Tag Archives: gluten free

Utopia California Cannabis-Infused Macaroons Review

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Utopia’s Cannabis-infused macaroons are tasty circles full of organic ingredients. They are raw, paleo-friendly, kosher friendly, gluten free, non-gmo and vegan. Only the salt is not organic, every other ingredient in these edibles is organic. They do contain tree nuts and peanuts, and are processed in a facility that processes both of those and soy products, for those with allergies.

They come in four flavors, Vanilla, Raspberry, Chocolate Chip and Peanut Butter. All of them are made with a hybrid mix of strains, so they are neither Sativa or Indica.

They can be hard to find sometimes and a recent review of their website, indicating where their edibles are sold, did not match with what the dispensaries had, which could mean that they are sold out or they may not make all of the flavors anymore, hard to tell. They come in a package of 10, each with 10mg of THC, or for medical, a package of four cookies each with 50mg ( a very high dose and only for experienced medical patients).

Taste

The macaroon flavor is naturally pretty coconut focused with a finish of the labeled flavor – Vanilla, Raspberry, Chocolate Chip or Peanut Butter. There is no artificial or strong cannabis oil taste.

The Peanut Butter flavor smells and tastes like a typical peanut butter macaroon – chewy yet a little dry. They start out mildly moist and they can go dry easily so it’s best to make sure you reseal the package tightly. The package says to store at room temperature, as refrigeration can dry them out, but I did keep them in the refrigerator after a few weeks to keep them fresh. I just don’t use them often enough to keep them out for too long. While you can get away with eating these cookies without liquid, some coffee, almond milk, or tea to go with them is a welcome addition.

The flavors are basically coconut, sweeteners (agave syrup and coconut sugar) and some natural flavor, so not a lot of complexity but a solid basic taste.

Ingredients & Packaging

I like that most of the ingredients are organiz and are ones that I use in cooking myself, not a lot of extra chemicals or preservatives.

Packaging is mercifully easy to open, with a tear strip that exposes a resealable closure similar to many child-safe pouches. There are helpful graphics on the package to help users get the bag open.

Effects

The effects seem to run down the expected hybrid middle. You don’t get the focus, uplift and energy to run around and get a lot accomplished you’d get from Sativa, nor do you get a strong body relaxation you would get with an Indica. It’s a mildly stoned mixed feeling between a head and body high.

I didn’t find them especially strong, so if you are sensitive to the effects of edibles or just starting to try them, this type of more mild cannabis edible would be a good fit. I would need to boost them with a 2.5 mg dose of another edible or a transdermal gel to get the impact I get from stronger edibles at a 10mg dose. They are pretty easy to cut in half when they are fresh, so you can try half a dose first, which is always smart when trying a new edible.

I think Utopia makes some very good cannabis edibles. I wish they made Sativa/Indica type specific versions, and I would love it if they would share which strain or strains they use. It can be hard to find edibles that are organic as well as vegan, gluten free and non-gmo, so if those characteristics are important to you, these are a good choice.

Taste: 7

Strength: 5

Website: https://www.utopiacannabis.com/

Super CBD Blueberry Chill Pills Review

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Super CBD Blueberry Chill Pills were very highly recommended to me by my favorite budtender with the day-glo yellow hair. She warned me that they were very strong and to take a smaller dose than usual. Super CBD blueberry chill pills have more THC than CBD so they will give you a decent buzz.

However, the taste was so nasty and medicinal that I almost spit it out. I couldn’t find any blueberry flavor whatsoever, it was like sucking on a NYQUIL lozenge for 5 minutes. I wouldn’t recommend this product because of its taste alone. It’s discreet and compact. Yes, it’s strong, but it tastes repulsive.

After an hour and fifteen minutes I was able to feel a calm, full body buzz. It was strong and I was very happy that I listened to my budtender regarding a smaller dose.

As far as pain management, I felt significant relief for the bruises on my leg from falling down (not so eloquently) and complete relief of a wrist burn from making tea. I was feeling achy and sore. The pain disappeared for several hours.

The taste isn’t great, it is sort of like eating cannabis shatter or oil. The slight berry taste just doesn’t compete well with the strong cannabis oil taste.  They are meant primarily for medical use more than getting a buzz.

Chill pills come in medical and recreational versions. Both have 10mg of THC from a hybrid strain. The medical version has 10mg of CBD in each pill, the recreational/adult use version has 5mg of CBD. They are part of a line of chill pills from The Growing Kitchen .

I tried mine at the end of a day working in the garden, feel pretty sore and wanting to chill out. Within 90 minutes my muscle soreness was significantly reduced. I felt relaxed but very able to function. There was no couch-lock or heavy head effect, just a nice anti-stress and pain relief effect. Just the kind of chill out experience I was hoping for. After eating the effects were reduced and after about 3 hours I was feeling a little tired, likely a combination of just being tired plus the relaxing effects of the THC and CBD.

I was not put off by the less-than pleasant taste and if you are looking for a solid medicinal effect, this can be a great choice. As always, start with a low dose – these are potent!

Taste: 3

Strength: 8

Website: http://thegrowingkitchen.org/edibles/

Plus Products Cannabis Infused Gummies Review

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Plus Products makes several types of cannabis infused gummies. There are Sativa, Indica and Hybrid formula gummies that have 5mg of THC per gummy. They come in packages of twenty 5mg pieces.

plus-sativa-sour-watermelon-open.jpgI always prefer cannabis edibles that indicate Sativa, Indica, or a hybrid, so I like that Plus has products labeled Sativa and Indica. I like it even better when edibles provide the name of the strain used to make the THC oil, but unfortunately there is no indication of what strain is used for these gummies. The website does say “Each low-calorie gummy is made from scratch with natural, kosher ingredients and infused with carefully sourced top shelf flower.” but doesn’t give any indication which strain of flower.

Besides the Sativa Sour Watermelon flavor, the company uses a similar formula for their Blackberry & Lemon Indica gummies that have a 9:1 THC to CBD ratio, a Sour Blueberry Hybrid and their Pineapple & Coconut gummies with CBD and no THC.

In 2018, Plus did make three limited edition flavors – Rose & Vanilla with a 2:1 THC to CBD ratio, a Rainbow Sorbet, both labeled as Hybrid with no strain indication and a Cranberry Shortbread Sativa.

Packaging is a Big Fail

There is a lot not to like about how this product is packaged. Shame on their product packaging designer for thinking that white text on a pale pink background for the Sativa product is legible. In low light, for folks with impaired vision or for those that are color blind, this packaging is very difficult to read. Not only is it difficult to read, it has a complicated child safety mechanism. When you can’t figure out the packaging and the instructions are nearly impossible to read, this is a product that starts out being very frustrating before it is even open, which does not create a good start to the experience.

As you tear off the top of the package, you have to be careful of the ziploc-type slider mechanism hidden inside the part you tear off. It is very hard to see whether you are tearing off the whole zipper mechanism or just the top of the bag. Once the top is off and if you have managed not to destroy the “zipper”, it is very unclear what happens next. If it didn’t require a flood light to read the text on the package, than it might be easier to figure out, but it isn’t. You are supposed to align the slider with a tiny notch in the closure and then push down on the slider. Unfortunately they don’t give you any hint which part of the slider is supposed to be aligned with the notch, so you have to keep trying the slider in different positions to try to make it work. By this point even a reasonable person would be ready to take a knife and destroy the packaging in frustration or just dump the whole thing in the garbage.

Once you have found the magic coordinates to make the slider work, it creates an opening about 75% of the width of the tin inside, making it difficult to get the tin inside out of the packaging. If you try to make the opening wider, the slider pulls off of the mechanism, ruining the child proof packaging. Trying to force the slider back onto the mechanism is difficult and then once you do, the opening mechanism doesn’t work. Only by prying open the bag can you access the tin with the gummies inside.

This product officially wins my award for the worst packaging of any edible I have tried. The manufacturer who produces this packaging and Plus Products should both re-examine this terrible design. Why create a frustrating customer experience that makes a person never want to buy their product again – not a good recipe for profit and sustainability. My only crime was wanting to try your gummies, I didn’t expect a packaging  obstacle course.

Taste

The gummies are very soft tiny little squares, about one quarter inch square. No wonder they say they are low calorie, they are so tiny they can’t hold a lot of calories. They are not sticky and look to be covered in a sugar coating.

The flavor – in this case the Sour Watermelon – was very subtle. I barely tasted any sour watermelon taste, it was more like a generic citric acid fruit taste plus a THC taste. A look at the ingredients may have the answer why.

The first ingredient is Beef Gelatin, which makes me go “yuck”. I’m not a vegan but I do try to avoid animal products, especially those from boiled cow hoofs. The other ingredients are sugar, salt, citric acid, tartaric acid, natural flavors and colors. Not exactly an ingredient list to get my taste buds excited. There was a definite THC aftertaste once the taste of salty acid and beef hooves fades.

Strength

I usually prefer a Sativa edible to give me some uplift, energy and focus to get things done or enjoy creative pursuits. I first tried one of the 5mg pieces and felt nothing for hours. I then tried two pieces to bring me to my normal does of 10mg. I found them slow to start and while they are slightly uplifting, I got very little energy from them. That was about the extent of the effect.

It was not at all what I usually expect to get out of 10mg of THC from a Sativa strain. I felt slightly stoned but I did not feel uplifted or creative or energetic. After a couple of hours even the slight effects were gone.

This is closest I have come, when taking my usual 10mg dose of THC in edibles, to feeling like I took nothing at all. Except for a slight initial effect, the effects were otherwise non-existent. I have tried some mild edibles but this may be the most mild.

PLus gummies rainbow

I did find that they are a good strength to boost the effects when I’ve had 10mg of another edible and I want a stronger effect. About two hours after taking 10mg of another edible, if I want a stronger effecting I find that adding one of the 5mg Plus pieces gave a nice little boost.

Claims

The company website includes the claim “Our products act faster and taste better because our research and manufacturing teams have spent the time to develop industry leading patent pending processes.” They give no explanation as to what those processes are or how much faster they claim to work. Without any supporting information, these come off as marketing claims that sound false, even if they are true.

In what I think is a hilarious mistake, the “Press and Investor” website press page shows what looks like the manufacturing floor, with people in robes working on pans of product and boxes in a bleak warehouse. Unfortunately most of them are not wearing face masks and at least half of them have their hair nets on wrong, not covering all of their hair. A food inspector would likely shut the place down or give a warning at a minimum.

With the frustrating packaging, the lack of great taste and the very mild effects, this is a cannabis edible I cannot recommend without reservation. While it is okay as a booster edible, there are much better choices out there both for gummies and other edibles.

Gummies we do like include Valhalla & Highly Edible cannabis infused gummies.

Flavor: 3

Strength: 3

Website: https://www.plusproducts.com/

Growing Kitchen Heavenly Honey Lemon Indica Cannabis Chill Pills Review

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When enjoying cannabis on the go, I look for a discrete and compact suckers. Something small that has a kick. I want something that I can shove in my purse that won’t spill or make a mess. I’ve found it’s easiest to carry suckers.

I have two favorite kind: Zoots Rocks and The Growing Kitchen-Honey Lemon Chill Pills.

growing kitchen honey lemon chill pills cannabis infused Indica

I prefer Indica edibles. Chill Pills come in a delicious Honey Lemon in Indica. It’s in a flat, cardboard container that encompasses a blister pack of suckers. After futzing around with the child protection, I started enjoying Chill Pills.

Each 10mg dose is approximately one third the size of a traditional gum drop. The great tasting Indica candy is a clear yellow. Growing Kitchen uses local honey and you can really taste the quality. I couldn’t detect a medicinal flavor at all. It has a light, lemon tea taste that I really enjoyed. (Some edible companies are solely focused on the effects, leaving flavors that are undesirable.)

After an hour and ten minutes, I started to feel the effects ramp up. I was beginning to relax; tension was evaporating. I was slowing down physically and finding my spot on the couch.

Chill Pills gave me dry mouth and a small case of the munchies. So be forewarned, have your favorite, healthy drinks and snacks on hand.

With the buzz from Chill Pills, I experienced a ringing in my ears and a slight body high. A tingling sensation would come and go. My muscles relaxed. My mood elevated. The high lasted two and a half hours. It probably would’ve lasted longer if I didn’t eat during the munchies.

This edible tastes delicious and has superior calming effects. Chill Pills come in a variety of flavors: Heavenly Honey Lemon (Indica), Sublime Spearmint (Sativa) and Super CBD Blueberry. I have found their CBD is moderately helpful with joint discomfort. Chill Pills ingredients are organic, dairy free, wheat free and gluten free.

growing kitchen take a chill pill cannabis infused heavenly honey lemon & sublime spearmint chill pills

For the taste, the discretion and the effects, Growing Kitchen Chill Pills are a must have edible.

Taste: 8

Strength: 7

Website: http://thegrowingkitchen.org/chillpills/

Sensi Chew Energy Cannabis Chocolate Caramel Review

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Before adult recreational use of cannabis was legal in California, as a medical marijuana user, SensiChew was one of my favorite edibles. Especially their Energy product, which had a good 50mg dose of caffeine that boosted the positive effects of the THC. Now with new state regulations, they have adjusted the formulas. Thankfully the great taste and powerful effects remain in the new formulas.

Formula

Sensi Chew come in various formulas for specific effects. Sativa for daytime, Indica for nighttime/insomnia and hybrid for anytime. There are also specific CBD formulas for pain and an aphrodisiac formula for “amoré”.

Sensi Chew newer formula of their Energy product is labeled as anti-fatigue and has 40mg of natural Ginseng per dose. The website says “Sensi Chew Energy 100 mg is for patients with pain, who want to medicate and be alert, and have a THC tolerance.” I agree, these edibles are not appropriate for people who are new to edibles who may have little thc tolerance. I have a lot of experience and a healthy tolerance yet I still find these strong.

Sensi Chews are made with natural ingredients that you would use to make caramel at home. There are not lots of chemicals or ingredients you’ve never heard of. They do contain butter, so they are not suitable for vegans.

Sensi Chew Multiple

Taste & Dosing

All of the Sensi Chews have a smooth chocolatey-caramel flavor that reminds one of the tootsie-roll candies. There is not a strong cannabis flavor as it is well balanced with the chocolate and caramel flavors.  I wondered if the ginseng would alter the flavor, but I didn’t taste any other flavors. They recommend letting a piece dissolve sublingually – under the tongue – for faster onset.

Sensichew Cannabis Infused chocolate caramel ENERGY bar 100mg of thc and 40mg of ginseng per dose

The full 100mg bar comes scored to make it pretty easy to break into 10 pieces of 10mg each. It is caramel, so it is a bit stretchy and sticky. Putting this in the fridge or freezer for a little while before cutting it makes for cleaner cuts. It also makes it harder to cut than when at room temperature, so always take care and cut safely.

As always if you are new to a cannabis edible, only take half of your usual dose the first time. I am a seasoned edible user and I find these strong, so it is easy to over do it with these. Proceed with caution. If you have never tried edibles and are starting with these, first cut off one piece (10mg), then cut that 10mg piece into four pieces so you have four 2.5mg pieces. Start with one of those small pieces and wait two hours to notice the effects. You can always take more but you can’t take less.

My usual dose is 10mg and I took 5 mg first. I definitely noticed the effects and they were mild enough that I went up to 7.5mg another time and then another day went up to 10mg. My usual dose is plenty for these edibles. Again, start low and slow with these as they are potent.

Effects

The effects are what you would expect from a Sativa-dominant hybrid. There is an energy boost, likely supported by the ginseng, that is pronounced without being overbearing. These are very strong, so I could see how taking more than my usual dose could give an over-revved, too hyper feeling.

I did let it dissolve under my tongue and felt the energy boost first, about 45 mins after taking it, with the full effects coming on around 90 minutes after ingestion. As with most edibles, your body chemistry and the contents of your stomach will impact the effects. Having a cup of coffee and a little bit of fat like an avocado half with the edible will usually create a much stronger effect than if you ate a big breakfast with no caffeine and then took the edible.

I really enjoy the effects of these edibles, a clear head, focus, energy and some pain relief body effects as well. I am very sensitive to Indica-type effects of cannabis such as relaxation or tiredness. I did notice with these, since they are made for pain relief, that after a couple of hours it does become more of a body-focused relaxed high as the energy effects fade.

Flavor: 8

Strength: 9

Website: https://sensiproducts.com/product/sensi-chew-energy/

Suck It Strawberry Lemonade Cannabis 2.5mg Low Dose Sweets to Suck Review

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This is a small THC dose product which contains 2.5mg of THC per serving.

Canyon Suck It Strawberry Lemonade Low Dose Cannabis Infused Sweets Round Package

Suck It Strawberry Lemonade Sweets to Suck is a great option for folks that are brand new to edibles or are micro dosing enthusiasts. The reason that I suggest these groups is because each square piece of candy only has 2.5mg of THC which is one quarter of the standard dose of 10mg .

I take a larger dose of THC, usually about 40mg. So, I would need to ingest 16 pieces of Suck It Strawberry Lemonade Sweets to Suck to get high. That’s crazy. So, I ate 4 pieces equaling 10mg and tried micro dosing.

The Sweets to Suck are very heavy on the Strawberry flavor and very light on the lemonade side. I couldn’t pick up any medicinal taste. As far as suckers go, they are pleasant to eat and their size (smaller than a half an inch) was convenient to ingest multiple pieces at the same time.

I waited for a half an hour to feel any sign of effects. Nothing. Then I waited for an additional forty five minutes. I concentrated and really focused on feeling any effects that might be starting to evolve. I searched for a slight buzz. No luck.

I was unsuccessful at micro dosing. I never felt any effects. My mood was left unchanged. My energy was not altered. Nothing.

Canyon Cultivation Logo

If you are an active cannabis user, Suck It Strawberry Lemonade Sweets to Suck is probably too small a dose to feel any effects, unless you eat a whole mouthful at a time. However, this is a great product for anyone who can micro dose successfully. New edible consumers can easily try small doses and not worry about overdoing it.

These suckers were unsuccessful for me. But, because of their discreet convenience, taste and small doses, I do recommend Suck It Strawberry Lemonade Sweets to Suck for beginners just staring to enjoy edibles.

See our other review of Suck iT Sour Apple