From salts and sugars to an energizing drink mix, these outstanding edibles are portable, not floatable
Dosing ain’t exactly what it used to be. While nothing compares to the work of a master cannabis chef, with more and more soluble products entering the market it’s become that much easier to spice up one’s own food, while dinner parties have never been more fun.
Over the past few months, we have encountered a number of products—sweet and savory alike—that melt in your mouth, and that in some cases require no more than a simple drop or sprinkle. It all seems logical enough, and certainly we have seen stuff like this out west for a while, but it’s still cause for celebration, because these kinds of compartmentalized doses are not just convenient, they’re the future of consuming on the go.
Let’s run through some of our favorites, you’ll see what we mean.
For starters, we are enjoying several spices from the folks at Left-Handed Brand via Northwest Cannabis Solutions in Georgetown (which is also home to Levia, potentially qualifying the North Shore town as the capital of creative infused goods). Their entire product line melts in your mouth, with something to sprinkle on dinner, breakfast, and lunch plus snacks.
Their most practical offering for everyday caffeine sippers are Left-Handed’s infused sugar packets (as well as their sugar with cinnamon option), which come in convenient 5mg foils to add to your Folgers or artisanal pour over. The crystals are flaky and dissolve nicely, especially with hot water (though cold brew is an option too). That’s how far soluble technology has come; not too long ago, samples seemed to always sink right to the bottom of the glass, while now they blend into whatever you’re grubbing or chugging.
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Out of the Left-Handed line, their ramen packets seemed worthy of our biggest rave. With a flavor more resembling a Lipton cup-o-noodles packet than a dorm room ramen, plus a pretty perfect pinch of pepper for its spiciness, we are really loving these. We have been sprinkling two packets (5mg apiece) on a plastic-wrapped package of noodles, but there’s no reason you couldn’t go a little higher end instead, maybe even asking a local restaurant for a big unflavored bowl for you to drop more like four or five into.
And speaking of sinking, we must have tried a dozen drink mixes that didn’t work over the years, so it was a pleasant surprise to pour miniature sleeves of Vibations energizing cannabis drink mix into some water and watch it go bye-bye. Each dose has 5mg of THC per the state maximum, but that’s another reason we love solubles—it’s easy to just drop more in. They recommend adding one of their long skinny powder packs to 16oz. of water, but we tried the strawberry lemonade option and are sure that heads with a sweet tooth will double dose, perhaps adding a bit more water too. If you’re having a party with good signage and consenting adults, Vibations would work quite well in the punch bowl.
And if you are entertaining, you can’t go wrong with the porcini mushroom salt from Plant Jam and Bountiful Farms. As we noted recently, the latter’s general manager of cultivation Zach Taylor is an alchemist of sorts, and his latest collab line—with Plant Jam founder and chef David Yusefzadeh of Cloud Creamery fame—is straight fire across the entire product line. A bite of either of the chocolate bars that they concocted together shows how seriously they take their flavors, and with their salts the magic’s at your fingertips. They advise you to put the porcini on pizza, steak, popcorn, or veggies, and we attest that it somehow kicks any food you can imagine into overdrive without overpowering. Watch out for a chili lime variety with others to follow as well, making it so you can dose every course a little differently and dress all dishes to impress stoner dinner guests galore.
And just when they are loosening their belts and telling you they’ve had enough, that’s when you pull out the THC–infused hot cocoa powder from Bubby’s Baked. This milk-or-water soluble desert-time treat, “made with royal Dutch cocoa and custom-formulated full-spectrum cannabis,” is the icing on the cake, and like everything else we mentioned you’re free to scoop in more than recommended if it is that kind of party.
And at this point, it’s shaping up to be that kind of party after all.
Citizen Strain/Grain is an amalgamation of a bunch of us who, in addition to the hard and oftentimes depressing journalism we report for the Dig, also enjoy sampling and writing about the various beers, spirits, and cannabis products that vendors from near and far send our way. If you want us to check out your product, please contact us at info@digboston.com.
