This week, Ramon And Vlad go straight to the Boulevard with Shanel Lindsay, founder and creator of Ardent Cannabis to give us a low down on the magical process of Decarboxylation! Shanel explains how using the Ardent Flex, a simple step, that is regularly skipped or inefficiently done, can take your cannabis cooking adventures to a completely new level!
What made ardent so different from any other products on the market at the time?
Our product on the outset was focused on something that no one else was, which was decarboxylation. Now think about it as what you need to do to activate or turn on your THC or CBD. it is the fundamental process to being able to do anything with cannabis, there is a lot of confusion around that, a lot of people confuse it with infusion and oils and other things like that. But decarboxylation that's a science, it's the science of activating this plant and our product is the first and the only decarboxylator. So we focused in on that process of taking the THC-A and turning it into THC, and if you don't do that then you're in the water when it comes to making cannabis products. You’re going to waste all your bud, and you're going to be like most people have been in the past, using half an ounce or 7 grams of some cannabis product when you could've been using half a gram to do it, that's the difference that's how important decarboxylation is that's the difference between you using an ounce or you using a gram to be able to make your products. no other products focused on that and we wanted to help folks because I had struggled with that, making products and not knowing what was happening with that decarboxylation.
What was the cannabis industry like before you started Ardent Cannabis?
Back in 2014 I started working with MCR Labs here in Massachusetts, this is before medical Marijuana in Massachusetts, there was no way to test before then, and you have people out there in the dark and you still have that, especially where there isn't accurate testing, everyone has their theory on "how to make this potent" and "my person makes this the most potent and fire" but after all that the science doesn't lie and I started to dig into the science of decarboxylation and the right times and temperatures and what you need to do to make that happen, it's actually difficult. People tried to do it with water boiling and stuff but you're never going to get to the right temperature. People are putting it in the oven and are burning it off. So when I saw in the lab after the testing, I came back with certain parameters and in certain environments. Because you can't have oxygen in there either,time and temperature parameters, and how I saw how our regular kitchen appliances could never be able to do that, I said fuck that, im going to create this device and bring it to market and I bet people will love it! And 5 years later that definitely proved to be true!
Was it hard to convince the industry about the Ardent Cannabis?
It took a while. I’ll be honest with you, when we first came out onto the market, we had a lot of people doing this for 20 years talking about how they hadn't seen testing results. So they were going on what they think it is, and then you actually show people how much they can save and how little they have to use and the results they're able to get, I would say that was the first 3-4 years of the company. It was just convincing folks, especially people that have been doing this a long time. But I'm proud how much we've risen to the top as a best in class product because we lead with that science and I wanted it to be something that was helping people get to a better end product and less focus on the hype.
How long did it take to come to market?
The nova when I first brought it to market it was definitely the hardest thing I had to do, because I was just by myself and I had this idea and I sketched it out and I knew what I wanted to do and I actually had no money , it was just money I had saved up from working in my legal jobs and I started my own law firm and I was seeing clients and things like that. It really came down to using all the different resources I could think of at that time. I would go and talk to different companies and see what they could put together for me, I knew all the things that I wanted. I would honestly go to Dollar Tree a lot and I would look at the different raw materials available there. Like I remember I found a little coozie, and I knew I needed a heater to wrap around like that so I would just go and I would find what I needed and I would just call these companies up and say “Hey can you come meet with me?" And "What products do you have?" and I contracted with some engineers out in Ukraine and I just chatted with people on the internet and I frankensteined a product together and it worked!
Make sure to check out @ArdentLLC on Instagram & If you’re looking to get your hands on the Ardent FX, you can use this link to grab this amazing gadget and use MUNKEY for $30 off!