Coda Signature’s truffle collections are all about building on that experience. For example, the Crescendo collection, centered around a musical term that means “steadily increasing intensity,” starts with Juniper Lemon truffles (white chocolate with delicate flavors), moves to Earl Grey truffles (milk chocolate with a richer flavor), and finally builds to Burnt Caramel truffles, which are dark and very rich.
The Ingredients
Production assistant Rachel Murphy moves a rack of chocolate bar molds at the Coda Signature production facility Jan. 22, 2019 in Trinidad Colorado. (Daniel Brenner for Leafly)
Another secret to Coda Signature’s amazing truffles is their ingredients. Like a conventional artisan chocolate company, Gockley travels the world to find the absolute best ingredients. Their white chocolate is single-sourced from a farm in Ecuador, whose cows roam free in the Andes mountains. The ganache in their Earl Grey truffles is made with fresh cream, infused on the stovetop with curated Earl Grey tea, and blended with Colorado honey.
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Coda Signature also curates their cannabis ingredients. According to their master extractor David Hand, “We start with the finest ingredients, and that begins with the flower. You can’t really take a bad product and make it great. I’ve visited the majority of grows we work with. I’ve walked through the fields. I’ve spoken to the growers. I ask questions that they may or may not like. If we receive flower that doesn’t meet our standards, we send it back.”
Production assistant Rachel Murphy pours chocolate into a mold of Juniper and Lemon truffles at the Coda Signature production facility Jan. 22, 2019 in Trinidad Colorado. (Daniel Brenner for Leafly)
Hand says that with cannabis-infused products, consistency is everything. Coda Signature’s top-of-the-line equipment allows them to create a very consistent CO2 distillate. “CO2 produces some of the best cannabis concentrates. It starts clean, so you don’t have to worry about it as much,” Hand says. “You can really focus on trying to get that flavor from the plant.”
Hand is proud to say that their distillate product contains absolutely no residual solvents.
The Process
Head of Extraction David Hand poses for a portrait at the Coda Signature production facility Jan. 22, 2019 in Trinidad Colorado. (Daniel Brenner for Leafly)
Coda’s stringent, 3-day process leads to a confection that is amazingly consistent for a mostly handmade product. Their process begins with pharmaceutical-grade, clean-room procedures. Everyone in the factory wears a hair net, booties, and lab coat—even visitors. Shoe-sanitizing stations are placed at the entrance to every room.
The first step in the truffle-making process is to decorate the outside of each truffle. Different colors of liquid cocoa butter are painted or airbrushed onto the molds in layers, with liberal use of stencils. The process is led by the same artist who creates Coda’s marketing drawings.
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After decoration, a thin layer of non-infused chocolate is applied to the inside of the mold. Gockley says, “It’s important for us to keep touching the chocolate. I think it creates the intuition that the team needs—understanding the thickness, understanding the texture. It creates that relationship in such a way that they’re the experts; they’re the masters. You don’t get that if all you’re doing is hooking things up to a machine.”
Dean Sneed sprays the top of Early Grey truffle molds at the Coda Signature production facility Jan. 22, 2019 in Trinidad Colorado. Sneed decorated 67 molds which will make 19,00 truffles. (Daniel Brenner for Leafly)
Cannabis is infused into the filling using the “Russian doll method.” Because only 25mg of cannabis oil is needed to produce 1,900 truffles, it’s difficult to distribute the cannabis evenly if you put it in all at once. Instead, Coda Signature uses a process similar to making mousse. First, a small amount of chocolate is added to the heavy cannabis oil to lighten it. The chocolate-cannabis mixture is added to a small amount of filling. As ingredients are added, more cannabis is stirred into the filling at every stage. At the final stage, a vacuum mixer is used to remove all air bubbles and moisture, increasing the time that the truffles will stay fresh on the dispensary shelf.
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The filling is squirted into the prepared truffle shells using a depositing machine. Heating plates keep the filling at the right temperature. It must be hot enough to settle into the shell and form a flat surface, but not so hot that it melts the shell. After the truffles are filled, another machine adds a thin layer of chocolate to the bottom of the truffle. Finally, the truffles return to the décor station to apply the THC symbol.
Chocolatier Lauren Gockley exits the walk-in freezer at the Coda Signature production facility Jan. 22, 2019 in Trinidad Colorado. (Daniel Brenner for Leafly)
The final stage of the process is packaging. Coda Signature is one of the first companies to use the box-style “lock for kids” technology. This technology has gone a long way toward making cannabis packaging look like a high-end conventional product.
What’s Next at Coda Signature?
Head of Extraction David Hand pours frozen cannabis oil with alcohol into a filter at the Coda Signature production facility Jan. 22, 2019 in Trinidad Colorado. (Daniel Brenner for Leafly)
Gockley told me that over the last year, they’ve been setting up a facility in California. California consumers will be able to purchase Coda Signature products by 2019.
She had a tear in her eye when she talked about leaving Trinidad to work in the California facility. The Coda Signature team has been like a second family to her. Although she’s sad to leave, she knows that the Trinidad team will continue to succeed. “They’re the experts now.”
Chocolatier Lauren Gockley holds a finished Burnt Caramel truffle at the Coda Signature production facility Jan. 22, 2019 in Trinidad Colorado. (Daniel Brenner for Leafly)
Coda Signature’s Burnt Caramel truffle part of the “Crescendo” collection containing 10 mg THC photographed on Feb. 2, 2019. (Daniel Brenner for Leafly)
Coda Signature’s Earl Grey truffle part of the “Crescendo” collection containing 10 mg THC photographed on Feb. 2, 2019. Chocolatier Lauren Gockley says the Early Grey flavor reminds her of her mom because that’s something they always shared together. (Daniel Brenner for Leafly)
Coda Signature’s Juniper and Lemon truffle part of the “Crescendo” collection containing 10 mg THC photographed on Feb. 2, 2019. (Daniel Brenner for Leafly)
The inside of Coda Signature’s Burnt Caramel truffle part of the “Crescendo” collection containing 10 mg THC photographed on Feb. 2, 2019. (Daniel Brenner for Leafly)
