Joe Buonadonna

00:01

My wife and I were saying, man, we would just love some bliss in our life. And that’s where it all started, just that idea of wanting to make people happy and putting a product out there that would bring some relief to people. So we consider ourselves the Bliss Company. My name’s Joe Buonadonna. I found the Bliss Co. along with my three partners in 21 when New Jersey decided to legalize recreational cannabis. We’re a purpose-driven company that’s built on a foundation of quality. I had a very secure profession. My background is in food. Spent 14 years at my family’s seafood company in Philadelphia. We were doing great and there was no real reason to drop everything and start new except for the love for the plant. Back in 2010, popped some bag seeds in my tomato garden box, and they sprouted and I called my best friend. I’m like, “You’re not going to believe it.”

Joe Buonadonna

00:51

But these seed sprouted, he came around my house with this makeshift Ikea cabinet closet. I’ll never forget what he said to me. We were trimming our first harvest and he goes, “I could do this for the rest of my life.” And I was like, “Yeah, me too.” And here we are. What’s up, Sam? Morning. New Jersey was asking for two things when we started. They were asking for quality and they were asking for West Coast vibe, genetic culture and that’s what we wanted to bring out. So we got some real legendary genetics in house. We have the original Northern Lights, the original OG Kush, original cut of sour. Bobby, our lead grower, is really just so unbelievably experienced and he’s just amazing at what he does. This is the Miracle Mint. And this is the Wosi Woe. She throws down heavy butts. It’s really easy trim out.

Joe Buonadonna

01:42

One of the things we do with our cure is we do a 30 day cure. It’s a slow dry. So we dry in here at 60 degrees, 60% relative humidity. We dry anywhere between 11 to 14 days. It’s really strain dependent, as you can tell. So this was a retro. This was actually a back in the day. It was called Flying Against Towing. So they towed on like 295 in a turnpike like heavy towing. So there was hydraulic lifts in here. This place was just big open warehouses. We launched joints three months ago, brand new to us. We wanted to really master flour as best we could. We knew we wanted joints. We felt confident in putting that out in a joint form because you’re going to have more people consuming your products through joints than you would flour because it’s more accessible to the consumer.

Joe Buonadonna

02:33

There’s no turning back. Once you’ve decided to go along with automation, especially like the Blackbird by Roll Pros, it just changes the whole game for you. I mean, I fell in love with it the first time I saw it at MJ Unpacked. We have the ability to control the parameters of what makes that joint great, right? Do we want it a little bit more filled? Do we want the gum line a little bit more wet so the stick is better? Do we want to change the crutch size based off the density of the flower so that that joint, even though it’s a 0.7, is still going to burn the same no matter what diameter the joint is. We de- stem, medium grind, rolls out, smacks it down. These little weighted scales drop the product down into here. These tubes inject the crutches and this whole thing just works every time.

Joe Buonadonna

03:22

It’s wild. This right here is the Ferrari of joint rolling machines.

Donovan

03:27

I was pretty excited and passionate to work with the machine. It really feels like a very nice mix between a science and an art form. Each flour has its own specific volume and it falls into place in a certain way. So we try to make sure that our crutch is appropriately fitting, very efficient.

Marisa

03:40

It’s doubled in production since we’ve started. We were doing about 5,000. Now we doubled, now we’re doing about 10,000 and we just see it climbing now.

Joe Buonadonna

03:48

One of the things that cigarette smokers love about them is they burn consistently every time you let a cigarette. It’s going to burn the same way every time. We haven’t really had that with pre-rolls. With this RollPros is absolutely producing that. It produces a consistent joint that’s burning the same every time and it really does replicate the cigarette.

Marisa

04:06

So we’ve been getting tons of feedback on the 0.7. Everybody loves it and they love the cigarette style that we have and the consistency and the quality each time.

Donovan

04:15

I have heard feedback, very positive, very positive, very even burns all around. And that’s what we’re looking for. It’s just like the cleanest burn that we could find.

Joe Buonadonna

04:23

The whole reason we had the Blackboard by Roll Pros was because of the quality rolls and the consistency in that and we have control over that. Currently working on our second building, it’s going to give us the opportunity to move more into manufacturing. What differs here is just our unwavering commitment to quality. It really does drive us. It’s we eat, breathe, and sleep it. We have a passion for the plant that really exudes itself in everything that we do.