Grower Stories #54: Patrick and Jamie Stephenson

An Interview With Denver-Based Cannabis Production Company Newt Brothers

When it comes to handcrafted, artisanal cannabis, it’s a labor of love. For the Newt Brothers, however, it’s a family business too. This Denver, Colorado-based cannabis producer puts the focus on top-notch genetics, superior growing standards, and a commitment to excellence to stand out from the crowd. Jamie and Patrick of Newt Brother sat down with us here at AskGrowers to shed some light on their operation.

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Patrick Stephenson : I have always been a long-time cannabis enthusiast. I began working in the industry when it became legal in Colorado in 2010. I started working in my friend’s garden as a trimmer. I worked my way up to become lead cultivator, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I was always interested in gardening growing up, so once I started with cannabis, cultivating it soon became a passion. At that point, I immersed myself in learning all I could regarding plant science and advanced cultivation techniques.

Our mom also loves to garden, so we ended up working in several of the same grows. We all thought that was pretty cool. This shared experience eventually led us to form a cannabis company of our own. Without her, we would not be where we are today.

Jamie Stephenson : Unlike my brother, I was not involved in the cannabis industry until we decided to embark on this project and start our own company. Before our adventure began, I owned and managed multiple businesses, all usually centered around operations and sales. I decided to move forward with this company and enter the cannabis industry because of the first Cannabis Cup Denver hosted back in 2012.

My brother was running a grow for a Northglenn company, and they had a booth at the Cup. He invited my wife and me to come down and check it out. I had only tried cannabis for the first time in my life earlier that year, so I did not know what to expect. The Cup was crazy, the laws were loose, and it was wild! My brother’s company was able to bring in plants with his genetics. I was blown away; my brother was a celebrity! People were running up to him for pictures, asking for advice. It was eye-opening and fun to see!

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Tia (AskGrowers) : Tell us your brand story. What made you decided to go into the cannabis industry?

Newt Brothers: As we were putting together our business plan, we needed a name to put onto the documents. We had discussed a few names for the business, but nothing was really sticking at the time. Newt Brothers was a name that had been around since our childhood as we would find salamanders around our house and keep them as pets. Our dad jokingly suggested that Newt Brothers should be the name of our rock band.

This moniker had all but disappeared from memory until Jamie used it as a placeholder in some business documents. The name seemed to fit perfectly when Jamie suggested a design for the logo he envisioned as a two-headed lizard with one body. I think it was at that point we officially became the Newt Brothers.

The fact that the legal cannabis industry is so new and holds such vast potential drives many people into the industry. In Colorado alone, it has become a billion-dollar industry. There are some owners in the industry that have never smoked cannabis or taken an edible. For us, it is a little more personal.

Our goal is to create a unique, high-quality product produced in small batches from our meticulously cultivated flower. We have over 15 strains in our garden that have been bred in-house. It is remarkable when no one in the state has our genetics and people contact us to ask where the next drop is? Our goal is to always provide our customers with the absolute top quality cannabis experience, whether our concentrates, caviar, prerolls, or decadent truffles. We want everything from Newt Brothers to be something you’re telling friends about.

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Tia : Were there any hesitant or skeptical moments when starting the brand?

Patrick: Yes, you could say there have been a few hesitant moments along the way. As a small family-owned business, we started the project with big dreams but a modest budget. I remember at one point after we had just signed the contract for the building, and I sat up from a dead sleep and was like, “oh man, did we just do this?” From there, it was just full commitment.

Jamie: As my brother mentioned, there were definitely some hesitant moments before we went all-in and signed the lease. Once we did that, we had no other option than to go full throttle to make it work. I suffered considerable doubt when our buildout permit took almost 9 months. Initially, it was estimated that our legal permitting and buildout would be completed in less than a year. Nearly doubling that time frame created a huge hit financially and delayed our entrance into the market. I had many sleepless nights wondering how we could pull ourselves out from such a big hole. But our team dug in, worked harder than ever, and made it happen!

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Tia : What is the ethos behind Newt Brothers Artisanal marketing efforts, and what is the message that you want to convey?

Newt Brothers: Newt Brothers Artisanal Cannabis has always been about quality, quality, quality. As they say in the industry, “Fire In Fire Out.” You cannot start with a low-grade inferior flower and expect the end product to be anything but disappointing. The foundation for growing the highest-quality premium cannabis flower starts with your cultivation facility and your cannabis genetics. We worked tirelessly to perfect the facility design and procedures to provide the cleanest and most efficient facility in Colorado.

For example, all employees shower immediately on entering the building and must wear medical scrubs before they start their shift. We have HEPA filters throughout the warehouse and run equipment and supplies through a sterilization process before anything enters the production area. We take these extra steps to prevent pest or pathogen infestation in the growing environment and ensure our cannabis plants stay healthy and happy.

Environmentally, we were one of Colorado’s and the nation’s first facilities to utilize LED lighting exclusively. While LED’s are initially more expensive, they cut our energy consumption in half and reduce our cooling requirements by up to sixty percent. We have automated watering and nutrient feeding systems that nurture our plants. And we recycle condensate from our cooling units for reuse. We are Colorado proud to be a leader in cannabis industry sustainability. All the research, testing, and hard work results in a cannabis flower that is incredibly clean, safe, and of optimal connoisseur quality. The results are the message our product conveys to the Colorado cannabis community.

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Tia : How does Newt Brothers Artisanal maintain transparency in their product line from seed to sale?

Newt Brothers: Regulation is a large part of all legal cannabis in the USA. Colorado uses a tracking system called METRC to monitor all the activity within a cannabis facility. Adherence to all cannabis METRC regulations is a requirement to operate a cannabis company legally in Colorado. Every action within the licensed facility, from cloning to flower, and extraction must be recorded into the METRC tracking system. The system, although time-consuming, maintains a strict level of transparency throughout the cultivation, growth, and extraction process.

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Tia : Edibles are a huge part of the rise in microdosing. What would it mean for the cannabis industry as it gets more mainstream?

Newt Brothers: Micro-dosing is becoming extremely popular in the cannabis community. Now that an enlightened society has stopped demonizing the plant, more people are learning about the benefits of cannabis and accepting it culturally. We are just beginning to scratch the surface, exploring the potential that individual cannabinoids might provide. Newt Brothers is very excited about our pending release of a 5mg vegan, zero-calorie edible specifically designed for micro-dosing. It’s an exciting development!

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Tia : Tell us more about the Chocolate Truffles, What makes them so special?

Newt Brothers: Our chocolate truffle edibles are a labor of love. Our goal was to create a line of cannabis edibles of connoisseur quality and not some haphazard assembly line mix of sugar and extract. Our chocolate truffles are handcrafted, starting with the world’s finest Belgium chocolate. The elegant chocolate shells are filled with one of our five different flavors, including; Peppermint, Peanut Butter, Caramel, Dark Chocolate Crème Brule, and our newest Coffee Ganache. That’s our secret sauce. The truffles are then hand-painted to give you a one-of-a-kind cannabis experience. Quality of this level cannot be described with words and must be tasted to appreciate.

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Tia : When it comes to concentrates, what is your brand’s approach to making those?

Newt Brothers: We are probably best known for our line of highly refined concentrates that we call AXOLOTL. It is a premium cannabis concentrate with high potency, a clean taste, and smooth smoke. This product is filtered five times using an all-natural filtration process that removes unwanted lipids and moisture left behind with traditional extraction techniques.

Our unfiltered live concentrates have also been quickly gaining in popularity. These concentrates are made from our fresh frozen flower and are strain-specific. This allows for the full-terpene expression of the plant strain to come through in the final product. Our extraction artists produce a full line of concentrates that include Live Resin, Live Badder, Wax, Shatter, and Live Caviar.

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Tia Do you do everything on your own, from seed to sale or you are working with third-party companies to do that?

Newt Brothers : Newt Brothers does everything from seed to extraction, to edibles production. This allows us to control product quality from start to finish. We do not own a dispensary and only sell wholesale to other dispensaries. We work with a few very select companies to meet the demand for our shatter product. This allows us to dedicate all our own material for our Live extractions.

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Tia What do you think the next five years will look like for the cannabis industry, both in the U.S. and globally?

Newt Brothers : The next five years should be an exciting time for the industry. Hopefully, the politicians can come together and recognize that cannabis is one of the least harmful substances on the planet.

The fact that cannabis is still saddled with a schedule one drug classification is kind of mind-blowing. Keeping cannabis federally illegal just does not make any sense at this point. It really hurts the small cannabis businesses that struggle to stay afloat with unnecessarily harsh regulations. This is despite the heavy taxes the industry pays to local and state governments. There has been real progress in the industry in the last ten years of legalization, and related research has uncovered previously unknown benefits from cannabis. But now it’s time to provide access to cannabis globally, just like alcohol.

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Tia : If you could have a chance to smoke with anyone on this planet (dead or alive) who’d that be and why? :)

Patrick : I would have to say the artist [tooltip title="Otavio Pandolfo and Gustavo Pandolfo" content="Street artists and identical twins"]OSGEMEOS[/tooltip]. The Twins have been crushing it lately with a diverse set of very inspiring art. And they seem super chill as well.

Jamie : I would smoke with [tooltip title="John Fitzgerald Kennedy or JFK" content="the 35th president of the United States"]John F Kennedy[/tooltip]. I read and analyzed many of his speeches throughout college. I have to believe he would have some crazy stories and maybe even a few national secrets that would be fun to hear!!!

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Tia : Do you have any brands you appreciate and follow?

Newt Brothers : Jungle Boys have always been a brand we admire for sure. They share the same quality standards as our company and produce quality products across the spectrum. Some local brands we think are awesome are PufCreativ and Kind Love. PufCreativ is a badass company that produces amazing cannabis content and websites. Kind Love has been a company that we appreciated for a while now. If you want quality flowers in Colorado, check them out.

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Tia : Where do you hope to see Newt Brothers Artisanal in the next five to ten years?

Newt Brothers : With the continual growth of the cannabis industry not just in Colorado but worldwide, we are incredibly excited about the next five to ten years. We have completed some consulting for several companies in the new states coming online through cannabis legalization.

In Maryland, we recently assisted a startup in acquiring a license in the state. These licenses are incredibly competitive to obtain, so we were stoked to have been involved in helping them through the licensing complexity. Stepping up our consulting services in the coming years is a goal we are working towards. We will be working in more states as legalization becomes a reality. It’s a given that Newt Brothers will be a national brand, but the thought of creating a worldwide brand is becoming more and more appealing.

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You can follow Newt Brothers Artisanal at:

Facebook

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Thank you so much, Newt Brothers team, for taking the time to do the interview. To learn more about them, head on over to their website.