a cannabis cultivator Ivan has managed to already achieve what to him may have seemed impossible 10 years ago, even if only from a legal standpoint. It is inspiring to think that what started as a chance meeting and a re-ignited passion has resulted in multiple facilities as well as a clothing line for this industry leading, rapidly expanding cannabis business. In keeping with what could potentially be part of the reason we have been blessed with the Jungle Boys it has been kept as a family run business, Ivan resisted early offers to sell part of the company and now has some of his family involved in running the business. Ivan came across the strain responsible for popularizing the Jungle Boys name after popping over 1000 seeds on a pheno hunt. After risking felony changes in his hunt for the perfect pheno, the phenotype which was chosen was from a white fire og strain and was number 43 so the Jungle Boys phenotype was suitably renamed white fire 43.

Now employing hundreds of staff and housing tens of thousands of plants in their streamlined dispensary/facilities the Jungle Boys regularly blog the daily running of the business on their instagram @thejungleboys. Giving you deep insight they do not only share the ups as they also documented an incident in which a room caught fire and had to be fully rebuilt from the ground up which they also then shared the continual progress of. Continually releasing new strains the Jungle Boys menu now boasts an impressive selection that could be likened to a dessert menu, Sundae Driver, Wedding Pie, Mai Tai, Grape Pie, Jilly Bean, Purple Punchsicle and the list goes on and is forever growing. Also receiving many mentions from a long list of artists the Jungle Boys are not short of celebrity endorsements either it is clear like Cookies they also deserve to be at the top of whichever leagues they are competing in.

In summary I would have to say in my opinion they may be in competition but not with each other but their own standards and values that they started with when they got into the game even before it was legal. For the consumer it allows confidence and when buying cannabis products with either of these brands names attached, due to the reassurance that it comes with the highest quality but also and more importantly consistency. These 2 are 100% unquestionably the 2 most popular brands which is confirmed even by the popularity they have in states or even countries where cannabis is not yet legal. The only way I see either of these not being a leading force in the industry is if they where no longer part of it. The legal recreational market changed not only the way people thought about cannabis but literally the way they viewed it due to how it is now packaged and presented in proper packaging and no longer just a food baggy. If both brands continue in the trajectories in which they are currently heading I could see the way people view these companies in years to come as, Berner and the Cookies brand being likened to as the godfather of the cannabis business for introducing the attachment of a strain to a brand but also the legendary strains and genetics he and his team have and continue to bring to the game. Jungle Boys will be seen as one of the forefathers of branded cannabis businesses and without question legends of the game. It’s going to be hard to improve on the already ridiculously high standards, but like Cookies I can only see Jungle Boys expanding and being available in any countries which this beautiful plant is legal.

Written by, the big weed.