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April

2024

Business Feature

Budding Connections

Budding Connections

By Angie Helvey

Finding a local dispensary to call home with an excellent selection of green and personable
budtenders can be challenging. Stopping at an unknown place alongside the highway can be hit or miss in terms of quality. Conveniently located off Pacific Highway in Hubbard, Hierba Buena always carries a wide variety of premium products such as CBD, CBG, CBN, and THC. Their friendly, knowledgeable budtenders will share their knowledge and help you choose the right product for a safe and enjoyable cannabis experience and get the relaxation and relief you deserve.

Local resident Salvador Ortiz and his family were contemplating the process of opening the dispensary in 2017 when he brought in Kurt Weiss, a small business owner who previously owned several locations of Izzy’s Pizza. “Salvador and his family introduced me to the Hierba Buena opportunity here in Hubbard, so we got started together,” says Kurt.

The menu at Hierba Buena is a vast library of products, including: pipes and bongs, flower, edibles, regular and infused prerolls, cartridges, tinctures, topicals, every texture of concentrate dabs, RSO and a small selection of accessories like grinders and lighters.

Kurt ensures they carry all the latest and greatest brands and that customers love, such as legacy flowers including White Widow, Purple Hindu Kush, Jack Herer and Blue Dream. A new such brand is Hellavated, which offers infused prerolls, cartridges and edibles with hard-hitting potency and tasty fruit flavors. Other popular brands include Verdant Leaf, Dr. Jolly’s, Oregrown, Killa Beez and Sauce Bars. He also ensures anyone who walks in can find something that fits their budget, stocking options at the lowest price point
for each category. “The great thing is, we aren’t trapped in a vertical organization where we have growers and processors we have to buy from,” he explains. “So we can shop the market and find the best quality at the best prices.”

Superior customer service is a cornerstone of the business and the budtenders at Hierba Buena are mainly tenured employees who are very knowledgeable, experienced and helpful. When customers enter the door they’re met with upbeat music and a smiling budtender to assist them. “It’s our goal to treat everyone with dignity and respect, and for people to feel good about their purchase when they walk out the door,” Kurt says. “We want them to be confident they made a good selection and the product will elicit the desired effects, and we enjoy hearing afterward how the product worked for them.” To achieve the synergistic “entourage effect,” some products contain THC, CBD and CBN, a combination believed to provide unique benefits and increase the overall effect of the strains.

With a large following of regular customers of all ages who use cannabis for a variety of reasons, the budtenders at Hierba Buena are skilled in steering their customers in the right direction in terms of choosing brands, concentrations, and methods of consumption. That includes customers new to using cannabis. “Sometimes new customers are a bit shy about coming in, so we want to educate and coach them,” Kurt explains. “With cannabis, everyone processes it differently, so it’s always best to start small on the dosing and build to a level you’re comfortable with. Always wait for it to take full effect before consuming more.”

Staff are not doctors and cannot give medical advice, but they can make suggestions to help customers achieve their desired cannabis experience. “We have a flier that gives instructions on making cannabutter if people want to cook or bake with it,” says Kurt. “We recommend different ways to use RSO, like putting it on toast or in coffee. For the topicals, we often suggest a thicker or lighter consistency depending on what you’re using it for and how long you want it to last.”

Hierba Buena has found a forever home in the small, rural area of Hubbard, and Kurt couldn’t be more grateful for the community support they’ve received. “We’re blessed to be part of this town with all our return customers and people who have spread the word and talked us up to their friends and family,” he says. The strength of the relationship between the dispensary and the town extends all the way to City Hall, including the police department. Hierba Buena participates in the community at every opportunity, like hosting their yearly booth at the Hubbard Hop Festival and sponsoring local golf events.

If you plan to visit Hierba Buena, take note of their Hippy Hour and get discounts in all categories every day from 4:20 p.m. to 7:10 p.m., a play on the 420 and 710 numerals that signify “a time to partake” in the cannabis community. Visit on Wax Wednesdays for 10% off wax concentrates, or show up anytime to take advantage of 50% off select bulk flower. They also have vendor days, where reps offer education and info on their brands and often giveaway free swag.

Hierba Buena is located at 3674 Pacific Highway, Hubbard, OR 97032. Please give them a call at 971-444- 1420, or visit their Leafly page at https://www.leafly.com/ dispensary-info/hierba-buena to view their menu and place an order for pickup.

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