Max Brenner Turning To Marijuana-Infused Chocolates
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
For five years, Israeli chocolatier Oded Brenner had to stay away from selling chocolate outside his restaurants.
This was not an easy task for the co-founder of Max Brenner, an international chain of chocolate-themed restaurants with locations across the globe, grown from humble beginnings in Raanana in 1996. But when Brenner sold the company to Strauss Group in 2012, he signed a non-compete agreement that prohibited him from working in the chocolate industry until March 2017.
As soon as that agreement expired, Brenner – the bald man behind chocolate martinis, syringes, and pizza – could resume his Willy Wonka-esque status. He could also experiment with an ingredient that had evaded his truffles, despite the fact that Israel is a leading grower of its unique strains: cannabis.
The result of Brenner’s newfound freedom and expanded pantry is Holy Cacao – a line of four chocolate edibles whose manufacture is currently being explored in Colorado (where recreational cannabis use has been legal since 2014). The deluxe chocolates, with flavors including champagne cream, cherry liqueur, and brandy, will be packaged in the exclusively designed tin boxes that Max Brenner devotees expect.
Brenner’s creativity may be boundless, but there are nevertheless legal boundaries demarcating where edible cannabis products such as Holy Cacao can be sold. The market for edibles in Brenner’s native Israel, for example, is restricted.
“In Israel there are edibles available for children as cookies,” explains Saul Kaye, founder and CEO of iCan, an Israeli developer of cannabis formulations, trials, and testing. “Israel does not have an edible market like the US as we are focused on the medicine, creating products that are tried and tested.”
The Israeli edible market may change in the future. For now, Brenner brings his tried twenty-year track record with chocolate to refine the edibles market beyond the stereotypical hash brownie.
This post has been updated on March 8, 2018.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
