How one Southern California-based cannabis company made an award-winning edible

OG Article By Irene Adeline Milanez  Watch Today's LIVE Episode on X, and Rumble

July 29, 2025

Edibles are often flavored to mask the taste of cannabis, but a Southern California-based company won gold by doing the opposite.

Earlier this month, cannabis industry leaders took home more than 150 medals and the prestigious Golden Bear awards in nine categories, including pre-rolls, beverages, wellness products and edibles, at the California State Fair. 

The cannabis competition was added to the fairgrounds in 2022, joining traditional agricultural industries like craft wines and cheeses. More than 600 entries in the competition were judged on a 100-point rating system assessing aroma, flavor, appearance and experience.

Among the top honors in the edibles category were Kiva Lost Farm’s Strawberry × Pink Jesus Live Resin Chews (bronze), Spinello’s Prickly Pear Liquid Diamond Infused Fruit Chews (silver) and Ay Papi’s Whitethorn Rose Single Origin Live Rosin Infused Gummies, which won both the gold medal and the Golden Bear.

“There are a lot of variables that go into making an award-winning product, and it starts with the genetics and the craft farms,” Justin Lee, founder of La Habra-based Ay Papi, said.

Ay Papi’s Whitethorn Rose Single Origin Live Rosin Infused Gummies are produced in Santa Ana, Calif. on Friday. The company won the Golden Bear in the edibles category during the California State Fair cannabis awards on July 12 in Sacramento. IRENE ADELINE MILANEZ imilanez@sacbee.com

Ay Papi’s Whitethorn Rose Single Origin Live Rosin Infused Gummies have no added colors or flavors on Friday. IRENE ADELINE MILANEZ imilanez@sacbee.com

What makes an award-winning edible?

For Lee, the foundation of a good edible isn’t its THC potency but its flavor.

“What makes a great edible is that it has to taste good,” Lee said.

While most edibles add flavoring, either artificial or from purees, Ay Papi’s gummies take their profile directly from the cannabis plant. The Whitethorn Rose strain, bred by Huckleberry Hill Farms, is known for its layered floral, savory and fruity aroma.

Lee said the Whitethorn Rose strain is concentrated into a rosin, a solventless extraction using water and ice. Rosin differs from other cannabis concentration methods, which use solvents such as butane or propane.

Ay Papi’s final product contains seven ingredients: water, pectin, tapioca syrup, sodium, citric acid and the Whitethorn Rose concentrate.

Lee said he credits the edible’s flavor to Huckleberry Farms’s regenerative farming practices, such as cultivating “living soil” or soil full of microorganisms that reduces the need for synthetic fertilizers. 

“If the cannabis isn’t clean, has pesticides, has mold or something like that in it, now you just concentrated that,” Lee said. 

Ay Papi’s Whitethorn Rose Single Origin Live Rosin Infused Gummies are colorless and melt in the mouth with a noticeable musky cannabis flavor accompanied by sweet, tropical fruit notes. In comparison, Spinello’s Prickly Pear Liquid Diamond Infused Fruit Chews have a much more traditional candy texture, flavored with prickly pear puree and beet sugar, without an obvious cannabis taste. 

How terpenes shape flavor

Much of the aroma and flavor of cannabis comes from its terpenes, the chemical compounds in plants that produce distinct smells and tastes. 

“There are so many different types of strains out there that a lot of them just taste like fruits, or they taste like different combinations of floral and savory,” Lee said. “These cannabis plants share the same terpenes that are found in different types of agriculture.”

The Whitehorn Rose contains selinadiene, a rare terpene also found in Costa Rican guava. 

Ngaio Bealum, former Sacramento News & Review cannabis columnist, said a common example is limonene, a terpene found in citrus fruits that gives lemons and oranges their signature scent. 

“Cannabis has so many different flavors,” Bealum said. “Like, this one smells like garlic, and this one smells like peaches, and this one smells like blueberries, this other one smells like skunk and old cheese or feet or burnt rubber.” 

Bealum said terpenes profiles can also determine the effect cannabis can have on a consumer, but effects can vary between individuals.

“A lot of people don’t want to taste the weed. They just want the effects,” Bealum said. “I feel like they should taste a little bit like cannabis, so you can remind yourself that you’re eating cannabis and you don’t just start down the whole package by accident because you were hungry.”

Cannabis packaging is required to be child-resistant, tamper-evident and include instructions for consumption, according to the California Department of Cannabis Control.

Destigmatizing cannabis

In high school, Lee said he was prescribed opiates for mixed martial arts injuries. However, he disliked how the pain killers affected his body and decided to take a “much more holistic approach,” swapping to cannabis for pain management. 

“I’m not saying that there’s not a place for Western medicine,” Lee said. “We should be very grateful that we have Western medicine, but I think we’ve also kind of lost touch with our roots.”

Lee said cannabis use made him more conscious about what he was putting into his body, both as medicine and as food.

“If I’m this obsessed about putting in clean food in my body, I should be just as concerned about putting in clean cannabis in my body,” Lee said. 

Lee founded Ay Papi, a health and wellness company focusing on craft, solventless cannabis products in 2022.

He said he believes focusing on flavor can help destigmatize cannabis and make products accessible and relatable.

“You can make a lot of beautiful art pieces with black and white, but imagine if you could paint with the entire color palette. I think the culinary world is missing out,” Lee said. “Imagine all the different flavors that we’re all missing out on just because we’re unable to acknowledge that it comes from this plant that’s been so stigmatized?”