Brands to Watch: marQaha
2023 has been a landmark year for Missouri, bringing the start of recreational marijuana sales and a bevy of new products and brands to market.
Missouri is home to over 200 different brands and more than 10,000 products. As the market grows and new brands and products continue to appear, Greenway looks to highlight Brands to Watch. Companies and brands ranging from homegrown talent and design to out-of-state players looking to make a big impact, the brands featured here are moving the needle.
Consumers who have visited dispensaries in Colorado have likely seen the iconic butterfly that brand marQaha® includes on all of their packaging. Missouri patients and consumers can now access this popular brand in dispensaries. Through a licensing agreement with Heya Wellness, the marQaha® tinctures are appearing in dispensaries across the state.
Founded in 2010, marQaha® is one of the oldest and most trusted companies in the industry. Their product lines are numerous in Colorado and are expanding to additional markets continually. Their ethos is based on a never-ending quest to continue talking to consumers and patients and implementing new technology and solutions for cannabis medicine. Formulations are rigorously tested and the time and investment for research and development to ensure the highest quality means that these are not your average tincture.
The brand is synonymous with the butterfly imagery and their iconic butterfly logo which has 3 dots meant as a nod to trichomes, while not violating packaging compliance guidelines in place in several US states where they’re carried. But the butterfly is also a reminder of the non-profit work that marQaha® participates in.
marQaha® has a long history of celebrating artistic renditions of butterflies and has an entire series of different illustrations. marQaha® supports the Save the Monarchs Foundation and other causes dedicated to the monarch preservation. They encourage the planting of milkweed to help stop the dissemination of the species. Milkweed plants are the only source of food for the monarch caterpillar. But these plants are rapidly disappearing, due to the loss of habitat stemming from land development and the widespread spraying of weed killer on the fields where they live. The monarch butterfly is in trouble. Their numbers are down 90% of what they were in 1992. And the milkweed plant population, which is indispensable to the monarch, is also down 90%. Milkweed seeds can be purchased on the marQaha site through their affiliated non-profit organizations.
Missouri’s marQaha® current product lineup includes their flagship product – tinctures which are available in 2 different and distinct types – the Agave and Entourage lines. The Agave tinQtures are sweetened with agave and are perfect as an under the tongue application or a great addition to tea, coffee, or other beverages – these are 100mg per package and attached to lineage – Indica, Sativa, and Hybrid.
The Entourage lines are are 100% MCT based and are sugar-free and gluten free. These formulations include not only come in varieties based on Indica, Sativa, or Hybrid, but also include effects-based varieties such as Equalize, Power, or Align which have CBD/THC ratios for the entourage effect.
One of many things that sets these tinctures apart from the rest is the science behind the formulations. Skip Meador, marQaha® founder, speaks about how his products differ from others, “We invest significant time and research in our products to ensure consumers can experience therapeutic benefits from each formulation, so it’s not only pleasing to the palate, but also extremely effective.” Nano-quick is one of the core technologies in use by the company, and it is a big part of the selling point for marQaha® products. “The ability to add tinctures that taste good to beverages or simply use sublingually is one of the key things that set these apart from other tinctures in the US cannabis landscape,” said Meador.
nanoQuick™ tinctures typically provide the intended experience in 5 minutes instead of 45+ by sublingually beginning absorption into the bloodstream completing the cycle in the GI tract with 90+% cannabinoid and terpenes intake giving you a better experience that’s more cost effective, potent and consistent. In lamens terms, this means the tinctures are fast-acting and can provide effects much more quickly than traditional tinctures.
“Products like marQaha® bring something different to the table for Missouri’s consumers and patients – while many of our retail sales are heavily flower or vapes, edibles are almost always next. Dispensary visitors are continually seeing new-to-cannabis patrons looking for suggestions they can try that don’t involve smoking or vaping, and edibles aren’t always a smart solution – vegan options require no gelatin, diabetics can’t have sugar, and a large consumer segment – boomers – are looking to ease into consuming for the first time or the first time in many years,” said Mandy Lehnbeuter, partner at Heya Wellness.
“We want to show Missouri cannabis consumers and patients that we truly wish to contribute to their wellness and offer products that meet the needs of EVERY customer, not just hard core and long term smokers,” added Lehnbeuter.
