Bellingham’s Verdelux Chocolates creates fine edibles and topicals for the recreational cannabis market. At Verdelux, the focus is on crafting the perfect mix of consistency, potency and taste, for each individual edible they sell. Their Illumination candies are made in small batches following the tradition of Victorian confectionaries, using a brass drop-roller style of manufacturing which is quite rare.
Verdelux sources ingredients from select Washington State farms that try not to use fungicides and pesticides, unless absolutely necessary. You can find Verdelux edibles at Satori Bellingham and other recreational marijuana stores in Washington State.
WhatcomTalk sat down with Verdelux Co-founder Chris Lin to chat about which edibles have been the most fun to create, what it takes to work at Verdelux, and what may be in store for the future.
WhatcomTalk: What’s the hiring process like? Do you look for employees with skills in both the confectionery and marijuana industries?
Chris Lin: There’s no single path for us to find talent. Some arrive through referrals, some through targeted job searches. Some are even our own friends and family. Although edibles (and now topicals) are what we’re known for, there’s a great support team that amazes me at how easy and natural they make their jobs look to the outside.
We are a company with several areas, so having a culinary background isn’t necessary if you’re looking to join us in the marketing, extractions, fulfillment or accounting departments, for example. Having a culinary background in a working kitchen or coming out of school certainly does help give an applicant a leg-up on the production side, though. If you want to remain in our company long-term, what’s most important is passion, adaptability and being able to learn new things.
WhatcomTalk: What’s your best-selling edible? What was the process like creating that item and why do you think it sells so well?
Chris Lin: All Verdelux products sell nearly equally with respect to the time they have been offered on the market, but if you drill into each product category type, the CBD Milk Chocolate is our fastest Bon Bomb Flavor, Hawaiian Mix for our Lush jelly chews, and Melon and Peach are the best-selling flavors of our Illuminations hard candies.
WhatcomTalk: Which product was the most fun to create?
Chris Lin: At the risk of sounding trite, they have all been fun to develop and nothing ever happens without the amazing teamwork in our company, and all of the farms we’re grateful to work with. It’s a combination of problem-solving, self-awareness, creation and cooperation.
Specifically, Illuminations – or just the idea of a hard candy being an offering – seems so obvious now, but it was a real question at the beginning. We didn’t know whether we’d be a full-line confectionary or stay strictly in chocolate. Business being the Darwinian beast that it is meant that we could blame the authorities for throwing a wrench into our planned product lines or we could adapt and evolve new appendages to our business strategy. That was a turning point for us, and from there we made Lush, which is our entry into the really competitive world of soft chew edibles. In this case, we call it a “jelly.” Because of this we now can offer the market items for every budget, and yet the same care, passion and dedication go into everything we make so you can be confident you’re getting a great Verdelux product and experience.
Our Salvation (salve + elevation) topical was really satisfying to create because I wanted something that specifically could give me relief from insect bites. They are pure torture for me and the prescription creams I was getting weren’t making the painful itch go away at all. After a series of trials, I settled on a formula that has been very effective at making me forget about my itchy bites. But I wanted to know if there was potential elsewhere, and it turns out it’s great for eczema, works like a charm as a lip balm and nourishes chronically dry areas like elbows and knees. I’ve even been told some people use it to relieve them of knee, hip or back pain. Also, I just love the way it smells: sweet warmth from styrax benzoin (a tree native to Indonesia) and freshness from both tea tree and eucalyptus.
WhatcomTalk: How long have you been working with Satori?
Chris Lin: From the moment they opened their doors in Bellingham. They have a mission to really support Whatcom area canna-businesses, and we are proof of that, especially since there isn’t a shortage of very competitive options available in edibles. We have been exceptionally represented by Satori and enjoy the great mutual respect we have for each other.
WhatcomTalk: What’s one type of edible you’ve always wanted to make?
Chris Lin: I can unequivocally state the one thing I have always wanted to make is already being made: the Bon Bombs. It’s a hunk of jaw-breaking chocolate that reminds me of the really dense six-segment chocolate bars we used to have to sell for baseball team fundraisers as kids. Bon Bombs are pure chocolate pleasure, nothing else but your teeth crushing away at perfectly hand-tempered chocolate as it turns into a silky butter-like finish.
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