The Coffee & Donuts “To-Go” Tour is an outlandish journey into the alternative art of modern-day hash-making, born out of the idea to take the beloved Hashish Inn podcast out on the road.
With previous stops in Maine, Oklahoma, and Colorado, team Hashtek recently returned from the much-anticipated Michigan stop. Check out the weekend recap and round-up of top jars from Hashtek culture specialist Katadellic, and don’t miss our extended A-Series Summertime Special in honor of C&D!
Team Hashtek at Coffee & Donuts
As soon as this Michigan tour stop was announced, team Hashtek knew we had to be a part of it. We’ve had such a great time at events put on by Shoragim and Adam in the past (like the 2023 Smoking Jacket in Portland) so were hyped to finally experience a Coffee & Donuts.
Hashtek is a small company with local manufacturing, so we love to see this kind of event that brings together hash enthusiasts from all over to highlight the incredibly talented local makers in different states.
Along with our founder Aleks and sales representative Stefano (@Hashtek_Stefano on IG), I had the best time hanging out lakeside, seeing what’s up with the Michigan market, and trying some truly incredible terps from all across the country — including Hawaii!
We even had one of our A-Series Epic Bundles fully set up and functioning for lab day. It was dope to see TerpWizard, who runs his own 50 A-Series on the other side of the state, get to show people what our machine can do. More to come on that in the lab day recap…
The Pre-Party
Friday started bright and early with a flight from Colorado to Michigan, where TerpWizard picked me up for our road trip across the state (powered by my trusty Carta 2 and a pit stop for some coffee and donuts, of course). After a long day of traveling, we’d made it to Manistee and headed straight to the Hunna Hash lab.
Hunna was gracious enough to host us all for the event and welcome us to town with a little pre-event sesh. After getting the Hashtek unit all set up in the lab and ready for tomorrow’s demo, it was time to start dabbing! We got to catch up with new and old friends, enjoy some much-needed munchies (pizza courtesy of The Real Cannabis Chris), and get a preview of the weekend to come with an exclusive tasting.
The Blueberry Tartz #7 we got to try was hunted, selected, and cultivated by Pure Coast Veganics in living soil using 100% plant-based inputs and processed by the team at Hunna (shoutout to the man Xavier). The jar both smelled and tasted just like a blueberry muffin coming out of the oven, leaving notes of ripe, juicy berries and a sugary sweet streusel coating on the tongue — truly the decadent dessert we all needed to finish off the night.
Coffee & Donuts Day 1: Lab Day
The Coffee & Donuts event officially kicked off with none other than a sweet assortment of donuts and some hand-crafted coffee drinks courtesy of Relation Coffee Co. We continued the theme with our first official resin tasting of the event, which was also a coffee pairing!
Small-batch, single origin coffee maker Sugar Skool out of Arcata made a special blend just for the event with beans from the West Arsi region of Ethiopia. The coffee had notes of blueberry and honey, which perfectly complemented the Sour Super Skunk resin from Breakwater Cannabis out of New Jersey.
John led the tasting of this selection from his hunt of about 2,000 Top Dawg Genetics seeds over a two-year period, including 50 or so seeds of this particular cultivar. She was sweet off the rip, playing off the sugary blueberry notes in the coffee, but evolved with a skunkiness that really mellowed out those syrupy fruit flavors.
After some more morning seshing and scarfing down breakfast burritos, we were properly fueled and caffeinated and headed into the lab for our day of learning! My favorite part about this day had to be the compare-and-contrast wash demos led by Fred Morris and TerpWizard.
In one room, Fred Morris did a wash of some Banana Candy trim on a Koblenz LCK 60 compact washing machine. This wash was done with ice, and the goal was to show how you can make a home setup to start washing with minimal upfront expenses.
Meanwhile, we had some Cap Junky whole plant fresh frozen material pre-soaking in the Hashtek unit in the cold room next door.
We then shifted to see TerpWizard wash a more commercial-size batch — iceless! It was actually his first time washing iceless with the unit, so it was awesome to see him dial things in with the Hunna and Hashtek teams to crank out some beautiful hash.
Next we headed outside for a tasting led by @solventlessaf of Peachy Hash Co., repping Michigan as a local brand on the METRC market. We got to try and compare two different phenos of Magic Marker (Permanent Marker x RS11). I really enjoyed them both but thought #1 was heavier on the RS11 with a very sherby profile, while #8 leaned more towards with the Permanent Maker with those Z-like candy and floral gas tones.
We headed back into the lab to finish out the day with a few more demos and presentations. Fred Morris and Organitron showcased their unique approaches to the nostalgic art of air drying and discussed some of the advantages and disadvantages to both air drying and freeze drying methods.
Next TerpStyle joined in to demo rosin pressing, where we got to pull a batch of that same Cap Junky material that had been washed the previous day out of the freeze dryer. TerpStyle’s press had over 80% returns!
Finally, we wrapped up the day with a moving presentation by The Real Cannabis Chris on the importance of presentation when it comes to solventless products, and how makers can use their personal passions to inspire how they present their brand. For example, using Jedi-inspired iconography and strain names because you’re totally obsessed with Star Wars.
The event may have been over for the day but the party didn’t stop there! A bunch of us headed to dinner for more dank eats and dabs at Bluefish in Manistee’s historic downtown, which was so beautiful and charming this time of year.
Coffee & Donuts Day 2: The Iron Works Building
Day 2 brought a whole different vibe at the Iron Works building, which was founded in the 1870s as a foundry and machine shop but now serves as a historical landmark and event space. With high ceilings and magical lighting, it was the ideal place to puff hella dabs and we definitely consumed the most hash this building has ever seen.
To kick things off, we tasted TerpStyle’s award-winning CheeseQuake in two consistencies: jam and cold cure. This is one of my favorite strains of all time that I’ve previously reviewed for Skunk Magazine, but I’d actually never gotten to try the jam before. It was crazy to see how the flavor notes are expressed differently between the two different forms — I thought the cold cure was more classic parmesan cheese while the herbaceous grape notes came through a little harder in the jam.
The conversation amongst the first panel was spot on after this tasting, discussing the different forms of solventless extracts including melt, cold cure, fresh press, carts, and jam. Led by Meltwaukee, we got to hear from The Real Cannabis Chris, @shlabbin710 of 710 Labs, Smokey’s Solventless, and the leading lady behind The Baked Taters, Mrs. Baked Tater.
Next up was probably the most anticipated tasting of the weekend with Fort Wendy. He brought his Yellow Zushi, the winner of last year’s Smoking Jacket, but with a bit of a twist — three jars labeled A, B, and C — containing the Yellow Zushi and two different cuts of Z.
He asked the crowd to do a blind tasting and give their feedback on which they thought was the Zushi and which of the three they preferred overall. A and C ended up being the Z cuts, but I gravitated towards the C as the grapefruit tang was a little stronger. The more sour the better in my opinion! The Yellow Zushi (jar B) was easily identifiable by its smooth and creamy smoke and fruiter flavor profile — less citrusy and more berry cereal milk vibes. Absolutely a crowd pleaser.
Following was a tasting from everyone’s favorite ginger, Ginger Larf! He pulled out Rainbow Guava #5 (a cut from Mr. Autogrow who joined him on stage to speak to his selection) that was Belts-dominant with a super raunchy aroma. This got me feeling focused and cerebral for the farming for resin panel hosted by The Real Cannabis Chris with insights from some badass ladies including Mrs. Baked Tater and Twelves Grow as well as Fred Morris.
Next was perhaps my personal favorite tasting of the weekend, Guava Pie from Zooted Solventless paired with a local watermelon, pineapple, and lime fresh-pressed juice from Juicy Leaf. Zooted came all the way from the big island of Hawaii to share his resin with us, and sure brought that taste of the tropics with him. Hunted from a mystery seed pack, this jar brought big cherry terps with some slight pineapple notes, which really complemented the secondary pineapple and lime in the juice.
Finally we wrapped up with the marketing and branding panel led by TerpWizard featuring the The Real Cannabis Chris, Ryan of Zooted Solventless, and Kyle of Organimelts. That chat really centered around being authentic and how you can infuse your own hobbies and passions into your brand and products to resonate with consumers. It was an inspiring way to wrap up the weekend before packing up our Pelicans and saying goodbye to all of our new friends!
Top Jars of Coffee & Donuts
I always like to round up my top jars from each event I attend and Coffee & Donuts Michigan sure had some standouts. Two of the three are from single-source makers out of Michigan, so I loved to see the home state representing!
1. Gak Nana #3
Cultivated by Humboldt Kine Farms and processed by @simp.lee.adam, this jar truly had one of the strongest, most intense aromas I’ve ever smelled. I can only describe it as hopping straight into a smoothie blender. Papaya, pineapple, and kiwi notes all swirled together to absolutely smack the nostrils and the flavor came through spot on to the aroma, which is rare to see.
2. Lemon Cherry Slushie “Yin Yang”
I love to see the various flavor and/or consistency pairings being inspired by The Real Cannabis Chris thumbprints, and this was the most unique take I’ve seen so far. TerpWizard brought a few different 1 of 1 jar pairings and I was lucky enough to snag this single-source Cherry Sherb + Lempaya masterpiece. I equally enjoyed individual dabs of each flavor as well as getting a scoop of both on my dab tool, making this jar a “choose your own adventure” with three totally different tasty paths.
3. Purple Ice Water
This single-source micro-batch from TerpStyle was on point with an initial wave of ripe, juicy grape and blueberry followed by a pie-like sugary dough note. I’ve been loving grape terps lately and a glob of this had me feeling super creative and energized, which was much needed to get through those marathon days of dabbing.
Missed Coffee & Donuts Michigan? Don’t Miss Our A-Series Summertime Special
We’re honoring our A-Series Summertime Special in honor of Coffee & Donuts for just ONE more week!
In stock and ready to ship with no delays and no headaches, you can get our favorite A-Series bundle for just $9,500 USD.
Coffee & Donuts Michigan Gallery
