A marriage and a lot of dope hash later, Alice and Flynn from Wooksauce Winery are on top of the hash game. Alice has emerged as one the biggest hash names on the planet. Flynn, while not quite as public-facing as Alice, is also widely respected by his peers, clawing his way to the top after first moving west from Minnesota a decade ago. When their skills come together under the Wooksauce, it’s pretty hard to top.
When they won the Emerald Cup’s personal use solventless category in 2022, it felt like more of a coronation than an awards ceremony. Well before that night in Hollywood, Wooksauce Winery was synonymous with six-star hash. Six star is the magic that happens when the best extractors in the world get access to the best material. The resulting hash is not only world class full melt, but also one of the best expressions of a given cannabis strain. That being said, not all strains wash well enough to be commercially viable to make hash. Even if it’s bomb, if the numbers don’t hit right it’s a waste of material.
In addition, that six-star signifier vindicates the process of everyone along each step of the hash being made. For the farmer it shows what’s possible with their fresh frozen material. Once a farm produces material capable of six-star hash it changes everything for them. While freezers sit idle around the state filled with frozen marijuana awaiting processing, the farms that actually produce the best material can’t grow enough of it. Many argue the current number of farms that can produce six-star material is less than a dozen, and some would argue that cutting that number in half is still generous.
For extractors like Wooksauce Winery, producing six-star hash proves they are worthy of having access to the best material. It can’t be overstated how critical that is because competition is brutal. There are new rec market hash companies popping up in California every quarter and there are new trap rosin brands coming up on nearly a daily basis. I wish I was exaggerating. Despite a solventless processing permit being a lot easier to score than a hydrocarbon one because water doesn’t explode, many extractors will never make it to that side of the market.
The Wooksauce duo’s paths began to converge in 2017 after Alice, who is originally from Brazil, came out to California to attend a Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies conference. Following the conference she would head north to Humboldt County where she had her first experience with hash made from fresh frozen material. She’d previously tried hash washed in Brazil, but those first rips of the heat in Humboldt were one of those “talk to god” moments that set her down the path that’s seen her rise to the highest echelons of the hash game in just over half a decade.
She’d head back to Brazil to graduate but wouldn’t stay long.
“I was like ‘I need to learn how to make that.’ So I graduated and I came up one month after I graduated,” Alice told High Times. “I came up here and I kind of, like, never looked back to my degree or anything.”
She worked on cannabis farms in Humboldt upon her return. Eventually Alice and Flynn would realize how close they were to each other and planned to meet up to make hash. Alice was also looking to learn about dry freezers and Flynn said he’d teach her. One of Alice’s pals gave her some pepper spray in the event Flynn was a creep. He wasn’t, but upon meeting Alice dropped the pepper spray out of her purse.
“In my head I was like, ‘Was that to make sure that I knew not to mess around?’” Flynn said of his initial reaction to Alice getting in the car. “This girl was ready.”
In the end Alice traded Flynn a temple ball for some hash. The hash she traded was from her first big wash in California before they met.
But their paths that led to that moment were very different. Alice started making hash in Brazil with friends a decade ago.
“I made some green juice in Brazil, which means I did a very shitty wash in Brazil. The reality in Brazil, it’s like you grow just a small amount of plants,” Alice explained. “So it takes like a few runs and a few cycles for you to gather enough material to do a wash, right?”
Alice emphasized that she came from a more traditional hash world. She smoked spliffs until she linked up with Flynn. We asked Alice if her time back in Brazil before returning to California was tough, since she now knew what was possible with great material.
“I mean, honestly, after I came here for the first time, I’ve never looked back to try to do anything in Brazil. I just kept very much focused on California. I would spend six months of the year here,” Alice said.
Eventually she returned to Humboldt to further her education, moved in with Flynn, and the pair were married in 2020.
Flynn’s journey started in Minnesota. He then would head to Seattle for his freshman year of college and was blown away by how advanced the medical cannabis system in Washington state was.
“When I moved to Seattle, it was 10 light years ahead as far as what was going on, there was a medical system,” Flynn explained. “So I immediately jumped in there and like found my way into buying trim off Craigslist and trying to make bubble hash, then I got a job at a grow store.”
His boss at the grow store would give him trim but unfortunately never froze any of it. Realizing that material was king, Flynn started cultivating in 2012. His first brand back in the day was Flintstone Farms. In 2014 he got the ball rolling on Wooksauce Winery and dabbled in both Washington and California.
“At the end of 2017, I moved from Washington to California and then tried to get a permit in Sonoma County. Sonoma County got all crazy. The property for that didn’t end up working out but luckily I found some partners that I still have and that’s how I got my shop in Humboldt started,” Flynn said.
The headaches in Sonoma also changed the whole format of Wooksauce Winery.
“Previous to that Wooksauce had only ever done single source,” Flynn said.
Single source means they both grew the flower and processed it into hash in-house.
“Now we do a lot more collaborations the last couple of years working with other farmers and stuff like that,” Flynn said. “But that move was basically because we had to stop cultivating under our own deal.”
Alice and Flynn still call Sonoma County home, but they don’t expect to be cultivating again there any time soon.
We asked the pair what some of the biggest surprises have been since the California market entered the legal era. One of the biggest surprises for Flynn was how readily available fresh frozen has become compared to the struggles of the medical cannabis era. He’s also thankful to see the solventless scene expand from his consulting days.
“In my opinion [solventless hash is] becoming much more like a respected SKU on all fronts that even MSOs are paying attention to,” Flynn said. “Like the bigger corporations are trying to put out rosin brands and now [they] all got a rosin pen and all these types of things, bringing it to the larger market.”
One thing the pair has witnessed is the massive consolidation of the industry. We asked if there is any concern about the waves of consolidation impacting the availability of material as farms close. Flynn pointed to his cultivation partnership in Humboldt helping to keep stress low in that regard.
“I mean, I’d say on the legal side that’s why I’m blessed and I thought was a really good thing that my partner has like, you know, 10,000 square feet of cultivation up in Humboldt,” Flynn said.
Alice weighed in on the changes as well.
“There’s a thing about farmers wanting to have a broad spectrum of products coming out of their material nowadays, which is something that I think it’s a little different to like before they were so focused on flower,” Alice said. “Now there are edibles, topicals, also different kinds of hash and I see this big trend from legal and not legal farmers of wanting to make a broad spectrum of products from what whatever it comes from their farms actually even positive for their financial standpoint also because they just have a big variety of products coming out.”
Keep an eye out for Wooksauce Winery to keep winning trophies in 2023.
This article was originally Updated in the July 2023 issue of High Times Magazine.
