Aspen’s Luxury Dispensaries Redefine High Quality

Text by Katie Shapiro
Images by Sean Berrigan and courtesy of Coda Signature, Dalwhinnie Farms, and Rogue Paq

Aspen has long held a reputation as a bastion of the luxury lifestyle, so it’s no surprise that the local cannabis scene is equally as elevated. Since recreational marijuana sales legally began in Colorado in 2014, Aspen has also amassed the state’s highest density of dispensaries per capita; there are eight stores in the downtown core alone, with two others in Snowmass Village.

But there is one dispensary that set an industry-wide precedent for what cannabis culture could look like in the post-legalization era. First opening its doors as a medical-only retailer in 2009, Silverpeak Apothecary went on to carve a niche in the adult-use marijuana market, undergoing a swift post-legalization redesign with an ambience more akin to a Saks Fifth Avenue than a smoke shop. At no other dispensary, even in Aspen, could you find elegantly backlit display cases custom built from natural hardwoods or your purchases presented on a silver platter.

Silverpeak also set itself apart early on for its dedication to growing the cleanest product on the market. At High Valley Farms, a state-of-the-art grow operation the company opened downvalley in Basalt in 2014, Silverpeak pioneered industry-leading practices that reportedly made it one of the most technologically advanced facilities in the country. Today Silverpeak continues to produce pesticide-free flower for its Aspen retail location and dispensary partners, including sister brand, The Dab, which operates locations throughout the state.

In both product and customer experience, Silverpeak was in a class of its own until Dalwhinnie Farms debuted its first brick-and-mortar boutique in 2021. Dalwhinnie’s upscale, ground-level storefront on Mill Street is a departure from its mostly basement-dwelling competitors, and, like Silverpeak, it promises only the highest quality products, enforcing strict sustainability and organic cultivation practices at its 30,000-square-foot greenhouse located three hours south of Aspen in rural Ridgway.

The family-owned company converted a former dressage riding arena on a 230-acre equestrian ranch into a full-scale cannabis farm, drawing inspiration from the farm’s ranching origins for the Western-themed aesthetic of its storefront in Aspen. “The regions where we set up both our cultivation and store—the scenery is just breathtaking,” says Dalwhinnie Farms CEO Brandon Barksdale. “We really wanted to capture the essence of the Colorado spirit and have it come to life, which has really resonated here.”

Today, Aspen remains the epicenter of luxury cannabis thanks to Dalwhinnie Farms and Silverpeak, both of which have established a benchmark for similarly refined retail concepts springing up in major legal metropolises such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and Boston. And with an increasingly sophisticated clientele emerging in the years since legalization in Colorado, the state has birthed brands eager to cater to their discerning tastes. Both Dalwhinnie and Silverpeak stock an array of artisan edibles and ingestibles from local companies like Binske, 1906, Ripple by Stillwater Brands, and Coda Signature.

“We have had such a deep relationship with Aspen’s many impressive dispensaries ever since our very early days,” says Lauren Gockley, Coda Signature’s co-founder and vice president of innovation, who trained at l’École du Grand Chocolat in France and spent time working alongside master chefs Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Thomas Keller. “I like to imagine that our customers share many of the same passions as the Aspen community: beauty, culinary arts, music, adventure, and, of course, cannabis. Aspen is to Colorado what Coda is to cannabis.”

Legalization has also sparked a wave of design-forward smoking accoutrements from startups and established brands alike. Alongside Dalwhinnie Farms’ branded cashmere blankets, candles, apparel, and custom leather goods, you can shop diamond-encrusted fine jewelry and vintage Rolexes with marijuana leaf designs by Jacquie Aiche (Rihanna is a client and past collaborator), sleek vegan leather Rogue Paq cannabis carrying cases, and handmade pipes and bongs from niche brands Summerland and Stonedware.

For Edie Parker founder and creative director Brett Heyman, who has gained a cult following for her candy-colored acrylic clutches, launching a premium line of playful smoking accessories was a natural next step for her beloved brand. “My goal was to combine my love for fashion and cannabis to introduce products that were meant to be displayed and that catered to a female audience, since there weren’t many [cannabis] brands authentically speaking to that group,” Heyman says of Flower by Edie Parker. “It has been fantastic to see other brands begin to do the same. The fight for destigmatization is one of the most important issues in the industry. The sooner we can get people to see cannabis as something that does not need to be hidden or shame inducing, the better.”

While recreational marijuana has been legal in Colorado since 2014, many residents and visitors are still first-timers. Here are some do’s and don’ts to ensure your plans for cannabis consumption are copacetic with hotel policies, city regulations, and airport restrictions.