Dutch Treat: A Story in a Strain

Curious how one of NYC’s most respected cannabis clubs upholds premium selection, product education, and customer service for 15 years and counting? A founder breaks it all down.

If you’ve tuned into previous entries of The Canna Diary, you may have figured out that we love exploring cannabis from a multitude of perspectives: its complex makeup, rainbow of strains, flavors, scents, experiences, and its unique legal and market status. Today’s entry is no different. As a cannabis enthusiast and advocate for understanding its diverse inputs and impacts, I’ve scoured the city far and wide for top-quality product and product knowledge. It didn’t take me long after moving from San Diego to Brooklyn to become familiar with a certain delivery service known for its top-tier flower, product variety, attention to detail, and woodsy whimsy. You can find them online or mentioned frequently in the green halls of Reddit. A humble and committed bunch, their strain (or cultivar) diversity, product information, and customer service speak for themselves. Out of guesses? I’m talking about Treeliable. As someone who seeks to further understand and share cannabis, I was grateful to swap stories and learn from their founder and team, who’ve seen just about everything when it comes to the wild world of NYC weed. Today’s entry takes us deep into the world of legacy cannabis: from finding a footing, to pursuing a shared mission, to expert advice on product navigation and growing a personal relationship with weed, there’s a lot to cover. Let’s jump in.

This story begins with me reaching out to Treeliable because their Dutch Treat flower caught my eye. I was interested in writing a strain profile and experience review and wanted to see if there were any curiosities or strong in-house perspectives on it. Why? This cultivar is interesting to me for a lot of reasons: it has a complex aroma, taste, and smoke and is steeped in Amsterdam lore. Did I mention that it is a combination of two all-time fan favorites Northern Lights and Haze? I imagined receiving a few tidbits on the flower’s notes and heritage but was given so much more. Over a series of messages, emails, and chats, I came to learn more about the team and founder of this OG operation (who I’ll affectionately name “Treeliable Elf” for this entry) and what drives their mission, product selection, and approach to the plant. Below, our Treeliable Elf takes us through how he and his team of merry enthusiasts and dispatchers pursue their work, advocate for mindful consumption, and spread cheer through the city. Plus, a breakdown of one of our shared favorites strains - the rare and elusive Dutch Treat.

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Mitchell: What first called you to establish a livelihood and lifestyle business in cannabis?

Treeliable Elf: Ultimately…necessity. Like Plato said, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” The main objective of selling weed when I initially started was free cannabis for my own personal enjoyment. Nowadays, that has blossomed into being able to supply high quality and more affordable cannabis for the masses. The biggest factors for me at first were: cost (I couldn’t afford weed without selling it), convenience (I didn’t always have a place to reliably get it), and safety (spots that had good weed weren’t always safe).

Cost:

Cannabis used to be super expensive due to broader illegality and less supply. Back then, we were just 15-year old kids with no income. As most people do, I started selling weed so that I could afford it for myself. When we first started smoking, it was usually all our friends pitching in on a  $10 “dime” (usually 1g of schwag), or pooling together $20 (which equates to about $33.95 in today’s market with inflation) for an eighth of compressed or “bricked” decomposing, moldy weed of some unknown strain.

Weed was bought by quality grade back then, not by the currently popular sub-categorical classifications like sativa, indica, and hybrid or individual strain names. The three major classes we had were:

• Dank/Hydro[ponic] - The best that was available at the time (but pales in comparison to what we have today). All weed with any hint of purple in it was thought to be hydroponically grown back then. Little to no seeds. $50 an eighth. Very hard to source, with bulk weight often not available due to limited supply.

• Mids/Beasters - Mids were anything that still had a green color to it and a fresh-ish smell (when weed decomposes, its colors deeply fade and its aroma changes dramatically, becoming unpleasant like ammonia). “Beasters” was a term referring to the area where the crops were speculated to have been grown - BC, British Columbia in Canada. Mids could be compressed and come in brick form…but they would almost always have some seeds. Typically $30 an eighth or $180 an ounce. Bulk deals were hard to source as dealers didn’t want to wholesale a product they knew would sell at street retail for much more.

• Schwag - This was weed that was never cured properly, compressed and flattened, and shipped immaturely [or while] wet. It smelled of mold and ammonia mostly and was dark in color and absolutely riddled with seeds that were crushed in…and hard AF to find. Half a seed casing would often necessitate us performing an operation on a joint mid-session. Typically $10 a gram, $20 an eighth, or $125 an ounce. Bulk deals were typically available for between $325-400 a quarter pound. I remember buying one of these schwag bricks that had been transported inside the tire of a wheelbarrow. We had to cut the remainder of the tire off when we got it. The brick came out stinking like rubber and looking like a giant weed doughnut.

By supplying the weed, I learned I could reduce or eliminate any cost for myself. The general goal was to buy an ounce and sell enough of it that I could smoke the remainder for free, or at a severely reduced cost. Sometimes if I would sell it fast enough, I would turn a financial profit, but that was always a bonus.

Convenience + Safety

The second and third biggest contributing factors were convenience and safety. There was a serious lack of safe, reliable sources back then. We would spend anywhere from 30 minutes to 12 hours hunting down cannabis. There were no cannabis stores - you had to get your weed from a black market dealer. The biggest mode of communication for dealers was a pager, or “beeper” (which is a good metaphor for how timely and unpredictable a process finding weed could be). Literally, we’d send out a call to the unknown and hope that it was returned in a timely fashion. Most of the dealers I knew back then also had other, more regular 9-5 jobs, and so you had to deal with them on their schedule, which meant not receiving a reply until they were good and ready. 

There were also no camera phones, so no media could be shared about the product you were going to be buying. Unless you had seen the weed in-person beforehand, you had no idea how good it was until [you got it]. By then, you were already invested, and the dealer gained the advantage. No one wanted to waste half of their day chasing down leads and driving all over town burning expensive gasoline just to (potentially) score a bag.  

Sometimes these expeditions would end up leading us to very seedy and potentially dangerous locations. I remember driving 5 hours roundtrip for a chance at scoring a QP of mids for $600, and we ended up in the parking lot of this scummy little motel in Flint, MI. Luckily, we left with the product in hand, but it easily could have ended much worse (weapons were present and brandished during the deal). What were we going to do if they had taken our money and told us to bounce? Buying cannabis in the past dictated dealing with fellow (potentially more dangerous) criminals.

Getting weed kind of really sucked back in the day. Even when you did manage to find some, you still had to deal with the ethics of the individuals selling it, and due to the plant’s illegality, there was virtually zero accountability. [These factors] entitled dealers to treat customers with a “you get what you get” mentality. For me, personally, selling marijuana meant not having to constantly search for it in unfamiliar areas or among untrusted friend groups at inconvenient times. Selling also paid for my consumption habits, which was all the motivation I needed.

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M: What drives your mission and product selection? What does “success” mean to you?

TE: Our business is driven by both its product and service, as we consider ourselves [a part of] the hospitality industry. We are not merely a weed store or courier service. We like to curate the entire experience for our clients, from the moment they reach out to explore their options, to the time their order is punctually delivered. It begins with a passionate desire to provide a variety of reliably high-quality products at a more-than-fair price point, and is coupled with a patient and compassionate customer experience fulfilled by an accessible and knowledgeable cannabis advocate.

Our focus is on building trust and growing loyalty. Our measure of success is not profit-centric. It is achieved by adhering to our core brand standards and providing consistently positive client interactions. "Success" means that our clients are happy and well looked-after. Our standards lead to our success, and our success leads us to financial sustainability. 

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M: How do you keep spirits (prompt, friendly service) and product quality (reliable sourcing) up in today’s landscape?

TE: Keeping our spirits up in today's landscape has never been easier. Being well above the age of 40 and lifelong cannabis enthusiasts, we have experienced the legal system first-hand, along with the stigma and criminality historically associated with it. We are genuinely honored and incredibly excited to finally step out of the shadows and scrutiny that have, until recently, surrounded the cannabis industry.

The "Green Veil" is lifting on all fronts: regional, federal, and global (albeit slower in some arenas than others), allowing [for] recreational use and opening the doors for scientific and medical research. Cannabis research results in shared knowledge. Shared knowledge trickles down on all levels, affecting everyone from the grower to the consumer. As more information and educational resources become readily available to cannabis growers, they [can supply] higher quality products. As information about the plant becomes more accessible to the general population, people become more informed consumers who are better able to understand and articulate their specific needs...The results are a healthier, more targeted, and enjoyable experience for everyone.

We feel like we can finally have our cake (explore and employ the plant’s mental and physical benefits) and eat it too (get high!) without fear of persecution. A freedom that provides us the opportunity and responsibility of raising both the floor and ceiling for quality standards. For producers of the past, that means corners that used to get cut now need to be respected (e.g. minimal use of plant growth regulators or PGRs/pesticides/heavy fertilizers). Legacy suppliers now have to answer the questions they once evaded with specific knowledge of grow methods, strain genetics, terpene percentages, etc. The bar has been raised for everyone and, as cannabis enthusiasts first and foremost, that couldn't be better news. There is a very refreshing sense of accountability and renovation brought on by the Green Veil's upheaval, and we have found it best to only partner with producers who share our enthusiasm and steadfast values.

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M: How would you compare quality and service at a business like yours vs. a licensed dispensary/service or the ever-present weed bodega?

TE: The floor for quality standards in the regulated market is “not harmful,” but the floor for standards for us is “not harmful + decent quality.” We don’t relabel strains and wouldn’t stock half the products that some legal dispensaries are selling. Regulations are helpful in ensuring safer access to quality products, but they boost expenses (and prices) for sellers, and have a long way towards guaranteeing enthusiast quality in every bag. Take for example the recent roll back on testing limits for acceptable mold levels*, which aimed to make more weed eligible for legal sales¹. If you buy your weed from a bodega or unscrupulous plug, you’re opening yourself up to much more unpredictable (and often hard to gauge) product quality and care.

*Mitchell jumping in here: the regulatory change reflects the elimination of the grower pass/fail limit of 10,000 colony-forming units (CFU) per gram of cannabis flower or 1,000 CFU per gram of extract. Growers in the state of New York are still required to test and share CFU levels with their customers, but the safety of the product is decided at the discretion of the grower, and accepted by the buyer, before being sold to consumers.

We are stewarded by consummate proponents and enjoyers of cannabis. We have an intrinsic passion for the plant and an interest in preserving cannabis culture. Not all retailers are of our community mindset. We feel that supplying cannabis SHOULD NOT mean extracting every single possible cent from your client. Cannabis is as much medicine to some as it is candy to others, and we firmly believe medicine should be both affordable and accessible. One of our original intentions was to make it more accessible while making sure the grower is still being appreciated and paid properly, [and] we’ve been able to achieve this on a local level.

Our focus is on providing a quality product and experience, coming in the form of good customer service and consciously being more inclusive. Our actions reflect our ideals. Honoring these ideals, we prioritize being fluent in current cannabis culture and being able to guide our clients with our own experiential knowledge. Examples come daily in multiple forms: waiving delivery fees [based on purchase amount], facilitating scheduled deliveries, lowered [purchase] minimums, offering returns when plausible, providing our client gifts if we are ever tardy, frequent sales on premium products, bulk sales, semi-annual gifts for continued support, a generous rewards program accessible with every purchase (not over time like most other cannabis services), freebies for first-time clients, servicing clients after regular business hours, delivering outside of our regular zones, and forming direct relations with farmers to avoid middlemen and keep prices at a bare minimum. 

Our owners take a very hands-on approach, and are proactively involved to ensure our standards are always upheld. That might be the most unique thing about us. It isn’t uncommon for the founders themselves to [make your] delivery. That is how committed and passionate we feel about nurturing the culture, and how much joy the vocation provides us.

A few general pros and cons we’d like to share for buying in the unregulated market:

• Pros:

  • Unregulated products are untaxed (and often come with lower overhead), so they’re usually cheaper than at licensed providers.

  • Unregulated sellers tend to be smaller businesses that can provide for a more personal experience (considering they have good products and knowledge). 

  • NY has great weed, but some of the best and most experienced growers are already established in different states. Regulated cannabis needs to be sourced in-state. 

• Cons:

  • Unregulated markets offer untested products and lowered accountability overall. Finding a source for quality products and expertise is key.

  • Difficult to find and verify. Reputation and word of mouth are the only advertising available to most of these operators.

  • Can have more irregular hours, inventory, and timeliness.

Mitchell again: as advocates for mindful consumption, safe use, and greater access, The Canna Diary recommends anyone considering buying from an unregulated source do their due diligence. With no oversight and high variability in quality and safety standards, there are opportunities for bad or unsavvy operators to pass off products that could be harmful to your health, or more often, waste your time and money. 

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M: What advice do you have for new cannabis consumers or people that are canna curious?

TE:  We believe the safest approach is both cautious and deliberate, following these 4 steps:

1. Identifying your needs

2. Researching terpenes that address those needs

3. Finding trusted sources

4. Experimentation

A relationship with cannabis requires honesty with yourself. We recommend starting the process by asking yourself what you seek to experience. In a very simplified sense, the consumption of cannabis brings relief. What type of relief are you seeking? Answering yourself honestly is the shortest path to that relief. For a lot of first-timers it tends to be a physical ailment, like chronic back pain, muscle spasms, or trouble sleeping. For others it’s purely mental. Certain strains of cannabis are known to calm anxiety, or aid in focus, and can be very beneficial to those seeking psychological comfort. Some even claim cannabis aids them on a spiritual level, allowing greater insight into the interconnectedness of the universe. There are no wrong answers or bad reasons because you are addressing your own concerns and voicing your own desires. No one knows them better than you. By starting the process with yourself and identifying our own personal needs, you are setting yourself up for success from the jump.

Once you have asked yourself what you seek from cannabis, a little targeted research can go a long way. Admittedly, the wealth of strain-specific information available can be intimidating. There are an incredible number of cannabis strains (Mitchell: over 700 and counting)! Rather than memorizing the genetics and lineages of each plant, or relying too heavily on the oversimplified sativa, indica, and hybrid classifications (which can often be misleading), we recommend familiarizing yourself with terpenes (the synergistic components of essential oils present in cannabis). [There are] roughly 15 dominant terpenes found in the plant [and] helpful breakdowns and infographics can be found all over the internet². Using knowledge of a terpene’s properties to target your needs is the best way to ensure you have an enjoyable experience. 

Finding a reliable and trusted source is possibly the most difficult part of the cannabis journey. You have two options: going to the regulated market (e.g., licensed dispensary/service), or buying unregulated products on the black/gray market. Both the regulated and unregulated markets are filled with enthusiasts and opportunists. There are people whose love and passion for the plant drove them into the business, those who saw the potential profits and wished to maximize theirs, and those who are a mixture of both. Mixed (and often conflicting) motives inspire these operators, resulting in differing standards of quality control for their product and different ideals about what constitutes fair business practices. That said, it should come as no big surprise that deception is a fairly common tactic in this industry.  Without an experienced eye, it can be very easy to get bamboozled in both the regulated and unregulated markets by those looking to turn a fast buck. 

As suppliers in an unregulated market, we turned away many attempts at deception - growers and wholesalers selling everything from contaminated moldy crops to cannabis being sprayed with fake terpenes in an attempt to mask the odor of rotting product. We have been offered unflushed (impure) cannabis so riddled with PGRs (heavy, cancer-causing fertilizers) that you cannot tell one specific strain from the next³. These are violations the common eye wouldn’t always perceive, and the most deplorable corners a grower can cut. At the worst end of the spectrum in an unregulated market, you have those unscrupulous producers and suppliers who are physically adulterating their product and putting their clients' health at risk. 

In the regulated market, there are less harmful, more common deceptions to look out for. We have witnessed the use of compounds such as dry ice to shorten and cheat an integral maturation process (known as “curing.”) Commercial suppliers for more “corporate” dispensaries may use auto-flowering seeds genetically modified to force the plant into flowering, regardless of the light cycle governing it. These plants often don’t reach full maturity and produce subpar crops. Again, these are things consumers couldn’t know without some inside knowledge or extensive experience with cannabis. No one is being physically harmed by these manipulations, but they are being passed on through inferior products. “White lies” are quite prevalent in this industry, with relabeling being the most common offense in both the regulated and unregulated markets.

Dishonest growers and retailers from both the legal and gray markets attempt (and often succeed) to relabel crops that have been grown outdoors and pass them off as more expensive indoor cannabis. Weed grown outdoors is typically much cheaper to consumers due to lower costs (no expensive electricity bills). The deception is designed to maximize profit, and it can be hard for the untrained eye to spot the difference (testing is not required for which medium the crop was grown in). Other reasons why a certain cultivar might be relabeled is if a retailer runs out of it, if it was unable to be sourced to begin with, or if the strain has a strong demand. Sour Diesel is a great example of this phenomena, particularly in NYC.

Relabeling and renaming cannabis is actually a much larger and more critical issue than people imagine. It is how we have come to have muddled genetics and why some consumers complain of inconsistent results and experiences when consuming the same strain of cannabis provided by different suppliers. The hard truth is that the only things that stand between growers and sellers from calling their products whatever they would like are their personal integrity, a dedication to preserving the cannabis culture, and a fear of damaging their reputation if caught.

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M: So, if both regulated and unregulated sellers are capable of corner-cutting and bad practices, what’s the best way to work with a supplier and experiment?

TE: Most people start with some light Googling. There are also websites dedicated to gathering information about local cannabis [products and] providers, such as Weedmaps and Leafly. In our opinion, free public forums such as Reddit are where you will find some of the best information. What you need to be looking for are testimonials from people who have tried the service or retailer. You can find a vast range of candid opinions and authentic discourse in these uncensored symposiums, not just Yelp-style paid-for positive reviews. After hearing as many unsponsored reviews as possible, you can make an informed decision on whether you would like to feel a supplier is trustworthy and deserves your business. 

After doing the research and targeting your needs using terpenes as a guide, you have done all the work you should need to feel comfortable. The last and most rewarding part of your cannabis journey ends in experimentation.

We recommend approaching a cannabis provider with a clear idea of what you would like to experience, and then asking for recommendations based on your preferences. A worthwhile supplier should have a large enough inventory, and enough knowledge of that inventory, to address your personal needs. Keep in mind the strength (THC %) of the cannabis you choose. Indoor-grown cannabis is going to be more expensive, and generally stronger than crops grown in natural outdoor light. 

Even with knowing the strength and [terpene] makeup of a product, it can still be hard to predict the exact effect [it] will have on you, so start slow and give yourself time to experience the buildup and peak of the high. Cannabis can have a “creeper” effect, and the experience takes time to fully mature. You can always consume more if you feel like your experience has not met your expectations, but you cannot consume less!

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M: You mentioned that Dutch Treat was your favorite strain of all time. With the variety you carry and have experienced, what makes this strain special to you?

TE: It was actually through a combination of experimentation and dumb luck that we were able to stumble upon one of the absolute best strains we have ever come across in Dutch Treat! At the time I encountered it, some 20 years ago, there wasn’t much scientific information available to the public on cannabis due to its illegality. The majority of users back then had no clue that they were being affected by anything other than THC, and would have no idea what a cannabinoid was (despite THC being one). Certainly almost no one would’ve ever heard the term “terpene profile.” People were barely starting to use the divisions of indica, sativa, or hybrid to describe cannabis at that point. Sure, some medical benefits were known - [that] an indica would typically leave you feeling sleepy or drowsy -  but no one at the time could clearly articulate why. 

And that’s exactly how the story starts. I walked into our plug’s house looking for a unit (pound) of sativa, and a unit of indica. The sativa was an easy find based on the bright color and citrus aroma, but our supplier was grumbling as he flipped through the packs of indica. Asking why he was upset, he tossed over a sealed unit of something darker and asked me to cut it open. His sentiment was something to the effect of, “Look at this bullshit! It’s almost wet. I’m gonna send it back.” I remember cracking the bag open and the banana-esque odor of the combination of terpinolene, myrcene, and ocimene (though I had no clue of the terms at the time) jumping straight out at me. The color was a muted gold underneath a minty green. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it piqued my interest to the point where I asked him if I could smoke a bowl of it before purchase. He agreed, as any plug worth their sand would, and the experience I had after was one of the happiest times in my life. 

The buds felt wet, and more oily than moist. I later read that Dutch Treat has one of the highest terpene concentrations across all cannabis strains, which is what gives it that moist texture. Mitchell butting in with some more plant nerdery: Less than 2% of a flower’s weight is usually made up of terpenes. Dutch Treat (at ~3%) is nearly 50% more terped-out than your average strain. This flower’s trichomes - the resinous glands that produce the plant’s terpenes, cannabinoids (like THC), and other organic compounds - are doing some serious work. Getting the herb prepared was a task in itself due to the terpene saturation. After smoking, I was uplifted, but relaxed. I was social, but not anxious. The Treat had me feeling electric. Note: I suffer from rather significant social anxiety and remember the specific relief Dutch Treat provides being a very new sensation for me at the time. Here I thought I was smoking an indica, but it had me feeling quite the opposite. I was feeling perked up and like I had been perfectly “unlocked”. I know now that terpinolene (this strain’s dominant terpene) is typically more concentrated in sativas, which is why the Dutch Treat strain is a perfect example of how the sativa/indica/hybrid classification system can be a misnomer. Hell, suppliers are still getting it wrong to this day.

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Mitchell: A huge thanks for sharing your experiences and insights with us! As a companion piece to this story, I worked up a background and experiential review of the Dutch Treat strain highlighted. It truly is a unique cultivar worth appreciating. Dive in here for more.

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Sources

1 - Stovall, Calvin, and David Downs. “New York Loosened Weed Testing Rules for Mold and Yeast-Here’s Why.” Leafly, 13 Dec. 2022, www.leafly.com/news/health/new-york-cannabis-testing-update.

2 - “15 Cannabis Terpenes Explained: The Magic of Cannabis.” CannaCon, 26 Apr. 2023, cannacon.org/15-terpenes-cannabis-explained/.

3 - “What Is PGR Cannabis and Is It Dangerous?” Cannabis Doctor X - Medical Marijuana Doctor, 13 Sept. 2023, cannadrx.com/what-is-pgr-cannabis-and-is-it-dangerous/.