Halara is a California cannabis vape brand founded by chemical engineer Nick Volkenant. It puts distillate, live resin sauce, solventless rosin and high-CBD oils into full-glass hardware, and the company lists more than 300 dispensaries across California, Washington and New York.
Headset tracked Halara's sales up 94.32% year over year in August 2026. On April 15, 2026, the brand released its first solventless rosin all-in-one.
A college chem lab joke turned vape company
Volkenant studied chemical engineering while bartending and built vape formulas along the way. Halara's own telling says cannabis almost made him drop out of school, then became the reason he went back. The company traces the brand to what it calls “an inside joke during a college chem lab.”
The joke became a spec sheet: no cutting agents and no plastic hardware. A Halara LinkedIn post introducing the founders names Travis Varpness alongside Volkenant, who carries the title Founder & Product Wizard on the company's about page.
Four oils in 510 carts and all-in-ones
The catalog runs on four oil systems, sold as 0.5g and 1g 510 cartridges and 1g all-in-ones:
- Naturally Smooth High THC Distillate: 25 cartridge strains and 16 all-in-ones, listed at 94% total active cannabinoids.
- High CBD: three all-in-ones, Day Tripper with THCv, Electric Peach, and Couch Cruiser with CBN.
- Resin Sauce: whole-plant live resin across 33 strains, in cartridges and quartz-core all-in-ones.
- Solventless Rosin: 15 strains pressed from six-star full-melt ice water hash.
The cartridges are full glass with ceramic heating elements, and Halara says they use no plastic and no adhesives. The Premium Big Battery holds 900mAh, runs four temperature settings, ships with a dual charger and rotates through seasonal collectible colors.
Bringing back Granddaddy Purple and Trainwreck
On August 15, 2025, Halara published its case for the classics. The company argued that “the classics got crowded off the shelf” and put Granddaddy Purple, Trainwreck, Green Crack, Durban Poison, Sour Diesel and Maui Wowie back into Live Resin Sauce cartridges.
The oil is cannabis extract and terpenes only, run from fresh-frozen input at low temperature, and each batch carries a QR code linking to its certificate of analysis. Staple strains anchor the roster while seasonal picks rotate through. Halara calls it “a living library, not a limited stunt.”
The April 2026 rosin all-in-one
Halara's first solventless rosin all-in-one landed on April 15, 2026, with a first run of 1,000 units across three strains, led by Super Boof. The hash came from Heritage Hash in Mendocino, California, and the first run went to California dispensaries only.
The device uses a glass tank with an anti-clog design built for thicker oil. “Solventless means the oil is extracted using only ice and pressure,” the company wrote. The rosin line sits above Resin Sauce and distillate as the top tier of Halara's lineup.
Extra testing and a benefit corporation
Every batch goes to ISO 17025-accredited third-party labs for a 101-contaminant panel, and Halara publishes full certificates of analysis. Its ECCO certification covers 138 contaminants, more than six times California's requirement of 21, with monthly random testing. The Cat 4 tier tests for 380 pesticides against a state requirement of 66, and Halara says fewer than 5% of California brands pursue it.
Halara is a certified benefit corporation. It plants 1,000 trees a year in California through One Tree Planted and gives 10% of Pride Release profits to the LYRIC LGBTQ+ Youth Center. Each Rescue Release cartridge sponsors one shelter meal through the Humane Society.
Forbidden Roses backs medical cannabis donations, and Sweetleaf Collective is among the brand's community partners. Cosmic Pebbles, Mochi Paws and Lychee Goji Berry Tea round out the cause-driven releases, and a recycling program takes back used cartridges and devices.
Emerald Cup placements and State Fair medals
Halara counts more than 10 industry awards. It placed seventh for Live Resin Cartridge at the 2022 Emerald Cup and took first for Alt. Cannabinoids Cartridge at the 2024 Emerald Cup. It won at WeedCon in 2022, earned gold at the 2024 California State Fair and silver in 2025, and collected winner and runner-up honors at the 2025 California Leaf Bowl.
GreenState named Halara a Top Shelf Pick at Hall of Flowers in 2023.
Trade show floors in Ventura and Hudson
Halara works the trade circuit and writes it up. Its March 20, 2026 recap of Hall of Flowers Ventura, at the Ventura Convention Center, reported more small growers on the floor than the year before and called out Talking Trees and Space Gem, the Humboldt County solventless gummy maker, among the craft names.
Revelry Upstate 2026 at Basilica Hudson, a converted iron foundry in Hudson, New York, went further. Halara worked from a table, wrote about eight orders on site and called it “the highest-ROI event we've ever done by a wide margin” in a May 20, 2026 post.
185 tracked dispensaries in three states
Halara sells through licensed dispensaries only, with no direct online sales. It published guides to Washington disposables and New York City cartridges on June 23, 2026.
Headset tracked Halara in 185 licensed dispensaries in August 2026, 160 of them in California, with the deepest coverage in San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, San Diego and Santa Rosa. It ranked No. 26 in California vapor pens, up from No. 36 a year earlier, and No. 64 in New York. Sales rose 94.32% year over year at an average price of $23.91 across 98 SKUs.
The top seller that month was a 1g Grand Daddy Purple Live Resin Disposable, followed by Maui Wowie in both distillate cartridge and disposable form.
For adults 21 and over.