FORT COLLINS, Colorado, October 17, 2021 – Headspace Sensory founder Avery N. Gilbert, Ph.D. has published a new paper in the Taylor & Francis business journal Luxury. Titled “Cannabis: The uncertain path from agricultural commodity to luxury consumable,” the paper compares cannabis to established luxury consumables such as perfume, wine, and whiskey.
“Current high-end cannabis production may not have the long history and established heritage of perfume, but California winemakers have shown how quickly determined producers can achieve luxury status,” says Gilbert in commenting on the new paper. He notes that the expanding industry is currently on a commodity trajectory despite attempts to create distinctive, artisanal, high-end products.
“I believe there are several ways for the industry to create luxury products, but they require us to discard traditional ways of thinking about cannabis, and adopt a more flexible and consumer-friendly attitude,” says Gilbert.
In particular, Gilbert believes that the fixation on named cultivars, what he calls “the fetishization of strains,” limits the product’s appeal to new consumers and inhibits a wider discussion of sensory aesthetics. “As we know from wine and perfume, connoisseurship enables a deeper relationship between creators and consumers, and this is absent in today’s cannabis space,” he says.
According to Gilbert, the insistence on single-strain designations inhibits another critical element of luxury consumables: blending. “Wine and perfume, like cannabis, are not far removed from their agricultural origins, yet the creativity of the vintner and perfumer lets them soar to levels of sensory delight that justify a luxury price tag,” he says. “Until blending of cultivars and even flavoring become acceptable, there is little room for creativity and the development of luxury brands.”
Gilbert’s paper can be found at this link.
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