“I’ve always been this crazy,” Nick Bryan says. The creator of the Golden State Banana strain and brand means “crazy like a fox.” With over 25 years in cannabis cultivation, multiple awards including High Times Cannabis Cups, pioneering events like the Best Of competitions with Hitman Glass, industry milestones such as being the first person in California to get an indoor cultivation license, and more, Nick is a legend par excellence. As he looks forward to new drops in major adult-use markets, he shares his story of family ingenuity with the plant.
Nick Bryan of Golden State Banana with various cannabis pioneers, including Branson and Certz founder Steph.V (C) Honeysuckle Media, Inc.
How Did Golden State Banana Founder Nick Bryan Get Into Cannabis?
Growing up in Indiana with his mother, Nick saw his relatives constantly smoking, and also heard stories of his uncles smuggling weed across the country. His father, who went to prison on cannabis-related charges before Nick’s birth, moved to California upon release. Every summer, the boy soaked up plenty of culture to bring back to the Midwest.
“I started selling weed at 13 and helping grow it, going out in the cornfields, by 15,” he recalls. “I had a little bit of money and my friends and I were renting houses to veg all the clones, and grow them out in the cornfields… Soon we had thousands of clones.”
Bryan in his New Jersey cultivation facility (C) Honeysuckle Media, Inc.
Mrs. Golden State Banana And Moving To California
By 17, Nick had an extensive network of cannabis connections with experience in other states. Though keeping his base in Indiana, he began making trips to New York and elsewhere to sell. “I have had ties in New York for over 18 years,” he states.
At 18, he met the love of his life in Alexis (“Mrs. Golden State Banana” as she is sometimes known), a fellow cultivator with a flair for operations. The young couple moved to Santa Cruz, California in 2002, immediately setting up large growhouses. Over the years, they developed multiple brands utilizing techniques from Indiana. Nick describes how he and Alexis bought a 10-bedroom mansion, turning nearly every room, plus the tennis court and wraparound deck, into a greenhouse. In his father’s basement, used for fishing equipment, they dug a small grow bucket by bucket.
How Did Nick Bryan Become A California Cannabis Pioneer?
As Nick perfected cultivars like the Banana strain, he observed the industry’s evolution.
Bryan at Terp Basel 2023 (C) Honeysuckle Media, Inc.
“Back then, [California] protected these medical dispensaries, but there was never any license for cultivation,” he remembers. “I needed to protect my grows.” He explains that in 2016, one of his friends had been growing in nearby Watsonville under a special permit, but that the man had been busted because city officials never told the police. The friend ended up suing the city, and Nick found inspiration. “I just knew now they’d have to put [cannabis licensing] on the city agenda,” he continues. “I was a member of the community. I went in front of the city council with my business plan… I took the mayor of Santa Cruz, council members, city manager, right into my grow: ‘Here it is. How are you going to help me?’ Boom, I got the first indoor cultivation license in California.”
How Did Nick Bryan Create The Golden State Banana Brand?
That same year, Nick launched the Golden State Banana brand as it’s recognized today. “Back in the day, not a lot of people wanted to grow Banana. We were just starting to learn about the benefits of concentrate and higher-testing THC strains. Concentrate hadn’t become a big thing at that point. We were just getting into the world of fire, sugar, trim batter, and just the transition out of shatter into live resin and other stuff. And then not realizing that an OG that has 20 percent yields 60 grams, and Banana yields 32 to 34 percent, we’re getting 100 grams out of that. So we’re like, ‘Oh, now we see what the difference means in the THC testing.’”
His initial variation was called Chiquita Banana, but a little tweaking and concerns about getting struck on copyright led to what we now know as essential Golden State Banana. Nick contracted his friend Jimbo Phillips to design the brand’s distinctive artwork, and had a sensation on his hands.
What's Next For Golden State Banana?
Today, Nick and Alexis are steering Golden State Banana into its busiest year ever, bursting into the East Coast’s legal landscape with a New Jersey drop that occurred on April 8th in "pretty much every store."
Nick enthuses, "We’re coming to New York and Massachusetts later. I’m going to go crazy in New York; I’ve got thousands of clones right now and I’m going to give them to every farm.”
So if you’re ready for the next major evolution in cannabis, keep your eye on the guy who’s crazy like a fox. He might be a little bananas, but that hasn’t steered him wrong yet.
For more information, visit goldenstatebanana.com or follow @golden_state_banana on Instagram.
*A version of this article originally appeared in Honeysuckle's 18th print edition. Click here to order and choose your element - Fire with Bun B or Ice with Queen P!
