At a glance
Big Pete’s Treats is a Santa Cruz family edibles company built by Pete “Big Pete” Feurtado Sr. with his son Pete Feurtado Jr. The family began growing in 2009 and turned a home-kitchen cannabutter project into a consumer brand around 2010. Cookies remain the signature, but the current line also includes gummies, crispies, packaged cannabutter and newer live-rosin candy.
From growers to a home-kitchen bakery
Big Pete returned to Santa Cruz after six years in Hawaii and focused on medical cannabis. Pete Jr., then finishing college, joined him as a grower. A class project at Oaksterdam University pushed the older Feurtado to relearn cannabutter and write a wholesale-bakery business plan. They tested early cookies with friends and began supplying dispensaries from a home kitchen.
The sources differ slightly on the start date: the official history says the family began in 2009, while company articles and interviews often describe the packaged brand as rooted in 2010. The defensible timeline is cultivation and planning in 2009, followed by the commercial cookie launch around 2010.
The Feurtado family
Pete Jr. became CEO, while his sister Katie Feurtado moved into sales leadership; their father remained the namesake, product originator and brand ambassador. Family members and bakers helped translate household recipes into regulated products. That operating lineage—not merely a cartoon baker logo—is why the company calls itself a family business.
A 2022 local profile reported production of roughly 30,000 cookies per day and described Pete Jr. and Katie as the next-generation leaders. That figure is a dated production snapshot, not a current capacity guarantee.
Cookies, cannabutter and controlled servings
The pivotal product was the small, single-dose cookie. Pete Jr. has said early multi-dose products made it too easy for consumers to misjudge portions, while individually portioned mini cookies offered clearer control. The brand’s core flavors have included chocolate chip, double chocolate, peanut butter, lemon, and strawberry coconut, with packages and potencies varying by market.
Big Pete’s uses full-spectrum cannabutter as its central ingredient and differentiator. The company also sells packaged Original Cannabutter for cooking, including limited collaborations such as Pink Jesus Cannabutter with Sonoma Hills Farm. “Full-spectrum” is a process and formulation description, not evidence of a specific medical effect.
Current product range
The official catalog now groups products into cookies, vegan/gluten-free real-fruit gummies, rice crispies and cannabutter. In April 2026, the company announced Sour Belt, a fast-acting live-rosin candy in Sour Blue Raspberry and Sour Watermelon.
Expansion, stores and distribution
The company’s official history says its products reached more than 350 California dispensaries. Current press releases document licensing partnerships or launches in Massachusetts in 2023, Missouri in January 2024 and Michigan in July 2024, plus a California delivery partnership with Hyperwolf. These are market partnerships, not Big Pete-owned dispensaries.
Availability should be checked through the official store finder or a state-licensed retailer because each market has different manufacturers, formulations and menus. The California site publishes manufacturing and distribution license references, but its footer still displays temporary-format license numbers, so a current state database should be used for legal verification.
Awards and press
Big Pete’s repeatedly describes its cookies as award-winning, and its history says the company has won contests, but the reviewed first-party pages do not provide a complete trophy ledger with competition, year, product and placement. Its well-documented achievements are longevity through California legalization, scaled baking, broad retail distribution and successful multi-state licensing.
Community work
The family sponsors Santa Cruz-area beach cleanups and says volunteers have collected litter at 26th Avenue, Lighthouse Field, Sunny Cove, Cowell’s, Twin Lakes, Highlands Park and Seabright. The program connects the company’s surf culture to concrete local work.
The High Rise read
Big Pete’s is not simply “a classic cookie brand.” It is a two-generation California company whose medical-era home bakery survived testing, packaging and licensing changes, then expanded into new formats and states.