The Kings and Queens of Cannabis Cuisine

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In
this day and age, we really are blessed with a plethora of choices. Whether
it’s clothes, entertainment or our cannabis, the options are limitless. How do
you know what to choose? Though everyone has different taste, we’ve had our
eyes on the edible prize for quite some time now, and we’ve definitely got our
favorites. We’ve tried chocolate bars, suckers, cakes, ice cream, pizza, soda
pop, chewy candies, cookies, brownies and more! So here, we’ve chosen to
highlight a few of the best edible-makers, chefs and manufacturers in the
business.

NATIONAL PLAYERS

Raising the Bar

Bhang’s Chocolate’s Scott Van
Rixel is a master chocolatier and an impulsive perfectionist who never settles
for second place

Oakland,
California-based Scott Van Rixel stands at the helm of the world’s largest
medicated edibles brand, Bhang, and it’s all thanks to some gritty gelato. Since
2002, Van Rixel had co-managed The Chocolate Cartel out of Albuquerque, New
Mexico. The passionate, impulsive, European-trained master chocolatier and his
brother “had cracked one of the toughest nuts in the food industry”—selling
their desserts at Whole Foods.

When
The Chocolate Cartel’s gelato started developing a bit of icy grit, the
perfectionist called a world-class food chemist in Oakland—which happens to be
the epicenter of the medical cannabis movement. That chemist turned Rixel on to
the growing movement, so Van Rixel packed all his things in a U-Haul and drove
to Oakland where rented a kitchen and began perfecting what would become the
multiple award-winning Bhang chocolate bar. Those first nights, he slept on a
cot. “When I started, I knew very little about cannabis other than you smoked
it and when you made cookies with it you used butter,” he laughs. “What I saw
was a gap in what is required to sell at Whole Foods and what was being done in
the cannabis world.”

Today,
Bhang’s world-class line of more than a dozen chocolate bars and bites are sold
at outlets in five states as well as internationally. Van Rixel and partners
have since moved to Florida where they manage licensing, intellectual property
and research and development allowing their licensees to care for individual
state markets. Bhang has long-used cutting-edge cannabinoid extraction
technology to infuse gourmet chocolate without adding medicinal taste. Now,
Bhang’s pioneering a potent oral CBD spray, and a global expansion of their CBD
hemp line. “I’m really happy,” said Van Rixel. “We’ve raised the bar.” And the
gelato? “The gelato’s been fixed.” (David
Downs)

Relishing It

Cheeba Chews’ Dave Maggio sought to
unite two loves of his life: fine cooking and fine cannabis

Denver’s 38 year-old Dave Maggio gets to live his passion like few
others. Maggio is the Chief Operating Officer and founding chef for Cheeba
Chews™—America’s massively popular medicated chocolate
taffy—as well as a proper cannabis aficionado. The five-year-old company, based
in Denver, has caught the wave of medical and recreational cannabis law reform
in America, growing to about 50 people, with licensees in Colorado, California,
Washington and Oregon. Cheeba Chews makes 11 different products, including
chocolate taffy, caramel, mixed fruit gummies and mint chocolate taffy.

Maggio said
his background in cooking began with his parents. “I always remember helping my
mom cook at home in the kitchen,” he said. “She had a lot of great, creative
recipes and has always been a big inspiration.” After attending a culinary
school for a year, Maggio purchased and ran the family-style restaurant he was
working at—one of the toughest jobs in America. “There’s been no better
training than the real-world, hands-on experience I’ve had,” he said.

As a serial entrepreneur, Maggio sought a way to unite
his love of cooking and “some finely cured cannabis” to create a career, he
said. Like many, Maggio started experimenting with edibles using brownie
recipes. The results varied, so Maggio and Cheeba Chews founder James Howler
began testing cannabis oil-infused
chocolate taffy, discovering a process that was “the most efficient and
consistent when it came to dosing and effectiveness.”

Today,
Cheeba Chews is in 550 dispensaries nationwide, with an incredible lineup of
gluten- and peanut-free, three-time Cannabis Cup-winning edibles like Pure CBD
Chews and 70mg Green Hornet Gummies. Married, with three dogs, Maggio said he
relaxes with live music or cooking up smoked buffalo wings. “I have the
opportunity to live out my true passions every day.” (David Downs)

All Business

Dixie Elixirs’ Tripp Keber has
defied cannabis’ weedy stereotype all the way to the bank

Venture
capitalist and Dixie Elixirs CEO Tripp Keber has what you might call, “a good
problem.” America cannot get enough of Dixie’s 140 or so types of
award-winning, cannabis-infused drinks and foods. “We knew the adult-use
consumer was going to show up January 1 and ring the bell,” Keber said. “I
don’t think anyone could have predicted that the adult use consumer has such a
voracious appetite for infused products.”

So
Keber’s work day starts at 5:45 a.m., this morning in Boston, with an
investment banker. He’s had three meetings before 11:30 a.m. “We work seven
days a week, literally 18 hours a day,” said Keber, who People Magazine profiled in August as a “marijuana millionaire.”
“It’s not a lazy man’s business, it’s certainly not a poor man’s business and
not a fool’s business.” Keber got his start in sales and marketing before
moving on to real estate management and then in to edibles. The main thing
Keber brought to Dixie? Money, business acumen, “as well as the fact that I’ve
been able to attract best of breed thinkers,” he said. “The reality is that we
have 50 employees making sure we are the thought-leaders in labeling, packaging
and dosing.”

Keber
is 46 years old and in the prime time of his career, Keber’s riding a rocket
ship, and Dixie has grown from 20 employees in January to 50 now and as many as
80 by the end of the year. Keber’s on the road most days, “shaking hands and
kissing babies,” and setting up licensees in Massachusetts, Connecticut,
Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Illinois. His downtime is spent hanging
with friends and family and fishing in Colorado and Mexico. “This is my 4th
startup and it is by far the most fascinating and intellectually stimulating
business I have ever been involved in.” (David Downs)