Candy Industry Senior Editor Liz Parker recently caught up with Proper Cannabis's Director of Culinary Dave Owens, about trending flavors that consumers want to see in the cannabis candy industry—regardless of whether or not they exist in nature.

LP: What are some flavors that aren’t “real” but consumers want or expect in candies or confections?

DO: I see a lot of intense and novel flavors like cotton candy, anything sour or even blue raspberry, for example. Whether or not I personally like them, if consumers want those flavors, Proper wants to deliver.

LP: Describe the process that led to the creation of your Blue(berry) Raspberry flavor gumdrop.

DO: There was consumer demand for a blue raspberry gumdrop in Missouri and Proper needed to deliver. And if I had to make that flavor, I was going to do it my way—using real fruit and a natural blue raspberry flavor. Real raspberry and blueberry seemed like a natural match to give it a deep, dark flavor and allow us to play with its natural blue color. The natural blue color we planned on using was so intense that it didn’t meld well, so we relied on the natural fruit purées that we use in all of our other gumdrops. The color isn’t the classic neon blue but rather a more purple hue like blueberries. 

I’ve worked with one of the best flavor houses for years. They were able to take the blue raspberry flavor profile and break it down to understand what the components were. It’s a unique flavor and we needed it to taste like natural fruit blue raspberry—which doesn’t exist. They succeeded by using various flavor components and then building that flavor back up. In fact, they knocked it out of the park. It tastes great—like a blue raspberry slurpee but with real fruit. Overall, the process turned the blue raspberry gumdrop into a confection rather than a piece of candy. To me, confections are made by artisans, with a tremendous amount of thoughtfulness to showcase the ingredients sourced, whereas a piece of candy is mass-produced and is more about the final product than the sum of the parts that created it.

LP: When you’re thinking about flavor, how do you break down the components of a flavor to build something different?

DO: I like to create complex flavors for new products. First, I start with flavor combinations that work well together such as sour watermelon and passion fruit, which is one of my favorite combinations. We start with that baseline idea and build from there. For example, let’s say we wanted to create a banana flavor—the first thing I do is ask myself what would go well with it. I create a spreadsheet and throw in a bunch of flavors I think would work—like coconut and strawberry. We then whittle down the options and send the top combinations to our flavor house. From there, we work with them to adjust the intensity of the various flavors. If the banana isn’t coming through in the gumdrop, we have a lot of flexibility to improve it. We’ll go back to them and make changes until we get to the desired flavor while adding real fruit.

All of Proper’s Honeybee gumdrops have real fruit simply because it makes them taste better; there’s so much more complexity and depth. And frankly, I have a high bar for developing confections, so it has always been a must for me. A lot of folks use gelatin and natural flavors only to get to their flavor, but we work at a higher standard.

LP: Are there flavors that create challenges for sourcing / ethical sourcing?

DO: The reality is that for a business of our size, we have to get creative with sourcing. We search all over the world for the best ingredients. For the purées, I use several vendors based in Europe, and they source from all over the world to find consistent and high quality products. Flavors are interesting because tastes like bananas come across candy-like rather than true to nature. I’m always looking for a flavor that resonates as real, natural fruit, not as a candy fruit flavor.

LP: Are there non-infused flavors that haven’t caught on in the Missouri market?

DO: I haven’t seen spicy international flavors catching on in the market yet. Also, interestingly, dark chocolate doesn’t sell as well as milk or white chocolate, but I’d love to see more interest in higher cacao percentage products because there’s so much you can do with the complexity.

LP: What’s a flavor that you love that you’d want to see in the market or that you’re currently working on?

DO: We are working on a few chocolate bars at the moment. I think flavors like Mexican candies with spice, sour, and fruitiness are really fun. We have a mango chili gumdrop that we do once a year around Cinco de Mayo that I’d love to see in our year-round offerings. I also think sour flavors are going to continue to grow and I would like to see more of those since they are some of my favorites.

Related: CEO shares insights on cannabis confectionery trends