What do you get when you combine one of the country’s best chocolate makers, a large cannabis producer, and an historic chocolate factory? We’ll have to wait until the federal government legalizes edible cannabis products later this year to taste the result, but it does sound sweet.
Canopy Growth Corp, one of Canada’s biggest cannabis producers, has teamed up with Hummingbird Chocolate Maker, an Ottawa area chocolate company. Their combined operations will be at Canopy Growth’s Tweed facility at 1 Hershey Drive in Smiths Falls, Ont. It’s a fitting locale: for 45 years it was the home of the Hershey Company in Canada.
“Having chocolate come back to this factory is unbelievable,” said Jennifer White, senior communications advisor with Canopy Growth. “It’s going to be a really nice moment.”
Hershey moved out of the factory in 2008 and Canopy took it over in 2013 as its base of operations. The company has gone on to become the world’s largest cannabis company based on market capitalization.
Hummingbird is one of the few confectionaries in Canada making their chocolate from the bean. They won the London Academy of Chocolate’s Golden Bean award in 2016, just one of 14 chocolates from around the world to win the prestigious prize. Owners and founders Erica and Drew Gilmour say they’ll keep their Almonte, Ont., operation separate, but will bring their “from scratch” methods to the Smith Falls factory.
“It’s an interesting thing from a taste perspective, because cacao beans have a very unique flavour based on the origin of the bean and how they’re treated,” says Erica Gilmour. “I think there’s an opportunity here to play with the flavours of cannabis, and maybe pair those with different cacao beans. We’re still in the early stages, so we’ll see how all that plays out.”
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