Extraction Innovators: äkta

“You’re getting the plant in its truest form in a concentrate,” says Blair Kralick, chief operating officer of the äkta brand and the Hava Gardens that produce it. “We wanted to make products we believe in and wanted to consume ourselves.”

The company uses sungrown, single-source biomass, fresh frozen at harvest to preserve the trichomes, and then runs it through a traditional process using only water, ice, heat and pressure to create its suite of live rosin products, including dabbable live heads and batter, as well as vape cartridges and gummies.

“We solely focus on ice water extraction for multiple SKUs,” Kralick says.

Kralick says the company’s attention to detail, beginning with its genetics and living soil cultivation methods and processing techniques make a final product that “you couldn’t hide anything in.” Even its name, äkta — Swedish for “authentic” or “genuine” — hints at the transparency and integrity Kralick says the company makes part of everything it does.

“We felt like this process was being true to who we wanted to be as company,” he says. “We believe in this style of extraction. We believe in these products, and we believe that they’re the finest form of consumption, both ingestion and inhalation on the market.”

Kralick says it all comes back to the company’s vision of trying to create something better, which it continues to do through its constant development of new products. According to Kralick the company is hard at work on several new SKUs that he promises will be “first to market stuff.” He also says the company’s library of 38 distinct genetics is “ever-expanding.”

“We’re always trying to create new things,” he says. “What sets us apart is that our mindset isn’t financially based. It’s experience-based and focused on how we can improve our experience for our customers every single week.”