Jimi DevineFew things have ever hit the recreational hash market as hard as the piattella collaboration about to drop from its godfathers at Uncle’s Farm and Kalya Extracts.
Uncle’s Farm is the internationally recognized originator of the piattella format of curing hash, Kalya is the multiple-time Emerald Cup champ, and when their powers are combined, the resulting hype levels are downright nauseating. But we get it, we have stomachaches, too.
We were first exposed to piattella at Spannabis 2022. It was a fun variation on full melt hash. Over the next 20 months it became all the rage, as it spread out from its pandemic isolation in Barcelona. Many American hash companies were exposed to it in 2023 for the first time; they would come back and attempt R&D runs.
We’re still waiting to hear how those went. Presumably not well. So here we are, almost a year later, and Uncle’s Farm has traveled from Catalonia to California to make it happen. We are thrilled.
We reached out to Kalya’s co-founder Marc Hammond to hear the tale of how they linked up with Uncle’s Farm. Hammond was quick to give credit to Roger Volodarsky of Puffco. Volodarsky linked Hammond with the Astor Club who was helping facilitate Uncle’s stateside adventures.
The trio linked up to nail down the details.
“I would provide the hash, we would come up to the facility and then we would kind of make it real quick and stuff. He’d show me some of the techniques and show me the wrapping process and everything,” Hammond told L.A. Weekly. “We’d kind of do this thing as part of his first release ever on U.S. soil.”
Hammond called the process to get to that point a little intimidating. When he first met Uncle, one of the main points covered was the fact he only works with the cleanest indoor resin possible. Hammond was told he would have to put his hash on the table against some of California’s finest before Uncle made any decisions.
“And so we had to submit our resin against, you know, the best in the game and luckily, he ended up picking us,” Hammond said. “He called us up and said that we were the cleanest resin. He looked at each entry under a microscope and said we were the cleanest resin he’s seen and thought it would make a good piattella.”
Zkittlez and Starburst #36 were the two strains that won Uncle over.
When they eventually linked, Uncle’s decided to work with the Papaya Bars for the project.
“He loved the cleanliness on the papaya bars, which is a Wedding Cake and Z on the Papaya,” Hammond said. “So those are the two that we chose — Zkittles and Papaya bars to start with. Then I think he’s going to come back and do another pretty big release and it’s going to be Starburst.”
Kalya’s tech is renowned with the trophy shelf to prove it. We asked Hammond what it was like to try new things. He replied he always loves people trying to push the industry forward and trying to introduce new things to the game.
“I thought it was a really interesting take and a nice little step in the process. And it really, I think, brings back a lot of nostalgia and reminiscent of what I would consider like charas and that type of hash, Hammond said. “I feel like some of those techniques were derived from that category and just really applied to modern-day hashmaking and it’s been something really cool.”
As far as how he would describe the consistency of piattella to American heads who have yet to experience the magic, Hammond compared it to almost a Brie cheese. He argued it felt like it’s a similar process to aging cheese being used on hash.
“The last thing I’d say about piattella is that I think it’s an interesting exploration into the unknown,” Hammond said. “We haven’t seen the interaction with semi-isolated cannabinoids and oxygen in an “aging” type setting, so tweaking those variables opens up possibilities to see new nuances in flavor profiles and effects.”
Matt from Astor Club noted how happy they were to be able to help their friend from Barcelona get his footing in America.
“We love Uncle, we love the hash,” Matt told L.A. Weekly. “His piattella is something special. He became a friend of ours from us going out to visit him. And we wanted him to make it out here. So we set them up with Mark.”
Matt said they had been working on trying to figure something out since Spannabis last year.
Astor Club is known for dealing with cannabis enthusiasts with top-shelf taste. We asked Matt how he would describe piattella to an educated cannabis consumer who has not yet had the chance to experience it.
“It’s a cured full-melt hash that he processes with his own proprietary means and it locks in the flavor so well and it changes it slightly from the full melt and it’s just something really, really special like smoking it in a joint, it’s incredible,” he replied.
Keep an eye out for Kalya announcing the drop locations next week. There will not be a lot to go around.
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