The Puffco Peak Pro Offers an Unparalleled Experience for Cannabis Concentrates

I’ve been writing about cannabis for years for various publications, and am currently working on a book about the connection between cannabis and terroir. The plant has been a steady companion in my life for even longer. Throughout most of that time, I’ve primarily leaned into flower and edibles. The former for the full spectrum of flavor, the latter because I love cooking up new ways to use the plant. And then I was introduced to the Puffco Peak Pro.

I’ve dabbled in concentrates, but the Peak Pro has made them my go-to over the past month. A range of heat levels makes it easy to go from a low-heat pull that shows off the full spectrum of terpenes and flavors, to a powerful high-heat hit. I paired it with the hot knife–something I never would have thought of as necessary but now consider irreplaceable for getting around the issue of dirty dab tools. Best of all, the Peak Pro is intuitive–the controls are run through a single button.

Puffco entered the market in 2013. At the time, wicks, glues, and plastics dominated the vaporizer marketplace. The market for all of the different ways to consume cannabis has, obviously, drastically expanded since then as laws have changed and more than half the country has access to legal cannabis in some form or another. Still, Puffco’s products stand out. And the company is fully transparent on how.

On the Puffco site, the company’s patents are clearly listed and linked to. The transparent comprehensive safety and material testing Puffco lists is extensive: batteries that meet international safety standards, drop testing, energy efficiency standards, materials that pass the same tests as medical devices. The material biocompatibility standards alone bring the company to the forefront when compared to the loads of questionable, quickly made vaporizers that flood the market.

To learn more about Puffco and get a little insight into the future of the concentrate market, I caught up with Roger Volodarsky, CEO and founder of Puffco.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Roger Volodarsky: When I started Puffco in 2013, New York was not as cannabis-friendly as it is now—even conversations surrounding consumption were looked at as taboo. (For reference, holding 8 grams of hash at the time was considered a felony). Vape pens were a popular way to consume because it allowed you to keep a lower profile but the quality of the pens were horrible. Some had plastic that would melt, others would just break in your pocket due to low-quality materials. I was fed up with products that weren’t delivering the quality experience that I wanted. That’s when a friend of mine dared me to make something better.

It’s interesting to think about where the industry would be if Puffco wasn’t around. Though the market has grown since Puffco began over 10 years ago, we still remain the leader across the national and global markets. We are always looking for ways to create better products and advance technology for consumption, so I wouldn’t say the goal has changed for us. That said, it is true that we are seeing more brands in the general cannabis space start to think with a quality and innovation-led approach. But I think it will be many years before we as a community feel that we are reaching the highest standard possible in cannabis while still making it accessible.

Puffco products are specifically designed and engineered in house by concentrate consumers, for concentrate consumers. When approaching product development, there are two things we put a strong focus on: flavor and ease of use. We believe that good design is so important to the quality of experience and one of the best ways to break the stigma with new consumers, so we carefully consider every detail and interaction point of each product. Once we have decided on a design that resonates, countless hours are spent honing in on flavor, vapor quality and optimizing new heat technologies to perfect every hit.

It’s been a difficult year for everyone working in the cannabis space, given industry and macroeconomic headwinds. That being said, hash has never been better or more widely accepted in the U.S., and we expect that to continue across the globe. As the legal market continues to grow, we’re seeing an increase in research and education around concentrates making it more widely accepted. Concentrates (or contemporary hash as we call it) is the purest expression of the plant, containing only the most beneficial parts (cannabinoids and terpenes) without the excess. We believe that this provides a cleaner high with an amazing depth of flavor. Vaporizing hash also offers many benefits including cleaner vapor and a discreet experience because it’s non-combustible. This is why we’re seeing it grow in popularity with athletes, veterans and medical patients.

All of our team members have a passion for hash. With that comes an innate desire to not just consume cannabis in the most enjoyable way possible, but to celebrate all of the plant’s beautiful qualities. We think about the hash first, and then ask the question: How does a device best serve the nuance of this product? How does a device best celebrate the quality of this hash? This thinking—rather than a focus on profit—ensures an end result that delivers the best hit every time.

Personally, I really value transparency and authenticity so that definitely carries over to how Puffco is as a brand. We are genuinely trying to move this industry and culture forward in the most positive way so we never want to be deceitful or untrustworthy. The more transparent we are the more trust that our customers have in us. As a private company with no investors to answer to, we are able to do that.

There’s a lot on the horizon for us. It’s in Puffco’s DNA to continue to innovate and push this industry forward. We have some exciting products and announcements coming down the pike later this year. Outside of that, we are really focused on growing the hash community globally, especially as more markets open. The internet is full of so much misinformation on cannabis concentrates, and we want people to begin to share in our understanding: Hash is one of the best ways to consume the plant, and it’s been popular for thousands of years. I hope we can continue that legacy as we welcome more newcomers into the space.