James Hull recently went back to his roots as a third generation horticulturist after a career in high-tech engineering. The result? Catapult, a Marijuana-infused coffee which according to Hull makes you feel blissful and energetic at the same time.
It seems only natural that Hull runs his company, Fairwinds Mfg., just a few hours south of America’s coffee capital, Seattle.
(Catapult coffee from Fairwinds Mfg should not be confused with Fairwinds coffee from The Rogers Family Company which makes traditional coffee in California)
Hull got his new business going quickly and funded it himself. The pace was intense, he said. From February of 2014 to February of 2015, Hull and his wife moved into a camper on the facility’s property so he could work day and night with a small group of employees including other horticulturists, chemists and a microbiologist. He dipped into some of his savings and assets to fund the creation of the facility.
Now growing and processing marijuana, Hull has released his inner-geek to employ all the latest technology. The air in Fairwinds’ grow facility is filtered six times per hour through a bank of Hepa filters, computers control fertilizer injection for the plants as well as environmental aspects of the grow rooms like humidity, temperature, air flow, light and CO2 supplementation to maximize the plants’ yield. It’s a far cry from his family’s flower shop where he spent his teenage summers. The mechanized operation means he needs just 10 employees to help him run the company.
To make Catapult, Hull buys mostly fair trade coffee from local Northwest roasters and then infuses the beans with oils extracted from the Cannabis plants he grows. In his caffeinated coffee, Hull uses the Sativa strain of marijuana, which he says offers a “happy get up and go,” feeling. De-caffeinated coffee is in development, and will be made with the Indica strain of marijuana, which Hull says gives a more relaxed feeling. “That’s the coffee you can drink before bed to help you sleep,” he said.
The psychotropic effects of the infused coffee take 45-90 minutes to kick in, depending on the consumer’s metabolism and if they drink it on an empty or full stomach. (Quicker effect on an empty stomach.) Each cup of coffee contains 10mg of THC, which is one dose according to Washington State law. Marijuana users who have a higher tolerance for the substance might need a couple of cups to feel the effects.
“This is not a replacement for the coffee you drink before you hop in the car and get on the freeway to drive to work,” said Hull, noting that drivers could be considered legally impaired after drinking it.
Catapult is sold in a ground coffee form that consumers can use in a French press, aeropress or drip coffee machine, and as individual pods that can be used in a coffee pod machine (like the Keurig machine.)
Jim Mullen, co-founder of The Herbery recreational pot shops stocks Catapult coffee. He says infusing the beverage is a “fantastic idea because people in the northwest take their coffee seriously – they love it.”
Catapult is gaining in popularity but sales aren’t making Hull rich yet. “The profit margin is pretty low,” he said because he uses high quality coffee, and the creation process is expensive. Following the law, Hull also uses child-proof packaging which increases the cost, and the company’s vehicle and employees to deliver the product because third-party delivery is not allowed. “Also, the federal government still considers businesses like ours illegal so we can’t write off many typical business expenses,” he said.
“The coffee is selling well at $9-10, but I don’t think people are ready to pay $13-14 for a cup of coffee,” he said. Then again, “Starbucks got people who were paying fifty cents for a cup of coffee to pay five dollars, so you never know,” he said.
Indeed, Hull says he tries to model his business practices after Starbucks. “We aim for consistent, high quality coffee, attractively labeled and presented. We want to be the premium line and we always want to provide significant value to our customers,” he said.
“Starbucks is the first name that comes to mind when people want to go grab a cup of coffee,” said Hull, “Our goal is for consumers to think of Catapult, when they want cannabis infused coffee”
Fairwinds Mfg currently delivers Catapult to 30 stores in Washington State along with its other products including pot capsules, tinctures and vape cartridges. Like all marijuana products, Catapult Infused Coffee cannot legally be shipped across state lines, so an entrepreneur in each of the 23 states where marijuana has been partially or fully legalized will have to start making the product before a wide variety of consumers will be waking up to cannabis coffee.
