![](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Alen-Labs-Biscotti-Top-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
In recent years, few names have taken the world of California cannabis by storm quite like the cultivators at Alien Labs.<\/p>\n
Through the sheer quality of its cannabis and sense of charm the team brought to California\u2019s previously thriving event circuit, Alien Labs has become a\u00a0household name<\/a>\u00a0faster than most. As its extraterrestrial-covered purple jars have come to be embraced in local markets up and down the state, it is easy for us to see that we have a winner on our hands.<\/p>\n Alien Labs founder Ted Lidie gave us the exclusive rundown on how the ship took off across the Golden State, abducting sobriety to the fullest as they entered each California market. Lidie dove into every twist and phenotype of the journey that led to the cultivators sweeping the first fully legal\u00a0Cannabis Cup<\/a>\u00a0in California in 2018.<\/p>\n Back in 2010, Lidie and his partner Tyler Meeks owned a club called Medi Cali in Redding, a small city due east of the\u00a0Emerald Triangle<\/a>. Lidie had just moved back to Redding from San Francisco and was well aware that consumer-friendly brands were about to take off as the plant normalized in the public eye.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Redding, it was all hippie \u2014 not that that\u2019s a bad thing,\u201d Lidie says. \u201cYou went into a club and there were 50 strains of outdoor.\u201d<\/p>\n So Lidie and Meeks began their own cultivation efforts, following the same philosophy that Alien Labs employs today: It\u2019s always worth it to go the extra mile when you\u2019re trying to produce the best flower possible.<\/p>\n Before the days of Alien Labs\u2019 current spread of boutique cuts, they were working with classics like Green Crack and Purple Skunk. In 2011, they got their hands on Cookies, after paying someone $20,000 for the genetics. That\u2019s when they started the strategy of trying to bring the best out of strains that were already on the map, Lidie says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were growing Lemon Fuel and selling all throughout California as Mars OG,\u201d he says. \u201cThat was our biggest thing before Alien Labs. Just selling Mars OG in Sacramento, San Francisco and Los Angeles.\u201d<\/p>\n A few years later, Lidie noticed that the cannabis industry was starting to shift towards branded cannabis, particularly thanks to brands like Cookies, so he founded Alien Labs in March of 2014.<\/p>\n \u201cCookies was the only one I knew about because I wasn\u2019t on the weed internet like that,\u201d he says. \u201cIn the forum days, we were on IC Mag and that kind of thing, but it was usernames, it wasn\u2019t brands. I started making Alien Labs in my sh*tty little eight-light trap house. Every time I would harvest, I would go sell it as Alien Labs.\u201d<\/p>\n Everything they were doing in those early days was an attempt to be ahead of the curve.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we started Alien Labs, legalization wasn\u2019t even a thing yet, but we knew it was about to happen,\u201d says Lidie. \u201cIt obviously paid off. We\u2019re one of the few known brands in the legal space now.\u201d<\/p>\n Alien Labs\u2019 first big event was the NorCal Cannabis Cup in 2014 at San Francisco\u2019s Cow Palace, former home of the Golden State Warriors. They placed well with Dosidos, the delicious pairing of the OGKB Girl Scout Cookie Phenotype and Face Off OG. Alien Labs was now on the radar after its maiden contest. They returned to the competition in 2015 with Dosidos again, riding on the strain\u2019s blend of cookies and kush flavor.<\/p>\n Lidie had scored the cut of Dosidos off the internet \u2014 and it turned out his cut was different than everything else on the market.<\/p>\n \u201cI bought it off a guy on the internet, and we ended up having a different cut of Dosi than everyone else,\u201d Lidie says. \u201cI hit up NorCal, the breeder who made the original selection, and asked what was up with our cut. He says it was his number two selection that was more of an OG leaner. He didn\u2019t mean to release it, but we ended up getting it and we were able to give it back to him.\u201d<\/p>\n Lidie believes that those lucky runs of Dosidos put both the strain itself and Alien Labs on the map.<\/p>\n After Dosidos, Alien Labs helped establish another strain\u2019s popularity in Northern California: Wedding Cake. In 2016, the cultivators obtained Wedding Cake from\u00a0The Jungle Boys<\/a>, the legendary cultivators who were behind the strain\u2019s success in Los Angeles. Wedding Cake is a clone-only phenotype of Triangle Mints that was originally bred by Seed Junky Genetics from an awesome Triangle Kush mother dusted with pollen from an Animal Mints father. The Wedding Cake nickname came from the Jungle Boys, who noticed the strain\u2019s strong vanilla cake frosting aroma.<\/p>\n In early 2018, Alien Labs\u2019 Wedding Cake took first place in the Sacramento Cannabis Cup\u2019s hybrid category, while Alien Labs\u2019 Gelato # 41 collaboration with the\u00a0Connected Cannabis Co.<\/a>\u00a0took home the indica cup with one of the spiciest renditions yet of Gelato\u2019s increasingly complex flavor profile. Not to be outdone, the fruity upbeat blast provided by Alien Labs\u2019 Melonade took home the sativa top prize. This meant a clean sweep of the three flower categories at California\u2019s first legal Cannabis Cup.<\/p>\n Lidie noted that after their victory, Alien Labs has been \u201ccompared to these guys with thousands of lights, but we had 60.\u201d Lidie believes those kinds of comparisons with the best in California are a testament of their branding effort. \u201cWe definitely chose the fake it til\u2019 you make it route and it worked,\u201d he says. Today, a new facility has tripled the capacity for Alien Labs to 180 lights.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re riding the wave right now,\u201d Lidie says. \u201cThere have been some ups and downs, and legalization was really tough. We only had 60 lights and there was no way we were going to survive without teaming up with someone.\u201d<\/p>\n Lidie says Alien Labs has chosen to partner with other extractors, rather than angle for more profits by producing the\u00a0concentrates<\/a>\u00a0in-house. He says he is always excited to work with the world\u2019s best extractors with the goal of providing them the best material possible to work their magic. Working with big name extractors was also a good way to get the word out about Alien Labs.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was a really big thing for spreading our name early when we weren\u2019t packaging our own flower except at events,\u201d he says. \u201cSo when people would use our trim or flower for concentrates, they would put our logo on it and that helped a lot. I love concentrates, that\u2019s personally how I smoke.\u201d<\/p>\n Lidie says producing concentrates is always a loss. Producing concentrates means losing weight on the freeze and splitting the profits with the extractor, but for Lidie, it\u2019s mostly about taking part in the process of creating something really special.<\/p>\n One forthcoming collaboration involves some Melonade and Gelato #41 going to Royal Key Organics for the brand\u2019s relaunch. Lidie says Alien Labs will only make a few hundred dollars profit per pound, but they will have the boss sauce by the jar.<\/p>\n Today, Alien Labs continues to collaborate with Connected Cannabis Co., occasionally using space in their facility.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just did a 180-light run of pure Melonade \u2014 crazy enough, it\u2019s the best Melonade I\u2019ve seen and we didn\u2019t grow it,\u201d says Lidie with a laugh. \u201cWhen Connected grows in their rooms, they use their style, it\u2019s similar but still different.\u201d<\/p>\n Lidie says Connected\u2019s Melonade is almost a whole new take on the strain, with different purple shades than he\u2019d never seen on it before. He believes it\u2019s further proof that Alien Labs\u2019 scale up via Connected is going well. Back in the day, Connected was the first company ever to buy a pound of Alien Labs\u2019 weed.<\/p>\n Alien Labs has always been at the forefront of the collaboration scene. Lidie says it\u2019s not necessarily a business ethos, but just a way they\u2019ve chosen to structure their lives. He says a hatred for drama and the general goal of putting out the best weed possible has played a major role in their ability to form new relationships.<\/p>\n \u201cBut obviously when I see someone do something cool like come out with a new strain or hit 32 percent THC, even though that could be bullsh*t, I\u2019m still like, damn I want to hit 33 percent. But it\u2019s not an unfriendly competition, it\u2019s just the competitive spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n Alien Labs\u2019 current effort to expand its genetics stock is taking place under eight lights. Lidie says they could have turned it into another flowering space and made good money but, \u201cwe like to hunt, we like to find new strains.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what people like in the weed industry,\u201d Lidie says of consumers\u2019 thirst for new varieties. \u201cThere is never going to be one strain over all the rest. OG Kush, that\u2019s about it. That\u2019s the only strain that\u2019s never really gone out of style.\u201d<\/p>\n Of all the California markets, Los Angeles blew up the fastest for Alien Labs, according to Lidie. He believes things around cannabis just don\u2019t matter anywhere else in California like they do in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n \u201cBrands are built in LA, that\u2019s why we\u2019ve given so much out- reach to the LA area,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n While he appreciates the other markets in California where Alien Labs is popular, he says they don\u2019t push the dial for the brand. For Lidie, the fact that Los Angeles is now a legal cannabis destination for travelers from across the globe is a big plus.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like all my homies from London, everyone hitting me up on Instagram, they always go to Los Angeles,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n But at the end of the day, you can expect Alien Labs to be very popular wherever the ship lands. \u00a0<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, what\u2019s your favorite strain from Alien Labs?<\/p>\n Originally published in Issue 35 of Cannabis Now.\u00a0LEARN MORE<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n The post Alien Labs Blasts Off<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
In recent years, few names have taken the world of California cannabis by storm quite like the cultivators at Alien Labs. Through the sheer quality of its cannabis and sense of charm the team brought to California\u2019s previously thriving event circuit, Alien Labs has become a\u00a0household name\u00a0faster than most. AsContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":33499,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4158,148,50,2377,240,100,85,7260,4839,107,8952],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33498"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33498"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33500,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33498\/revisions\/33500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Alen-Labs-Biscotti-Top.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\nThe Truth is Out There<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Alien-Labs-Biscotti-Hairs.jpg\")
Interplanetary Truces<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Alien-Labs-Top.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\nTaking the Saucer to SoCal<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n
\nRead More: Alien Labs Blasts Off<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"