Papa & Barkley is a California cannabis brand built on topicals, tinctures, softgels and gummies, made with a solventless lipid infusion instead of chemical extraction. Adam Grossman and Guy Rocourt founded it in Eureka in 2016. Since September 2024 it has belonged to Mammoth Distribution, the Los Angeles company behind Heavy Hitters and Almora.
It owns its lane. Headset ranked Papa & Barkley No. 1 in California topicals for August 2026, the same spot it held a year earlier, and No. 1 in California tinctures and sublinguals.
Papa, Barkley and a slow cooker in Eureka
The name is a family portrait. Papa is the nickname of Grossman's father, Mort, and Barkley was the family dog. The company says Grossman made its first product, a balm, in a slow cooker.
That slow-cooker project became a Humboldt County manufacturer. Rocourt served as chief product officer, and in January 2021 the company named Evelyn Wang, a former L'Oréal and Estée Lauder executive, as CEO. Rocourt held the CEO role from 2022 to 2024. Grossman is listed as founder and CEO on the company's July 2025 founder profile.
By March 2024, Lost Coast Outpost reported, extraction ran at a Second Street facility in Eureka, and finished goods went to a former Kmart building on Broadway for packaging. Michael Kraft, the company's compliance and government affairs officer, put the footprint simply: "The only real estate that we sit in is here in Eureka."
Lipid infusion instead of solvents
Papa & Barkley says it makes all of its products with a proprietary lipid infusion process. The method is solventless and keeps the plant's cannabinoids, terpenes and plant fats together in the finished item. The company compares the result to fresh-squeezed orange juice.
The inputs come from outside growers. The company works with small farms in Humboldt County and says its cannabis is sun-grown by U.S. farmers who use regenerative practices and organic principles, then hand-planted, hand-harvested and slow-cured without machinery.
Balms, drops, softgels and gummies
The licensed line covers five categories: topicals, gummies, drops and tinctures, softgels and capsules, and extracts. Topicals come as balms, roll-ons and sticks. Leaf Nation reported in January 2026 that a body lotion was being added to the California and New York lineup that year.
Headset's August 2026 numbers show where the money lands. Topicals made up 51.3% of Papa & Barkley's sales, tinctures and sublinguals 31.7%, edibles 12.2% and capsules 4.7%. Total sales for the month cleared $1 million.
A separate hemp-derived line sells online. Leaf Nation put its reach at 46 states in January 2026 and reported that transdermal patches were joining that national line. The hemp store carries balms, body oils, creams, sticks, gummies, drops and softgels, plus a starter kit.
How Mammoth Distribution took over
The ownership change came in two steps. In March 2024 Papa & Barkley consolidated its distribution with Mammoth Distribution. Lost Coast Outpost reported that Mammoth had been in the cannabis industry in one form or another since 1996 and carried eight brands to more than 600 retail partners in California, Nevada and New York. Eureka production was expected to stay local.
Mammoth's Wesley Hein, head of brand initiatives, called Papa & Barkley "one of the highest quality and authentic brands" at the time. On September 11, 2024, Mammoth announced it had finalized the acquisition. MJBizDaily reported that Rocourt was not part of the new management team and that Grossman planned to take the brand national.
The deal set Papa & Barkley beside Mammoth's own Heavy Hitters and Almora, in the same house that holds exclusive California distribution for 710 Labs. Mammoth said it would work with the team to build better products, cut CO2 emissions by streamlining deliveries and fleets, and strengthen retail partnerships. Its distribution license, C11-0001429-LIC, sits in the Papa & Barkley site footer.
Two golds and a silver in 2025
The 2025 California Cannabis Awards at the California State Fair went well for the brand. Papa & Barkley took gold in the tincture category and gold in tablets and capsules, and silver in topicals for a THC balm stick. The homepage now marks the medal winners, next to press logos from Bon Appétit, Forbes, Refinery29 and Thrillist.
California, New York and New Jersey plans in 2026
New York is the second licensed market. Leaf Nation reported in January 2026 that the adult-use line sat in more than 600 California dispensaries and 300 New York retailers. Headset ranked it No. 3 in New York topicals for August 2026, while it held No. 9 in California capsules.
Headset's September 6, 2026 snapshot counted Papa & Barkley in 668 licensed dispensaries across the two states, 539 of them in California. Leaf Nation also reported the company's plan to launch in New Jersey's regulated market during 2026.
For adults 21 and over.