Event Recap: Fleur Nouveau II
In France, the release of Beaujolais Nouveau marks more than the arrival of a young wine. It signals the close of harvest and the beginning of celebration, when villages come together, bottles are opened at midnight, and the community tastes the season as a way of beginning to understand what that particular year has produced.
Cannabis, though equally tied to the land, rarely formalizes its harvest in this way. For many years, The Emerald Cup served as an annual harvest marker in Northern California, bringing farmers and consumers together to recognize the season’s work. Today, those gatherings tend to be smaller and more regional, often centered within the Emerald Triangle itself. What the broader industry lacks are consumer-facing moments that pause to acknowledge the harvest pand invite a wider audience into that shared experience.
On Thursday, February 26, Budist returned to The Woods in West Hollywood alongside POET for the second annual Fleur Nouveau, an evening dedicated to the 2025 sungrown harvest. The intention was not simply to taste products, but to create a setting where fresh Northern California flower could be experienced in context and in conversation with the farmers and makers responsible for bringing it to life.
Harvest in Context
Sungrown cannabis is shaped by geography, microclimate, terroir, and the philosophy of the farm behind it. Each growing season introduces its own variables, and with them, subtle shifts in aroma, structure, and overall character. When tasted within months of harvest, those seasonal nuances are still vivid. The flavors feel less settled, more reflective of the specific conditions that produced them, and it becomes easier to sense the connection between the land, the climate, and the people who worked it. Fleur Nouveau was created to honor that window of time, when a harvest still speaks clearly of the field it came from.
Guests moved through cultivars across formats, tasting flower alongside solventless rosin, vapes, topicals, and beverages. Experiencing the same cultivar in multiple forms offers a clearer understanding of how extraction and formulation shape the final product, while still preserving the plant’s underlying identity.
The evening focused less on novelty and more on attention and intention. What does the 2025 harvest actually taste like? How is Moroccan Peaches expressing itself this year? How does Purple Papaya translate from flower into live rosin? Fleur Nouveau creates an environment where those questions arise naturally, within the lush, intimate setting of The Woods’ cabanas and Ganja Garden.
Featured Experiences
- Bloom & Barrel — Alc-Free Sangria
Bloom & Barrel greeted guests with an alcohol-free sangria, a quiet nod to the wine traditions that inspired the evening and a reminder that harvest celebrations often begin with something poured and shared. - Blue Sage Botanicals — Pink Jesus Topical
Blue Sage Botanicals brought Pink Jesus into the evening as a topical, showing how the cultivar’s character can translate beyond smoke or vapor. In discussing the formulation alongside the flower, guests could trace familiar notes and textures across formats. - Jetty Extracts — Fatso Live Rosin & Dablicator
Jetty Extracts featured Fatso Live Rosin in two formats, served both as a traditional dab and through its Dablicator device, allowing guests to experience the same material through distinct methods. Savory bites from Porto’s Bakery were offered alongside, chosen to complement Fatso’s herbal, earthy, and slightly spicy notes. Moving between formats and flavors, guests could feel how delivery and pairing subtly shaped the overall impression. - Master Makers — Purple Papaya & Bangin Oasis Live Rosin
Master Makers served live rosin expressions of Purple Papaya and Bangin Oasis, positioned between the two farms that cultivated the original flower: Mattole Valley Sungrown and Whitethorn Valley Farms. Guests could move from jar to concentrate within a few steps, comparing the raw agricultural expression to its solventless counterpart. The proximity made the relationship tangible, grounding the rosin in the farms and seasons that produced it. - Mattole Valley Sungrown — Purple Papaya Flower
Mattole Valley Sungrown brought Purple Papaya flower from Humboldt County into the garden, where conversations drifted naturally toward soil health, microclimate, and the imprint of outdoor cultivation on structure, aroma, and flavor. - Mountain Cannabis — Red Velvet Cake Flower
Mountain Cannabis featured Red Velvet Cake flower and paired it with red velvet cupcakes, leaning into the cultivar’s namesake in a playful but thoughtful way. The sweetness of the dessert brought certain notes forward while softening others, giving guests a more tactile reference point for the flavor. - Nasha — Moroccan Peaches Live Hash Onyx
Nasha showcased Moroccan Peaches Live Hash Onyx alongside Moroccan Peaches flower from POET, allowing guests to experience how the cultivar shifted in texture and aromatic intensity once transformed into hash. - Natural Gas by RAWsin — Papaya Live Rosin Vape
Natural Gas by RAWsin featured Papaya in a live rosin vape, where guests could experience how the oil’s character translated through a well-tuned device. The interplay between material and hardware became part of the conversation, especially around flavor clarity and draw. A 1st Place winner at this year’s MJBowl, it quickly became one of the evening’s standouts. - POET — Moroccan Peaches
POET featured Moroccan Peaches within the paired tasting experience, reinforcing the thread of cultivar continuity as guests encountered the same genetics expressed through different hands and formats. - Sonoma Hills Farm — Pink Jesus Flower
Sonoma Hills Farm offered Pink Jesus for guests to smoke and vape, positioned next to Blue Sage’s topical interpretation of the same cultivar. Moving between inhale and skin application gave people a fuller sense of how the plant showed up in different forms. - Trichome Live Rosin — Pink Starburst Vape
Trichome Live Rosin featured their new vape made with live rosin from Pink Starburst, a highly flavorful and aromatic cultivar from Canyon Creek Family Farms. Moving between the two sharpened the contrast naturally, with the vape offering a more focused, intensified take on the cultivar. - Whitethorn Valley Farms — Bangin Oasis
Whitethorn Valley Farms brought Bangin Oasis down from Whitethorn Valley, which is near the Lost Coast in Southern Humboldt. Master grower and owner Galen Doherty was in attendance, serving guests and sharing his approach to farming. - Woodys Personal Stash — Purple Papaya
Woody’s Personal Stash featured Purple Papaya grown by Mattole Valley Sungrown on the Lost Coast in Humboldt County, bringing a well-known Emerald Triangle cultivar into this year’s harvest lineup. Read our Woody’s Personal Stash event recap for more about the collaboration and the farms behind it.
Why It Matters
Fleur Nouveau is a reminder that cannabis begins in the field. Before it becomes a product on a shelf, it is shaped by weather patterns, soil conditions, and the steady decisions made over the course of a growing season.
When harvest is acknowledged collectively, something shifts in the room. People taste more carefully, farmers listen and respond, and the distance between city consumers and rural cultivation communities feels a little smaller. Over time, those repeated encounters build a shared vocabulary around quality, seasonality, and place.
Moments like this do more than celebrate a harvest. They help strengthen the cultural and agricultural ties that keep cannabis grounded in its origins.
Thank you to POET, The Woods, and the farms and makers who brought the 2025 harvest into the garden. Many of the featured selections are currently available at The Woods for those who want to continue exploring this season’s expression.
More gatherings are ahead as Budist continues creating spaces where agriculture, culture, and community meet in real time.
* All photos by Joanna Valente.
