Our customers love Peak Extracts. What’s not to love? Dark, high quality chocolate infused with solvent free, activated CO2 oil, and always single strain (single strain really sets Peak Extracts apart from the competition). Not to mention, their Rescue Rub, a combination of cannabis oil, coconut oil, shea butter and jojoba oil, gets rave reviews too. We reached out to Kate and Katie to dig a little deeper.
What inspired the two of you to start Peak Extracts?
Katie was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease in 1996, and tried Western treatments for a decade with many negative effects. When she moved to Oregon in 2004, she got her first OMMP card, and discovered that cannabis was an invaluable treatment to manage her disease. In 2007, she left her job doing medical research at OHSU, to pursue a degree in Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine at OCOM. It was there that she studied topical herbal medicine and began developing the base for Peak Extracts’ Rescue Rub, a topical anti-inflammatory and pain relieving salve. Her first batch of cannabis chocolate was made about 10 years ago, and with her partner Kate, they’ve been honing their skills as chocolatieres for the last many years. Both Kate and Katie are inspired by how useful the chocolate has been for Katie, and countless others. It’s their hope to share the benefits of cannabis, combined with delicious chocolate, with everyone in Oregon. When we started our company, we set two (very lofty) goals– to help ease pain with the Rescue Rub, and to make the best pot chocolate in the world. We’re excited to keep working towards that goal.
Describe your line of products.
Rescue Rub: A topical salve used for for pain relief. Great for general aches and pains, sore muscles, arthritis, inflammation, psoriasis, eczema, bruises, sprains, whiplash, etc.
Dark Chocolate Bar: 70% Dark, high quality chocolate infused with solvent free, activated CO2 oil, always single strain.
Peaks: Single Serving, Single strain dark chocolates in the shape of a little mountain peak.
Tell us about the ingredients.
Rescue Rub is comprised of coconut oil, shea butter, jojoba oil, solvent free, activated CO2 oil, chinese herbs and a secret blend of essential oils that make it smell delicious. It is professionally tempered to maintain a smooth and shelf stable consistency.
Our chocolate is made of highest quality, dark chocolate Couverture, mixed with single strain CO2 oil. At this time, we do not add any “inclusions”, i.e. nuts, etc. Maybe in the future…
Tell us about the process you use to make them.
Chocolate: We grind and bake the material and fully decarboxylate in the oven, then run it through our CO2 extraction machine. The oil is taken and then introduced to our chocolate without any further solvents or post processing, ensuring the maximum complement of terpenes, which helps to maintain the uniqueness of each strain. We use dark chocolate couverture, which must be melted down and professionally tempered to create the texture and shelf-stability we associate with gourmet chocolate.
Our chocolate tempering machine and depositor mixes the oil with the chocolate for more than an hour, ensuring even dosing and homogenization throughout the batch. We want every square to be identically dosed. We then mold the chocolate, and use a special vibrating table to remove any bubbles. After cooling, the chocolate is unmolded and then packaged and sealed for delivery!
Rescue Rub: We use a salve base created through years of clinical trials by Katie, which is a combination of Extra Virgin Organic Coconut oil, Shea Butter, and Jojoba oil– all known for their antioxidant and hypoallergenic traits. The Salve base also contains several extracts of Chinese herbs, used for centuries to cure pain and inflammation. The base is then combined with Cannabis oil we prepare using the same process as what is used in the chocolate, and mixed with several essential oils to yield a pleasing, mild scented product. The salve is then tempered, cooled and packaged for delivery
What symptoms can be relieved by using Peak Extracts?
Chocolate: Our chocolates can be used to manage a wide variety of conditions, from pain and inflammation to digestive disorders, autoimmune diseases, loss of appetite, and insomnia. We have a rotating selection of Sativa, Indica, Hi Dose and CBD. Sativa is most popular for day time use– Many people have referred to our Sativa Chocolates as “cleaning pills” because they help motivate to get up and clean the house! Most often the CBD chocolate is used for nighttime management of pain and insomnia.
Rescue Rub: Pain, inflammation, skin disorders, and injuries. It can be applied to the front of the neck to help with sleep, as well.
Share one of your favorite testimonials about the efficacy of your products.
One of the best things about the Rescue Rub is that it’s not psychoactive and has no “weed smell”. We have many loyal consumers that are over 65, and have problems with arthritis, but have never used cannabis (and do not wish to ever get “high”). It’s making their lives easier and better, and introducing them to the wonders of an herb that most people have been deprived of for the last 80 years of prohibition. For instance, one man, 74, was in charge of destroying seized cannabis crops for the military when he was stationed in Panama during the Vietnam war (Think using a flamethrower to incinerate piles of weed the size of houses– such a tragedy). He has never been high, and has had a chronic shoulder injury of 20+ years that prevented him from sleeping through the night. The first time he used the rub, he slept for 8 hours straight for the first time in more than a decade. He uses it every night now, and swears by it.
Share anything else you’d like our budtenders and customers to know.
SINGLE STRAIN– Now that we know the variety of effects produced by different strains, we would never expect consumers to smoke or vape blends, why would we expect them to eat them? We are dedicated to maintaining the uniqueness and quality of each variety, so our consumers can decide (with the help of budtenders) what strain will benefit them the most.
Quality– We source our material carefully and only use organically grown cannabis. We have control of our quality from beginning to end. No added solvents, just the best CO2 oil we can make, and the best chocolate we can buy.
Uniformity– We machine mix our batches for more than an hour, and we ensure that the oil is homogenized so that dosing is consistent, square to square and bar to bar. We want consumers to know what they’re getting into every time they eat a 1/2 square, whole square, etc.
LOCAL– We’re Oregonians and we are committed to maintaining our ethics and values, from plant material, to packaging. We want to do what’s right for Oregon and the planet.
Check out our website www.peakextracts.com and follow us @peakextracts on instagram and twitter.
