The varieties, the Wonderbrett. have made

During a road trip in late 2020, I was driving through Redding, California on a 12-hour trip back to Seattle in need of something fireproof and affordable. I decided to stop by Vibe by California to see what they could have for the boy and man, man, I found an absolute gem: Wonderbrett’s Pink Picasso.

Wonderbrett is a California cannabis producer and lifestyle brand that was co-founded by veteran breeders Brett Feldman and Cameron Damwijk. The Wonderbrett brand has been around since 2014, but the duo made a name for themselves in Los Angeles street and music culture since the mid-1990s, long before those pretty pink packaging hit pharmacy shelves and Instagram slideshows.

Pink Picasso was one of the most perfect flowers I’d ever seen in my life – weed that undeniably blends taste, potency, and experience in a way that reminds you why you started smoking weed in the first place. I knew immediately that I was holding something special.

I recently caught up with Brett Feldman to tour Wonderbrett’s 180,000-square-foot indoor grow facility in Long Beach, smoke some flavors, and discuss Wonderbett’s legacy and the strains that made its place in modern cannabis culture to have.

1997: OG Kush

In 1997, Brett Feldman received a cut from OG Kush. A strain so rare, so special, so strong that Feldman himself felt he was a gift from God. You see, back then, before Kush hit the streets, he told me that consumers were hunting high quality cannabis and strains like Skunk, Northern Lights, Trainwreck, California Orange, Hazes, and Chocolate Thai. But when did OG Kush hit? Game over. “OG Kush came on stage and took over everything. No competition, it was like watching Jordan come on stage and play with children. “

Because OG Kush was so rare, Feldman had spent his time traveling back and forth across the San Francisco Bay Area to get authentic batches of it from original breeder Josh D and his team, with Feldman cleaning their crops with each trip. Eventually, following inquiries from others, Josh D’s folks said to Feldamn, “Yo man, we can’t keep giving you all of our inventory.” Instead of leaving him out, Josh D gave him clones from the Original Kush Plant and told him to be great. That’s exactly what he did.

“97 was when [cannabis cultivation] started getting serious for me. When I was given Kush. I immediately had to figure out how to grow weed and not kill these plants. I had this great responsibility to protect and share this Kush strain because it was so special. I wasn’t a particularly religious person, but it definitely felt like God was showing me the way. And I thought: ‘I hear you, I see what you want from me.’ “

Brett Feldman, co-founder of Wonderbrett, smokes a joint outside an exhibition of Wonderbrett packages at Black Star Studios in Studio City. (Photo source: Wonderbrett)

OG Kush was so in demand that Feldman met Xzibit, Dr. Dre, Snoop, Eminem and B-Real crossed over. His harvest gave him behind-the-scenes access to the hip-hop arena of the late 90s and early 2000s in Los Angeles, and in particular the creation of Dr. Dres 2001 album. “It started with me taking a risk and joining Xzibit. introduced [Tower Records in Granada Hills]. It was basically like, ‘Hey man, give me a call, I’d love to put some really good weed on you. I have this fire kush ‘… In the end he called me and asked me to shoot the video. I brought them some kush that I had just finished harvesting. They all loved it. That was my introduction to this crowd, as for them I am that legendary type of weed. “

“I was just lucky to be in the right place at the right time. I was always the guy in the studio with the good weed that said, ‘Who’s got the board?’ ”And just like the legend of Brett, or as Xzibit liked to call him, ‘Brett The Super White Man’ was born. Eventually that was shortened to Brett, which would then evolve into Wonderbrett.

2000s: Pure Kush

Beginning in the ’90s, Felman said that customer demand is all about Kush. Pure cushy. “The actual cut of OG Kush was also called Pure Kush. The reason for this is beforehand [OG Kush] showed up here at the crime scene, there was Kush Bubba. You had to have this differentiator of the Original Kush, the Kush that Kush Bubba made. The Pure Kush before it was crossed with anything. “

2014: Pineapple first floor

In 2014 Wonderbrett released its first branded variety: Pineapple OG. The logo was a dripping pineapple. It came out at a time when smokers were more interested in the different flavors and varieties of weed. “At that time there were a lot of guys growing OG Kush and calling them different names. Then the beginning of Cookies came on stage. The Sin Mint Cookies strain has really opened a lot of doors for people who want to finally try new flavors. Then we put out the pineapple, then the strawberry, the clementine, the orange banana. “

2018: Rosa Picasso

Wonderbrett bred Candyland x OZK back in 2013, but did not find the Pink Picasso phenotype until 2017.

“When we planted these seeds, we were really excited to see what we would create. We popped the Lemon OZK, crossed the Candyland with OGK. It wasn’t called Pink Picasso at the time because we hadn’t yet found the phenotype, which was, ‘Wow, this strain is crazy.’ We knew it was going to be a hit right away. ”

After Wonderbrett Pink found Picasso, it went quiet for a while to move from the medical market to the adult market in California. Then, on October 27, 2018, at the opening of Cookies Melrose, Wonderbrett relaunched its brand and finally brought Pink Picasso to the people. “It was pretty historic for us to relaunch our brand in this business that day. It was a really strong co-sign for B-Real and Berner, like ‘Yo, we’re opening our store, we want your product here.’ “

2021: Chomp

These days, Wonderbrett’s reputation revolves around its flagship strains and flavors like Orange Sunset, Pink Picasso, OZK, Grapes of Wrath – the list goes on. In addition, they have entered into collaborations, such as the Pineapple OZK with B-Real and their latest: Chomp with Russ.

Still, it’s about the work and just about working with people Feldman really likes. It’s not a big, cheesy marketing game for huge buckets of money.

“The first four months of [2021] we got Chomp out [with Russ], Pineapple OZK with B-Real, and we’re going to be bringing out a Peaches strain next month. We constantly strive to bring innovation and taste to the menu by bringing the experience to people. We just keep expanding and trying to build relationships with our customers with more flavors. ”

Find Wonderbrett strains and products on Weedmaps

Selected image courtesy of Wonderbrett. Graphics by Britt Rivas / Weedmaps