It’s been brought to my attention that we need to talk about edibles here on the forum. Are you making edibles? @DispensaryOwners, @RetailCannaDeliv and @DispensaryEmployees: how are edibles selling? What percentage of your retail business is comprised of edibles sales?
Edibles producers, @EquipManufacturers, @EquipSuppliers : how are you making your edibles? Are you using concentrates to make your infusions? What do you find makes the most consistent product? Who is your favorite @LabOwner? Do you prefer BHO, CO2, keif, ethanol, etc? How are you maintaining consistent dosing? Are you de-carbing? If so, how?
Consumers: what’s your favorite brand? What’s your favorite product? Where are you finding the best of the best?
Thanks for this topic… this is something that I personally know very little about.
My first question for the edible makers is how do you determine the THC content of an edible? I get that you can test for it, however how do you know that you are getting the dosage consistent. For example if you make cookies, how do you only get 10 mg in each cookie… Please help me understand this.
Using extracts/concentrates makes the dosing process much easier and helps for consistent, standard doses every time. Using raw flower makes the dosing process less consistent and it’s much more difficult to maintain standards of purity as one batch of flower can vary from the next.
What has been the experience of other members for dosing and maintaining strict levels of purity consistent with state laws?
Very simple math actually. We made edibles for about 6 moths before shutting the kitchen down. They were just not profitable for us with the state mandate of only 10mg max. The actual 10mg of thc is by far the cheapest ingredient and we were not willing to lower the quality of our product to lower cost. There are so many horrible tasting edibles out there and no reason to try and compete with cheap.
As far as our process on consistent dosing, we would make “food grade extract” from everything left over from our extract lab. The extract is mixed with 200 proof ethanol, frozen, filtered under vacuum, then distilled in a rotary evaporator and decarboxylated. That finished product is sent to a lab for testing where you get a result showing potency. As an example, if the test came back showing 83% THC, then 1 gram of extract would have 830mg of THC. Therefor, each gram of extract would make 83 edibles at 10mg each. If your recipe will make 100 servings, you need 1000mg of THC. So 1.2 grams of concentrate infused into the other ingredients will give you the correct amount. The trick becomes weighing each serving correctly so you maintain consistency from serving to serving. Hopefully that all makes sense.
Good for you to sticking to your guns and not lowering the quality of your goods to meet a state mandate! I was in Washington last week and was shocked by the low THC content of edibles there, all due to state law! Here in AZ we have no regulation on the total content in our edibles and sometimes you’ll find brands/products that have a high THC content. I love my Keif Kolas. I try to drink one a day…but only at night, because I would be worthless to the world if I drank 100mg of THC. Effective but debilitating!
Your standard for dosing is very consistent with industry standards. Most infusion kitchens follow dosing schedules very similar or identical to yours. Thanks for explaining it in a very easy-to-understand manner–math isn’t my strongest suit! When you were in operation, what edibles were you manufacturing?
We made brownies and caramels. Our baker was absolutely amazing and you could not tell they were infused at all from the taste. Probably the very best brownie and caramel I have ever had in my life. The problem was the cost of ingredients to get that quality was very high. Since most people want much higher dosing than 10mg, they would have to buy 6-10 at a time and it’s too costly compared to flower or extract. There are so many companies using the lowest cost ingredients but selling 10 servings for what we sold 1 for. There is a huge difference in flavor but in WA, edibles have a very small percentage of market share compared to other products. We sold the kitchen equipment and repurposed the space to more profitable production.
That makes an abundance of sense to me. It sucks that state regulation pushed out an entire niche of the industry on the basis of fear. I would’ve loved to try your brownies and caramels!
We had quite a few other products tested and ready to market as well but we chose not to proceed with the cost of packaging to bring them to market once we realized the low volume.
There is a company here still selling about 150K/month in edibles but it requires 5 delivery vehicles travelling across the entire state every week so I can’t imagine there is actually any profit after expenses.
Hi Ron,
I completely sympathize with the situation in your state.
As a work-around from these restrictive regulations, what are your thoughts about a DIY (Do It Yourself) Chocolate Edibles Kit, that includes the canna oil, a bag of chocolate, cannabis related chocolate mold(s) and simple instructions.
While there may be regulations on dosage for finished products, I don’t believe any state can regulate how much someone uses when producing the finished product themselves at home for personal consumption.
For you or any other grower/dispensary/distribution service interested in this concept, please contact me. Of course, I’m going to recommend Chocoley Chocolate and can provide you with our branded product or we can discuss white labeling (private labeling) our chocolate under your brand.
We also have the molds or we can help you produce custom molds to meet your needs.
Keep in mind, this concept eliminates the need for a production kitchen or the labor to produce the finished product and if you’re already selling the canna oil, this simply adds to your product offering and you’ll make additional profit off of the other components of the kits.
Call or text me: 678-570-2002 or email me: steve@chocoley.com
Also, checkout our Instagram page: @chocolate4edibles
As a consumer, I find it unfortunate that A. in CA you can no longer buy higher-dosage edibles, and B. they’re mostly in the form of sugary snacks. I believe the max in CA is now 250mg. (We used to have 1,000mg cookies.)
And in most cases, this total amount is split among the individual pieces, so a Dr. Norm’s (for example) might be 100mg per pack, but it’s ten cookies at 10mg each.
For me, I’d prefer to not have to eat that much to get my dosage. More so, that MOST edibles are all sugary sweets, which is also not the best way to get one’s dosage.
IMO, CannaCaps and other ingestible capsules are much preferred to all the brownies, cookies and candy that most edibles seem to be based around.
I agree with you here @Glenn.InergiAg. Capsules, tinctures, RSO, sublingual preparations and the like are more congruent with conventional medical treatments and are routes preferable to a physician or traditional medical practitioner. If we are talking about a medical model (the model under which I operate), then we need to be able to explore high-dose treatments for individuals that prefer an alternative to inhaling their medicine. Plus access to medicine that doesn’t come in the form of a sugary treat is important to many patients with restricted diets or advanced medical needs. Even if you are eating sugary edibles, you shouldn’t be relegated to consuming massive numbers of them to achieve your desired dose. My thought is allow the consumer make informed, responsiblle decisions surrounding his or her doses.
Hello, my name is Shawn Polly. I was the first to have raw cannabis butter licenced by a health Dept. I was a edible manufacturer for 12 years and have alot of my work on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawn-polly-0586a215b/
I lost everything in the Blue Cut Wildfire and was never able to recover. I am willing to relocate anywhere in America so I can support my children. It has been extremely tough starting from new! I have my awards and achievements on my Linkedin page but can’t access this group. Please contact me if anyone needs a legend in the kitchen!
While for certain people that would be ideal, I have found that 99.9% of people don’t want to have to make anything themselves and simply want the ease and simplicity of buying off the shelf. Certainly edibles have their place especially when you are somewhere where smoking, vaping, etc just aren’t possible. But, for most people eating 10 brownies is also not an option so tinctures and other more concentrated forms are leading the market in sales dollars.
Nick - I assume you’re forwarding all responses to him?
Please tell Shawn that since he’s here in SoCal, he’s probably familiar with Calyx, the major distributor of edible brands here: https://www.gocalyx.com/
It may be a good idea to contact them (I have a contact if he needs it) and see if any of their brands would benefit from having him onboard. Or perhaps Calyx could help him start a new brand!
Well this topic is right up my alley - glad to have checked in today and find this at the top of the feed.
Here in MA the regulated dosage is 5mg per portion. While that may not seem like a lot for some it is for most, especially those who are new to ingesting cannabis. My thought is that if you need a stronger dosing, edibles may not be the best delivery system for you. It’s highly subjective. For those who want something discreet, and delicious, edibles can fit that niche, and they don’t have to be loaded with sugar (that is if you know how). Trouble is there is a lot of junk out there and to add to the mayhem, you can’t be sure that the dosing is in fact what is advertised - scary stuff. I take an amazing amount of responsibility when it comes to producing, portioning and dispensing edibles. I have yet to see how they’ll play out in the legal MA rec market but I am hopeful that I can make an impact and change the public’s perception of what a great, quality edible can be.
I have made them at home for some time and am now partnered up with a medical/recreational group so I have a lot to offer the community. The easiest way to produce them is with clear CO2 distillate as mentioned above by Ron. If you know the % of THC in the oil it’s super easy to dose your product, so long as you know how many portions you want and can make each portion EXACTLY the same as the previous one. Decarbing is essential - low oven for 20-30 minutes, more precise if you have a vac oven.
Data shows that in May 2018 California’s market sold 226.8 million in cannabis sales. 16.5% of that was edibles for 37.3 million total, not too shabby. There is a market out there and if we do our math right, the margins are the best for edibles.
Hi Glenn, I thank you for your recommendation. I will contact them and see if they can employ me. You had mentioned that you know someone there. Is it possible to speak to.who you know for better odds? Thanx again and have a great day!
