White Rabbit OG
A Trip Down the Rabbit Hole
Starting a small-business while society grapples with a global pandemic would probably not rank high on the ‘must-try’ list for many entrepreneurs. But for long-time friends turned business partners, Kyrsten Dewinetz and David Lluncor, there was no time like the present to jump down the rabbit hole into a new adventure.
After working in the nascent cannabis industry through the first phase of legalization, Kyrsten and David co-founded White Rabbit OG, a craft cannabis edibles brand designed to elevate consumer experiences and create a collection of edibles aimed to stimulate the senses.
Throughout her career, Kyrsten worked hard developing and formulating new products for big and small food and beverage brands. It was this well-honed skillset and her love of food that inspired her to look for ways to combine her passions and forge a path within the legalized cannabis market.
For his part, David had spent many years in facilitating market entry for both natural food and mainstay consumer brands to gain market share and national distribution. Together, and without foresight as to what lay in wait, Kyrsten and David started White Rabbit OG in early 2020.
The early days were long and hard, mostly spent in a basement office laying the foundation for the road ahead. To build a successful program, Kyrsten and David would have to source all their equipment, and form partnerships with ingredients suppliers, and build a portfolio of formulations; needing everything to be just right before they could move to the next phase of finding the right partner.
As any entrepreneur knows, building a business from the ground up is no easy feat. With both Kyrsten and David financially backing the business, every decision was a big one. No decision was taken lightly.
By March, Covid-19 was in full swing, bringing with it a new set of challenges; in-person business meetings were shelved for socially distanced Zoom calls, and facility tours were on hold. What’s more, many partnership opportunities seemingly dissolved overnight, as operators placed the safety of their staff in high priority, as they should.
Confidence in their new product, and a passion for the industry were key for the White Rabbit OG team. Covid restrictions allowed them to dial in their process and within six months, the team had secured an agreement with one of the most prominent names in Canadian cannabis.
With a deal firmly inked, the White Rabbit OG team knew it was time to get their product into market. It took months of set up, training and qualification batches to get the project rolling, but within four months, the White Rabbit OG team watched as the first truckloads of edibles shipped out across Canada.
When White Rabbit OG edibles hit shelves in January 2021, the edibles category boasted fewer options, and certainly offered no rapid-onset edibles for consumers. With the team’s mission to elevate consumer experiences, White Rabbit OG was excited to introduce Canada’s first whole fruit, rapid onset edible with two crowd pleasing fruit flavours: Craft Sour Peach and Craft Blueberry.
White Rabbit OG soft chews are carefully curated edibles, designed to be gluten and allergen free, and made on a dedicated production line to ensure no crossover of tree nuts, peanuts, dairy, wheat, soy and sulphites. In stark contrast to their competitors, White Rabbit OG soft chews are made with pectin, Non-GMO and all natural ingredients, a considerable difference to their peers, who use animal-derived gelatin, corn syrup, glucose and artificial colours and flavours.
But what sets White Rabbit OG apart is EAT ME Technology™, a proprietary cannabis emulsion. EAT ME Technology™ keeps things simple. It’s plant-based ingredients work together to increase the bioavailability of the cannabis extract allowing for a rapid onset time, and improving the stability of the cannabis.
Looking back at the long hours laying the foundation of their business, David and Kyrsten agreed that staying innovative and creative within the edibles category was intrinsically important to them. With a promise to never to replicate in-market products, the team takes its cues from successful peripheral industries to help guide their hand in exploring ways to both curate and craft unique experiences for cannabis consumers.
White Rabbit OG’s second phase of soft chews pays homage to the surreal world in which the team’s imaginations excel, bringing to market four out-of-the-box flavours like Raspberry White Chocolate 1:1, Blackberry Lemonade 1:2, Blackberry Merlot 1:4, Strawberry Fig Balsamic with Maple Sugar CBD. These new soft chews were designed to marry complex flavour profiles and stand out in a market rapidly increasing with a myriad of fruit-flavoured options.
Despite the uncertainty in the early days of starting their business, and the challenges presented by Covid-19, Kyrsten and David learned valuable lessons in partnership and perseverance. With more than 18 months since the first basement planning sessions began, the team remains true to their original mission: to entice and delight consumers in creative and unexpected ways, with flavour profiles carefully curated to inspire.
As the industry continues to expand, and White Rabbit OG continues to evolve as a brand, the team’s intention is to keep on innovating and raising the bar for the market. The company remains tight-lipped about their next products, but promises that they’ve been keeping an eye on untouched corners of the edibles market, exploring various opportunities for expansion.