Whole Food Magic
[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]F[/dropcap]ood blogger Ashlae Warner works her whole food magic creating decadent-tasting cannabis edibles and is expanding to a full-spectrum hemp oil line.
When cannabis first became legal in Colorado, her husband stood in line for hours and brought back a quarter-ounce of bud. But Warner wasn’t interested in smoking it—so she turned it into an infused coconut oil. “And it just sat in my pantry,” Warner told CULTURE. “I made these amazing raw brownies for some friends [. . .] They said, ‘This is so amazing, you need to bring this to the market.’”
Warner is the blogger behind Oh, Lady Cakes, a corner of the web dedicated to traditional sweet treats. She has used her experience in whole food recipe development to create a line of healthy and fun edibles, Alchemy Food Co.
After two-and-a-half years of research and development in a Denver, Colorado commercial kitchen, Alchemy opened in February 2018. Warner keeps a high standard for the ingredients her company uses in its products, which continues to be represented through the products and the packaging the company uses. Even the grower, Los Sueños Farms, was chosen in part for its cannabis grown in the sunshine, which Warner believes is “how cannabis is supposed to be grown.”
Like the ingredients and packaging of her edibles, even her company’s name is thoughtful and intentional. “Alchemy is the precursor to chemistry, which is highly scientific, and alchemy is naturally-occurring elements,” said Warner. “All of our products are made with whole foods, natural ingredients, not processed, so ‘Alchemy’ was super-fitting.”
Alchemy uses dates, nuts, cacao and handmade canna-coconut oil, which Warner whips up using an Instant Pot and a high-shear homogenizer to keep the oil consistently potent. The canna-coconut oil, Warner said, is an awesome way for people to infuse their recipes safely while knowing exactly how potent they will be. Next year, the company hopes to expand with new canna-coconut oils and a hemp product.
“The insomnia that he has is completely gone. He sleeps through the night finally, and he can fall asleep and stay asleep. A product I created has changed my partner’s life.”
In August, Warner and her husband launched Supergood, a full-spectrum hemp oil infused with turmeric, that both Warner and her husband use personally.
Warner discovered that cannabis allowed her to tolerate gluten in foods, but the main benefit was actually treating her ulcer and gastritis that had developed after being prescribed 2,800mg of ibuprofen daily for her endometriosis pain. She has been using the full-spectrum hemp oil to treat that pain as well as anxiety.
Her husband Thom, an Iraq War veteran, suffered from insomnia and post-traumatic stress disorder for years, and visited the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for assistance before trying cannabis.
“They prescribed him the craziest medication,” said Warner, who said her husband didn’t like taking drugs. “Like bottles and bottles and bottles of blood pressure medication, and heart medication, and sleeping pills, and I was just like, ‘Why are you going to put this into your body?’”
“He’s not a fan of using any kind of drug, not even caffeine,” she said. “He won’t do [it]. We started Supergood, and he started using those products and [. . .] it was like day and night for him when he started taking it, which was incredible.”
Supergood hemp products have made a vast improvement in his life overall. “The insomnia that he had is completely gone. He sleeps through the night finally, and he can fall asleep and stay asleep,” said Warner. “A product I created has changed my partner’s life.”
Warner said the couples’ previous experience with Alchemy and the cannabis industry gave them knowledge that helped them create a good, trustworthy product in Supergood. Now they are able to pass on that expertise to their customers through education and support. “It’s not something we’re required to do,” she said, “but we feel like it kind of brings a little more integrity to our company and our products.”
eatalchemy.com
supergoodhemp.com
