Caliva – Bay Area Dispensary Highlight

Caliva

1695 S. 7th St., San Jose

(408) 297-2615

GoCaliva.com

Top-Selling Strain: Red Congolese (a sativa on our connoisseur shelf)

Top-Selling Concentrate: Bubba Kush Rosin Budder (made in-house by our lab team)

Top-Selling Edible: Terra Bites by Kiva

How and when did your dispensary start up?

We opened the dispensary doors in July of 2015, but we didn’t produce our first harvest until 2016! Initially, more important than the facility, was finding the right partner city to work with. We wanted our home base and the regulatory body that came with it to reflect our values of excellence. San Jose created a regulatory program, which is the foundation that we wanted to build Caliva around. Once we determined San Jose as our home, our priority was to find a location that would enable us to provide an authentic customer experience focused on wellness.

What’s the story behind the name of your dispensary?

We wanted a name that reflected our California roots so the inspiration came from that. There is a reason that the easy breezy California lifestyle is the stuff of dreams that has drawn so many people to the west coast. We wanted a brand that proudly put on display all of the best of what California had to offer. “Caliva” felt like a word that hit all your senses, just like cannabis, and also made it clear there was no doubt where we came from.

What does your dispensary offer patients that they can’t find anywhere else?

Consistency, transparency, accessibility and innovation. As a vertically integrated company, we have the advantage of seeing and touching the product from seed to sale and having complete control over that process for verification and innovation purposes. We also have the great advantage of having an in-house lab, which gives us the ability to test onsite for potency, microbial and terpenes ensuring that we’re always providing the highest quality, safe, consistent and lab-tested products to our customers.

How has the cannabis industry changed since you have been in the business? Where would you like to see it go?

We’ve seen the cannabis industry go from a taboo subject to a legitimate topic of conversation amongst people from varied backgrounds who are realizing how sophisticated this industry and these products are. More specifically we’ve seen the transformation and innovation of products in the industry—vendors no longer show up with edibles wrapped in saran wrap; our customers are informed consumers that want to know what they’re putting in their bodies, and they’re seeking a wide range of experiences. Moving forward, we would like to see this dialogue continue to become the norm and encourage people to explore cannabis as a wellness option in their life.

What is the one thing you want customers to know about your dispensary?

Our products are lab-tested, our menu is carefully curated by our educated product acquisitions department and we only put products on the shelf that we stand behind.

If someone wanted to open a dispensary and get their feet wet in the industry, what advice or counsel would you give them?

Become an informed consumer! There are so many resources available online to learn about all facets of cannabis but they can be hard to dig through. From the grow process to personal consumption, there is valuable information that elevate your understanding of the industry and your place within it. Go Caliva!