Last month the mad geniuses at Dark Matter Coffee announced (but didn’t give a date for) the upcoming opening of their eighth shop, Caravanserai, which will focus on Mexican drinking chocolate. Located in Avondale across from the original Kuma’s Corner, it’s the fruit of a collaboration between DMC and Mexico City’s La Rifa Chocolatería, which has so far resulted in three extraordinary single-origin chocolate bars currently for sale at all Dark Matter shops.
It’s not the first time the company has dabbled in confectionary, but unless you have an Illinois medical marijuana card (or are tight with someone who does) you probably haven’t tried the Supernova Bar, a one-ounce dark chocolate bar studded with crushed Dark Matter Unicorn Blood espresso beans and infused with 100 milligrams of tetrahydrocannabinol.
It gets you pretty high.
The bar also has ten milligrams of THCa, the metabolic, nonpsychoactive precursor to THC, which early research and anecdote points to having uses as an anti-inflammatory and antiemetic agent, among other possibilities.
The Supernova’s cannabinoids were extracted from plants grown by downstate cannabis concern Nature’s Grace and Wellness, which also produces various strains of cannabis flower, oil cartridges, and edibles including single-serving, ten-milligram THC honey packs and THC-infused instant ramen in beef and chicken flavors.
Mindy Segal’s tasty medicated sweets notwithstanding, the state of edibles in Illinois dispensaries is sorrowful. Sugary gummies and low-bar chocolates seem at odds with their intended purpose—they’re supposed to be good for you. While the Supernova isn’t quite on par with the divine Mexican chocolate Dark Matter has been working with lately, it’s a pretty tasty bite, with other interesting attributes.
There’s a growing argument within the cannabis industry that people should stop classifying different varieties under the increasingly meaningless umbrella classifications of sativa, indica, and hybrid strains and instead market them in terms of their individual effects and cannabinoid and terpene profiles—all the better to target what ails you.
Patrick O’Hern of Nature’s Grace and Wellness tells me the Supernova Bar is infused with “a blend of our sativa-dominant cannabis extracts utilizing our proprietary distillation techniques.” While that doesn’t tell you much, I can tell you a half square microdose provides an uplifting, energetic, somewhat racy experience. Must be the Unicorn Blood.
O’Hern says his family-run farm will continue to service the medical market after January 1 but also plans to expand its offerings to recreational consumers. Meaning the Supernova Bar should be entering lower orbit sometime next year. v