What started as a smoke session between a father and daughter has bloomed into a booming cannabis business.

Florette is the creation of co-founders Bri Delgado and her father, Luis. Delgado had recently graduated from Parsons School of Design and was intrigued by the potential connection between fashion and cannabis. This was also around the time that recreational cannabis use was legalized in New York.

“I’ve always been really inspired by my dad with him being an entrepreneur, an attorney, and just a successful businessman. We’ve always shared a passion for cannabis, so I grew up smoking with my dad,” said Delgado. “The idea of Florette really came to life over a smoke session that we had together. We were thinking of ways that we could work together [because] I wanted to do something entrepreneurial, so from there the idea really blossomed.”

The pair immediately got to work, with her father taking the lead on the legal aspects of the business and Delgado taking on the creative side. They both obtained their cannabis licenses (and Delgado is the state’s youngest licensee at 25 years old) and started to establish themselves in the industry, both as cultivators and as distributors.

As a father-daughter team in the industry, Delgado says that she and Luis bring a relatable energy to the industry, particularly with customers.

“I’m really the boots on the ground as well, I’m doing a lot of the pop-ups and activations and events, and I think it really makes a difference to consumers seeing my dad and I out there because we’re both really hands-on and really trying to do as much as we could,” said Delgado. “I feel like they really resonate with it, they really find it relatable, especially seeing how hands-on and involved we are throughout every single process.”

The duo started Florette with a line of prerolls with cannabis flower buds that is grown at their facility in Wellsville, New York. Beyond their cannabis offerings, Florette has a line of fashion merchandise that include hats, t-shirts, sweatshirts and tote bags. As early licensees of cannabis, Delgado really wanted to make sure that Florette stood out, bringing a bold and colorful approach to their products and packaging.

“We really wanted [the branding] to reflect both of us, me and my dad, when we were designing the packaging,” said Delgado. “I’m more of a designer, he’s not, but I wanted it to really reflect both of us.”

Florette recently added vapes to their lineup of products. Available in three strains (sativa, hybrid and indica), the vapes are pure flower rosin and use the Direct Xtract method, which utilizes heat and compression to preserve the flower without solvents or additives.

“No one else in the state so far has the technology because we had gotten it approved a little over two months ago, but it’s basically the full flower experience and the full terpene experience,” said Delgado. “It really feels like you’re smoking a joint because you’re able to taste all of the terpenes.”

For both Delgado and her father, as the business continues to grow, one thing remains certain: if they wouldn’t smoke it themselves, they aren’t going to sell it.

“We didn’t want to put anything out there that we wouldn’t smoke ourselves, that no one on our site would smoke as well. So we really honed in quality of all of our products and making sure that we were doing everything the right way and also having a very cool selection of genetics that we could offer and strains that aren’t on the market,” said Delgado.

For more information or to see where Florette retails near you, visit florettecannabis.com.