State of The Pass: A Year 5 Retrospective

Five years have passed, and we’re still rolling (pun intended) along. We are so grateful for that alone. But there’s so much that happened this year and so much more we’re looking forward to. During a time where much of the cannabis industry is struggling to make ends meet, our team is adapting our practices while also continuing all the little things that got us here in the first place. The one throughline in our entire 5-year run has been something simple, but significant — we love weed!

 

Our Commitment to Better Flower

Even though there are a million ways under the sun to get high these days (I’m talking to you, THCheese), flower is still the core of a good lineup of cannabis products. If you want a successful cannabis company, you have to grow (or buy) good flower. Over the past year, with the introduction of a new cultivation leadership team, our cultivation squad has refined its practices, as well as its genetics sourcing and output planning, to increase the quality and variety of our flower significantly. An improved curing process and better grasp on our facility’s humidity and temperature control haveconsiderably increased the quality of our final product.

We are currently producing some of the best flower we have ever grown here at The Pass, and we’re doing it with an updated and varied library of strains. If you want to stay up to date on our current strain selection, check our strain library to see what’s in our rotation of genetics.

Pass Partnerships

We’re just a bunch of friendly fellas, ya know? It’s good to make nice with everybody in such a competitive market, and when those amicable relationships turn into mutually beneficial partnerships, it’s even better!

Belushi’s Farm x The Pass

While it’s true that we began our partnership with Jim Belushi and his brand, Belushi’s Farm, before this year, we’re really starting to thrive now. Through our increased collaboration with our friends at Local Roots, this year we were fortunate enough to have Jim in-store to meet our customers and his fans before he made his way over to the Egremont Barn for an unforgettable night of music, boogying, and enjoying some sweet, sweet green. In addition to that memorable day, we also released new Belushi’s strains, Governmint Oasis, Grape Gas, and Hash Burger, in addition to even more genetics currently being grown. Keep an eye out for new strains and product releases this year.

Coast Cannabis

We have been close with our good buddies Coast Cannabis from across the state for a long while now. However, this year we have ramped up co-marketing campaigns, ensuring that we both benefit from our relationship to the best of our ability. They even came all the way out to the Berkshires to join us on one of our trail cleanups this year.

Green Revolution

To fulfill a lineup of products for every type of cannabis consumer, we unveiled a new partnership with Washington-based cannabis company Green Revolution, producing and selling their signature fast-acting nano-tinctures and shots. A significant portion of our customers are seeking sleep-aid products. Green Revolution gave us the opportunity to quickly provide them with this in the form of their fast-acting Nighttime and Dream Tincture. Fans of melatonin, the Dream Tincture is for you. Fans of CBN, Nighttime Tincture has your name written all over it. We are currently working on producing their Anytime Tinctures and will shortly be rolling out their line of signature shots in various fruity flavors.

Sweetgrass Botanicals

If you want the best hash, elicit the help of the best hash makers. We recently sent some of our fresh-frozen flower to Sweetgrass Botanicals up in Lee to be washed and pressed into premium live hash rosin. With four first-place NECANN finishes for their rosin, Sweetgrass has established itself as one of the best concentrate makers you can find. Given their proximity to our facility, creating a product collaboration felt like a no-brainer. Be on the lookout for a The Pass x Sweetgrass rosin collab within the next few months.

The Passport Program

This year, we were finally able to put our program in place, which we had wanted to implement years before. We launched the Passport program at the beginning of 2025, partnering with the Great Barrington Bagel Company, Marketplace Cafe and Kitchen, Big Elm, and Berkshire Mountain Distillers to create a shared marketing campaign with small businesses across our local community. The program was simple: bring your receipt from one of the listed businesses to another and reap the benefits. It was a great way to share customers across town and uplift each other during months where tourism isn’t at full force. We look forward to continuing the program in the future, bringing in new friends along the way.

Food Trucks at The Pass

We’re hoping to be so efficient here at The Pass that we satisfy your munchies before you even have them. Over the past year, we have established a consistent cadence of food truck visits between pizza and sandwich chefs Rustik Eats and the mightily popular Cousins Maine Lobster Truck.

If we’re being honest, these food trucks are as much of a plus for our staff as they are for our customers. Once word spreads in our store that the food truck is outside, our team quickly makes lunch plans. If you haven’t visited one of our food trucks yet, keep a lookout for our schedule announcements or just stop by when you see them in front of our store. You won’t regret it!

Movies and Munchies Night

As a recent development, we have partnered with Canaan Colonial Theatre to host free movie nights featuring on-brand movies like Dazed and Confused and Super Troopers. In addition to the free screenings, we worked with the theater to source local snacks and giveaways on the night of the screening. We are thrilled to have seen a great community turnout at these events, so look forward to our next screening of The Big Lebowski at the Bantam Cinema and Arts Center.

 

Giving Back to the Berkshires Community

Over the past year, we have also continued our philanthropic efforts for the community. We love where we live, and we strongly believe that to be a part of a community, you have to give back to it. Through our brand, Berkshire Bud, we have provided support to the Berkshire Black Economic Council, the Elizabeth Freeman Center, Berkshire Pride, as well as the Berkshire Natural Resources Council through our TrailBlazers brand. In addition to that support, we also hosted a food drive last holiday season in support of Berkshire Bounty and an essential items drive for Louison House.

Looking Forward

We had a great year, but we never remain complacent. Over the next year, we aim to refine our approach by focusing on what made us successful and identifying new, fun, and engaging ways to enhance our offerings for you, our valued customers. 

We are really excited about the unveiling of our new loyalty program. Our team has spent a lot of time determining what we can offer our most devoted customers, giving them something to look forward to weekly, monthly, and yearly. Stay tuned and use up those existing loyalty points, as they will all go away when we launch our new program on October 1st of this year.

Continue to keep an eye out for new product collabs, fresh strains, fun events, and hopefully a lifetime of accessible access to some quality bud.