April 14, 2020 • 47:35 minutes
#117 – All About CBN + CBG Isolate w/ Zach from Bloom Hemp
Zach Zerr is the Creative Director at Bloom Hemp. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Bloom Hemp is an independently owned and operated Hemp and CBD supplier committed to building a community that wants to change the world. To do this, we believe in using hemp not only as an alternative medicine but as everything from a healthier food source to the fabric that makes up your clothes.
Show Notes
Zach is the creative director at Bloom Hemp. Back on for his 2nd appearance on the CBD School Podcast, he tells us the latest from what’s going on in the labs and fields at Bloom Hemp including the development of new CBN and CBG products.
Highlights
- Bloom Hemp’s Mission and Goals
- New Hemp Butter Product
- From Soil to Sale, All Organic
- From Colorado to East Asia and Back Again
- Let’s Talk About Bloom Hemp’s CBN Product
- Cooking with Isolates
- CBG – The Mother of all Cannabinoids
- Full-Spectrum Products
- What’s Next for Bloom Hemp?
- CBD, CBN or CBG Isolate
Links of Interest
Bloom Hemp Website
Bloom Hemp on Instagram
Bloom Hemp Twitter
Bloom Hemp Facebook
Summary Keywords
hemp, cbd, people, tinctures, cannabinoids, cbn, products, cbg, isolate, add, bloom, terpenes, full spectrum, benefits, peanut butter, thc, starting, blends, denver, mix
Speakers
Vadim Fedorovsky, Host, CBD School Podcast
Zach Zerr, Creative Director, Bloom Hemp
Podcast Transcript
Introduction
Zach 00:01
Our goal is we want to empower our community to live happier, healthier lives through all things hemp. And so our community is really everybody that’s like-minded and interested in bettering themselves. It’s anyone around the world that’s willing to use hemp and go a different direction than the traditional, whether that’s over the counter medicine or otherwise.
Vadim 00:31
All right. And we are back in class. This is Vadim, the CBD professor from cbdschool.com: Your school to learn all about cannabidiol. Hey, everyone, on this episode of the CBD School Podcast, we’ve got Zach on again for a second time, and he is the creative director from Bloom Hemp. I think you’re going to enjoy this episode. Before we get into it, I want to remind you that Bloom Hemp is the sponsor for this episode. And their mission is to enrich the lives of their community through all things hemp. You can check them out over at bloomhemp.com. It’s bloom-hemp.com. That’s BLOOM-hemp.com. I’ll leave that in the show notes. And you can grab 20% off of any of their products using the coupon code CBDSCHOOL20 over at bloom-hemp.com. They’ve got some great unique isolate products that I’ve never seen anywhere else. They have CBG isolate and CBN isolate. CBN is really good for sleep and definitely check out their products. They’ve got more than just isolates but that is really unique. I’ve never seen anybody have CBG and CBN isolate. They also have CBD isolate as well as full-spectrum CBD products and even hemp butter, which is a replacement for peanut butter and it is a great tasting way to get a lot of protein. So make sure to check them out over at bloom-hemp.com and use the coupon code CBDSCHOOL20 for 20% off. Enjoy the show.
On today’s episode of the podcast, I have Zach on who is actually coming on for his second time. And he is the creative director at Bloom Hemp. So we are going to get all into their brand and what’s been going on with them. So Zach, welcome to the show.
Zach 02:41
Hi, thanks for having me.
Vadim 02:43
So Zach, where are you calling in from today?
Zach 02:45
I am calling in from Denver, Colorado.
Vadim 02:48
Oh, nice. Okay, so Colorado is a nice place. I’ve actually lived in Denver before. I am currently in Mexico, where it’s I’m sure a bit warmer than Denver. But did you have a big snow year this year?
Zach 03:01
We have had a big snow this snow year more than usual this year for sure. So Mexico sounds amazing. Where are you at in Mexico?
Vadim 03:09
I live outside of Cancún. So it’s called Playa del Carmen. It’s just like an hour from Cancun.
Zach 03:16
Oh, wonderful. Wonderful. Sounds like the place to be right now.
Vadim 03:21
It is nice. It is nice. We are on quarantine just like the rest of the world. But there’s a lot less cases here. But they’re still taking it pretty seriously.
Zach 03:29
Nice, nice. Same here. It’s kind of we’re I think it’d be nicer to be in quarantine in Mexico, where it’s nice and warm and you guys have fewer cases. But hopefully the curve is starting to flatten out here. People have been staying home and we’ve got our fingers crossed.
Vadim 03:44
How’s it been in Colorado?
Zach 03:47
We had a lot of cases for a while compared to other states. But over the last week, week and a half, I think that other places like New York and whatnot have really had it a lot more serious than we have. Things got shut down here pretty early on and I think that helped them get ahead. Now, I am no expert though. So I don’t want to sit here and say that things are too good but they don’t seem too bad when you go out. People calmed down. There’s not so much panic buying or anything like that, which is nice.
Vadim 04:14
Oh yeah, that’s good. That’s good. That was kind of crazy for a while there.
Zach 04:18
I think everyone’s kind of adjusting to this new normal and yeah, hoping that if we all listen for a little bit longer, things can go back to normal sooner rather than later.
Bloom Hemp’s Mission and Goals
Vadim 04:28
Yes, let’s certainly hope so. So first, people new to the show because there’s a bunch of new listeners that haven’t heard the original episode which I will post as well. We did an episode about a year ago exactly, actually, where Zach was on. But for people that didn’t hear that, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into this space and what your background is?
Zach 04:52
So the way I got into the hemp space is I’ve always had an interest in cannabis and hemp in general, appreciated the benefits of it. And while I was studying, my focus was on photography and things along that nature. So as the industry was kind of picking up steam, a buddy of mine offered me to jump in with them. And he said, “Hey, look, we need people that are willing or interested, number one, and number two willing to put themselves out here and create content and that kind of thing around CBD and hemp.” And to me, that sounded like the dream job. So I jumped in. And over the last two, three years, we’ve been working on building Bloom and creating this brand that’s more than just a CBD company, we hope to provide all things hemp. And since the last time we’ve talked, we’ve taken a really big step in getting there. I think that we’re doing a really good job at not meeting our goal, but striving towards it and trying to get hemp into the hands of more people, whether it’s CBD or otherwise.
Vadim 05:59
I like what you said when we were chatting before I started recording. What’s the mission of the company? I really like it.
Zach 06:05
Our goal is we want to empower our community to live happier, healthier lives through all things hemp. And so our community is really everybody that’s like-minded and interested in bettering themselves. It’s anyone around the world that’s willing to use hemp and go a different direction than the traditional, whether that’s over the counter medicine or otherwise. And our goal is to be a resource for everyone. Sorry, I’m stumbling through this here. But there’s a lot more than just CBD in our minds when it comes to the benefits of hemp. And we’re talking, whether it’s the things you eat, or other cannabinoids as well that all come from this awesome plant, and we’re getting that into the hands of the people. And I think we’re starting to see the benefits of that. We’re not the only ones doing it, but it’s something that we’ve been very driven about doing. And we’re very excited about everything that we’ve released over the last couple of weeks.
New Hemp Butter Product
Vadim 06:55
Oh, that is nice. I like that. So what is the one product — well, we’ll discuss a few of the products but the one we were also talking about before the call was a hemp peanut butter without the peanuts. Can you tell us about that? Because I think a lot of people will be interested in that or will want to tell their friends about it if they have some kind of allergy.
Zach 07:15
Oh, for sure. So one of the coolest things about hemp is — I’m sure you know — there’s over 25,000 uses according to Forbes. That’s everything from CBD to hemp concrete to build houses. And so if you’re listening to this podcast, obviously you know or at least have a little bit of interest in CBD so you understand one of the benefits. But something that often gets overlooked is the fact that you can eat hemp, specifically hemp seeds. So what we’ve done is we’ve taken sprouted hemp seeds, which have a ton of benefits in themselves. And we’re not talking stuff where you have to be worried about making claims because they’re still studies now. This is well researched stuff that’s already out there. There’s actually been hemp foods on the shelves for a long time, but they’re just now starting to get a little bit of attention since CBD has gotten so big.
So what we’ve done is we’ve taken the sprouted hemp seeds and we’ve turned them into hemp butter, which is ultimately similar to other nut butters that you may have heard of. There’s Justin’s, which is quite famous. They do a bunch of almond butter. We’ve essentially taken that same idea, but with hemp seeds. So we’re able to formulate a peanut butter basically without peanuts. It tastes like peanut butter but with all the benefits of hemp seeds. It looks like peanut butter. Everything about peanut butter, but with hemp. So there’s no risk of allergy. If you have peanut allergies, this is completely safe for you because there’s nothing about it that’s made with peanuts, which is a really big deal for a lot of people.
Vadim 08:47
And it really tastes like peanut butter?
Zach 08:48
It tastes like peanut butter. There’s a slight hempiness to it, because it is still made using hemp, but it tastes like peanut butter, which is awesome. And unlike traditional peanut butter, because it’s made from hemp, ours is actually packed with protein, which is really cool, as well as some other beneficial fatty acids, magnesium. There’s a bunch of benefits to it. But the big one is being a great source of protein as well.
Vadim 09:12
And I love that you have this. I’m looking at the site right now. You have this raspberry flavor. That sounds really good.
Zach 09:17
The raspberry is absolutely delicious. And we thought that was key because peanut butter is great, but not everybody likes peanut butter. And sometimes you want to be able to change it up. So we’re like why not roll out something that gives you a bit of a different flavor option? It’s great in the morning to throw on your toast, if you’re going hiking throw a peanut butter and jelly sandwich but instead hemp butter. So we’re really trying to bring full circle the idea of providing all things hemp to people, and I think this is probably the biggest step we could have taken with that.
Vadim 09:46
I’m seeing the protein. I think it is higher per serving (10 grams per serving), I guess, than regular peanut butter.
Zach 09:52
Yes. And that’s being conservative because we don’t want to make any claims but the cool thing about it is it’s not just just regular protein. Hemp seeds are a great source of complete protein. That means they have all nine essential amino acids in them, which is really hard to find. Most meats don’t have that, other plant-based sources of protein don’t have that. So that’s something that’s very unique to hemp seeds and makes the peanut butter and the proteins in them that much better for you.
Vadim 10:21
Yes, that is interesting. So when they make that, are the seeds roasted first, and then blend it up?
Zach 10:27
So I have not worked super closely with our formulator on this one. I went in a few times, and they kept kicking me out because I kept snacking. So I don’t have all the details on this. It’s something where I think that it’d be really good for Tom and I to both hop on with you at some point and chat more about this because we’re gonna be going beyond. What you’re seeing on the website is the first step. Over the next few months, we’ll be rolling out more hemp foods and different CBD blends and cannabinoid blends using some active ingredients where we’re also working with this formulator to get ideas about how we can use different aspects of the plant to our benefit and everybody else’s benefit.
From Soil to Sale, All Organic
Vadim 11:05
Very cool. So you guys are a Colorado company and are you using all Colorado grown hemp?
Zach 11:11
Not only are we using Colorado grown hemp, but we’re using hemp that we’ve grown ourselves. So that’s the other thing that we’ve been working really hard on over the last couple of years is getting our own farm up and running. So we have our own farm out here in Colorado. But not only that, we have one of the few hemp farms in the United States that is actually USDA-certified Organic. So our entire process from soil to sale is completely organic. Processing as well, all certified by the USDA. So this isn’t just a claim of, “Hey, we’re organic, and we’re using organic methods.” No, we actually went out and got certified, had people come out and make sure that our process from the very beginning the way we treat our soil to the way we’re processing our hemp is all done organically.
Vadim 11:56
That is really cool. So is the farm in Denver, in the Denver area like outside the city?
Zach 12:01
The farm is a little bit north of Denver, closer to Longmont.
Vadim 12:06
Oh, I know it.
Zach 12:08
I was gonna say for most people, it’s about 40 minutes north of Denver.
Vadim 12:12
Yeah, yeah. Towards Boulder.
Zach 12:13
Yes, exactly.
Vadim 12:12
I guess so. Down — what is that really, the 25?
Zach 12:18
Yes, I ride up I-25. The big one that runs right up and down the middle of the country.
From Colorado to East Asia and Back Again
Vadim 12:33
Yes. So are you originally from Colorado?
Zach 12:25
Yes, I am. But I haven’t lived here my entire life. I actually grew up overseas living in China and Vietnam and moved back here after I graduated.
Vadim 12:36
Wow, that is interesting. So you went to school out in Asia?
Zach 12:40
Yes. So I finished up in China and then moved to Denver about a year after I finished.
Vadim 12:46
So do you speak Mandarin? Or I’m not sure what their language is, actually.
Zach 12:49
Yeah. So Mandarin is the main one. Where I grew up, in Guangzhou, Cantonese is the local dialect. But that is much more difficult to pick up. So Mandarin is the one I learned. But admittedly, it gets worse every day that I live here. There’s not many people to practice with, then it is very tough to hang on to.
Vadim 13:09
So having grown up there, what do you think of this situation with the virus and its relationship to the country? I mean, do you have some insights you can share with people on that?
Zach 13:20
I don’t want to be too controversial, but I will say that having grown up there, when I heard about all this starting, I was very nervous that the information that we’re getting probably wasn’t 100% accurate. And a report since kind of backed that up that they potentially held some things back. And we still probably don’t know the full extent of how everything got going. But I also lived out there for the first SARS epidemic. So I know that they took it seriously, just the way information is disseminated is very different in China than it is in most countries, including especially in the West.
Vadim 13:59
Yeah. Wow. So did you like living there?
Zach 14:01
I loved it. So it was definitely, as a younger kid, or it’s definitely something that we just lived there. So you don’t really have your head wrapped around. But by the time I left, I had a great appreciation for that. I actually really missed the food more than anything else. Because unless you go to certain parts of New York, and I’ve heard that you can do the same thing in Los Angeles, but I’ve yet to experience it in person. It is just about impossible to find real Chinese food.
Vadim 14:26
There’s none in Denver?
Zach 14:26
Nothing that I would say actually tastes like real Chinese food. There’s an Americanized version and there’s some decent versions of that, but it’s really hard to get some of the ingredients I think that really give the flavor that authentic touch.
Vadim 14:39
No, I know what you mean. I grew up outside of Philadelphia. So we have some places there that are authentic.
Zach 14:46
I know the East Coast has some really nice pockets of immigrant communities where people have moved in and set up so you get really really good food the way we’re supposed to be made.
Vadim 14:55
Yep, yep. So back to Bloom Hemp. We will try to focus away from the virus for a little bit because that’s what everyone’s talking about anyway. So with the organic, are all the products USDA Organic are just some of them?
Zach 15:08
So not all of our products are USDA Organic yet but we are working our way towards that. The process on this takes a while. So being able to get a true USDA certification is something relatively new to the hemp space. It’s been there but they’re not easy to get. So what we’ve been able to do is get our process and the farm completely certified on that front but we have a few products like our gel caps or capsules where the gelatin is not organic. And there are a few solutions out there for that but that is not something we’ve been able to acquire yet. Like I said, we’re working on these, and then same with topicals. Our topicals, there’s a few things that we have to adjust to to get the full certification there but everything behind the hemp in those is organic and we are working to get that certified USDA Organic as well the lotions and the balm. But we have two tinctures that are full-spectrum at the moment and those are certified USDA Organic and our THC-free tincture is soon to be USDA-certified Organic. We’re actually working on all that when everything got kind of crazy.
Let’s Talk About Bloom Hemp’s CBN Product
Vadim 16:18
Cool. Yeah, I know it is a new process and it’s developing, I guess, and whatnot, what the rules and standards are. So I remember when we talked before, you guys were focused a lot more on isolate. And I know you’ve got some unique isolate product, some I’ve never even come across, like you have a CBN isolate?
Zach 16:38
Yes. So that is one of the things that we’re still not only proud to offer, but I think we’ve done a really good job building on. Like we discussed in our previous podcast that not all brands are willing to offer CBD isolate. That’s because it is the base formulation for a lot of CBD products. And it’s something that honestly, if you buy CBD isolate, you can easily go home and formulate your own tincture. It’s actually something we encourage people to do. It’s not the same as taking a full-spectrum product, but if you’re looking for just CBD or the benefits of it, it is a great way to go. And it’s something where if you reach out to us, shoot us a DM or email us or even give us a call, we’re happy to help walk you through the stages and be like here’s how you do everything from start to finish and you could be making your own homemade tinctures. So we’ve expanded on that to add in CBN isolate and CBG, which we think a lot of people are already excited about. And for those that don’t know about those cannabinoids, I think they will be.
Vadim 17:38
Yes. So let’s talk about CBN. And then we’ll get into the CBG. So CBN isolate, I mean, that is the first time I’ve ever seen that. And I think you would agree with me that even marijuana products don’t have a lot of CBN. It’s kind of trace amounts. So for people at home, CBN — you can correct me, Zach, if I’m saying it right — it’s cannabinol? Is that how you say it?
Zach 17:59
Cannabinol Yes, exactly.
Vadim 18:02
Cannabinol. And this cannabinoid is actually the byproduct of when I’m not sure if other cannabinoids but THC when it starts to degrade over time. Like if you just leave cannabis sitting out over time, it starts to degrade and it turns into CBN. And from my research, it’s been studied to be a sleep aid because I guess it has a sleepy effect to it.
Zach 18:23
Yes. So that’s where it is definitely one of the harder ones to find because of exactly the process you described. Since it is the byproduct of THC, it is either been wiped out over time and kind of degraded, or decarbed or exposed to heat, but all those things will break down. For the longest time, it was considered a kind of waste product of the plant. People didn’t pay it much attention. However, as we’ve started to dive into these cannabinoids more, really with the CBD boom, people started to pay more attention to CBN and realize that this is actually really powerful and not just isolate but a part of the plant. And so it’s kind of funny that it is that last stage process of THC breaking down. And you’re exactly right. It does have very sedative properties. And the studies that are out there show that sleep aid, pain aid, all of these things were kind of the heavier, more medical side of that is CBN really has an effect on, which is pretty cool.
Cooking with Isolates
Vadim 19:24
It’s cool. So one thing people ask me about a lot with these isolates is, does it hurt them if you heat them, like if you put it in a recipe, like if you put it in a baked good and then you heat it? Or they ask then, do you need to heat it for it to activate it? Could you help us with those questions?
Zach 19:41
So since the isolates don’t have the acid molecule attached, which is when you see them listed as CBDA, CBN, that kind of thing, they don’t need to be heated to be activated. That being said, they do have a boiling point and I would need to double check on CBN to make sure but I know that the CBD one, you definitely don’t want to overheat CBD. I haven’t done any baking — so I’ve done experiments cooking with CBD out quite a bit, I have not done any of that with CBN or CBG. I’ve only experimented with them as tinctures and taking them straight on their own. That being said, if you keep everything within their boiling points, you’ll be fine to cook these things. So theoretically, you can make CBN edibles. That’s something we definitely need to do some more exploring because I think that that would be both very enjoyable for people and a great way to dose your CBN, especially as a sleep aid in the evening. But for CBD, you definitely want to be careful not to burn it off. So generally, what we recommend to people is trying to either add it in later in the process, or once you add it to the ingredients, that you do keep the temperature below a certain point. Off the top of my head, I’m drawing a blank right now as to what that is. So my favorite way is generally to try to avoid direct heat with it. So if I’m adding it to a recipe, I’m adding it later on in the process, or into something where it will be used as a sauce or something where I add the very last.
Vadim 21:10
Yeah, yeah. So that’s a good way to do it. And they’re all tasteless, right? So it’s not really going to ruin the taste of anything, even if you just sprinkle it on, right?
Zach 21:19
No. And that’s the best part exactly. They are tasteless. So you can sprinkle it on and get them that way. Or if you want to meal prep potentially, you could infuse it in with a sauce you keep separately and you add to your meals as you reheat them afterwards. And then you are getting all your CBN or CBD dose, just add it separately afterwards.
Vadim 21:40
So do they mix well?
Zach 21:42
With foods or with each other directly?
Vadim 21:44
No, no. Like into foods, like into a sauce or into a drink. Like it doesn’t go to the bottom or is that mixed well?
Zach 21:49
So the isolates we have are not water soluble. So you can’t just put them directly into a drink or something like that. You could theoretically put them into a sauce and mix it in. But the best way to do that is to generally premix the isolate with a carrier oil. So what we recommend doing is using the double boiling method, which is taking two pots (a larger pot, a smaller pot) and putting the smaller pot inside the larger pot where you fill the larger pot with water to sit probably about an inch or two, maybe a little bit more below the bottom of the small pot. And you’ll add in a carrier oil of your choice, which will be anything from MCT oil, which is the most common one. So it’s using tinctures because it is so tasteless and infuses easily. But you could also use hemp seed oil, avocado oil, olive oil. If you’re making something Italian or like pesto, you might want to use olive oil. You can infuse isolate directly into that with this double boiling method. You’ll stir it once the water is boiling. You’ll stir the isolate into your carrier oil. And then you’ll add that to your recipe. So that way, it can easily be mixed in without losing the potency of the CBD or CBN or whatever you’re mixing in.
Vadim 23:07
Yeah, that’s that is cool. And I think it’s much easier instead of worrying about overheating. And since it doesn’t need to be heated. I like what you’re saying, which I’m sure someone can find out if they want the boiling point, but it’s easier just to not even worry about it and add it in afterwards.
Zach 23:23
Exactly. And that’s what we found. Just talking to people and doing our research, we found that, I mean, ultimately, you can make anything you want, you have to pay attention to how it’s being made. But a lot of people that were taking the risk with the heat would say that they had inconsistencies. You would lose a batch every now and then. Or if there’s a small mistake in temperature, or something got left in long, you’re losing your potency. Whereas we found that all the people that try to avoid heat as much as they could in the first place tend to have the best success. So we’ve gone down that route in trying to find ways where we can expose the isolate to heat as little as possible. That way we know that we’re getting the maximum effects when we add it to food.
Vadim 24:03
Yes. And what is the purpose of the double boiler? Like why can’t you just put it into oil? Why do you have to heat the oil to mix it?
Zach 24:13
I honestly don’t know. That’s something I probably should have spent more time trying to perfect the mix than I did looking into why exactly it has to mix, but I get from afar the explanation is the same way. When you go to take CBD, you lose some of the bioavailability. If you’re taking a tincture with CBD oil in it, that carrier oil helps it become more bioavailable to your body so that you can absorb the CBD and use more of it. So when adding it to food, you could theoretically just pour in isolate to say a salsa or something and mix it around in there. But on a lot of that, the CBD itself will sink or congregate to the bottom and really just kind of not be something that’s evenly mixed into your recipe. Whereas if you mix it into a carrier oil and add that to the ingredients and mix that in, you’re going to get a much more even mix and know the CBD is actually being delivered in a way that your body will use it, and not just sitting at the bottom of the thing that gets washed out when you’re done eating.
Vadim 25:17
Hey, everyone. I hope you are enjoying listening to this episode so far. Just wanted to take a moment to remind you that you can get 20% off over at bloom-hemp.com, just use the coupon code CBDSCHOOL20 for 20% off your full order. They’ve got lots of unique products including hemp butter, which is a replacement for peanut butter, and CBG, CBN and CBD isolate, which you could use for pretty much anything you want, including making your own CBD products. So make sure to check them out over at bloom-hemp calm and use the coupon code CBDSCHOOL20 for 20% off. Thanks for listening and enjoy the rest of the show.
CBG – The Mother of all Cannabinoids
Let’s move on to CBG then. So that’s cannabigerol, right?
Zach 26:07
Yes. And I’m right there with you. That one’s tougher to say. But the cool thing about CBG is it’s really the mother of all cannabinoids, including CBD. All the other cannabinoids start off as CBG. And as the various processes happen, there are different triggers that send in different directions, it becomes a different cannabinoid. So there’s a transition that moves it where I believe that loses a hydrogen atom, I could have that wrong maybe or something along those lines, and it becomes THCA. And then when you decarb that with heat or just time, it develops into CBN, but it can also go the other way and become CBD. It’s just a very versatile and very powerful minor cannabinoid.
Vadim 26:53
Yes. And what CBG is good for?
Zach 26:55
CBG is good for a number of things. So the ones that are highlighting studies right now and I think we’re gonna see a lot more information pour out about this over the next few months are the potential anticancer effects, the anti inflammation effects and a lot of the overall antibacterial effects. Each cannabinoid really has different benefits of its own but CBG covers a wider amount of things. The same way it develops in other cannabinoids, it takes care of a lot of these bigger processes of your body, including immune health, which is ginormous right now. But I think the ones that are being focused on the most are the potential with anticancer and some of the antibacterial effects.
Vadim 27:39
I think you’re right in that. That one’s gonna get a lot of attention. And interesting, people don’t know that all the cannabinoids actually start with that one in its acid form.
Zach 27:48
Yes, exactly. So you do have to remove that acid molecule for it to start to develop into the other ones. But that is the beginning point for all cannabinoids. And this one is another one that is kind of like CBN. People ignored it. Because CBN being the end product and CBG being the beginning, the focus is on all the stuff in the middle — the THC, CBD, that type of thing. But once people started paying attention and seeing that, “Oh, there’s a lot of benefits here.” And isolating CBG is easier than isolating CBN. So it was just a matter of starting to put a little bit of focus on there. And people started over the last year, honestly, starting to grow strains that are developed more for CBG. That wasn’t something that was happening previously. But now that we’re aware of the potential medical benefits, people are purposely growing hemp that’s high in CBG — something that’s where we’re trying to isolate it before we let it become other cannabinoids.
Vadim 28:43
Do you know if it all comes from — do you take one hemp strain and take out? Like do you use the same plant to get the CBD, CBN and CBG? Or is it different strains that are high in the different cannabinoids?
Zach 28:56
It depends. So you can extract some of these minor cannabinoids from any hemp strain. So if you were to take one plant, you wanted CBD, and you wanted CBG, you could do that. This is something, again, a little bit out of my expertise because I’m not the one of the processing center. But it is generally better because the amount you’ll get isn’t going to be very high. So if you had a plant that was grown for CBD, and you wanted to pull out CBN, you’re going to pull out small amounts of CBN. But if the focus is on growing it, developing genetics that are high and CBG, or that will become high CBN plants, utilizing plants that are growing specifically with genetics that are specifically designed to help behind these cannabinoid profiles is better than just trying to get them all from one plant.
Full-Spectrum Products
Vadim 29:43
Right, right. Okay. So what about your full-spectrum tinctures, are they high in these minor cannabinoids?
Zach 29:51
So they’re not high, but they do have them in them. So each of our products comes with a full lab report so they do vary. That’s the beauty of organic hemp. Not every batch will be the same. But for the most part, they are pretty standard. So you’ll have trace amounts of CBN and trace amounts of CBG. And again, these profiles shifted depending on the batch. But there is some of that in there which adds to that — the entourage effect there which all these cannabinoids are kind of working together. So it’s not as prominent as say the isolate. I mean, obviously, same with CBD, but they are in there, which is pretty cool.
Vadim 30:31
And what kinds of tinctures do you offer? Do you have isolate and full-spectrum right now?
Zach 30:36
Yes. So we have the isolate MCT oil mix, which is the THC free and that has hemp extract in that as well, just broad-spectrum instead of full-spectrum. And now we have our full-spectrum extracts which are the natural and citrus flavor.
Vadim 30:52
Okay. So the flavored ones are the full-spectrum ones, right?
Zach 30:36
Yes. So the THC free one is technically flavorless. There’s a little bit of taste from the hemp extract and the MCT oil but not very much. The full-spectrum natural extract doesn’t have any added flavor but it is naturally very planty. It has that heavy taste to it. And then our full-spectrum citrus tinctures has the added citrus flavor to it.
Vadim 31:19
And what’s the base that you use for those oils? You said MCT?
Zach 31:23
So MCT on a THC free. On the other two, it’s mainly just the full-spectrum hemp extract. And then yes, but MCT is our base oil.
Vadim 31:34
Okay. Okay. So those are going to have a hempy taste to them, I’m assuming, right?
Zach 31:39
Yes, you will definitely get a bit more of that heavy profile to it. Now I do realize that that’s not for everybody. But we have heard a lot of good reviews so far. People saying it’s not overpowering, and it doesn’t taste. So I feel like some tinctures are quite bitter. And while this one still has that natural, heavy taste, it isn’t too bitter.
Vadim 31:57
Gotcha. Yeah. So what about someone new who’s brand new to Bloom Hemp, what product would you recommend they start with if they’re visiting the website for the first time and they don’t know where to start?
Zach 32:08
If they don’t know where to start, basically it depends on whether or not they’ve used CBD before. If you’ve never used CBD before, I would point you in the direction of one of our THC free products, either the tincture or the lotion. I think that topicals are great for people that are new to CBD because you can see the effects right away. Especially if you are in pain or have an ache or something like that. Or if you’re an athlete, you can put it to the test and very clearly see the effects. If you’re not new to CBD, and you have a better understanding of the products, I would definitely look at our full-spectrum natural tincture. I think that’s one of the places to start. You get the entourage effect. Having all the minor cannabinoids in there just means a whole plant extract. So you have everything instead of just the broad-spectrum oil, which is great, especially for people that can’t have whole plant extracts with the trace amounts of THC. But this full-spectrum tincture is definitely the way to go. I can’t recommend it enough. That’s the one. I actually enjoy putting that in coffee in the morning. It adds a little bit of a heavy flavor but it definitely is a great way to start the day.
Vadim 33:13
Cool. I think that that’s a good way to put it for people. The CBD amount in the full and the isolate, are they the same per dose per serving?
Zach 33:23
Yes. So we have two different servings for each one. A 20-milligram and a 40-milligram so you can choose your strength, but they’re the exact same, whether it’s THC free or the full-spectrum.
Vadim 33:34
Okay. So the serving is the same and how much is it per serving or per dropper, I guess?
Zach 33:39
So, 20 milligrams for a smaller dose and 40 milligrams in the higher dose.
Vadim 33:34
Okay. That seems pretty typical. One thing a lot of people get confused about by always explaining this is they’ll see like on the bottle, 1500 milligrams, but they don’t know that that’s the total amount in the bottle not per serving. So I’m always adding that to people.
Zach 34:00
Exactly. So we just change that up in our packaging to help it be a little bit more obvious. So we used to have the full amount for the tincture, and now we’re showing that it’s either that 20-milligram dose or that 40-milligram dose.
What’s Next for Bloom Hemp?
Vadim 34:14
Yeah, that’s good. So what’s next for you? What kind of plans? Are you sold in stores or just online for now?
Zach 34:21
We are working on getting ourselves into stores, especially on the hemp foods front. Right now, we’ve only been able to partner with small businesses. We’re working on some larger chain grocery stores as well. But just getting our feet wet, we’ve been selling to other small businesses and places around the US. We are looking to expand those so if somebody is listening that’s looking to potentially expand the CBD products they’re selling, they’re more than welcome to get in contact with us. We have a variety of things that they appeal to a wide variety of people.
And one of the things that we’re working on to continue to build on that and appeal to an even wider variety of people is our Bloom Essentials line. And that is something that is still in the research development phase but we are getting very close. We have our prototypes in testing right now. And these are tinctures, they’re CBD blends with other active ingredients and a focus on terpenes. So they got some proprietary terpene blends that we’ve been developing that we’re really excited about. I think that’s really the next step is bringing everything together. So in the whole plant extract, with full-spectrum products, you get a little bit of those terpenes but not as much as when you’re adding them on purpose. So with these, the next group of products will have terpenes added as well as some of these other active ingredients in cannabinoids.
Vadim 35:47
What kind of products will they be? I didn’t catch that.
Zach 35:50
So we’ll be rolling out new tinctures and a couple of roll ons that are like essential oil roll ons.
Vadim 35:56
Oh, okay.
Zach 35:56
Yes. And these will have more of a focus on things, like, so the tinctures that have been released so far, general kind of everyday use. These that will be released will have kind of more of a focus on like antiinflammatory effects. So we’ll be using terpenes and other cannabinoids that help reduce inflammation and other active ingredients and other plants. We’re working with a doctor down in New Mexico to formulate these so that everything is backed. This isn’t just us doing research and working with somebody in a lab to get these together, we actually have a doctor whose input is vital at each stage and each ingredient, helping us put this together so that each blend is formulated to help with something specific whether it’s inflammation or stress or digestion. Because that’s kind of the benefits of these cannabinoids, and if we can help kind of dial that in to do something specific, it’s something we’d love to get out to people.
Vadim 36:52
So these will be like targeted blends.
Zach 36:54
Yes, exactly.
Vadim 36:55
That’s cool. I like that. I’ve seen other brands going that direction and I think that is a good way to go. Especially mixing it with other established, you know, products that people are using like either essential oils are terpenes. And that’s one thing we haven’t talked about is how in your process are you — when you’re doing the extraction — able to preserve the terpenes in the final product?
Zach 37:18
We aren’t. So those are not our broad-spectrum oil. That’s something where a lot of that is filtered out. You might get trace amounts occasionally but not really. In our full-spectrum blends, we are able to partially preserve those. Again you’re not getting — that’s part of the reason we’re working on these essential blends is to put a focus on the terpenes along with the cannabinoids, but in our full-spectrum blends right now, we are able to keep some of them. It’s just not the same level of concentration that we’d like to, though.
Vadim 37:47
Gotcha. Okay. Well, what other plans do you have for the future? Are you doing any hemp like hemp seed oils, just the oil itself that people use for cooking? I usually put it on salad, actually.
Zach 38:00
So hemp seed oil is great on salad. I’ve done that as well quite a few times. But we are actually working on a few different food things. I don’t want to say too much here just because the food formulation takes quite a while longer than some of the other formulations, especially compared to tinctures. So I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself here. But we do have a handful of edible hemp food products — obviously the foods are edible, but edible hemp products that we’re working on rolling out that I think will be really beneficial.
Vadim 38:31
That’s great. I love how you guys are doing the CBD and the food products and that’s in line with your mission and you’re doing everything from your own crop, right?
Zach 38:40
The hemp seeds, not entirely from our own crop. Just because to get those in the quantity, we’ve been having to source those elsewhere. But we are working on getting to that point where we can do everything sourced ourselves and yet the hemp foods that is part of why it’s so important to us not just because it’s our mission, but because if you believe in these plants and you believe in CBD, you understand the benefits of hemp, and I think that CBD is absolutely amazing but it doesn’t stop there. And we really shouldn’t stop there. There’s so many potential benefits from hemp these other cannabinoids, these other terpenes, the hemp seeds themselves, there’s benefits at every level that if we can combine these, and we can get them in the hands of people where you can use everything as a whole instead of just bits here and there, I think that’s extremely beneficial. I think that people will see and be able to experience the benefit to themselves.
I can say it a lot and it starts to sound like I’m just saying there’s a lot of benefits to hemp. But if you start doing a little bit of googling, it is amazing. Three hours later, what you’ve won, what you’ve learned and how you see 100 other tabs and you’re like where do I stop? Because there really is just an endless amount of information constantly coming out about this stuff. And in our eyes, we have to help people understand this and see this for themselves by putting things together and making it available. Because that’s just it. A lot of it hasn’t been available. So now to be able to make things like CBN available, make hemp butters available, that type of thing, I think that’s extremely important. And I am excited to see how people respond to it.
Vadim 40:15
That’s great. That’s great. And what about pet products? We haven’t talked about that. Are you guys doing something with pet products?
Zach 40:21
Pet products? We don’t have any plans immediately, but we’ve had quite a few people reach out. So it’s something that we’ve definitely discussed, but yes, nothing in the immediate on that one.
Vadim 40:31
Gotcha. I mean, pet products, it’s like they’re basically the same thing anyway as the human ones. It’s like the biggest misconception about CBD is that — I was listening to Joe Rogan the other day, and he was like, “I accidentally took my dog’s CBD.” And I wanted to tell them no big deal because it’s the same thing.
Zach 40:51
Exactly. It’s literally just usually a much lower dose than what we’re giving to humans. And then combined with usually kind of like Joe Rogan was mentioning a funky flavor. I think he said he had butterscotch or something. Which is not something you typically try to feed people. But it’s definitely something where we never say no to but it’s exactly what you’re saying. Since it is essentially the same thing, if you really wanted to, our THC free tinctures are something that you could give to your dog or your cat in a low dose. Not using a full dropper, but a small amount if you wanted to see how it might affect them and go from there.
CBD, CBN or CBG Isolate
Vadim 41:26
Awesome. Awesome. Well, let’s say someone is coming to your site, and they want to try their first isolates, which would you recommend they would purchase? All of them or start with the CBD? Because I’m thinking people should try the CBG or the CBN, especially if they’re having trouble sleeping, or they want to make some mixes, but I’ve never seen CBG, definitely never seen CBN being sold. So that’s really cool.
Zach 41:48
No, 100%. And I would say on that one, it really depends what you’re looking for. So I think everyone has their own needs and it depends most on that. So if you’re looking for something to help you sleep better, maybe that’s why you’ve been taking CBD and you want to try something else, I think CBN, you really can’t go wrong. There’s a lot of really interesting research coming out about CBN and sleep as well as pain, that makes it something that if you’ve been using CBD for either of those things, trying CBN is something I can’t recommend enough. Because I think as you’ll find, it’s much more… I don’t want to say powerful because that mischaracterizes it. It’s the first word that comes to mind because CBD isn’t psychotropic. You don’t feel it directly. CBN is something you will feel almost immediately when you take it, whether that’s for pain, or you’ll feel that little bit of tiredness and that’s what all the studies have agreed on. Even when they can’t say, “Hey, it’s definitive that these benefits are going to happen,” they all say that you will definitely feel drowsy. So though a lot of scientists are afraid to conclusively — because we just need more research, they’re afraid to say, “This definitely helps you sleep,” they’ll tell you it definitely makes you drowsy.
So I say if you’re looking for something that will make you more drowsy, you can’t go wrong in CBN. Given what’s going on now with corona and the times, I think that CBG is going to only explode in popularity, where probably within the next month going to start seeing a lot of CBG hand soaps and that type of thing starts to hit the market because people are developing products with them. And with all of the fears going on right now and the issues with coronavirus, I think that we’re going to see a lot of people turning to CBG because of those antibacterial properties and the anti-inflammatory properties.
Vadim 43:40
That’s awesome. And I’m sure people can also just use all three if they want, right? Make their own mixes.
Zach 43:46
No, 100%. So that’s where it gets really cool. Like I mentioned earlier, if you are interested in formulating your own tincture, get in touch with us. You can look it up online yourself, but we’re happy to help walk you through it as well. And if you want to experience what would it be to have a mix of three as one, you can definitely do that, and I would recommend doing it. I think it’s a great idea.
Vadim 44:06
And I think one of the things people can benefit from it is that in a lot of these products, those minor cannabinoids are so low. So if they want to buy their favorite food or even if they buy their favorite CBD and they want to just enhance them by adding the other stuff, they can do that.
Zach 44:23
Exactly, exactly. Which I think that we’re going to start to see that become pretty common over the next few months, honestly. Because we will be working to develop and other people are working to develop tinctures with CBN and stuff but since it is a hard-to-isolate compound, it isn’t the most affordable when you start to formulate it with other ingredients. So people buying it as an isolate and making their own tinctures, their own topicals, that kind of a thing out of it and so on, it’s gonna be very interesting to see. I think it’s gonna become very popular.
Wrap-up and Contact Information
Vadim 44:55
That’s great. All right. Well, Zach, thank you for being on the show today and telling us more about your brand, Bloom Hemp, and all the products you’ve got. Again, I love your mission. And if there’s anything else you want people to know, please, the microphone is all yours.
Zach 45:09
I appreciate that. First of all, thank you for having me back and having us on. I can’t tell you how much we appreciate it. And I say, secondly, to anybody that’s interested in trying any of these isolates or any of the things that we’ve talked about today, we are offering a 20% discount to listeners to this podcast. We have a coupon CBDSCHOOL20. I’m sure Vadim will share that with you guys as well. But I just want to make sure that I shouted it out. So if you’re interested in trying any of this, you can try it for 20% off and get in touch with us. Reach out on social media or visit our website and you can chat with us directly or give us a call because we’d love to talk to you and help you understand what hemp we can get in your hands that’ll help you the most, you know, what part of this plant is something that you would be interested and something that you could benefit from?
Vadim 45:57
What’s the best way to reach out to you or through to the company for any kind of support, if there is an email?
Zach 46:02
Support? Email is really reliable, but you can go directly to our website and we’ll reply to you. We have a chat function there. So you can just type to us directly. Or social media. I’m always on the other end. If you reach out to us on social media, you’re most likely talking to me. Tom is on there sometimes as well. But it’s 95% of the time you’ll be talking to me. So if you want to talk to me or just get in touch with Bloom, you can reach out to us @bloomhemp or @bloom_hemp on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, any of those, and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
Vadim 46:34
All right. Great, Zach. Thanks again for being here and stay on for a little bit so we can chat after I stopped recording.
Zach 46:40
Sounds good. Thanks, Vadim.
Vadim 46:43
All right, everybody. That concludes our show for today. I hope you enjoyed listening in with Zach from Bloom Hemp and learning about their company and all the fun stuff that they have going on. Make sure to visit bloom-hemp.com and use the coupon code CBDSCHOOL20 off any of their fantastic CBD products, including unique items like CBG and CBN isolate. Again, that website is bloom-hemp.com. I’ll include it in the show notes and the coupon code is CBDSCHOOL20 which gets you 20% off. Hope you have a great day and I’ll catch you next time.