We All Scream for Cannabis Ice Cream!

State Regulators Should Allow Frozen Edibles

Isaac Lappert has a proud family legacy, the narrative of his immigrant grandfather’s bootstrapping work ethic and successful enterprises are legendary in the historic bayside town of Sausalito, California, where visitors and locals queue up for huge scoops of Lappert’s upscale ice cream. On a crisp fall day with a wispy breeze tipping the masts of sailboats nestled in the harbor, multi-generational families gathered outside of Lappert’s scoop shop licking their ice cream cones with zeal.

“Everyone likes ice cream,” Isaac said, as he surveyed the crowded sidewalk. “Fun fact,” he continued, “more ice cream is consumed in winter than in summer.”  When I asked about his favorite original recipe, “Balsamic Strawberry Fudge,” he grinned in reply. The graduate of a respected cuisine academy, Isaac takes delight in his innovative creations. We have found a connection: I studied at Le Cordon Blue-Paris, he studied at Le Cordon Bleu-San Francisco. Voila!

Isaac Lappert shows his ice cream dockside in Sausalito, California. Photo Credit: Molly Poiset.

We were seated in parlor chairs conversing as Isaac kept a watchful eye over the family’s third Bridgeway Avenue location, it became apparent that this was not just an interview with the innovative founder of the Cannabis Creamery, but a lively exchange on the joys of travel and international gastronomy.

Just days prior, Isaac had returned from Tokyo where he sampled stellar sushi and Japanese mochi. We waxed poetic about the sense of smell and taste being linked to memory. Our flight of the bumblebee conversation alights on Isaac’s philosophy of changing people’s lives by serving them a memory, elaborating on his desire for doctors to prescribe his frozen decadence to cancer patients at Marin General, where chemotherapy survivors have recounted that their one joy was consuming the generic yet refreshing sherbet offered in the hospital. We nodded in agreement regarding the benefits of medicated ice cream and chocolate truffles infused with marijuana.

Management of pain, nausea and appetite loss is a short list of the benefits provided by healing cannabinoids found in marijuana. Isaac and I stumble upon another connection: as a cannabis chocolatier, I also started with the desire to create fine gourmet infused truffles for leukemia patients confined to the donor stem cell transplant ward. Chocolate melts easily on the tongue and epicurean edibles could remind survivors there is light at the end of the cancer tunnel, even in the darkest of times.

After our philanthropic foodie bonding, I turned our conversation toward the future of frozen edibles in a post-prohibition California. Political crystal balls anticipate the 2016 elections will favor recreational marijuana legalization in the Golden State where stakeholders are already beginning to craft regulations.

Colorado allows refrigerated cannabis-infused edibles, Washington state does not. Isaac’s opinion on Washington’s outright ban on frozen and refrigerated marijuana edibles is surprisingly pragmatic. Having worked in the family’s FDA-approved food facility from a tender age, he acknowledged the importance of food safety and certified kitchen procedures.

Isaac welcomes the government’s involvement in prioritizing public health to properly safeguard against potential food borne pathogens. From his extensive food facilities vantage point, Isaac’s opinion is that marijuana legislation and regulations should allow perishable food production, sales and delivery by requiring implementation of proper handling and refrigeration protocols.

On the issue of political involvement and the crafting of new marijuana legislation, Isaac prefers to leave politicking to his father Michael, libertarian mayor of nearby Corte Madera, who counseled Isaac on his Cannabis Creamery business venture, quoting the Lappert family philosophy; “Give people what they want.” If they all scream for cannabis ice cream, it is just a revival of his father’s Summer of Love youth when he was truckin’ like a do-dah man, delivering cannabis-infused ice cream to a Grateful Dead concert.

Deeply committed to carrying on his family’s Californian dream, Isaac is energetically ambitious and on the cusp of a post marijuana prohibition era he perceives as historically epic. Although just 24 years old, Isaac has a philanthropic vision to improve people’s quality of life, one infused scoop of ice cream at a time. 

 

Are you ready for a scoop from the Cannabis Creamery? Photo Credit: Molly Poiset.

 

CannabisCreamery is on Facebook and Instagram @cannabiscreamerysf

Patissier | Chocolatier | Cannabissier™ Chef Marla “Molly” Poiset is a classically trained French pastry chef and chocolatier from the renowned Le Cordon Bleu School Paris. She is a mother, grandmother and founder of Cheffettes® gourmet cannabis edibles company. Molly’s idea to create high-end edibles came from the desire to help those with compromised immune systems after her eldest daughter survived a stem-cell transplant for leukemia. Molly’s goal is to “Elevate the Edible” and “change the perception of what’s possible” in marijuana-infused cuisine. You can follow her on Twitter @cheffettes.

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