THC-infused Honeybee Edibles is slated to debut in the St. Louis area in time for 4/20
A new way to catch a buzz is coming to the Missouri medical marijuana market. Proper Cannabis’ Honeybee Edibles is set to launch when Proper’s storefronts open in South County at 7417 S. Lindbergh Blvd., and in Warrenton at 711 State Hwy. 47 this spring. The company aims to be open by April 20.
Honeybee’s director of culinary Dave Owens is an expert in the Missouri confections field after working as the chief chocolatier at Bissinger’s for over a decade. After meeting with the Proper Cannabis team, Owens’ vision aligned with Proper Cannabis’ idea of what they felt the edibles brand could be. “I met the team last year in January and came on board finally in July and started the development of the product,” said Owens. “I think there could be really some interesting things done from the edibles standpoint.”
For now, Honeybee is starting with THC- and CBD-infused chocolate bars and gumdrops (Proper will also have mints available as part of a Ratio line), but the selection will likely expand in the future. Some of the products will only have THC, while others will have both THC and CBD. THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) is a psychoactive part of the cannabis plant that gets you “high,” among other reported beneficial effects, while CBD (cannabidiol) is non-psychoactive but is purported to have benefits like promoting relaxation and easing pain.
All menu items are made from natural ingredients. The gumdrops are vegetarian and use real fruit for flavors like blood orange and strawberry, black cherry-cola, mango-chile, sour watermelon-passion fruit, sour raspberry-lemonade and sour cherry-lime.
“I come up with the flavor combinations and go through it with the team and see what resonates, and we tweak it; it’s a very collaborative process,” said Owens, who thinks chocolate bars, which are sourced from European chocolate, will likely be in high demand. “I’m only guessing, but I think there will some flavors that are really going to speak to the Missouri marketplace, such as the banana-black walnut white chocolate bar, strawberry crunch with caramelized white chocolate, or the milk chocolate with coconut,” he said.
Other chocolate bar flavors include blood orange and candied hazelnuts with dark chocolate, and a peanut-pretzel milk chocolate bar. Additionally, Honeybee is collaborating with Kaldi’s Coffee for one of the bars. “We’re doing a coffee-toffee bar; it’s a 75% dark chocolate with Kaldi’s espresso roast coffee and crushed toffee on the back of the bar,” said Owens. “I’d like to [start meeting with] some of the local chefs and getting some collaboration with them when we do go to develop new flavors.”
Honeybee is confident that the quality of the ingredients and taste set them apart from other edibles vendors. “It’s high-quality ingredients with a culinary execution, and we’re going to really produce fine products for the state – something different than what’s executed right now,” he said.
Honeybee’s marijuana is grown indoors by the Proper Cannabis team in St. Louis. As per Missouri law, only medical marijuana cardholders will be able to purchase the edibles. “Right now, it’s limited with being just medical, but I think that gives a lot of opportunity to chefs in the area to be involved,” said Owens. “If recreational becomes legal, I think it will be amplified; there would be exponentially more interest, and we’ll have more opportunity for people to be involved.”
