Despite cannabis and hemp’s confusing and still legally battled status in Texas, large-scale events have moved forward and hosted multi-day conventions, expos and tradeshows in the Lone Star State. Events that show the sheer power and potential of opportunities that the Texas hemp and eventually cannabis industries have in a state with such a strong agricultural backbone, hosted in venues as large as the Kay Bailey Hutchison Center. While the indicted fraudster Attorney General childishly fights with the courts about the smokable hemp ban and the ultimately pointless delta-8 battle rages on, hemp and cannabis are going full steam into the future.
Liz Grow and Patrick Pope, the faces and directors of Grow House Media, a cannabis media group started right here in Texas, will be hosting an upcoming event type that is new to the landscape of Texas’ hemp space. Although the state has now hosted a number of hemp/cannabis conventions and tradeshows, never has an event similar to the High Times Cannabis Cup been attempted in Texas. Yet in the same way that Liz and Patrick have shown how multi-faceted cannabis can be in a state where it’s still technically illegal, they’ll be hosting the inaugural Taste of Texas Hemp Cup.
Through covering and meeting with many Texas farmers and a meeting with 1937 Apothecary, Patrick and Liz hatched the idea, no farm pun meant on the term hatched.
“We wanted to do something to honor the Texas farmers so Patrick and I quickly thought that a hemp cup would be incredible. A proper cannabis cup for hemp. Not just some popularity contest but a full-scale cannabis competition where the buds are rigorously judged and farmers get back real information about their hemp.
A competition that makes them feel respected and that they’re working hard.”
From their own adventures at the High Times Cannabis Cup, Patrick and Liz have quite the cannabis cup experience to serve as inspiration for the first event of the sort to be hosted in Texas.
Guests who attend the Taste of Texas Hemp Cup are in for quite an experience. The Hemp Cup itself has nine categories in total, from Top Ingrown Flower to Highest CBG and even People’s Choice. The flowers being judged will be lab tested at the New Bloom Labs and one of the judges will be Lake Superior State University Cannabis Chemistry Professor Ben Southwell. As for attractions, Patrick and Liz have secured quite the number of activities quintessential towards both cannabis and the State of Texas.
Texas-based Sweet Sensi CBD will be hosting a dessert lounge while also discussing how to make one’s crop the best it can be. Grav Labs, the legendary smoking device company and creator of the Menorah Bong also known as my dream piece, will be sponsoring the onsite consumption lounge. There will be Q&A sessions with hemp farmers, a mechanical bull by Wreck Relief CBD and a hemp market featuring many vendors.
“There are over 25 vendors,” said Liz. “Only 12 of those will be selling hemp or hemp-related products, the other half are artisans and craftsmen coming from all over Central Texas and we got help from the Eastside Pop-Up. Ceramics, cross stitch, paper press. There’s something for everyone.
In fact, the winner of the Best Hemp Flower in Texas award will get the official Taste of Texas Hemp Cup chalice which will be hand-blown onsite by William Boxfan Menzies, the legendary glass blower famous for creating the Double Helix, with support from Austin glass blower Jay Massey. Although, the trophy provided for winning that award will be a “tray-phy”, a combination of a trophy and a rolling tray.
And because it’s Austin, you know there will be a live music performance following the award ceremony, some of which are local to the Live Music Capital of the World.
“The opening band is a new band called New Constellations from Portland and this year they only just started putting music out there.” said Liz. “They’re childhood friends but just started putting music out there. Already they have 2 million plays on their one single on Spotify. They’re really excited about that.
And our headliner is a band called White Denim. And they’re incredible. They’ve played everywhere for everyone. They have that 70’s vibe.”
The judges who will be deciding the winners of those nine categories are esteemed in their own right. While he can’t attend the event in person, one half of the Pot Brothers at Law, Mark Wasserman, will be a guest judge in assessing the quality of Texas-grown hemp. Jesce Horton, CEO of LOWD Cannabis in Portland will also serve as a judge.
“We hope to expose more people to the beautiful plant. Whether through bud or a topical or t-shirts, we want to expose more people to the plant. We want more people buying, using and loving hemp. Second of all, we want to put Texas on the map. We have the best growers in the country, maybe the world. So we want to help put this Texas-grown plant on the map nationally.”