Humboldt County may be best known more by reputation spread by word of mouth. Cannabis, its key crop, and legal in California, is listed as a Schedule I drug by the US Federal Government.
A coastal region, Humboldt County is located about a four-hour drive north of San Francisco, and is renowned worldwide for historically growing high quantities of cannabis. Images abound of the Netflix series Murder Mountain and the infamous DEA raids of growers in the 1980s and '90s. When it comes to the quality of product, the region's marijuana growers see a shadow of Humboldt's days gone by.
Recently, the bulk cannabis industry has moved to the southern part of the state, where larger commercial brands produce distillate products, like vape pods, with very little thought given to growing the cannabis plant itself.
This mirrors the farming of bulk wine grapes in places like California's Central Valley, in contrast to the small hands-on approach to viticulture in the state's premier regions like Napa and Sonoma.
Read more at Decanter