Lemonnade is the sativa-forward sister brand in the Cookies portfolio, created in 2015 by Cookies founder Berner and breeder Brett Wilson, who works as Growing Passion. The brand is built on flavor: it describes its flower as grown for smokers who care about taste above all else, and it sells taste, potency and a smooth smoke rather than a potency ladder. It now operates as both a product line and a branded dispensary concept.
Founders and the Cookies relationship
Berner and Wilson founded Lemonnade in 2015 as a sister brand to Cookies, aimed at a sativa audience the pair felt was being served with interchangeable flavor profiles. Berner's stated reasoning at launch was that nobody was really focusing on sativa consumers and that most existing sativa flavor profiles on the market were similar and dated. The brand's official page sits inside cookies.co and keeps its own name, positioning and retail identity within the larger Cookies ecosystem.
From breeding program to storefront
The team spent four years in research and development before opening a retail experience. The first Lemonnade-branded dispensary opened on July 19, 2020 at 1115 Fee Drive in Sacramento, trading 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, with 3HHG Group as the local retail partner. It opened with more than fifteen sativa-dominant strains bred for distinct flavor rather than a single house profile.
Retail expansion
The summer 2020 rollout added two Portland, Oregon locations alongside further California stores. Because the concept is deployed through market-specific retail partners, the operator behind a given Lemonnade door varies by state. The brand runs a store locator that takes a zip code or city and state and returns nearby locations.