The Perfect Jars
While we may see ourselves as “farmers”, somehow over the past couple of years we have become “marketers” as well. As I wrote before in a blog called “The Evolution of Swami Select,” the birth and formative years of Swami Select have been organic in every way. It began as a joke around the trim table and evolved into a burgeoning business that strives to educate the cannabis connoisseur about the benefits of organic sungrown flowers. While some magic was indeed involved, hard work was the other important ingredient.
As with any new business, particularly to do with retail sales and education, visibility is key. So we set up this website and our YouTube Channel and we host and attend cannabis events. But equally important to our visibility was to determine what the image was that we wanted to convey. Naturally, when you have such a bright and smiling face as Swami’s right here, it was a no-brainer to use that as the logo. From a photo I took one day, we turned it into a “vector image” which resembles a 16th Century woodcut, or at least I think so. With that in hand and assistance from some dear friends in the world of graphics, the font was chosen and laid out and from there we created the labels you see today.
Fancy labels and groovy products are nice, but my real passion is for the jars. I read somewhere that future California law may require that flowers be kept in apothecary quality violet blue glass jars. That set me on a hunt to find them, the best ones available, with the air-tight lids. The only light that can get in is violet light, and I have learned it actually has antibiotic effects, working as a natural filter which protects the delicate flowers. To quote www.howtostorecannabis.com:
“ … These new jars block all UV-B rays and the complete spectrum of visible light with the exception of violet. At the same time, they allow permeation of UV-A and infrared light. This unique combination offers optimal protection against the aging process, thus lengthening the lifespan and potency of your herb.” Well said. And they really work.
Hence, in our on-going campaign to raise awareness about best quality sun and organically grown cannabis, we decided to pay the price and get the fancy violet glass jars. Not only do they preserve your cannabis, but they are reusable for years to come, for whatever herb you like, or lotions, etc. too. If you are going to go for top quality cannabis, it should be in best quality packaging, right?
I am in love with these jars. What more can I say? I put some fine and fragile Sativa bud into a jar in early December and left it in a cold and dark place all winter, and when I opened it in May it was perfectly cured. Pungent aroma wafted from the jar, known in the trade as “jar jumping terpenes.” If the same cannabis had been in a plastic bag – and God forbid somewhere that wasn’t dark – it would be another story completely. After nine months of nurturing our lovely girl plants from seed to harvest, we want to ensure that they are given the best treatment all along the way, until they reach the patient. In the violet glass jars, with tamper-evident seals, we can guarantee that our patients get only the purest, freshest bud available.
Like anything new, at first we received a lot of resistance. People said they wanted to be able to see the flowers, to open the jar and squeeze them, to take a deep smell. I understand the temptation to do that, but for the farmer, it is like being punched in the stomach. We have taken great care all through the season and harvest to touch the flowers the very least possible, to maintain crystal content and not bruise the delicate buds. It’s kind of like with wine – you don’t get to open the bottle and smell it and taste it before buying it.
And so the cannabis connoisseur is learning now as well – that it is more important that your flowers have been suitably protected from start to finish, to enhance your eventual experience, than that need to squeeze and smell the bud from every jar. We supply a sample jar for sniffing, but please don’t touch the flowers! You get to do that when you roll it up to enjoy the inspiration.
