Julie Tran of Elefante
I am truly blessed because even though it was extremely tough in the beginning, they did not disown me nor try to force me to stop. My parents and I have come a long way, and now we are closer than we have ever been. My father started taking the gummies for his lifelong insomnia. - Julie Tran
Last May 14th, I sat in the audience at the Emerald Cup Awards and watched Asian Americans one after the other come up on stage to receive the “Best of…” awards, Pure Beauty, Feeling Frosty, Tsumo Snacks, Potli, Mad Lilly and Elefante. When I joined the cannabis community in 2015, I was one of the few Asians that was visible, there were many, just not popping their heads up for one reason or another. Fast forward seven years and here I am watching an API women getting on stage to receive an award given by their peers. After the awards I sought out Julie Tran, I walked over to introduce myself and told her how proud I was of her and how special that night was for me because of her and the other API women on stage. My heart is full and I am honored to highlight Julie today on AACE. - Ophelia Chong
I love the name Elefante, what is the story behind the name?
"Tricky Treets" was the first name we came up with, which everyone thought was cute until Halloween started creeping up. Our lawyer said we needed a new name ASAP to finalize our licensing applications. Clinton and I were having a hard time finding a consensus on a new name, but we love our cannabis farm rescue dog Elefante, so we resolved to name the company after her. On the farm, we were learning Spanish so we named her Elefante because she had a bloated belly from whatever garbage she was eating before we adopted her. As we assimilated back into city life, many strangers would approach us to let us know the peace and joy this dog brought them with her mere presence. We want people to experience our products and feel the way Ellie makes people feel. Furthermore, we have always loved and respected elephants, as have many cultures across the world. They are the largest land mammals and are a keystone species, shaping the environment around them. We want to be the elephants in the industry and help raise the standards.
Parents, we can be really strict or loose or a combination of both, how did your parents react to your entry into cannabis?
My parents were somewhat strict and not even the kind of Asians that get drunk and karaoke. My mom is straight-edge; she claims her only sip of alcohol was at my brother’s wedding. My pops would drink moderately at parties and for his insomnia, but neither of them had ever tried cannabis.
Before college, my parents would always pick me up from slumber parties by midnight. I couldn’t sleep over unless they were family. When I started driving myself, you can bet I got a call every midnight from my parents to come home if I was still out. During the summer after graduating from high school, my best friend's boyfriend was driving me home late at night and got pulled over for speeding. He couldn’t find his paperwork in the glove compartment so he panicked and opened every compartment including the ashtray which had his pipe in it. We got searched, and I received a charge for having a used pipe in my shorts. Of course, my parents were so devastated and worried about my future pharmacy career. I wasn’t allowed to see my friends for the rest of the summer.
Fast forward to 2017, Clinton left gummies for my older brother at my parents’ house. My brother thought telling my parents the gummies are for him would stop them from getting into it. I have no idea why anyone thought that would work because my mom ate one and gave one to my pops. Back then we were making 50mg gummies. My brother came over to pick up his kids and found both of them wandering around the backyard garden. He said pops didn’t speak to him for a month because he was so upset. He told me to hold off on talking to our parents. That’s how they found out that I had started a cannabis gummy business. I am truly blessed because even though it was extremely tough in the beginning, they did not disown me nor try to force me to stop. My parents and I have come a long way, and now we are closer than we have ever been. My father started taking the gummies for his lifelong insomnia. Their biggest concerns are the state of the market and legal risks, but they are supportive and see the benefits of the gummies. Although last Thanksgiving, I pulled out a vape pen and my mom called me an addict. Seriously, mom?! People have been drinking all day and the first time I pull out a vape pen, I’m the addict? Haha, so yeah, that’s my mom- supports my dream, but still gives me disapproving looks when I’m smoking or vaping.
Your cannabis journey took you many turns, from Humboldt to San Francisco, how has your optimism and work ethic helped you along the way?
I didn't always have this level of optimism and persistence. I learned eventually how to accept reality and not lament over how it should be. Once I stopped fighting the current of reality, it allowed me to shift my perspective to figure out how to succeed in the current state of things and/or change the current state in order to succeed. Optimism helps you focus on the opportunities that arise from the challenges rather than focused on closed doors that you feel should be open. It all starts with believing there is a way.
I am very grateful to my parents, for being the first to leave Vietnam and for pushing me in school and sports. When I think about giving up, I remind myself about what they overcame to be here and how much they worked to provide a better life for me and my brother. Once I could walk, they immediately put me to work in their liquor store. I went to a competitive medical high school where I was surrounded by top performers that made me feel like a slacker. I would have turned out very lazy if my mom hadn’t signed me up for ice skating. I believe in pushing kids because that’s how I learned I am stronger than I think I am. These were very key in the development of my work ethic.
My biggest influence has been my co-founder Clinton. He has always been a hustler and has never taken no as an answer. He is both creative and analytical, which enables him to think outside the box. It is a privilege to be able to work closely with someone with such tenacity. I’ve seen so many people come to him to solve the most complicated problems. I push myself to be the partner that can keep up with his wild ideas and the leader that my team needs to make it in this strange cannabis market. If these goody two shoes can become who I am today, there is no excuse for anyone to not go after the “impossible.”
How do you educate your family and non-using friends about cannabis and about what you do?
I show them articles and research. I tell them all the different feedback I’ve gotten from people using our gummies. These stories range from people having a magical moment with a pineapple in the wild to more medicinal such as a mother who says only our product so far has been effective for their child or our local locksmith with chronic knee pain who doesn’t even think about his knee while using our gummies. The best part is truly hearing from people how our gummies help and/or enrich people’s lives.
If you had the chance to use any combination of flavors not seen yet, what would they be?
Imagination is infinite, and we are always trying new things and cooking up cool and interesting combos. This is actually something we consider a privilege, is that we have the opportunity to try out these new and quirky combos in-house. This has led to many flavors that people have loved in the past, including chocolate-covered strawberry gummies, PB&J, and blackberry lemonade. As for the future, there are many things we would like to try, but we keep those new ideas under our hat until we feel they are ready for release. I’ll spill the beans on these since these won’t really be something that we will bring to market: bacon banana, prosciutto melon, Sriracha Peanut Butter, or a salted egg gummy. My Vietnamese family likes to eat green mango with shrimp past, but we can’t use seafood in cannabis.
How long did the process take to create that perfect Vegan THC gummy? (Since you were not a candy maker, you had to learn from scratch, talk about that and how your environment shaped that work ethic)
It took 5 months outside of my full-time day job to find the right ingredients and to figure out a working recipe in order for me to land on the base recipe that we still use today. We have since expanded and added more recipes to our portfolio such as a sugar-free keto gummy. It was a lot of researching, asking around, and experimenting. I tried to meet up with a couple of candy makers, but, fortunately, none of those synced up and I was able to figure it out on my own. Most people still prefer the original recipe today.
What did it feel like to walk on stage at the 2022 Emerald Cup and win for edibles?
It was so surreal to be able to walk on stage and accept an Emerald Cup award on the same stage as so many people we admire. We have people tell us all the time that our gummy is the best and how we constantly win blind taste tests, but little else compares to being recognized by the Emerald Cup judge committee. Not sure if this is accurate, but I heard there were 500 entries in the gummy category. As we looked through the entries in the display cases, we were so proud to be able to place first among such an impressive array of gummies. To be able to bring that award home and show the rest of the team made all of us so excited to work even harder.
About Elefante: As an advocate for mindful eating, I always love proving to people that, just because a snack is healthy, doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice taste. So when the vegetarians in my life complained to me about how they missed eating gummies, (some even confessing to eating gelatin gummies for lack of options) the wheels in my brain started turning. That’s why I created Elefante vegan gummies.
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