Long gone are the days when cannabis edibles were simply limited to sweet treats like brownies or gummies. Brands like Potli are introducing cannabis into daily meal routines with infused kitchen pantry staples, making cannabis consumption more welcoming and accessible to consumers of all ages and experience levels.
Potli was co-founded by CEO Felicity Chen, along with her college roommate Christine Yi, with the goal of bringing cannabis-infused ingredients into the kitchen. The company began by selling infused raw honey (Dream Honey won first place in the CBD category at the 2021 Emerald Cup), followed by other unique cooking ingredients like a cannabis-infused extra virgin olive oil and a sriracha ( who also won first place at last year’s Emerald Cup in the Edibles/Savory category). More recently, the brand has begun an expansion of ready-to-eat products as well with its cannabis-infused shrimp chips (made with Potlis-infused olive oil), which won first place in the Edibles/Flavor category at Emerald cup in 2022.
Potli products offer a new way to use cannabis as a condiment.
From Pot to Potli
Chen, a Bay Area native, met her Potli co-founder Christine Yi when they were casually paired as roommates in their freshman year of East Coast college at Boston University. During that time, Chen recalls experimenting with cannabis in their dorm room, resulting in a strong weed smell in the hallways. But eventually, she discovered how cannabis helped her on a more personal level.
I’ve always been someone who was you know, a more anxious teenager and going through my college years with someone who just had a lot of energy and didn’t really know how to quiet my brain, says Chen. It was just something that was interesting to me and calmed me down.
After graduation, Chen moved back to the Bay Area and Yi stayed on the East Coast, and their transition from consumers to entrepreneurs began as they worked together to develop Potli.
While Potli became a way to keep Chen and Yi connected remotely, it was also founded as a method to help treat Chen’s mothers’ asthma and allergies. When Chen returned home, he found that his father had learned to keep bees to collect honey for his mother.
Chen explains that her mother’s daily routine usually starts with honey and lemon. Raw honey can be added to a variety of different dishes, such as tea, oats or smoothies, and contains beneficial antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Add cannabis to the mix and it becomes even more useful as part of a healthy regimen.
While Chen’s mother wasn’t interested in smoking cannabis, adding it to her honey allowed her to partake in a format she found more familiar and comfortable.
I am a second generation Chinese American which means there is no way my mom would ever smoke weed with me. It was just a fact, right? says Chen. But she understood the benefits of cannabis. And all of its anti-inflammatory effects through the lens of This is medicine. And so, medicine typically is consumed with edibles. And it’s also truly the healthiest way to consume cannabis, through an edible.
One of Potlis’ primary goals is to create and promote food as medicine, a philosophy that has led the company to create its best-selling honey-infused products. The company’s honey-gathering operation includes 30 to 50 hives, depending on the season (honey bees are most active in spring and summer). Currently, Potli sells several infused variants of infused raw honey, such as one that contains THC, CBD, and CBN, while another one contains CBD only.
Cannabis as a condiment
The company has continued to expand its line of pantry essentials to include other helpful ingredients as well.
Potlis cannabis-infused extra virgin olive oil comes from the same region where the company obtains its cannabisLake County, California. Their olive oil comes from Campodonico Olive Farm, among a few other local olive farms, while their cannabis comes from Aster Farms, which is well known in the region for its dedication to transparency and organic farming practices that produce flowers of high quality sun grown cannabis.
Chen believes it is essential to promote and work with local producers to highlight some of California’s agricultural products.
This is why we make what we make, because our products are pretty much products you can only find in California. And it’s grown with such intention, and crafted with such care, and it tells a story about all these different farmers who make it and are behind it, says Chen.
Following the success of Potlis cannabis-infused extra virgin olive oil, its cannabis-infused sriracha has taken the stage, offering a spicy twist to a variety of meals.
Between offering infused honey, olive oil, and sriracha, Potli already covers a broad base for experimentation.
But these are the kinds of things that [you] can really make any recipe with it, right? And that’s what I love, is that you can make any salad dressing you like, fried chicken, and you can use every single ingredient and make wildly different products. You can make a soup that is really Chinese style, so like it [with] tofu. So all of these things are really, really different, Chen says.
Chen explains that she personally likes to experiment with different cannabis dishes in the evening.
I love preparing food. This is also one of my ways to reduce stress, explains Chen. And part of that journey is also making food with Potli products that get me high, and then I sleep great.
In the past, Potli also carried infused chili oil and apple cider vinegar. Chen shared that there are plans to re-release these products soon. Chen also hinted at an exciting new product coming in the near future. While he can’t divulge the details yet, he explains it’s something she’s sure the community of Potli will love.
Meanwhile, Potlis’ dedication to creating versatile food products will continue to lead the way for infused home cooking and healthy eating.
We really think that through edibles and through the things you eat, health is just something that’s based on what you eat. And, you know, that’s the old adage, says Chen. And that’s really what the core values of the company are, is to fix people’s health and help people feel better through the foods they eat.
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This article was originally published in the November 2022 issue of High Times Magazine.
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