The entrepreneurs at Omni Organics are making small-batch CBD products their way.
When you sell nutritional supplements, you have a good idea what people are interested in taking.
“At some point I started noticing a lot of customers coming in asking for CBD. I had no idea what it was,” says Dane Morris, who started his first of several nutritional supplement stores in 2014. One customer said he took it for stress and anxiety, another for better sleep, others to relieve pain and inflammation. One even gave it to his dog for anxiety when he left the house.
With a little research, Morris learned what many of us now know: that “CBD,” for “cannabidiol,” is the casual term for the family of products made from cannabidiol and other compounds extracted from hemp—and that users report relief from a wide range of symptoms without the high of marijuana. He learned that people took it as drops under the tongue, gummies and other edibles, and topical creams, and even vaped it.
Morris talked about CBD with two friends from his years at WVU, Mike Shimko and Allen Lowther. They all brought expertise to the conversation: Shimko was a Ph.D. pharmaceutical scientist, Lowther had an MBA, and both had been in the pharmaceutical industry for 15-plus years. “We had a four-hour plane ride together, and we talked about it the whole time. We basically started Omni Organics right there.”
That was 2018. After experimenting in Shimko’s basement, they researched and bought equipment and set up a lab in Morgantown.
CBD is not all the same
Purity, flavor, absorbability, potency—they matter, and they vary. Just as a baker’s skill affects the crustiness of the loaf and a brewer’s preferences determine the strength of the pint, the choices that chemist-creators make in the lab shape the qualities of hemp products.
Purity The trio at Omni Organics say they chose ethanol extraction over the other industry standard, CO2, because it can process higher volumes of hemp in a given time while still leaving most of the unwanted chlorophyll, fats, and lipids behind. To remove the bit that does get through, they “winterize” and filter several times—think refrigerating a pot roast and skimming the coagulated fats. Passing the result through activated carbon eliminates off-flavors, and distilling several times along the way results in a pure full-spectrum hemp oil distillate.
Flavor The pure distillate is nearly flavorless. So the partners did taste tests and found a palatable subset of terpenes—aroma and flavor compounds—to add back in. “We’ve been told our oil has a very pleasant citrusy flavor,” Shimko says. Their custom terpene blend gives their products a signature flavor and makes added sweeteners unnecessary. The terpenes are also thought to enhance the medicinal benefits.
Absorbability The partners have heard more than one disappointed user say they tried other CBD products in the past but didn’t feel anything. So they chose highly absorbable C8 MCT oil as their carrier oil. “If you take 50 milligrams, your body is absorbing most of that,” Shimko says.
Potency Another way they make sure customers feel the benefits of their CBD is by offering a high-potency product. “If people aren’t feeling anything, it’s because there isn’t much CBD in what they’re using,” Lowther says. CBD products on the market typically range from 5 or 10 milligrams/milliliter of CBD up to 100, with most falling in the 25 to 50 mg/ml range. Omni Organics’ formulations come in 25, 50, and a supercharged 200 mg/ml. “We take pride in the fact that you’re getting a high-quality and highly absorbable product, and you’re also getting a lot of it,” Morris says.
The company provides a QR code on each package that links customers to a third-party certificate of analysis.
Omni Organics currently markets CBD oils, creams, and roll-ons under the brand name KaKu. They’re also marketing delta-8 THC gummies, vape cartridges, and oils under the name SKY’D. Delta-8 is a hemp-derived compound that does provide a high, one that’s milder than from marijuana and is entirely legal.
More on the horizon
Omni Organics employs three to five people in its lab at any given time, and the partners say they have the capacity to more than double their current production. Their products are sold in stores in states across the region, including several in Morgantown—check the website for the latest list.
And they’re just getting started in this fast-evolving industry. Lowther, Morris, and Shimko are excited about the potential for hemp products to help West Virginians.
“Both CBD and delta-8 products can help with the addictions that are rampant in our state—alcohol, opioids,” Shimko says. He knows people who take their CBD products for inflammatory conditions—his own parents, for example, find relief from arthritis. Military veterans in Lowther’s family find calming from PTSD without having to experience the high of medical marijuana.
The partners have ideas for innovating new CBD products, too. No hints yet, but stay tuned.
READ MORE ARTICLES FROM MORGANTOWN’S FALL 2021 ISSUE
Leave a Reply