Olympic Reef owner Mike Lucero has staked his claim in Washington’s pre-roll market and is setting his sights on a multi-state expansion of the Juicy Joints brand in 2024.
Lucero began developing Juicy Joints after realizing the popularity — and high price point — of infused pre-rolls. His basic premise was that infused pre-rolls shouldn’t cost $15 at retail.
He drilled down on price and added his own distinct twist on the already popular product: custom flavors.
“I wanted a retail customer to be able to hand over a $5 bill at the point of sale and get one pre-roll,” he says. “It was definitely a market disrupter and we started to gain traction right away. We kept growing and growing to the point where we were servicing almost 80% of the retail stores in the state of Washington.”
Lucero says he has partners lined up to expand the brand into two or three more states this year, though he’s not ready to discuss those details.
Juicy Joints launched in 2016 with just one signature product and eight flavors, all formulated with a proprietary blend of botanical terpenes, packing a punch with the combination of cannabis flower, distillate and kief.
“I’m all about fruity flavors and bringing quality products and affordability to the market,” Lucero says.
The Seattle Berry — a mix of all the berries of Washington — was an immediate hit and remains one of the company’s best-selling products to this day.
“Seattle Berry definitely put us on the map,” Lucero says. “It was one of our top-selling flavors from the beginning. It’s just very, very popular.”
The company now produces about 40 flavors of pre-rolls and multiple product lines, including a CBD-infused version of Juicy Joints, and more coming out regularly.
Lucero doesn’t buy pre-mixed flavors. He mixes the concoctions himself like a mad scientist, leaning on intuition, experience and trial and error.
“It’s became a lot of fun for me,” he says.
Orange Creamsicle was another massively popular flavor in the original Juicy Joints line. When the company launched the Supers, adding crumble to the original Juicy Joints recipe, Tiger’s Blood, Strawberry Sherbet and Blueberry Cheesecake were very popular.
Olympic Reef continues to expand its lineup, including Federolls, a cost-effective take on the classic pre-roll, and the company’s newest creation, Wacky Joints, a jar of 10 strain-specific, one-gram joints, with a crutch that unrolls to reveal a joke, a riddle or a positive affirmation.
“I think it’s really clever and a lot of fun,” Lucero says. “It’s just something completely different than what’s out there.”
In a way, Wacky Joints are symbolic of the entire company. The brand is light-hearted, laid-back and brings a fun element back into the cannabis space. But Lucero is also highly focused on quality and serious about branding.
He says a Washington retailer put it best, comparing Juicy Joints at a dispensary to seeing a Snickers candy bar at a convenience store.
“Even though we’re light-hearted and we want to have fun and be bright and cheery, the brand is everything and it’s definitely very important to us,” Lucero says.