“At the time, it was the best weed ever,” Joe laughs. “It really wasn’t, but it felt like that. And I never looked back.”
-Joe Buonadonna | Bliss Co Founder and CEO
Before founding Bliss Co, Joe Buonadonna’s cannabis journey started in 2011 with a few seeds and a love of gardening passed down from his mom. There was no grand plan. No cultivation experience. Just a curious South Jersey gardener who decided to toss a few seeds into a tomato box and see what would happen.
To his surprise, they sprouted!
Joe called his best friend, who showed up with a modified Ikea cabinet and they built his first makeshift grow, the start of what would become a longtime hobby.
The Power of Jack Herer
“My favorite strain is Jack Herer and it’s the reason I’m here today.”
-Joe
Before he ever planted a seed, Joe’s interest in cannabis was sparked by reading The Emperor Wears No Clothes by Jack Herer, an American cannabis rights activist and writer.
“It challenged so much of the misinformation surrounding the plant and opened my eyes to the idea that cannabis could be about medicine, education and helping people. It also introduced me to hemp as an industry and how deeply woven into American life, from trade to the sails on ships that crossed the Atlantic.”
Inspired by Herer, Joe began growing the strain, Jack Herer.
“At the time, I was taking Advair twice a day for my asthma. One day I ran out and realized my symptoms never showed up. My wife and I spent more than a year trying to figure out why, changing everything from our diet to personal care products.
Eventually, my wife asked if it could be the weed. After researching Jack Herer’s terpene profile, we discovered it was rich in pinene, a terpene known for its bronchodilating properties. When I stopped smoking Jack, my asthma came back almost immediately.
Ironically, I don’t have Jack anymore because I had to close my grow down, but I still seek out genetics rich in pinene and other beneficial terpenes. Nothing has ever come close to Jack.”
From Seafood to Cannabis
While Joe was dialing in his grow at home, he was also spending his days working in his family’s seafood business in Philadelphia. While cannabis remained a hobby, he never imagined it would become his career.
Then came 2020.
“The Pandemic was brutal, to say the least,” Joe recalls. “Restaurants closed for months. We had to lay off so many people.” Like many people during that time, Joe and his wife found themselves thinking about what’s next and one phrase kept coming up: “We’d really love some bliss in our life.”
That simple sentiment eventually inspired the name Bliss Co, combined with his love for the plant, set Joe on the path to pursuing a cultivation license.
A Hometown Grow
“I’ve spent my entire existence within 10 minutes of the facility that we’re at.”
-Joe
A Marlton native, Joe built Bliss Co’s cultivation facility just minutes away in Lumberton. From the beginning, Joe knew Bliss Co would only be as strong as the people behind it.
He first brought in his father, Joe Buonadonna Sr., whose background in psychology helped provide guidance on compliance and business operations. Amir Schinnar joined as a co-founder and helped lead the design and construction of the cultivation facility. Joe also recruited his longtime friend and cultivation mentor, Jason “Giddy Up” Emo, the co-inventor of live resin, as an operating partner and co-founder.
Together, the team designed the entire facility from the ground up.
“We designed the whole thing in my basement,” Joe recalls. “Eighteen-hour days, ten days straight, just grinding.”
Beyond LED Lights
“High-pressure sodium (HPS) lights are the gold standard of indoor cannabis cultivation.”
-Joe
In his basement grow, Joe studied everything he could, from podcasts and YouTube videos to episodes of CannaCribs. “Every day when I went home from work, I’d eat dinner with the family and then be in the basement until two o’clock in the morning. Headphones in, tending to the plants, while learning about the industry and learning about grows.”
While many modern cultivation facilities have switched to LED lighting, Bliss Co continues to use high-pressure sodium (HPS) lights throughout its flower rooms.
“The spectrum of light that high-pressure sodium bulbs give off is rich in the red and orange wavelengths, and that’s the wavelength that the plant wants in that particular phase of flowering,” Joe explains. “That light exposure gives these plants everything as close to what they would get outdoors under the sun.”
To further mimic natural sunlight, the facility also uses specialized high-intensity discharge ultraviolet lights. While UV light doesn’t increase plant size, it can help plants metabolize nutrients and encourage greater production of cannabinoids and terpenes.
Quality Starts With Genetics
“Bliss Co is a genetics company. We grow the plant, but if the genetics aren’t great, the plant won’t be great.”
-Joe
The team is constantly pheno hunting, searching through cultivars to find the standout expressions. Recently, they added 25 new strains to their library. Every selection is reviewed for its cannabinoid profile, terpene expression, flavor, aroma and, most importantly, its effects. For Bliss Co, quality means delivering flower that is safe, predictable and repeatable.
- From harvest to testing, every step is handled with care and consistency. Joe explained, “We’re a single-source tester. We use one lab, Trichome Analytical, because they’re the gold standard in the state. We don’t pay to play. The numbers are what they are.”
- Predictability in effects. The team spends countless hours evaluating genetics, terpenes and cannabinoids because they want you to have a better understanding of the experience of the strains you buy.
- You should be able to come back weeks or months later and have a similar experience. “Consistency is one thing in the Jersey market that we just haven’t seen enough of,” explains Joe.
That commitment to genetics extends beyond Bliss Co’s own library and can be seen in its partnership with Wonderbrett, one of the most respected genetics-focused brands in the industry.
Bringing Wonderbrett to New Jersey
“Wonderbrett has the best genetics and we’re stewards of their genetics. We work hard to make sure they’re represented well.”
-Joe
The Wonderbrett and Bliss Co. partnership started with a chance introduction. One of Joe’s friends in the restaurant industry connected him with their nephew, who was working in the industry out West, just as Wonderbrett was exploring opportunities on the East Coast and connected them with Joe.
The best part? Joe was already a huge fan.
“I have a picture from 2020, before we even had a name for Bliss Co, of the Wonderbret logo. I loved the colors, but I became a fan because of their genetics and what Brett has done for the industry regarding genetics.”
When the Wonderbrett team first visited Bliss Co, there wasn’t much to see. The facility was still an empty building with blue tape marking out future rooms on the floor. Even so, they believed in Joe’s vision and what the team was building. And as it turned out, some of the Wonderbrett guys already knew Giddy and the rest is history.
Plant Parenting
According to Joe, “parenting and cannabis is a delicate topic and not something any parent should take lightly.” As his children got older and started hearing about cannabis in school, Joe felt it was important to have honest conversations rather than leave their questions unanswered.
“I still don’t consume in front of my daughter. She’s 16 and she’s going into her junior high school, but it’s important to talk to them and keep the line of communication open.”
THC % Isn’t Everything
“It’s interesting that we focus so much on numbers, because nobody started their cannabis journey with numbers.”
-Joe
THC percentage is just one piece of the puzzle. How a strain smells, tastes and makes you feel is influenced by many compounds (terpenes, cannabinoids, flavonoids, etc.) working together, which is why higher THC doesn’t always mean a better experience.
And sometimes the most memorable strains aren’t the ones with the biggest numbers. “Our lowest testing strain is called Tropaya. She is just the most special strain we have. She tests between 12%-17% and is low on terps, but she is the most flavor-forward, balanced strain.”
Pennington’s Only Source For Bliss Co & Wonderbrett
“We’ve tried to identify the best partners in each market and protect those relationships. We meet face-to-face. We want to come see you. We want you to come see us. We want to get to know each other because it’s always the best way to build a relationship. We also want retailers to see what we’re doing firsthand and appreciate the level of care, effort and investment that goes into it.”
-Joe
A True Sativa Room in the Works
True sativas are surprisingly rare. Over the years, many cultivars have been crossed and hybridized, making it difficult to find genetics that are truly sativa from start to finish. They’re also uncommon because most growers can’t dedicate the extra time required.
According to Joe, a true sativa requires two things: a lineage made entirely of sativa genetics and the patience to let it complete its full flowering cycle. While many plants can finish flowering in 55 to 65 days, true sativas often require 80-120 days.
Currently, Bliss Co. runs Starchild (True Amsterdam Haze x Jack Herer), an 80-day true sativa and what Joe believes is the first and only true sativa currently available in New Jersey. In doing this, “We found some other strains that want to go a little bit longer. So now, we have Wonderbrett’s Sour Diesel Go and Miracle Mints running for 70 days,” says Joe.
With a second building in the works, Bliss Co. plans to dedicate an entire room to research and development and another exclusively to true sativas, creating more space to pheno hunt and properly cultivate strains that require extra time.
Visit Pure Blossom for Cannabis and Other Essentials
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