Inside A Cannabis Chocolate Factory - Production Lines Are Going Seven Days A Week

Production lines are going in the facility seven days a week and the company is looking to hire at least six more people to add to its current roster of thirty workers. They’d like to build up a four-week inventory, said Heather Gehrman, Director of Sales, but now they’re lucky to have one week’s worth of products ready to be shipped out. The newly-hired general manager has food production experience and was brought in, in part, to make the start-up’s current manufacturing processes more efficient.

 

The owners of Evergreen Herbal came to Washington State from California where they own The Venice Cookie Company, another edibles maker. Co-owner Marco Hoffman started Evergreen Herbal to make medical marijuana products in Washington in 2013 and began producing   recreational edible products when those sales became legal in Washington in 2014. The new entity had to be created because marijuana companies cannot operate across state lines, and cannot deliver products to other states, even those where the products are legal.

 

Evergreen Herbals’ recreational .42 ounce 420 Chocolate Bars each contain 10mg of THC, so one serving size is one dose according to Washington State law.  The honey sticks, tea bags and 420 chewie bites also contain 10mg of THC. Similar products are currently sold by Evergreen Herbal in medical marijuana dispensaries, but with higher THC content. Elise McDonough the author of the High Times Cannabis Cookbook suggests new or less experienced users take in no more than 10mg of THC in the first two hours in her “10 Commandments of Marijuana Edibles Safety.” More experienced users can generally take in 20-25mg of THC without adverse effects she said.

 

The company’s newest products, which will be rolled out soon in the recreational market, are a line of THC-Infused sparkling drinks called Cannabis Quenchers. Each bottle will contain three doses of THC, so anyone who glugs one down to slake their thirst at an outdoor concert will likely miss the concert. “They should not drink the whole thing themselves,” said Gehrman.

 

While retailers and customers have been asking the company for less expensive products, cannabis edible manufacturers have costs that other food companies don’t. All packaging has to be child-proof, so a candy bar has to be wrapped in something that can be cut open but not torn open. All areas of the manufacturing facility that contain marijuana must be under video surveillance, so there is a cost to the cameras and the storage of the footage. All products have to be tracked in the state software system, from “seed to sale” and products must be quarantined before they are shipped out in case state auditors want to check in on the business.