Flavors Unknown

Philip Wolf – Cannabis Sommelier in Colorado

Philip Wolf Cultivating Spirits for podcast "Flavors unknown"

It all starts with the cannabis Sommelier breaking down the cannabis strain and then share the tasting notes with the Chef who is able to design a menu that harmonize well with the tasting description that you give them. The cannabis Sommelier contact the farm and will identify strains that will be harvested about three weeks prior. That's about how much time it needs to go through a proper curing process and be at a good moisture level to serve. And then from there we will go through the journey that we want to instill into people with the effects of the strains that they will give you. So typically you want to start off being energizing and then working into some groundings more sedative strains as you get through dessert but you can take that journey wherever you want to go.

What we covered In this episode

There are a lot of similarities between wine and cannabis: the varietal (strain), the soil, the terroir, and the light exposure.
Philip got the idea about pairing cannabis with food after a wine tasting near Barcelona in 2013.
His background about cannabis cultivation and opening dispensaries.
He started exploring the ideas of cannabis and food pairings. At first he thought it might be a play on words. And ultimately he figured out there is kind of a science to it.
Cannabis and food pairing is based on terpene profiles of cannabis with flavor profiles of food to harmonize and enhance.
There are three different types of compounds within cannabis: cannabinoids (CBD, CBN, CBA, THC), flavonoids, and the terpenes.
212 or so of terpenes that exist in cannabis with mostly 16 predominant ones.
Philip Wolf explain the creative process behind cannabis and food pairing.
The citrus and pine flavors from some cannabis terpenes will go well with white fish with chicken duck and the spicy, heathy, mushroomy, or coffee profiles will go better with deeper red meat.
The matureness of the plant depends on the time you harvest it and can change the terpene profile.
Cultivating Spirits offers couple of tasting, small group tastings, birthday parties, bachelor and bachelorette parties as well as corporate function tastings.
From three course pairing dinners to five to six course dinners for larger groups.
Soon Cultivating Spirits will have a Chef's Table where the chef will come in and produce cannabis pairing dinners for the guests.
Their customers are mostly executive class from the Midwest, East Coast and deep South.
Philip will mention how to become a cannabis connoisseur.
Five rapid-fire questions

Some memorable cannabis and food pairings

Recently we've had some we had a confit duck leg with some plantain gnocchis, English blue cream and daikon sprouts and that was with Lemon Wheel strain. That was the pairing that really stood out to me by chef Edwin Sandoval out of Denver Colorado. Recently we also had this braised short rib with polenta and a chili negro sauce and with Ghost Plane Haze. A very spicy dish but a very spicy strain. The mouthfeel on the end would just leave the mouth kind of buzzing and kind of allow you to be a little thirsty. It's kind of mouth quenching. That was a really good pairing that they did although typically I'm not a huge braised short rib guy. It all depends on really appreciating the art of pairing the cannabis because you can think of it in so many different ways because you do have the mouthfeel aspects of it. There is such a variety of flavors that people can play with. And it really gives you layers. There are layers of terpenes as we were discussing. There's different levels of them. And so it really gives people the ability to layer food.