In the cannabis world, the saying “packs a punch” may as well belong to California-based brand Punch— and deservingly so. While other brands were creating classic-size chocolate bars, cookies, and such, legacy brand Punch Edibles & Extracts aimed to see just how much cannabis oil they could fit in a palm-sized chocolate bar without sacrificing flavor and quality.
“We figured if people are willing to eat a whole bar for 150 mg, maybe they want more. Maybe they don’t want to eat so much chocolate in one sitting,” says co-founder Samantha O’Donnell, one-half of the husband-wife duo behind Punch.
She recalls the beginnings of their journey, “I had found these two by two molds at a local cake store, and we were like, ‘alright, let’s see how much we can fit in here.’ We landed on 225 mg. We shopped them around to some local dispensaries at that time during Prop 215 days. What we thought would be a little side project quickly bloomed into a full-time job of us making every bar, wrapping every bar, and delivering every bar. And it kind of took off from there.”
Since its creation in 2013, in the very early days of the legal market, Punch has been a standout name. Even throughout the ever-evolving regulations (which brought the chocolate bars down from 225 mg to 100 mg), market shifts, and saturations, Punch has managed to stay at the forefront of the relentlessly turbulent industry. It’s one of the few cannabis brands that can appropriately claim the title of “household name” in its respective markets.
“It’s been a goal for us to become a household name in cannabis. I think we got that status because we really catered to what the people wanted.”
Samantha O’Donnell, co-founder of Punch
Even on the whole other side of the country in New York, where local pride runs deeper than arguably anywhere else, the California brand has gained widespread recognition; even well before the state’s legal market opened.
“We’ve been very blessed that our customer base in New York has organically grown since we started. Back in 215 days, we used to go to a lot of events like High Times and all these ones people would fly out for to buy products directly from brands like us. A lot of people that would come out were from the East Coast. We don’t ship anything, but people brought their own products back home, and it kind of circulated through the New York market then,” says O’Donnell, adding, “Our hope is that as people start to transition into their legal cannabis dispensaries in New York and they see Punch, it’s going to be recognized as a safe and consistent brand that they’ve known for a long time and can trust.”
Now, New York Punch fans no longer have to travel or break the law to get their beloved products. As one of the only self-funded multi-state operators, the award-winning company expanded into the New York market this past September with its line of gummies. And its famous Punch Bar chocolates are on the way very soon.
O’Donnell sheds light on this move, stating, “Personally, I was pushing to do chocolates first because that’s what we’re most known for in that market. But it was really just a timeline to entry. The gummies require a lot less equipment, and they’re easier to produce faster. We were just really anxious to get into the market as early as possible. And the gummies were the quickest way to do that.”
“We’re super excited to bring the Punch Bars because it’s what we’re known for. We’re excited to see that customer come over to the licensed side and be able to know that they’re buying legitimate Punch products in New York.”
Samantha O’Donnell
Despite its very recent entry into the market, you’ve likely seen Punch products in stores around the city well before the market even opened. Like most of California’s leading cannabis brands, Punch has inevitably been counterfeited far and wide in illegal retailers throughout the state. Walk into any smoke shop, illegal dispensary, or even bodega, and chances are, you’ll come across a range of Punch products, including gummies and chocolates in a variety of flavors.
“We have a ton of counterfeiting in New York. It’s really sad because we’ll get calls about people saying their Punch Bar smelled weird or had weird effects, and we’re just like, don’t buy unless it’s the gummies in the licensed dispensaries,” O’Donnell shares. “I guess it’s a compliment as well as a scary situation because we don’t want people to have bad experiences and think it was an actual Punch product. But clearly, there’s a demand so much for them that people are willing to counterfeit the product to make money on our behalf.”
The only places that sell real and safe Punch products in New York are legal dispensaries, including Housing Works Cannabis Co, Union Square Travel Agency, Dazed, Smacked, Good Grades, Just Breathe, and Upstate Canna Co, as well as through delivery service Legacy Dispensers. Every legal Punch product contains a QR card that leads to a legitimacy check with batch information and lab results, assuring that what you’ve purchased is safe and legitimate.
“We’re very aware of the counterfeiting situation. We don’t want that to negatively impact our brand. So we are trying to take steps to prevent and help people who are buying actual products,” says O’Donnell. These steps include industry-leading verification programs, including Berify and LucidID, to ensure the product is legitimate while providing access to test results and batch information.
Counterfeiting is undoubtedly a pressing concern and ongoing issue, but operating within the fast-paced, competitive landscape of New York presents its own set of challenges for any brand. Despite its relative youth, the market has already welcomed over a hundred brands, including many local ones deeply rooted in the regional culture. While California has earned a reputation for top-tier cannabis, New Yorkers often lean towards brands that are right in their backyard.
Furthermore, the cannabis industry as a whole is constantly experiencing changes and fierce competition, making it even more crucial for brands like Punch to continually adapt and innovate to stand out. Especially as a brand in the edibles category, where the possibilities for innovation are virtually boundless, and where gummies and chocolates are the dominating sectors. But confident in Punch’s direction, O’Donnell believes “there’s always going to be a market for your traditional edibles.”
Creating trend-worthy or first-of-their-kind products is not the current priority of the California brand. Their focus is on understanding consumers’ genuine preferences and consistently delivering trusted and true products. However, this doesn’t mean the brand lacks variety or plans for future expansion.
“We’re always looking to do new stuff. Right now, we’re trying to focus more on minor cannabinoids and maybe doing lines that are specific to different effects as opposed to investing in a whole new type of edible. It seems like the market, at least in California, is getting really focused on sleep-focused lines or an awake line or post-workout type of stuff. So that’s a little bit of a direction we’re going right now,” O’Donnell speaks on Punch’s plans, adding, “We expand on existing lines a lot. We’re going to come out with more gummy flavors. We’re probably pretty maxed on the chocolate flavors because we have so many, but we kind of let the market dictate a little bit as to where people want things. We’ve just noticed that, at least in the states we’re in now, the traditional type of edibles tend to sell a lot more than the niche ones.”
Punch stands as one of the few large, multi-state brands that have preserved its grassroots origins and remains family-owned and operated. The passion invested by the team into their products is unmistakable, and it’s no surprise considering that the brand’s inception was rooted in love.
Coming from a fashion background, O’Donnell reflects on her unexpected turn into cannabis, “I did not think I would be in cannabis, and now ten years later, that’s all I’m around. I met my now husband, and he was a dispensary owner in San Diego in the early days. He was actually on his way out of cannabis when I met him. It was just through connections that he still had in the industry for testing our bars that we kind of got roped right back in.”
“You have to be able to learn how to pivot, and go into new things, and take chances. This was the biggest chance I took probably my entire working career.”
Samantha O’Donnell
As Punch continues to expand its offerings and reach, the team’s commitment to quality and consumer satisfaction will undoubtedly keep the brand at the forefront of the cannabis industry, including in its new East Coast home. Punch is a model of what can be achieved with passion, dedication, and innovation, regardless of whether you’re the underdog amidst industry giants or the new kid in town.
Punch Co-Founder Samantha O’Donnell x Respect My Region Exclusive Interview
I think it’s safe to say that Punch has become a sort-of household name in cannabis. Can you tell us about the journey to get to that point and why you believe Punch rose to the top?
Well, first, I love that you said that because that’s been a goal for us to become a household name in cannabis. I think we got that status because we really catered to what the people wanted. In the early days, we started out seeing how much medicine— people would call it at the time— we could fit in as small of a size as possible. A lot of our competitors at that time were making like normal-size Hershey bar chocolates. I think they were like 150 mg, which was a decent size for that time. But we figured if people are willing to eat a whole bar for 150 mg, maybe they want more. Maybe they don’t want to eat so much chocolate in one sitting.
I had found these two by two molds at a local cake store, and we were like, ‘alright, let’s see how much we can fit in here.’ We landed on 225 mg. We shopped them around to some local dispensaries at that time during Prop 215 days.
What we thought would be a little side project quickly bloomed into a full-time job of us making every bar, wrapping every bar, and delivering every bar. And it kind of took off from there.
Was Punch your start in the cannabis industry, or did you have more of a background?
No, I was actually in fashion. I was a wardrobe stylist for celebrities, commercials, music videos, and such. I met my now husband, and he was a dispensary owner in San Diego in the early days.
He was actually on his way out of cannabis when I met him. It was just through connections that he still had in the industry for testing our bars that we kind of got roped right back in.
I did not think I would be in cannabis, and now ten years later, that’s all I’m around. You have to be able to learn how to pivot, and go into new things, and take chances. This was the biggest chance I took probably my entire working career.
It’s hard to stand out in such a big city like New York City. I know you probably understand that being in LA. So even as a household name, what’s Punch’s plan to stand out amidst the noise and adapt to the NYC landscape?
We’ve been very blessed that our customer base in New York has organically grown since we started. Back in 215 days, we used to go to a lot of events like High Times and all these ones people would fly out for to buy products directly from brands like us.
A lot of people that would come out were from the East Coast. We don’t ship anything, but people brought their own products back home, and it kind of circulated through the New York market then. So our hope is that as people start to transition into their legal cannabis dispensaries in New York and they see Punch, it’s going to be recognized as a safe and consistent brand that they’ve known for a long time and can trust.
Being out and about all over the city, I see Punch everywhere in illegal dispensaries.
We have a ton of counterfeiting in New York. It’s really sad because we’ll get calls about people saying their Punch Bar smelled weird or had weird effects, and we’re just like, don’t buy unless it’s the gummies in licensed dispensaries.
I guess it’s a compliment as well as a scary situation because we don’t want people to have bad experiences and think it was an actual Punch product. But clearly, there’s a demand so much for them that people are willing to counterfeit the product to make money on our behalf.
We see that so much in New York— all the California brands, the Jeeters, the Raw Gardens, and all of those, and they look really real. And maybe there are some real ones out there; like you said, there are people illegally transporting it. But it’s impossible to know. So I wanted to ask, what are some ways that consumers can decipher whether a Punch product is real or counterfeit?
We actually just launched two new programs. Because we’re available in California, Oklahoma, and now New York, we started implementing two systems to see which one works best.
There’s one called Berify, and those are on our Oklahoma products. There is a little sticker on the side, and it says like, “scan here with your phone,” then you download an app. It’s really cool because it’ll bring up this little video and say you have an authentic Punch product. There’s some sort of indicator in there that’s already been pre-programmed, so you can’t just buy the sticker and make it work. It has to be programmed.
Then, in California, we’re using a company called LucidID. It’s a QR sticker type of situation. If you scan it, it’ll bring up test results, batch information, and all that stuff. Because we make so many different batches, you can’t really counterfeit because we’d be on to other ones, and they’d be way old before new ones would come.
We’re very aware of the counterfeiting situation. We don’t want that to negatively impact our brand. So we are trying to take steps to prevent and help people who are buying actual products.
Why did you decide to bring the gummies into the market first, since the chocolates are your original product and seem to be the most popular?
Personally, I was pushing to do chocolates first because that’s what we’re most known for in that market. But it was really just a timeline to entry. The gummies require a lot less equipment, and they’re easier to produce faster.
There’s a lot of specialized machinery that comes with the Punch Bars, and some of it’s from overseas. So it takes a little bit longer. We were just really anxious to get into the market as early as possible. And the gummies were the quickest way to do that.
But we’re super excited to bring the Punch Bars because it’s what we’re known for. We’re excited to see that customer come over to the licensed side and be able to know that they’re buying legitimate Punch products in New York.
Do you plan to bring all of the different flavors over? Are you going to have any New York-exclusive flavors?
We’ve talked about it. It’s so hard because some of our existing flavors, which we’ve had forever, we just know the top sellers, and it’s probably what the state wants, but it would be really cool to offer a New York exclusive flavor.
Sometimes in California, we’ve done holiday bars and different things like that, but we’ve never actually done one specifically for a state. So that would be really cool.
How do you envision the future of cannabis edibles in both New York and the broader industry, and how does Punch plan to stay at the forefront of that?
I think it’s an interesting question. I think there’s always going to be a market for your traditional edibles. Chocolate and gummies probably take up a good portion of just the edible category.
In California, we have malt balls, which are so cute. They’re in a little tube, and we have five different flavors of them. We’ve just noticed that, at least in the states we’re in now, the traditional type of edibles tend to sell a lot more than the niche ones.
We’re always looking to do new stuff. Right now, we’re trying to focus more on minor cannabinoids and maybe doing lines that are specific to different effects as opposed to investing in a whole new type of edible. It seems like the market, at least in California, is getting really focused on sleep focused-lines or an awake line or post-workout type of stuff. So that’s a little bit of a direction we’re going right now.
I love new edibles because I do a lot of the packaging, and it’s really fun. But it just takes a lot of marketing and stuff so people actually understand what you’re putting out.
We always expand on existing lines a lot. Like, we’re going to come out with more gummy flavors; we’re probably pretty maxed on the chocolate flavors because we have so many, but we kind of let the market dictate a little bit as to where people want things.
One of our sister brands in California, they’re a baked goods company, and they do rice crispy treats and cookies. The rice crispy treats sell like crazy more than cookies; it’s interesting to see. I remember when I first got my medical weed card, and all the Prop 215 stores had Saran-wrapped huge rice crispy treats. Those were the edibles back then, and it’s cool to see them come back around and still have that same following as the early days.
You mentioned designing the packaging— do you design all of the packaging yourself?
Yeah, I work with our graphic designer that we’ve now had for probably five or six years. I found the original artwork for the Punch fist back in the day, which has since had some sharpening up.
We started with just making the name Punch, the fist, and the flavor on some printer paper, cutting them out into labels and wrapping them around bars. They’ve definitely evolved when we had to move to a hundred milligrams and childproof packaging in California. We had just bought this machine to help wrap the chocolates, but then we had to do the CR packaging. We had no place to put it except the outside. It was such a sad time because all the artwork was so dulled, it looked horrible. At that point, we did a little relaunch of the packaging. It made the outside packaging a little bit bigger, and we always wanted to keep it really, really small because that’s what we were known for. It did have to grow a little bit just to fit the childproof container but at that point, we put the fruit on the outside of the package and made it a little bit more metallic, and really fine-tuned the colors.
It’s hard because there are changes that I would love to make, but I don’t feel like it’s appropriate because it would change too much from its original form. I know people recognize us from that simple red and white box, so it’s important for us to keep our legacy but also make small changes to keep current.
New York places a really strong emphasis on social equity in the cannabis industry— are there any ways that Punch plans to get involved with that?
We really heavily rely on our license partner in New York to bring any events to us, and our PR team brings us a lot of opportunities. I’m loving that they’re allowing retailers to do like park setups where they can really get themselves into the community. We’re currently looking for a brand ambassador that we would have out in New York that could attend all these events, do a setup, and give out merchandise, and any sort of store activations we do.
It’s interesting how you’re allowed to open a store kind of temporarily while in construction. They would never allow that in California. I’m excited to see what stores turn into. It’s cool that you can get social equity money to build out a store and all these different things. If the opportunity comes to us, we’re always really excited to jump on it and spread the Punch name.
As an established brand, what advice do you have for any aspiring entrepreneurs trying to get into either the California or New York cannabis market?
Don’t come into California. California is just so saturated right now. I couldn’t imagine coming here right now as a new brand unless you have a lot of money behind you. It’s a really expensive market to be in. I think a place like New York would be super cool because you’re coming in ground up. You can carve your own path right away. You don’t have to fight for too much shelving space.
There’s still so much availability within each product line. When we were in New York looking at stores in June, I think we were the only other chocolate company out. When you’re looking at the availability to find your place, it’s a lot more attractive. Whereas in California, there are hundreds of products in each category. It would be so much harder, but I think in New York, it’s just exciting all around. So I would definitely push that way.
Is there anything else you’d like to share about the future of Punch in New York City? Any flavors, collaborations, events, or anything we should keep an eye out for?
Just keep an eye out for the Punch Bars coming later this year, your trusted and true chocolate bar. Hopefully, you’ll see us a lot more in the city at events or in stores. We’re really making a good marketing push to get our name out there and make sure people see us within the city. Hopefully, we can bring our pre-rolls and vapes and our whole catalog out there. We crushed it out here with the solventless rosin. But those things will take time. We’re excited to get the edibles out, but we’re hoping to bring our complete catalog over there as well.
Ending things off on a lighter note, if you were stranded on an island, what two cannabis products and what two accessories would you bring with you?
I’m a joint girl, so I would probably say a nice pre-roll, and I’m gonna need a sick lighter with it too. And I guess just some more weed and papers for me to continue rolling. I’m not a huge rig person. I do like a very simple bong with my flower too. So we’ll say some good weed, a nice pre-roll, a lighter, and a cute little bong.
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