Richmond, Calif. — The 19th Annual Emerald Cup Awards (www.theemeraldcup.com) presented by OCB® Rolling Papers will bring the best and the brightest in California cannabis to the Craneway Pavilion (www.craneway.com) in Richmond, California on Saturday, May 13th, 2023. Joining the celebration as an Emerald Cup Award recipient will be one of the global cannabis community’s most legendary activist entrepreneurs, the ‘Hash Queen’ herself, Mila Jansen.
Mila Jansen, the Hash Queen, was born in Liverpool on December 5th, 1944. She lived in Amsterdam in the mid 1960s and decided to travel overland to India with her young daughter in 1968. They did not return until 1988, when Jansen started to grow cannabis to support herself and her growing family.
As she had observed hash being made in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, it didn’t take Jansen long to start making her own hash to smoke. This proved to be a time consuming job by hand, so in 1994 she invented the first mechanical dry sift system that separated the trichomes from all the plant matter – the Pollinator. That invention led to her being known as the Hash Queen.
Later came the Ice-O-Lator bags, and the Bubbleator, which both use water and ice in the process. These machines gave people the opportunity to make their own hash as well. In 2013, Jansen organized the first Dab-a-doo, a competition for dry sift, ice hash, solventless extracts, and rosin. Since launching, there have been 36 Dab-a-doo events to date.
In recognition of decades of worldwide advocacy on behalf of cannabis culture and artisan-grade hash crafting, the Emerald Cup will award Jansen with the 2023 “Willie Nelson” (Lifetime Achievement) Award.
“I’m so, so happy to come to Richmond for the Willie Nelson prize,” says Jansen of her upcoming recognition at the 19th Annual Emerald Cup Awards. “What an honor to get linked like this to one of my great heroes. Just amazing, wonderful, wicked awesome!”
Jansen will be honored live on stage at the 19th Annual Emerald Cup Awards show presented by OCB® at the Craneway Pavilion on May 13th, joining a deeply respected association of past winners including Winona LaDuke, Tommy Chong, Valerie Corral, Woody Harrelson, and Willie Nelson himself.
“One look at the prevalence of solventless concentrates in the cannabis market today – not only here in California and at the Emerald Cup, but around the world – reveals the incredibly positive impact that Mila Jansen has had on the ways that people consume and enjoy cannabis,” says Tim Blake, founder and co-producer of the Emerald Cup.
The Emerald Cup will also be presenting honorary awards in the following categories:
Emerald Cup Visionary Award
Entrepreneur Amber E. Senter is to be honored with the Visionary Award at the 19th Annual Emerald Cup Awards
Emerald Cup Trailblazer Award
Bay Area event producer and culture preservationist Alex Aquino is to be honored with the Trailblazer Award at the 19th Annual Emerald Cup Awards
Emerald Cup Social Justice Award
Music producer turned tireless prisoner advocate Weldon Angelos is to be honored with the Social Justice Award at the 19th Annual Emerald Cup Awards
Emerald Cup Breeder’s Hall of Fame Award
Famed cannabis breeder Soma, creator of beloved cultivars like NYC Sour Diesel & Amnesia Haze, is to be inducted into the Breeders Hall of Fame at the 19th Annual Emerald Cup Awards
More information on the honorary award winners of the 19th Annual Emerald Cup Awards can be found here.
HERE COME THE 19TH ANNUAL EMERALD CUP AWARDS
With its legacy planted in the hills of the Emerald Triangle in Northern California, the Emerald Cup will plant its flag for the first time in California’s Bay Area, bringing to Richmond a deeply-rooted tradition of gathering some of the most respected entrepreneurs, cultivators, scientists, developers, entertainers and enthusiasts to celebrate the cannabis plant, as well as the community, business, and industry surrounding it.
The annual Emerald Cup competition and celebration, founded in 2004, shines an authentic spotlight on the absolute best in class when it comes to California cannabis and the people who bring it to market. The 19th Annual Emerald Cup Awards invites this year’s competitors, judges, sponsors, VIP ticketholders from the 2022 Emerald Cup Harvest Ball, select media, and close friends of the Cup to this private event. The event will feature a guest list that, much like the competition, includes the cream of the crop from the California cannabis culture and industry.
With nearly 700 entries spread across more than four dozen consumption-based categories, the Emerald Cup has once again proven to be the largest and most diverse cannabis competition in the world; raising the stakes higher than ever before for the selected winners, and adding even more prestige to the “Academy Awards of Cannabis.” Jansen and the other honorary award recipients already know that they will receive their awards on May 13th, but the rest of the guests and the world are anticipating how the show unfolds, live on stage at the Craneway on May 13th.
The California cannabis market is stronger together, and the 19th Annual Emerald Cup Awards will continue to bridge the gap between the NorCal and SoCal markets, providing more opportunities for farmers and brands, as well as new opportunities for consumers.
Follow the fun on social media at @theemeraldcup as the coolest night in cannabis draws near!
Images used in this release can be found HERE.
ABOUT THE EMERALD CUP:
Landing in the iconic Bay Area for the first time ever in 2023, the Emerald Cup is the world’s premier cannabis competition and producer of the unrivaled live events. While advancing the concept of sustainable, sungrown farming, the 19-year-old organization’s reputation is firmly rooted as the largest, most-respected cannabis competition in the world. As a group, the Emerald Cup prides itself in bringing together the leading experts in the cannabis industry to educate and inspire our fellow farmers, patients, and patrons each year. A community celebration that has grown to become a global movement honoring the year’s finest consciously-grown cannabis harvests as well as the finest cannabis products available, the Cup stands as a beacon of excellence as it looks ahead to its 20th anniversary in 2024. (www.theemeraldcup.com)
ABOUT OCB:
The OCB Brand was born in 1918. We’re imagined, invented, grown, harvested, milled, and manufactured in France. Our name pays homage to the Odet River, the Cascadec Mill, and the Bolloré family who started it all. Today, our family-owned paper mill sits on Lake Léman (Lake Geneva) in the foothills of the French Alps, and our rolling paper booklets are made in Perpignan, where Jean Bardou invented them in 1838. The lighthouse watermark on each of our papers is our beacon of excellence and represents OCB’s commitment to quality, craft, and innovation.
