Two new cannabis products from Curaleaf are taking the cannabis market by storm.
Since 2017, Curaleaf has been serving as a medical cannabis provider for New Yorkers. When recreational cannabis became legalized in New York in 2024, Curaleaf, like many other medical retailers, started to create more products to cater to the recreational cannabis user.
Jessie Kater, SVP Innovation, Technical Manufacturing at Curaleaf, has been spearheading product development at Curaleaf since 2018. He has seen firsthand how the market has changed with the introduction of recreation in New York’s cannabis space.
“In the early days, it was all flower, and flower was the market with some minimal concentrates and basic tinctures. We’ve seen the explosion over the last 7 or 8 years of all these new cannabis form factors,” said Kater. “[The] vape has become a massive category and has had its own evolution over the last 5 or 6 years. Edibles have come a long way since just tinctures and the old infused brownie to every type of confection. Tablets, beverages and all these different formats. We’ve seen just such a wide range of new products coming into the market.”
Two of Curaleaf’s latest products recently launched in New York: Anthem and Select ACE. Anthem is the company’s newest line of pre-rolls, blending together classic Americana aesthetics with modern cannabis craftsmanship with everyday use in mind.
Anthem is available as a sativa, indica or hybrid in packs of five or ten. What sets Anthem apart is the size; unlike your standard pre-roll, each pre-roll is .35 mg each, making it smaller than your average pre-roll.
“So I’ve been giving us the opportunity to create a unique-looking product that has a unique characteristic, at the same time, working on improving one of the factors contributing to a better burning dynamic,” said Kater. “We have a number of our larger formats like a one-gram pre-roll, but we get a ton of feedback compared to most brands on what consumers are looking for. While there is a consumer for a one-gram pre-roll or something that you could share, for a lot of people, [they just] want something for personal consumption.”
With Anthem, Kater says the size is not only approachable to more consumers, but also has a better burn experience.
“We’re very purposeful of running across a wide variety of sizes and trying to [create] something that a consumer can enjoy without being overwhelming,” said Kater.
Select ACE is Curaleaf’s latest vape and the first vape on the market to use a proprietary Aqueous Cannabis Extraction method instead of the traditional rosin-based extraction. The water-based process skips ethanol and CO2 in favor of a cleaner extraction that isolates only cannabinoids while leaving behind any impurities from the plants.
“If you go to the grocery store, you’ll see alkaline water has become very popular for health reasons, but alkaline water actually will extract the acidic cannabinoids. So we’re using it novelly as a solvent, and I think what’s unique about that is that the traditional techniques are CO2, ethanol, and hydrocarbon, hydrocarbon being things like butane and propane,” said Kater. “While they’re different solvents, they’re all removing the cannabinoids off the exact same principle, which is based on solubility.”
Kater says that the Aqueous Cannabis Extraction method makes for a smoother, cleaner vape experience for their consumers.
“We get an incredibly clean THC oil. It’s water clear because there’s no other constituents in there. That’s why the oil itself is so clear,” said Kater. “Then we will add back in either those strain-specific cannabis terpenes or if we’re going for a different flavor, other botanical terpenes, and the product is still very high potency. Without that plant byproduct, it is remarkably smooth.”
Curaleaf is located at 107-18 70th Rd. in Forest Hills. For more information, visit curaleaf.com.
