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Businesses finding new customers with new pot-infused products

SEATTLE — Industry insiders say we're in the middle of an edible evolution almost two years since marijuana went on sale in Washington.

Entrepreneurs are finding new customers with new pot-infused products.

Over the past few weeks, reporter Jeff Dubois has been talking to a handful of companies who make unique pot products.

They all have something in common – they noticed a gap in the market.

One company is reaching new customers with an old standby: Coffee.

It’s the first-of-its-kind pot-infused product -- a single serve cannabis-infused coffee that works in your Keurig machine.

A Vancouver company is behind the idea changing the perception of brewing a pot of coffee.

At their facility, Fairwinds Manufacturing, Dubois saw how they grind the beans and load the K-cups.

The owner says they use high quality coffee from Ethiopia roasted by a nearby roaster in Portland.

The coffee line is called Catapult and it comes in regular and a decaffeinated blend.

Customer reviews of the product say they love the flavor and the soothing, relaxing effect.

The owner says, before marijuana was legalized, he was thinking about starting a coffee business. Now he's doing both and says the marijuana market is maturing and evolving and going more and more mainstream.

Coffee is hardly the only unique product Fairwinds Manufacturing has on shelves, or on the way to production.  They have a new powdered drink that you add to water, there’s something called a tincture, which is a liquid drop product you put under your tongue and they even have a personal lubrication product on the market.

The owner says they're using scientific and market research to bring innovative and in-demand products to customers.

A Seattle company is also going scientific with their approach, infusing THC into sugar and salt.

Pot shops have been filled with sweet products such as brownies, caramels, candies and sweet drinks that are all infused with THC.

But the American Baked Company is focusing on savory products.

The day Dubois stopped by their industrial-grade kitchen in SoDo, they were making cheddar crisp crackers, kind of like artisan-quality Cheese Its.

They bake the crackers, then use a calibrated dispenser to soak the crackers with a special recipe of THC-infused oil.

American Baked also has a parmesan crisp cracker, made with just cheese, black pepper and marijuana oil, and a tomato soup that comes in powdered form -- just add water.

With extensive culinary backgrounds, the two main bakers say they've found a niche in the market, bringing some sophistication and elegance to the pot industry.

“We would hope that we would give an experience to people that might be hesitant to try marijuana because it is low dose.  Because of quality and the branding, we hope to infer that it's a safe and delicious product, which it is,” said a baker there.

American Baked Company does offer some sweet products, too -- chocolate covered espresso beans, sandwich cookies, caramels and chewy candies, but they think there's a lot of growth potential in the savory arena.

The company’s products are available in several Seattle-area pot shops.