Chocolatier uses expertise for cannabis-infused sweets at Proper in Rock Hill

St. Louis-area consumers will find Fireball cannabis-infused gummies from Curio Wellness. Missouri’s Own Edibles has collaborated with brands to make infused Riplets and coffee pods. And Zen Cannabis sells dozens of infused chocolate bars, gummies and drinks.

For the “canna-curious” — those just venturing into using marijuana products — such THC-infused chocolate bars or gummies are more familiar than the dozens of other products found in dispensaries.

This is why Proper Cannabis, a vertically integrated brand under Proper Brands, tapped chef Dave Owens to develop and create its sweet brand of cannabis-infused treats. Owens was previously the chief chocolatier and vice president of taste at Bissinger’s Handcrafted Chocolatier.

At Proper’s 90,000-square-foot cultivation and manufacturing facility in Rock Hill, most of the work space smells of skunky marijuana. But inside of Owen’s confectionery kitchen, only the smell of sweet chocolate hangs in the air.

On a recent Monday, the space was set up to produce salted brownie batter chocolate bars with 100 milligrams of THC for Proper’s Honeybee Edibles brand.

European-sourced chocolate is melted and tempered in machines. Cannabis distillate, a highly refined THC concentrate thicker than molasses, is added to the chocolate mixture before it fills up candy bar molds.

The bars travel by conveyor belt to get hand-salted before sitting in a cooling tower that eventually deposits the candy to be weighed and packaged. The finished products are snapped into plastic child-resistant packaging before being labeled.

“It’s just another ingredient,” said Owens, Proper’s culinary director, of the THC. “We have to manage it and make sure we’re putting the right amounts in, so it’s a little more pharmaceutical. It’s kind of a bridge.”

At Proper’s Rock Hill lab, a team of four workers can make about 2,200 bars a day, depending on the complexity of the flavor.

Other Honeybee chocolate bar flavors include peanut butter and jelly, candy cane crunch, cherry pistachio, espresso toffee, peanut pretzel, sticky bun, strawberry crunch and sea salt coconut. Some are made to be more potent, some have flavored fillings and some have add-ins, like nuts.

“I find that I like little bits on the bar for crunchy texture. It changes it up in the palate a little bit so that it’s something a little more exciting,” Owens said. The top seller is milk chocolate, he said. Missouri customers “like it a little sweeter,” he said.

New opportunity for chocolate

Missouri voters passed medical marijuana in November 2018. Four years later they approved recreational use by adults 21 and older.

After Bissinger’s was sold to the folks behind Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Co. in 2019, Owens decided to take his three decades of culinary experience into an emerging market: Legal marijuana.

“It’s a once-in-a-generation type opportunity,” Owens said. So, he mailed over two dozen cover letters and resumes to new cannabis licensees. Most letters were returned to sender — the businesses had yet to set up mail at their listed addresses.

His only response came from Proper.

“They called me that day and they didn’t have anybody on the team to do the edibles, so here I am,” said Owens.

Proper also makes cannabis-infused gum drops and mints in its kitchen, in flavors such as strawberry basil mojito, black cherry cola, mango chili and tropical punch. And Owens oversees the manufacturing of Proper’s line of nighttime gummies, under the name Good Night, made to relax and sedate users. He said the machinery can produce about 2,500 pouches a day — that’s 50,000 gum drops.

Research and development of new chocolate bars doesn’t take too long, but it can take the state up to 90 days to approve a new product, Owens said. The entire process can last six to eight months.

Proper has 11 dispensaries in Missouri that sell Honeybee chocolate bars and gummies, and they can be found in other licensed stores, too. But Naomi Tao, Proper’s brand and creative manager, fears Honeybee bars won’t stand out among competitors on the shelves.

The company had to revamp its packaging to meet new requirements outlined by the state. To be compliant, products must have no more than two logos and a single, solid colored background. As a result, Honeybee labels lost their multi-colored hexagonal patterns and Good Night products no longer boast stars.

Honeybee brings in about 15% of Proper’s revenue. Owens said he plans to get new flavors to market.

“I think that because people are going to consume these in small units, having something that’s impactful is important,” Owens said. “That one or two bites needs to mean something.”