Creating Quality Confections with Heidi, LorAnn Oils

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Marge (00:01:12) - In this week's episode, I welcome Heidi from Loran Oils to the show for a fun and interesting conversation. Welcome to Bite Me, the show about edibles where I help you take control of your high life. I'm your host and certified JE Marge, and I love helping cooks make safe and effective edibles at home. I'm so glad you're here, and thank you for joining me today.

Marge (00:01:39) - Heidi is the senior business Development manager at Loran Oils and wears many hats within her role. As you'll hear, she's also an avid baker and candy maker. In her off time, she has plenty of great advice on the subject of candy making, improving your baking, and getting comfortable, experimenting with your recipes and using terpenes. She also talks about the loran oils products and how they can help you achieve great results in your candies and baking. There's lots to learn in this episode. So without further ado, please enjoy this fun conversation with Heidi. All right. Hello everyone. Welcome back to Bite Me the show. But edibles, I'm really excited today to be joined by Heidi from Loran Oils. And Heidi, if you could just take a moment to say hello and tell us what you do with Loran Oils.

Heidi (00:02:24) - Sure. Thank you for having me. Um, my name's Heidi. I am the Senior Business Development Manager here. Um, I kind of wear a few different hats. I'm mainly in sales. Um, a good amount of my, uh, customer base is in the cannabis business. So, um, I'm excited to be continuing to learn more about the industry and to, um, help those businesses grow. Um, I also work in, um, conjunction with the marketing team. Um, I've created a product for our company. I've also, um, uh, been very involved in recipe development, product testing. Um, so I kind of do quite a few different things.

Marge (00:03:04) - That sounds like a lot of fun stuff, and there's a few of those things I would love to talk to, uh, talk to you about a little bit more. One of the ones is the product development. How do you get involved in something like that?

Heidi (00:03:15) - So, product development, that's not my background at all. I definitely, I'm always, um, interested in finding out how or why something works. Um, and years ago we were getting tons of requests for gummy mix in, in, its just became so popular as, you know, especially with the cannabis community. It's a, a, a preferred delivery method. Um, and we wanted to be able to meet that demand, and we weren't really finding anybody that was doing something that was unflavored and uncolored that would be compatible with the flavors that we have. Um, and I thought there's no way that we don't have the ingredients in this building to make it happen. Um, so I spent a lot of time in 2020 while I was, um, you know, while we all had a, a lot more downtime than normal, um, and did some experimenting and tried a few different formulas, tried a few different geling agents, um, settled on bovine gelatin and came up with a formula that produces a really good candy. It's easy for home consumers to put together. It works with our super strength line. Um, and it's sized to match our other candy mixes. We have a traditional hard candy and a sugar free. So if a store wants to carry that whole collection, everything looks really nice, it looks cohesive. Um, and they, they all work with the same flavor line.

Marge (00:04:40) - Right. And I've had the opportunity to use that gumby mix to make it myself, and I can, I can agree, of course, that it was super easy to make because gummies can be notoriously difficult to do, to do them right. Especially if you don't want that jello texture, which yes. So many recipes end up being like, and then it's always very disappointing. And the fact that it is unflavored is great because then you can add whatever flavor or coloring that you want to make them your own. It's sort of like a choose your own adventure. Exactly.

Heidi (00:05:06) - Um,

Marge (00:05:06) - Yeah, and I found that it made quite a few as well, so that was also a nice little bonus because I had a couple of gummy, like the worm trays, and then I had to get out some more, and then I had to get out another one. I was like, what is it gonna end? So, so that's pretty fun that you're able to get creative like that while you're at work. Now, you've mentioned to me before that you also like to bake and make candy in your spare time. Talk

Heidi (00:05:30) - About that. Oh,

Marge (00:05:30) - Yes.

Heidi (00:05:31) - , um, I've, yeah, ever since I was a little kid, I loved watching cooking shows and trying to duplicate things I was seeing. Um, and of course when I started working here, I am, uh, privy to a, a huge toolbox of flavors and specialty ingredients. Um, and I've been able to learn more about these different ingredients and their roles and the chemistry of, of the finished good. Um, so most recently I've gotten into molded chocolates. I think that that's been really fun once I finally mastered how to quickly temper chocolate. Um, it, it's a lot more fun to play around with things like that. Um, but I, my first love is, is cakes, that's for sure. I, I definitely enjoy making a lot of different cakes. Um, in fact, I'm, uh, designing and baking my cousin and his partner's wedding cake in June. Oh, wow. So pretty excited about that. I did a little test run. I've never done a tiered cake before, but I did it earlier this week for, um, some photos here. And it turned out pretty good. It, it didn't fall apart . Right.

Marge (00:06:36) - That's a big responsibility when you're doing Yeah. Somebody's wedding. Yeah. That's amazing.

Heidi (00:06:40) - Yeah. I'm glad to have a dry run ahead of time to make sure I can work out the kinks.

Marge (00:06:44) - Right. So do you have, um, do you ever infuse any of the baked goods that you make?

Heidi (00:06:50) - Um, yeah. I, um, I've definitely made my own, um, gummies with C B D. I'll use a water soluble. Um, I'm not a T H C doesn't really agree with me anymore, so I definitely prefer C B D. Um, and I've gotten into experimenting with terpenes, um, and, and leaving all the cannabinoids out of it. And so I'll do some different things with that ganaches, um, or frostings or even just infusing olive oil and using that as, you know, salad dressings and things like that. Some other healthy options, .

Marge (00:07:23) - Right. Well that's interesting that you mentioned terpenes because obviously one thing that draws people to cannabis is the nuances of the terpene profiles for different cultivars. How do you incorporate that into your own candy making or baking?

Heidi (00:07:36) - Um, so I, pure biologics is one of the companies, um, that, uh, we're friends with and they sent me, uh, four or five different terpene blends to kind of play around with. And when I was looking at the strain that they come from, cuz they do whole plant, I was looking at, you know, the flavoring components that, you know, uh, forbidden fruit, for example, is one of the strains that they use and it has like a deep, um, sweet cherry flavor. And so what compliments that and, and I like working, um, you know, when I'm working with terpenes or something that has a grassier note, I think that chocolate's a really good thing to put 'em in, especially if you wanna, um, kinda reach a broader audience because that chocolate, like the bitterness and the dark chocolate kind of offsets that grassy note a little bit and it hides it mm-hmm.

Heidi (00:08:28) - . Um, but then it also really complimented the sweet cherry flavor too, because you get that kind of richness with it. And then adding something like a Luxor cherry or our amaretto flavoring brings out that cherry even more. So it's, you can taste that there is plant compounds in it, but it works together. It's not something that is, you're just trying to get down in a, in a pleasing way. It's, it, it became something that was, um, actually pretty enjoyable. Mm-hmm. and people went back for seconds. And because it's not something that has the psychoactive ingredient you can get away with having a few more than you know. Right. Having to wait and see how it, how it sits with you.

Marge (00:09:11) - Yeah, of course. Now are there terpene kits? Are they, uh, cannabis derived then?

Heidi (00:09:17) - Yes. Biologic? Yes. All, uh, terpenes that I've worked with are cannabis derived. Um, like I said, they come from pure biologics mm-hmm. , and they take, they, um, isolate all of the terpene pro profiles from that full plant and remove the cannabinoids. So you're just getting, you know, the mercene or the Carlene or limine whatever's in the, um, whatever the terpene profile is. And so, which is nice because like I said, you don't have to worry about, you know, being high when you're not su you when, when it's not convenient to be Oh, of course. Yeah. And being able to Yeah, I totally

Marge (00:09:54) - Understand.

Heidi (00:09:54) - Get that the known benefits from those, those plant compounds.

Marge (00:09:58) - Right. I was just curious about that because a lot of companies that are making terpenes, they'd be botanically derived Yes. And not cannabis derived. So that, uh, definitely sets 'em apart. So I'll have to make sure I link to them in their share notes as well. So thank you for that little tip. Sure. Yeah, absolutely. Um, and working with those terpenes and the flavor profiles and combining them with other things does become a real art because yeah, like anything, you could overdo it and then, you know, it's not necessarily gonna work as nicely. And it sounds like you've sort of dialed it in if people are going in for seconds and like you said, sometimes not having the cannabinoids in there means that you can just enjoy a little bit more than you would otherwise. Yes.

Heidi (00:10:34) - , it's always a bummer when you get a good gummy and you're like, well, I can only have one because,

Marge (00:10:39) - You know,

Heidi (00:10:40) - Well

Marge (00:10:41) - Have to wait. Yeah. Many times I've said on this podcast, I do that on purpose because I have a raging sweet tooth, so Oh yes, I infuse some things. It means I can have one or two most of the time, and then that helps me keep it in check. So that is one of my tools that I do use. But

Heidi (00:10:55) - Yeah, I wish there would be a company that was able to, um, package candies where there's one infused gummy and then there's a bag of non-used candy so you can keep eating candy. Right. That's such a great idea. You can get one. Yeah. But then, you know, you get to enjoy that because some of the candy is actually just like from a candy lens, it tastes really good and, and it has a great texture and you want more of it, but it's, you know, not the smartest thing to do.

Marge (00:11:24) - Right. Yeah, that's actually a pretty great idea. So, anybody listening, there's your million dollar idea now. It sounds like you've have a lot of experience cooking and baking and making candy. What do you, what problems do you find yourself running into and how do you deal with those? For me, I would say more times than I, I care to admit it's not reading through the recipe the whole way through and then I run into issues. But I'm sure we all have our own little, our own little

Heidi (00:11:51) - Quirk. Oh, yeah. Yep. You, you find, I do that too when I'm, when I'm working with the new recipe and I find like, oh, well now it's time to improvise and try to save, you know, save, save the ship. Um, but one of my biggest issues is, um, and again, it comes from not reading the full recipe and doing my due diligence ahead of time is not having all of the ingredients. So I've tried to adapt that me in place and making sure I have everything measured out so I know I have everything that I need and I can just, you know, roll through everything really quickly. Um, especially in candy making applications, time is of the essence. There's a lot of things that have to be done very quickly. Temperatures jump up, you know, suddenly. And you, you have to act, and if you don't have things premeasured it's difficult to do that.

Marge (00:12:39) - Right. That makes a lot of sense because I did actually have an experience recently where I kind of messed something up and I went to go get more of the ingredient and I didn't have enough and I had to improvise really quickly on the spot and it happened to work out. But yeah, if you have all that stuff pre-measured, you don't run into those types of issues. Now. Do you have any secrets to making great, uh, candy or producing beautiful baked goods?

Heidi (00:13:03) - I think, um, the, the biggest thing, and it's something that we, we get calls all the time where people are like, oh, my candy either burned or my candy is sticky. And that's always going to be, um, a temperature thing. And so having either, um, a good thermometer that you can recalibrate or taking a reading prior to cooking every single time to make sure that you know what your temperature or what your thermometer's actually reading at, because a, a couple degrees either way is, is the difference between overcooking or undercook. And, and either situation, you, you don't want, you wanna, you know, you go into it hoping for the best . So that's the, the best way to get yourself set up for that is having a really good thermometer, um, for candy as well as in your oven. Um, even oven temperature or oven thermometers can be off.

Heidi (00:13:59) - So having something that you can gauge and know is accurate is really important. Um, I also think there's certain ingredients like butter, um, and even baking, like leavening ingredients, it's good to have a brand that, you know, is always consistent and is always going to work out. Um, because if you're switching it up, especially when you need something to really work out, like if you're making something for a customer, um, you don't wanna try a new brand of something and then find out that it, you know, doesn't have the same fat content in it or something and it, it doesn't give the same body to the, to the baked good or to the candy that you're looking for.

Marge (00:14:38) - Right. So changing brands is not what you wanna do on the, on the day of the wedding when you're making a cake for someone. Yes,

Heidi (00:14:43) - Exactly. Yep. You wanna make sure that you have your tried and trues with you that day.

Marge (00:14:48) - Right. And also things like candy thermometers, I mean, you can pick up a really good candy thermometer for, you know, 10, $15. So it's a pretty worthwhile investment, especially for making a lot of candy. Yeah. Yeah. Now, when you mentioned the, or the stickiness of gummies sometimes, and you said it has to do with temperature. Some of the gummies that I made when I used the gummy mix did turn out a little sticky. What, based on very little information that you have, what did I possibly do wrong? And I feel like it was more in the curing process.

Heidi (00:15:17) - Yeah, I think gummies are a little bit different because you're not, um, particularly with our gummy mix, you're not taking it to a specific, um, temperature like you are with hard candy or caramel or something, you're bringing it to a simmer, you're getting those sugars dissolved and that's like basically all you need mm-hmm. . And then you're adding the gelatin. Um, sometimes if you're adding or if you're experiencing candy that's a little too sticky. Um, sometimes it's because not all of the, the gelatin stayed emulsified, so you kind of do have to do a little bit of stirring to make sure that gelatin's like really good and incorporated. Sometimes it can tend to stick to or sink to the bottom. So making sure all of it's mixed in, because if you don't have a high enough percentage of gelatin in your sugar syrup throughout the pouring process, then you can end up with a, you know, a couple pieces of candy that didn't quite get enough geling agent.

Heidi (00:16:13) - Um, and then with the curing process, you wanna make sure that you're, you're letting your gelatin, you know, the, once it's molded, it's getting down to about 65 degrees so it can set properly. Once it sets, I like to leave it in the mold for a couple more hours, then I pop 'em out, let 'em dry a bit. Um, I also like to, when I do pop 'em out, I coat my hands in, uh, neutral oil, like an unflavored coconut oil or grape seed oil so it can kind of get some sort of lubrication on them so they're not sticking together once you package them. Right. Um, I don't like using releasing agents in molds because I think that the candy ends up being oily when you pop 'em out. So usually if you just have a little bit of residual oil on your hands while you're removing them from the molds, that's good enough to get them to a point where it's not, you know, cumbersome to put 'em in a container and, and get to 'em when you're, when you're going to eat. Right. So I would just say make sure that you're mixing really good. Make sure that your gelatin is completely dissolved. Um, another trick that somebody taught us was actually, once your, your gelatin's fully bloomed is melting it down in the microwave before adding it to the pot. Um, so then you don't, you're not missing any bits that maybe didn't get hydrated enough. Everything's melted down and it's, and it's easier and smoother to mix into the cooked sugar.

Marge (00:17:36) - Okay. Those are some great tips because the oil, I never would've thought of doing that, putting that on my hands to remove them from the molds cuz they were pretty sticky at that point. Mm-hmm. , they still hadn't really cured yet. But you're also suggesting maybe leave them in the molds for a little bit longer and probably at lower temperatures than my house was. Can you put that in the fridge while they cur you? Or is it Oh yeah. Too cold. Yep. If

Heidi (00:17:55) - You set yourself up with, um, you know, put your molds on, you know, a cookie sheet that you know is gonna, uh, fit in your refrigerator, it's a lot easier to transport mm-hmm. Those over from the counter that you're working at. Um, and I'd say give them an, give them an hour in the refrigerator and then they set up really nice and then they pop right out. It's not, you know, if it's, you know, 70 degrees in your house or even 68 degrees in your house, that geling agent doesn't hit the appropriate temperature where it's going to set up and, and be, be nice and firm.

Marge (00:18:27) - Okay. That's excellent to know. Cause I think that's exactly what probably happened. So . Yeah. Yeah. Cuz otherwise they were super easy to make, but then I was like, some of them were a little sticky, but I will try that for the next time for sure. Yeah, no, you also, we talked about it a little bit a few minutes ago about how you developed the gummy mix for loran oils, but it sounds like you've done quite a bit of recipe development. Can you talk about how someone like a home cook or home baker could get more creative in that sort of area? Because I know for myself, I'm definitely like a recipe follower, but sometimes I wish I could be a little feel less constrained by having to follow a specific recipe.

Heidi (00:19:03) - Yeah. For baking it's a little bit tricky because you def you have to have, um, the proper amount of leavening agent per, um, your batch size. So you wanna keep that in mind. Once you have that down and you have some really good core foundational recipes, like a, a sponge that you always know works out or cookies that always turn out, um, or a buttercream that is always consistent, then you can start playing with a lot of different things. There's so many, um, fun ingredients that you can, um, use to add nuance to your recipe. Let's say if you have a, you know, your, your sponge cake, you can add, um, you know, switched up with flavors obviously, but you can add, you know, fruit, you know, citrus zest, um, nuts, fruits, um, uh, you can make soaks to pour on top of them to get a little bit more of a flavor.

Heidi (00:20:00) - And if you're making something that has multiple components, like there are all of those opportunities to, um, introduce different flavors, textures, colors, all kinds of things. I mean, there's, if you go on Pinterest, there's all kinds of really good inspirational photos. Um, but I think having those good core foundational recipes that, you know, um, chemically they're always going to turn out nicely. And then kind of swapping out some of those, um, those component ingredients. You can even take flour and, and swap and crushed cereal for some of the flour if you kind of want some nuance that way. So that's another, another lever that you can pull on to, uh, to switch things up.

Marge (00:20:45) - Okay. So just, uh, like you said, have your core recipe or your foundation and then you can sort of experiment from there and tweak

Heidi (00:20:51) - It. Tweak, tweak the core recipe.

Marge (00:20:53) - Right. Okay. So don't be afraid to get creative people. That's a good reminder for myself too. But ,

Heidi (00:20:58) - No, and if it burns, there's always, or it doesn't work out, there's always gonna be somebody that will eat it. , I'm, there's always going to be somebody around that's gonna be like, don't throw that away. It's fine. I'll eat it.

Marge (00:21:12) - It's usually me actually

Heidi (00:21:14) -

Marge (00:21:15) - Something has to be pretty badly burned for me to not touch it. So, you know. Yeah. It's, uh, it's always worthwhile, but for anybody listening as well, if you're going to be experimenting and it's something new, this may not be the time to use your infused, uh, you know, butter or coconut oil or whatever the case might be. Wait till you've perfected that thing so you're not wasting. Exactly.

Heidi (00:21:33) - Agree. Yeah, that's a really good point, . Yeah.

Marge (00:21:36) - Now, can you talk a bit about the range of products that's offered by Loran? Because I, I've seen like these bakery emulsions and natural flavors, super strength flavors, and people might not be familiar with what those are exactly.

Heidi (00:21:49) - Yeah. One of our, uh, missions is to be professional flavors for every kitchen. Um, whether you are, uh, a bakery or your soul, um, soul business is surrou is chocolates or, um, saltwater taffy, we have something for everybody. Um, our super strength line is gonna be most synonymous with our candy makers. That line is, as it as it suggests, is super strong. Um, so there's, there's recipes like hard candy, um, fudges, uh, even Macrons where liquid is prohibited and you wanna make sure that you're not introducing a lot into your batch, especially after that, that sugar's cooked. Otherwise it's gonna ruin the, that matrix and you're not gonna have nice glassy candy. So that's where super strength comes in because you don't have to add a lot to get really bold flavor. Um, something like our bakery emulsions, those are gonna be more on par with, um, uh, a traditional extract.

Heidi (00:22:51) - But our emulsions are, um, we're able to take water soluble components and oil soluble flavor components and blend them together in our emulsification formula to develop really dynamic flavors. There's a lot of, um, you know, grocery store extracts that will be like single note and, and not very dynamic. Um, but our emulsions have a lot of nuances, um, because we're able to pull from these different types of flavorings. Um, so those are really great. And the, the nice thing is it's like they're really user-friendly. If you're, you used to working with traditional extracts and you have a recipe that you really like, you can swap them out with equal measurements. So it's, it's nice in that way that you don't have to do a lot of math. Right. Um, and then most recently we came out with, um, actually today we launched a new naturals line.

Heidi (00:23:49) - Um, they're pg free, which is a carrier in some of our, our flavors. It's, um, just something that keeps all of the flavor components suspended and gives it the shelf life. Um, but it's, we're finding more and more that people are trying to stay away from that ingredient. Um, so to, you know, meet the demand of, of our customers, we wanna make sure that we're providing flavors that, um, help them honor their label claims that they'd like to make. So no artificial flavors. No artificial colors. Um, and they came in, they come in six flavors, lemonade, blueberries, strawberry watermelon, green, apple and peach. And I've tried all of 'em and they are my new favorite, my new favorite flavors. They definitely taste like fresh strawberries. They taste like, you know, fresh peaches where sometimes with the, you know, the other super strength flavors, they're great, but they're more of like a candy peach, the candy version of a peach, where these are, these have the, the natural nuances to 'em. Um, then we have our, you know, our candy mixes. We have a lot of specialty ingredients, um, acids. There's a lot of acids that you can use to change up the, um, flavor profile and help boost the fruit flavors of the candies that you're using. So we've got a little bit for everything. We even have an ice cream flavoring line that's really good. Mm-hmm. . Um, so a lot of, uh, food, food service providers use those mom and pop ice cream shops. Um, but we do have those available for consumer purchase as well.

Marge (00:25:19) - So something like an ice cream line, like I've done infused ice cream for this show and for my own personal consumption as well. So would that something like that work for like a home ice cream maker?

Heidi (00:25:29) - Oh yeah, absolutely. Yep. You can, you can. We, our top 13 flavors are in a four ounce bottle, which is a nice consumer friendly size. Mm-hmm. , so you're just following your manufacturer's directions using your favorite ice cream recipe. Um, and then this particular line adds the flavor and color at the same time. Um, and, and there's a lot of good ones, you know, the classics like Butter Pecan and, um, you know, black Raspberry, but then there's cake batter. Um, we have a Blue Moon, which is a, a Midwest thing. I'm not sure if you're familiar with that in Canada, but no, I'm not. It's, it's like a non-descript fruity flavor that's, that's really big around here. Um, that and like a, you know, like a Superman. I would say that it's a similar kind of flavor profile, but we've got all kinds of stuff.

Marge (00:26:17) - Okay. That sounds really interesting. And back to the bakery emulsions a little bit, somebody who's listening who's like, well I have these recipes that usually calls for the traditional vanilla extract. Would this be one of those spots where you could take out, like swap out the extract vanilla extract for one of the loran oils? Emulsion?

Heidi (00:26:33) - Yep. Absolutely. You could use Okay. Any, any of the bakery emulsions in place of a vanilla extract. Um, but vanilla is also a really good way of boosting a flavor. Just as citric acid boosts a fruit flavor, vanilla can boost any other flavor too. So I always recommend maybe knocking down the vanilla by half, but still using it and then using what the original recipe calls for in the emal as the emulsion.

Marge (00:27:00) - Okay. So like can get those, it calls for say a, a teaspoon of vanilla. So you use the emulsion instead. And then maybe in addition to still use say a half teaspoon of vanilla.

Heidi (00:27:09) - Exactly. Yep. Just bump it up a little bit with vanilla. Right.

Marge (00:27:13) - That sounds like a fun little tip. Um, I wanted to also talk a bit about the food colorings, cuz you have a line of food colorings as well, and I used the blue to do my, my gummy worms and the color was fantastic. How does that differ from somebody who's like, well, why would I do that versus just go to the grocery store and buy the little red box that's on the shelf?

Heidi (00:27:33) - Our colors are incredibly concentrated as you've, you've experienced. Um, we have a line of liquids and then we have a line of liquid gel. The liquid gels are gonna be the most concentrated. So again, if you're working, um, with candy where you wanna, um, kinda limit the amount of liquid that you're introducing into your batch, then the liquid gels gonna be the way to go. It's gonna give you the most color with the least amount of liquid. It's a more of a viscous color too, so it does require a little bit more stirring. Um, but I think they blend really nicely. They're really vibrant. Um, our liquid ju or our our pure liquid line is also really concentrated and it's gonna be more concentrated than a traditional grocery store food coloring. Um, those are really nice for hard candies if you don't want anything that's, you know, too strong. Um, and they're fun to play around with a, we have, um, you know, our selection of I think 12 or 13 colors for each of those lines. But, you know, if you have any kind of color theory or you liked playing with watercolors as a kid, then you know that you can experiment and create new colors out of that. So it's basically, uh, you know, your basic palette, but there's, there's so much more that can be built out of those.

Marge (00:28:47) - That's something I never would've considered. So there's 13 colors in the line, but of course you can mix and match to create Oh yeah. Something new, which you're not gonna get at the, the basic four color, uh, box at the grocery store. But I have to say, when I made my own gummies too, I think I put in two drops of the color Yeah. For that whole batch. And that was enough to give it a nice, brilliant blue color. So I can definitely ascertain to what you're saying now. What are the, some of the fun, creative ways that you've seen people using Loran oil products? And maybe that includes yourself.

Heidi (00:29:19) - Yes.

Marge (00:29:19) - . Cause

Heidi (00:29:20) - I'm sure you Yeah, for sure. I do all kinds of great stuff. . Yeah. Um, I would suggest checking out our, um, Instagram. We have a, a lot of influencers that we've used that are super talented and have created incredible cakes and, um, unbelievable cookies. There's, um, sweet storyline is somebody who does a lot of, um, specialty lollipops. So I think she just made, um, like a pinwheel. She's done sharks, she's done all kinds of really interesting shapes and her videos are really fun. So, um, those are really creative. I think the most, um, unique and non culinary way that people have used our flavors is, um, there's a company that, uh, produces wood reads for musical instruments and they use our mint oil to flavor the reeds. Oh,

Marge (00:30:14) - How interesting.

Heidi (00:30:15) - So it kind of sets them apart from Yeah. From everybody else at the music store, so. Right. I appreciate him cor incorporating flavor into everything , you

Marge (00:30:24) - Know? Right. That's so interesting too. As an ex woodwind player from high school, amid we might've, might've made it a little easier to practice for longer, so Sure, sure. That was the missing thing. That's why I don't play anymore, but, right.

Heidi (00:30:37) - .

Marge (00:30:39) - Yeah. Now, do you have anything exciting or new coming up for the company that you wanna talk about?

Heidi (00:30:45) - Oh, yeah. Um, so we're gonna be in Toronto in a couple of weeks for Can Expo. We're really excited about that. Um, we'll be at Booth 1 33, so definitely stop by and say hi. Um, if you're interested, we're, we're able to sell our products at this show, so we will compact with gummy mixes and molds and all kinds of things. Um, we are also, um, doing, I'm hosting, um, a couple of different seminars. So if you're somebody who is, you know, interested in making edibles, I I won't be instructing on dosing, but I will be going through a lot of, um, common issues for, um, three common applications, gummies, hard candies, and baking. Um, so if you'd like to come in and ask questions, um, and, and learn a little bit, please stop by. I'm not sure where exactly that is going to be yet, but it will be. Um, I will be doing that Friday and Saturday. Um, well, that's

Marge (00:31:41) - Happening right at the expo then? Yes. Seminar.

Heidi (00:31:44) - It'll be in, in the, in the hall, so that'll be really great. Um, and then we are also taking part in, um, we'll be doing some more cooking shows with Cannabis Talk 1 0 1. It's another podcast out in California. Um, so we'll get the opportunity in April to go and work with some other cannabis brands, um, Ola, um, from Flower, um, flour Farms, and, uh, we'll be making some sort of dessert. Um, chef Phil from Cush Kitchen, he's gonna be also filming, um, some episodes with them doing some infused cooking. So I'm, I'm excited to see, uh, the, the future of Infused Foods with Loran. It, it's gonna be a fun year.

Marge (00:32:29) - I think that's really exciting too, because I feel like the, I mean, it's obviously, it's becoming more mainstream, but it's exciting to see a company that is embracing the cannabis community and the culinary aspect of it instead of being fearful of it. Like Sure. So many other companies are still out there and I think cannabis obviously can benefit so many different people. So a company that is, you know, just going and forging ahead with it is really refreshing, I think in this space.

Heidi (00:32:55) - Yeah. They're, they're my favorite people to work with. If I, I hope none of my other non-cannabis customers hear that.

Marge (00:33:02) - Right. But,

Heidi (00:33:03) - Um, I think that it's a different community altogether. I think that there's just such a, um, a comradery for the most part, and this desire to learn because everything is, is fairly new, especially in the states where not everywhere is legal here. Um, and there is, you know, federally, it's not legal, but state to state, there's varying, um, you know, there's a spectrum of legal there. It's either, you know, medical or recreational. Um, but everybody has, um, been absolutely wonderful to work with. They're very innovative, um, and very driven. And, um, I, I really enjoy all of my conversations with them and, and I'm glad that I can be a small part of supporting their business and growth.

Marge (00:33:54) - Excellent. Well, I'd really love to hear that. And that's something for other listeners or the listeners of Bite Me to look forward to too. They can probably check out some of those projects out there. And if anybody's near Toronto, definitely the Can Expo looks like it's gonna be a really fun time, so you'll have to go and stop by your booth. I'll be stopping by your booth for sure to say Awesome. As we can meet in person. So just over online. Um, anything else that you'd like to share before we part ways today, Heidi?

Heidi (00:34:19) - Um, no. I thank you for having me. I, I love listening to your show and, and hearing all of the different ways that infusions are, are being done and in recipes that they're being incorporated to It kind of is, is helping my own education, so I appreciate it.

Marge (00:34:36) - Awesome. I love to hear that. Well, it's been really nice talking to you, Heidi. We'll meet soon. Yep.

Heidi (00:34:39) - Same to you. Thank you.

Marge (00:34:42) - I hope you enjoyed that conversation as much as I did. You Thank you for listening. You can find all the highlights in the show notes. Please consider leaving a five star rating a review, because that helps more edibles enthusiasts discover the show too. And until next week, my friends stay high. Are you tired of trying edibles that are inconsistent and strengthen flavor, attempting to figure out your tolerance? Do you want to take control of your edibles experience and find the optimum combination of factors that results in the best outcome? If so, this edibles journal is perfect for you. The Bite Me Edibles Journal provides a convenient and organized way for you to track and record your edibles experience. Whether it's homemade, edibles, or store bot, it includes 48 fillable pages. It's sized eight and a half by 11 for plenty of writing space. Includes information on calculating the potency of homemade edibles, and it was created by an edibles expert. Whether you're a seasoned edibles enthusiast, or just starting out on your cannabis journey, the Bite Me Edibles Journal is an essential tool for anyone interested in enjoying their edibles to the fullest. Take control of your high life with this convenient and helpful resource. Add it to your Amazon cart today. Tap the link in the show notes.