Carlos Santana’s cannabis brand just launched a new line of edibles that are packed with solventless hash rosin.

Santana started blowing up San Francisco’s music scene way back in the psychedelic heyday of the late 1960s. His catchy blend of Latin and African rhythms and classic blues rock riffs soon caught the attention of Columbia Records and earned his band a spot at the legendary Woodstock festival. Since the heady summer of ’69, Santana has released over a dozen albums, toured the world, and racked up ten Grammys, three Latin Grammys, and a well-deserved place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Even at the age of 75, Santana hasn’t stopped touring, and he’s still selling out venues for his 2023 tour. But in 2020, when the pandemic forced all bands to take a break from touring, the shredder temporarily put down his axe and began exploring the cannabis marketplace. That year, he launched his own personal cannabis brand, Mirayo, in partnership with Left Coast Ventures.

The name Mirayo, which combines the Spanish words for “my” and “ray,” honors Santana’s “Latin heritage and dedication to spiritual well-being.” For its original launch, the brand rolled out a variety of flower and pre-roll options in California’s adult-use market. The brand is now partnering with The Parent Company to offer several new flavors of gummies with 10mg of solventless hash rosin per serving. 

Celebrity cannabis brands are absolutely commonplace these days, but rosin-based edibles are actually not common at all. Rosin is a cannabis concentrate created by pressing dried bud using a combination of heat and high pressure. This process releases a sticky paste that is rich in terpenes, THC, and other natural cannabinoids. And unlike other concentrates, this process does not involve the use of dangerous solvents.

The processes used to make most popular concentrates require extreme amounts of heat, which can end up burning off many of the terpenes naturally present in the cannabis plant. Butane hash oil (BHO), as the name implies, is made with butane, aka lighter fluid. Black market dealers and enterprising stoners often try to make BHO at home, but this solvent is exceptionally flammable. Homebrew hash oil experiments are notorious for causing massive explosions and fires, especially in the UK where recreational weed remains entirely prohibited.

Legit cannabis companies often avoid the risk of butane explosions by using either CO2 or “live resin” extractions, but both of these processes involve extremely expensive equipment and dedicated lab space. Rosin, on the other hand, can be easily made at home with a custom press or even a cheap hair straightener, without requiring the use of hazardous solvents. But for those who don’t have the time or energy for homemade rosin extraction, Santana’s new edibles provide an easier alternative.

“Cannabis is a window or a door to different awareness of consciousness,” Santana said in a 2020 press release. “It gives you the choice to perceive through a different filter of awakening and healing, the misperception of distance as an illusion, which keeps you from being centered in your essence-core. It helps you arrive at knowing, accepting, and owning a quality of life that is being with joy!”

“We hope to help more people tap into their creative zone and find kindness and compassion as well as spirituality, individuality and higher consciousness,” he said in a recent statement. “Together, we can think deep, high thoughts and sculpt a new life and world.”

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