This weekend is 4/20, aka Stoner Christmas. Which means it’s a good time to reflect on the many gummies, drinks, candybars, and more I’ve sampled for this column. This year, I tried 47 different products. Some were great. Some were truly awful.
But this edition of Weed Weview Wewards is about bests, and we have some excellent ones this year, including canned cocktails, microdose candies, and NA beer. While we wait for recreational flower to get set up in Minnesota, there’s plenty of other THC-infused stuff to enjoy, and that’s pretty rad.
Best Gummy Flavor: Drops’ Hemp Jellies
I keep coming back to these little delights ever since the fine folks at Flipside recommended them to me. Somehow, these gummies taste fresh; juicy like a ripe fruit, tangy like zest. The cute little tins they come in make for easy travel and discrete storage, and they offer a pretty strong high for a 5mg’er. As a bonus, he “creative” variety definitely gives me a little bit of a mind “perk” too.
What I said at the time: “These are delicious. They taste like candied oranges.”
Honorable Mention: Smokiez Sour Peach Fruit Chews (delicious, but they’re not sour!)
Last year’s winners: Minny Grown Peach-of-a-Day Gummies and No Coast Cannabis Co.’s Pâte de Fruit—don’t sleep on the Pâte!
Best THC Drink (Sweet): Ganja Skoden’s Sparkling Lime Margarita
I have had a lot of bad THC “cocktails” in my day. Fake negronis that taste like burned thyme, weirdly artificial gin and tonics, and one particularly sour canned “white wine” THC. That said, the three buds at Ganja Skoden nailed their margarita. It tastes like a virgin margarita, the tart lime playing off the sweet agave. The mild carbonation is a nice addition, too. It’s the brand’s only flavor, and they do it well. Pour it in a glass and sprinkle a few sea salt flakes over it if you want to be fancy.
What I said at the time: “OK! This may be the first margarita THC drink I’ve had that actually tastes like a margarita! Why is that so hard?”
Honorable Mention: Sweet Justice’s Pacific Island Punch
Best THC Drink (Sparkling): Dangerous Man’s Painkiller
The market’s overloaded with seltzers and, frankly, a lot of ‘em taste weird. So I appreciate the no nonsense approach to this tropical classic from Dangerous Man. According to their site, they use real fruit juices, and you can tell. The gang’s all here: pineapple, coconut, orange juice.
What I said at the time: “It’s got a tropical taste on the front end thanks to pineapple and coconut, while the nutmeg hits you on the back…these come on strong without completely blasting you out of the water.”
Honorable Mention: Heti Hemp Derived THC & CBD
Last year’s winner: Utopia Borealis Mapleau
Best Tincture: Jane’s Relax, Sleep, and Creativity Tinctures
Are tinctures the most underrated THC product out there? I feel like people are sleeping on them. But they’re great for dressing up a drink or meal or just taking it straight from the dropper. Jane’s variety comes in lower-dose oils that you can layer for the desired effect. Folks who like to ease into bed with a little THC will want to try Sleep, which has CBN and melatonin in it as well.
What I said at the time: “These are nice! There’s a bit of a learning curve with tinctures and oils since you control the dropper… but once you get used to this kind of ingestion it’s easy.”
Last year’s winner: Retro Bakery’s Unflavored THC Tincture
Best Kombucha: Purple J’s Raspberry Island
I never knew I needed a stoner kombucha, but now that I’ve tried some it seems so obvious that it would work. Purple J’s makes some good stuff, with a tart, jammy taste and a bit of vinegar on the back end. It’s a double-duty drink that’ll settle your stomach while relaxing the mind.
What I said at the time: “If you're down with kombucha, there’s nothing to not like here.”
Last Year’s winner: Sharab Shrub’s Thai Basil Funky & Fresh Shrub n’ Bub
Best Sweet Treats: Just Bak’d Crispie Bites
These are two bites of fluffy soft marshmallow goodness with a zingy citrus flavorZ—think Rice Krispie treats from a vending machine but made with Fruity Pebbles-type of cereal. No, nothing beats homemade, but these are tasty, fun, and hit fast and strong.
What I said at the time: “I squealed like a nine-year-old girl in her sparkly unicorn phase when I opened the bag up to find tiny, individually wrapped squares of rainbow crispies.”
Last year’s winners: BLNCD’s Chocolate THC Caramels, No Coast’s Brown Butter Palvorónes
Best Beer NA Beer: Bauhaus Brew Lab’s Tetra Highbräu
I was 18 when I had my first (and, until recently, only) taste of NA beer, at a seafood restaurant in Boston. It was after a hard day of working drywall on a Habitat for Humanity house, and my middle-aged church counselors thought it was funny when a round of O’Doul’s arrived at our table for all the teens. Later that night, some of my friends smoked menthol cigarettes. The ‘90s were wild, man.
Which is a long-winded way of saying, I don’t have a lot of experience with alcohol-free brews. From what I can tell, they vary a lot by brand, and some of them taste nothing like beer. I’m still learning and developing a palate for them, but so far this one from Tetra is the best. It smells like beer, it has a pleasant taste, it’s easy to drink, and, unlike the OG NA beer, it will get you stoned. Good luck finding a menthol cigarette these days, though.
What I said at the time: “You’re not going to mistake this for a regular ol’ beer with alcohol, but it is a tasty effort, with floral notes and a nice honeyed flavor.”
Best Microdose: Jane/Joy Microdose Gummies
For many of my friends, microdosing is just dosing. And I get it. Consuming something in the 2.5-ish range will get you mellow but you also won’t get lost taking a sketchy trip through your mind. This year, I frequently found myself confidently sharing Jane/Joy with low-dose friends, who said they enjoyed the milder effects. One watermelon/strawberry/red fruit piece is enough that you can hang with the normies at a party and it helped my nighttime worrier friends ease into sleep.
What I said at the time: “To use liquor comparisons, sometimes you feel like a lite beer, sometimes you want a Scotch. There's a time and place for both. This is the refreshing lite beer option.”
Last year’s winners: Billy Goat’s Hard Candy.
Best Innovation: Doctor Dabs’s ZZZzzzZZZ Nighttime Chamomile & Lavender Tea
This really should be an award for best innovator, because Doctor Dabs, aka Dr. Clemon Dabney, PhD, consistently puts out stuff I didn’t even know could be laced with THC, from sweets like honey to savory spices (which regularly show up in our Weed Eater recipe column). His line of teas provide subtle relaxation from within and make me rethink how hemp-derived products can be used and how they can feel.
What I said at the time: “Delicious. If you’re a fan of chamomile and lavender tea from Bigelow or Celestial Seasonings, you’re gonna love this. It’s a nice cozy treat… This works the way I wish Sleepytime tea would work.”
Last year’s winner: Doctor Dabs’s Seasoning
