Devil’s Cabbage in Disguise: Heaven’s Lettuce Hemp Chips Challenge Kale

Hemp chips might cure your munchies if brothers Gary and Greg Avetisyan have their way. The duo recently launched Heaven’s Lettuce, a line of crispy vegetable chips made from hemp leaves, with the intention of usurping kale’s throne as America’s favorite cabbage cultivar.

The line will debut with three varieties: Original, vegan Notso Cheese and Hot as Heck. Each 2 oz. bag currently retails for $5.42, depending on pack size, on the company’s website. The Southern California-based company is aiming to introduce the line into local retailers in Southern California — since the product contains no CBD or cannabis, it can be sold in traditional grocery stores.

The brothers know something about selling hemp: they opened retail chain Topikal, which they claim was California’s first CBD-only store, in 2017 and have since expanded to three locations in the state. Still, they admit the food industry is new to them, and are looking to partner with experts who can help them scale the business. Though securing a copacker remains their goal, currently the brothers are hand-packing the dehydrated chips with the help of their family.

The business was launched with a roughly $500,000 investment by the family as well.

Naming the company proved challenging, with the Avetisyans’ looking for a name that would both catch consumers’ attention but also be mainstream enough to be sold “on the shelves of Costco,” Greg Avetisyan said. Noting that the “hippies” of the 1960s brought an awareness for “peace” and “plant-wellness,” the Avetisyans wanted to evoke that time period with their branding by playing off of the slang “devil’s cabbage,” which was formerly used for cannabis.

“Hemp over the last century has been looked down upon…[It was seen] as a really bad, evil thing,” Greg Avetisyan said. “I think there’s a second wave of that revolution happening right now. So we want to be right at the top of that.”

The goal is to challenge kale’s crown as king of vegetable chips, Gary Avetisyan said. The chips have 15 grams of protein per bag, and also contain healthy fats, Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids and vitamins E and D. The raw vegetable can be hard to work with, the brothers say, but when prepared properly, Heaven’s Lettuce is less bitter than a kale chip. Setting up a supply chain was, however, more difficult, because the hemp has to be sourced directly from farmers.

Still, the brothers see a huge opportunity to be first movers in using the leaf, noting that since they first opened Topikal, acceptance of hemp and CBD has grown. They say their conservative family, which first thought they were “selling drugs,” now understands the benefits. Even the Avetisyans’ grandmother has turned to CBD, Gary Avetisyan said.

“I just feel like the world needs something new, especially something with hemp,” he added. “It’s a great time to create something that’s so friendly and so welcoming that it’s going to go to another level.”