P&B Kitchen is the edibles line of Papa & Barkley’s. These chocolates with caramel centers are not labeled as indica or sativa, so they are likely a mix of random hybrids.
These edibles are made with 66% Fair Trade Certified dark chocolate and crafted with solventless cannabis rosin. They do contain cow’s milk and cream so they are not suitable for vegans, vegetarians, or folks that avoid dairy.
Each chocolate has 10mg of THC and <2mg of CBD per serving, for a total of 100mg THC and <2mg of CBD per package.
P&B Kitchen Dark Chocolate Caramel box
They do not contain artificial ingredients. They are nut free but made on shared equipment so may contain traces of milk, tree nuts, and/or soy lecithin.
Dosing & Flavor
These smell like regular chocolates. They are hard but easy to bite through and melt in the mouth in the same way as most chocolates.
The chocolates are individually portioned but not individually wrapped and need to be cut in half for a 5mg dose. They are not scored so they do not give a guide for easily cutting them in half.
The chocolate is a standard flavored chocolate, noting fancy like Belgian or Swiss chocolate. The caramel is tasty and neither have much of a cannabis or rosin taste.
The flavor is sugar-forward since the chocolate is made with sugar and the caramel has three types of sugar – Glucose Syrup, Cane Sugar,and Invert Sugar.
As we always recommend with new edibles, try half of your usual dose before trying a full dose as you never know how strong something will effect you.
Since I am experienced with edibles and my usual dose is 10mg of THC, I began with half of a piece, with 5mg THC. After having only light effects for that trial run, I then moved closer to my usual dose on another day, taking one whole chocolate for a total dose of 10mg THC.
Effects
The effects I experienced were mainly a slightly relaxed feeling, while still being alert. It doesn’t have the elevated head, alertness and energy you expect with with Sativa-dominant strains, or the strong relaxing and chill impacts from some Indica-dominant strains.
As is the case with most edibles that are not formulated with specific strains or terpenes for a specific type of effect, these effects are just middle of the road. That is fine if you like a mild, slightly relaxed feeling and don’t expect much more.
Decent flavor but muddy effects make this a nice mild edible for those who are THC sensitive or for folks who want to micro-dose. Being hard to cut in half or quarters, however, they are not a great choice to try to have just a 5mg or 2.5 mg dose. If you are looking for an edible with specific effects or impacts, you likely want to keep looking. Perfectly acceptable for an edible experience that isn’t strong and doesn’t taste of cannabis
Whether you are beginning to try edible or topical forms of cannabis, or are just interested in knowing more, we share are some good basics to know from our considerable experience. We share about effects, selecting, dosing, consuming – and what to do in case you consume more than feels good.
Effects
If you have not smoked Cannabis before and are unfamiliar with the effects that smoking it creates, understand that you will likely be experiencing new sensations. Well known side effects of smoking Cannabis flowers include euphoria, relaxation, heightened senses, pain relief, dry mouth and “the munchies”. These effects come from various chemicals in cannabis including CBD and THC.
If you have smoked pot, know that it is different than the almost immediate effects experienced when you smoke. The effects can sometimes take two hours or more to be felt fully. We usually feel effects from edibles within 45 minutes to an hour, but the effects can sometimes continue to increase up to 3 hours later. Every time is s little different. When compared with smoking flowers, it takes longer to feel it and much longer for the effect to fade. We have turned to edibles more as we want to smoke less. When we smoke, the effect can last an hour or so, sometimes two, but with edibles the effects keep giving!
Everyone is impacted differently, so make sure you have the free time to experience the effects – which may last up to 6 hours and for transdermal patches or large doses up to 12 hours. Ideally you are in a comfortable, familiar environment, preferably with someone nearby or in close touch who is supportive and experienced.
Eating or applying the compounds to your skin can have quite different effects. Some effects that we experience from smoking, like heightened senses or the munchies, do happen with edibles. Effects of edibles can include focus, energy and creativity with Sativa strains, pain or anxiety relief with Indica strains and anti-inflammatory effects with CBD rich strains.
Sativa, Indica & Hybrids
Indica, Sativa and Hybrid options. flickr: extensivlyreviewed
Cannabis comes in two main types – Indica and Sativa. Indica primarily effects the body – relaxing, anti-tension, and sometimes “couch lock” for stronger strains. Sativa primarily effects the head, increasing focus, creativity, energy and sense perception. There are many hybrids that are dominated by one set of traits or the other and some hybrids that try to balance the effects of both.
Wikipedia: On average, Cannabis indica has higher levels of THC compared to CBD, whereas Cannabis sativa has lower levels of THC to CBD.[5] However, huge variability exists within either species.
In the case of CBDs anti-inflammatory and pain relief are the usual effects Taking CBD with THC is reported to reduce the power of THC or at least it helps limit how high you get. Some suggest taking CBD to combat taking too much.
Within the types – Sativa, Indica, Hybrid – there are many specific strains. Some strain names have become well known and we prefer edibles where the strain name appears, so we can look up the effects if it is an unfamiliar strain. Also, If I want energy and uplift in the morning, I might not want to take an Indica dominant strain like Grandaddy Purple or Gorilla Glue or Chem Dawg that will relax me. I want a Sativa dominant strain like Sour Diesel or Jack Herer or Blue Dream. Some of the CBD strains are AC/DC, Harlequin and Ringo’s Gift. Sites like Leafly and others have reviews that provide details and reviews of strains.
Selecting
With the effects in mind, select what you want thoughtfully. Get something that either comes in small doses or something you can easily cut up into the portion size you want. Brownies, cakes, chocolate treats and similar edibles are often easy to cut into portion sizes. Hard candies and suckers are not easy to cut up, so consider that when making your selection.
To find edibles that are a good fit for you, look for items in flavors and types that appeal to both your taste buds and the effects you desire from your experience. There is a wide variety of cookies, brownies, cakes, chocolates, hard candies and other portable edibles available, so look around at different dispensaries to find the ones that are best for you.
Some dispensaries offer small diary’s or logs for you to keep track of what works for you and what doesn’t. It is a great idea to keep some notes on what you like and don’t so you can refine your choices and see what is best for you.
Always start with a low dose, like 2 or 2.5 mgs (milligrams). Do not to use edibles that are not clearly labeled with the total amount of THC either in the whole thing or per item (like with gummies). You cannot tell potency by the size of the edible. A normal size brownie could contain 5mg or 500mg, you just don’t know.
While a typical dose is usually 10mg, if you are totally new to edibles you may want to start at 2-3mg. While sometimes the effects can take up to 2 hours to be felt completely, usually after 60-90 minutes you should feel something. With a new edible, always wait 2 hours to see what you experience. If you feel nothing or almost nothing, possibly add another 2-3mg and wait 2 hours again, or next time try 5mg if the lower dose was not too strong for you.
On The Rise Edibles Medical Cannabis Gingerbread
Do your math and plan ahead when cutting up edibles. The On the Rise Sativa dominant edible pictured has 210mg of THC and it says it is six (6) doses. That means each dose will have 35mg of THC each – way too much for most people. If you want 10mg pieces, how will you cut it into 21 sections? One way is to cut it in half then cut those pieces in half, then cut those pieces in half, but that means you end up with an even number of pieces. In this case you end up with 20 pieces of 10.5 mg each which is close enough to the target dose.
This was an old style edible, before adult use became legal in California in 2018. Most edibles now – and in most states where it is legal – have the standard required dosing of 5mg or 10mg per dose, with some having higher limits for medical use, like 25mg per dose.
Consumption
How much food is in your stomach impacts the effects of edibles, and so does what you eat with it. We notice a definite difference if we take the same dose of an edible with very little on our stomach or if we take it soon after a meal. We get a much more pronounced and often quicker effect when our stomach is near empty. If our stomachs are full, the effect is usually weaker overall and can take more time to develop.
What you take the edible with can boost its effects we have found. From what we understand, the THC binds with fats to be distributed into the body, so it helps to take the edible with food that has some healthy fats in it like an avocado, some nuts or some seeds like sunflower, sesame and chia seeds. Too much food, however, and you will loose the benefits of a little fat, so having a big meal with a lot of fat in it isn’t a good choice if you want to feel the full impact.
Caffeine and spices that increase blood flow (like cinnamon, ginger or cayenne) can also help to boost the effects of edibles. If we are looking for an energetic experience, we usually take our edibles with some form of caffeine, be it coffee, tea, mate or cocoa. While Ruth is a black coffee lover, Alton prefers a modified cafe mocha made by stirring cocoa powder into coffee with milk. Since he loves spicy foods, he will often mix cayenne and cinnamon into the cocoa powder and add that to coffee for a spicy mocha. We find caffeine and these spices boosts the effects of most edibles I’ve tried. A favorite edible, the On The Rise brownies, come in both chocolate and gingerbread formula. We find that with the gingerbread we get a slightly stronger effect than we do with the chocolate brownie.
Flickr photo: JurrasicBlueberries Cookies 2017
Hydration
Staying hydrated is always important and I find it more so with edibles. I usually need more water than usual when I use edibles as I often experience dehydration and dry mouth. I usually go through four or five 16oz glasses. It’s fine to drink other liquids, being aware that sugary drinks could reduce the impact of the cannabis you are using. If you drink alcohol or caffeine or soda or all three, they do dehydrate you, so void them, limit them or pair them with regular intake of water – your body will thank you.
Overdose
It happens to most people at some point. With edibles it is possible to overdo it and feel like you have had too much. Sometimes this feels like you are ill but you cannot pinpoint what is wrong. Some folks get a feeling as if they are “dying” because they feel really bad, but don’t know what is wrong. We’ve experienced this as an all over feeling of being very uncomfortable, feeling nauseous in a way but not sick to the stomach. If we are inside, we can feel like we need to go outside for fresh air, and sometimes that helps. You are not actually sick, it just feels like it.
The easy antidote for too much THC edibles is to eat and drink. Sugar, protein and carbs are especially good at mitigating the effects of too much THC. Try having some form of protein, some cereal or some ice cream, even a sandwich. You may be feeling strange and it may feel strange to be eating, but do your best to finish what you are eating until you feel better. When we have the right dose, the taste of food is amazing, but if we’ve had too much eating is what has always worked to bring us down from an overdose of THC.
We have also heard advice to use products high in CBD’s to offset the effects, such as taking a high CBD tincture so it will bring down the THC effects. We do notice that we never seem as high with an edible that has a 1:1 THC to CBD ratio than one without. We have not tried taking CBD to combat taking too much THC it makes sense – as long as it doesn’t add more THC to the mix.
Experiment
Everyone is impacted differently, so first try each new edible by itself and when you have the time to enjoy the effects, not when you have to be somewhere or do something soon. Trying different types of edibles over time and at different doses will help you to find out what produces the desired effects for you.
Kiva is one of the most widely available, well known brands of cannabis edibles with a long history and more than a few awards. Kiva Bars come in eight different flavors, either dark chocolate or milk chocolate. The dark chocolate flavors are vegetarian and vegan friendly as they contain no dairy or other animal products. They may contain traces of milk or nuts from manufacturing, but all are gluten-free. Most of the flavors have only THC in them, two flavors have both THC and CBD.
As regular readers know, I greatly prefer edibles that are made either from similar types of cannabis (Indica, Sativa or Hybrid) and my preference is for edibles that are strain-specific (Blue Dream, Sour Diesel, Gorilla Glue, etc.) and labeled as such. Many edible makers like Kiva, use a mixture of types of cannabis, so while they can be considered “Hybrid”, there is no way to know what strains were used, so the effects are more of a muddle.
Dosing
As always, if it is your first time trying this brand start with a small dose, wait two hours and then judge the effects to determine if you want to increase your dosage.
The bar I tried has 100mg total in the bar and it is scored to make it easy to break off 5mg pieces I am an experienced user of cannabis edibles and I know my usual dose is 10mg of THC, so I began by having a 5mg piece and waited to judge the effects. Within an hour I felt a little bit of an effect. After two hours the effects were mild, so I felt comfortable taking another 5mg dose to bring me up to my usual preferred strength.
Taste
For this review I tried the Blackberry Dark Chocolate flavor. This flavor won the 2013 Best Edible at the San Francisco & Los Angeles High Times Cannabis Cups.
I like that Kiva uses natural flavors and as soon as you open the package you get a distinctive blackberry and chocolate smell. The flavor is a good strong dark chocolate flavor with a nice natural blackberry flavor. The combination does a good job of covering up the THC taste, which is hardly noticeable in the background. I can usually taste THC and there is a hint of it in the aftertaste, but generally it is well masked by the flavors.
They have a smooth, chocolatey taste that is not too sweet and melts well. Keep these bars out of your pocket, a hot car or other warm place unless you want a melted mess. Not as gourmet as some edibles like Coda, but definitely a step up from the taste of a Hershey bar.
Effects
My friend June and her partner use a small dose to help with sleep support, so I thought I would try this flavor to see if it had a similar effect.
The initial effects were mild and more on the Indica side, feeling relaxed and a little tired. Since Kiva uses both Sativa and Indica, for me the effects are a bit schizophrenic. I feel relaxed, then tired, then a bit of uplift, then unmotivated, then creative, then tired again. For me personally this is not the kind of effect I enjoy the most. I don’t like feeling creative but too relaxed to do anything about it. I don’t like it when my head wants to be productive and my body wants to take a nap.
The first time I tried it was during the day and even at half a does I could feel the Indica effects more than I wanted, so I didn’t even take the other half of a dose for fear of sleeping the day away. For folks who enjoy Indica type effects in the daytime, as it helps them focus or calm anxiety, these effects could be perfect, they just are not what I enjoy.
This Kiva edible is much better as an evening treat or to help with sleep support for someone like me. I tried them in the early evening and I did feel relaxed yet able to stay awake. When I did go to bed I had no problem falling asleep. I would limit my use of these for the late afternoon or evening and everyone experiences different impacts with cannabis edibles.
Kiva Blackberry Dark Chocolate Cannabis Infused Bars have a great taste with natural ingredients and the effects are decently strong. My experience is that they are best for folks who desire Indica-type effects and not good if you are looking for an energetic, uplifted, happy effect. If you are looking for help with anxiety, relaxing or sleep support, this could be a great cannabis edible choice for you.
Atlas edibles are a hybrid of a granola bar, a fruit/oat bar and a cookie. They come in Sativa, Indica and two different Hybrid formulations. Each bag contains 80mg of THC. There are four pieces in each bag, each piece contains 20mg of THC. They are colorfully packaged, interestingly flavored and cleverly named.
photo courtesy Atlas Edibles
Products
The two hybrid products are Stratus and Nimbus. Stratus promotes mindfulness & playfulness. It is flavored with lemon caramel, wild blueberries, poppy seeds and a hint of ginger. Nimbus is the other Hybrid flavor, having the same effects as Status but flavored with dark chocolate, hazelnuts, pecans and currants.
The Indica edible, which promotes relaxation, is flavored with Mexican chocolate, warm spices and pepitas (pumpkin seeds) and is called Origin. Click here for our reviews of Origin.
Ember edible
The Sativa edible is called Ember and it promotes functionality and creativity. It’s flavored with caramel, cayenne, toasted cashews and California apricots. If you are sensitive to spicy, don’t be put off because I love spicy and I hardly noticed any heat when I tried it, so it’s a mellow heat offset by the nuts and apricots. It is vegetarian and almost vegan (if your vegan eats honey) with the cannabis infused in coconut oil.
Ember has a pleasant oat bar/moist cookie taste with some crunch from the cashews and a nice fruity finish with the apricots. THC flavor was present but mild, as was the heat from the cayenne, which I hardly could notice. I should note that I like spicy food and have a tolerance for it, so you might notice the cayenne more than I did. Atlas describes it as promoting positivity, functionality and creativity.
The Nimbus Hybrid product suggests it will promote balance, mindfulness and playfulness. It has a pleasant dark chocolate smell with some of the THC coming through. The taste is the same oat-y, sweet nut and fruit flavor as the other Atlas products. The pecan and hazelnut flavors come in behind the chocolate, oat & honey taste. There is a definite cannabis taste but it is mild and quite well balanced with the other flavors, so the taste is neither medicinal nor absent.
Dosing
It was confusing for me that they called the pieces inside “clusters” a cluster can be a single square or the four squares stuck together could also be a cluster. From just reading the dosing information on the outside I could not tell what I would find inside. Once I opened the package I found four square pieces stuck together with a silicone bag stuck to the bottom of one of the squares.
I had to re-read the instructions and was still confused because the graphic shows one square cut in half, so did that mean half of the four squares stuck together should be cut in half to make what they called a “cluster”? I decided that since there were 80mg in the package, that must mean there were four pieces, each with 20mg, so I pulled apart the four squares.
Atlas Edibles’ Sativa Ember edible fresh from the package
For my usual test dose of 10mg I cut one of the squares in half. Cutting one of the squares in half required a sharp knife since they are dense and there are nuts inside. It cut cleanly in half. My usual 10 mg dose was just right for this product as I found it strong and potent.
Effects
Ember – I took a 10 mg dose of the Sativa edible on a half-empty stomach in the late morning with coffee and I could feel it within 45 minutes. Within an hour I had the full effect of energy and focus. I had so much energy I felt like I could scrub the driveway with a toothbrush if I had to! Luckily I only had usual weekend chores and some cooking to do, so it was perfect.
I had a strong munchie effect from this edible. Since it is strong it likely impacts the blood sugar in a strong way too, so be sure to have your favorite liquids and snacks around.
Nimbus – I took a 10mg dose with my breakfast coffee, pairing it with a piece of bacon to provide the fat that edibles need. I started to feel the effects in less than an hour. Like the Ember product, this one is also potent and delivers a pleasantly noticeable effect. I experienced a clear-headed high, with some energy from the sativa effects and a solid relaxing effect on the body. This wasn’t a foggy-headed or lethargic high that comes with some hybrids that are indica-dominant.
Stiiizy’s line of edibles are cannabis-infused gummies that come in eight different flavor and three effect-type combinations – Sativa, Indica and Hybrid. They are formulated with live resin and are “nano-molecular enhanced” for faster absorption.
Unlike most cannabis edibles that comes in squares of 10mg each, with a package totaling 100mg, each package contains 90mg of THC and the pieces are triangles that you can cut into three pieces to get the usual 10mg dose. The package and the gummies in the Stiiizy line come in a unique triangular shape.
Stiiizy Gummy Triangles
The package is resealable as the gummies are not individually wrapped. It is relatively easy to open, like many of the resealable edibles packages, you have to be deliberate and careful about separating the opening so you don’t destroy the ability for it to close again.
Regrettably, these gummies contain gelatin, so they are not vegan friendly. They contain natural and artificial flavoring ingredients. They are gluten free and dairy free, but they contain coconut, so they are not nut free.
Dosing & Flavor
The smell from the bag is primarily a strong fruit smell. The gummies are thick with a fruit chew appearance and a sugar-covered texture. They are not that easy to bite through or cut as mentioned earlier. They take some time to melt in the mouth in the same way as most gummies.
The gummies need to be cut in thirds for a 10mg dose and you would need to cut one of the 10mg triangles in half for a 5mg dose. They are scored across the gummy triangle so they do give a guide for easily cutting them. They are thick and do need a good knife and some pressure to cut them, so be aware of that if you have limited strength or limited mobility in your hands.
The flavor options for their Indica product line are Blue Raspberry Blast, Sour Strawberry, and Watermelon Wave. Sativa flavors are Caribbean Breeze and Mango Tango. Hybrid product comes in Sour Apple, Pineapple Paradise, and Fruit Punch Splash.
The flavors are somewhat sugar-forward since the outside of the gummies are coated with a sugary substance. They all do have fruit-like flavors but for us they are very artificial in flavor. With so many cannabis edibles using all natural flavors, we prefer those to this artificial candy-type flavor. For the Caribbean Breeze for example, mostly it is a sour citrus and indistinct fruit flavor, something like pineapple combined with lime, but not. Most of the products we tried had a similar indistinct artificial flavor.
While we don’t like the artificial flavors, they do cover up any strong THC flavor. For the Pineapple Paradise, a mild sour note combines with a sweeter pineapple-like candy flavor. The citric acid gives these a suggestion of sourness and the fruit flavors suggest a flavor. Be clear, you wouldn’t think you are biting into a real pineapple or slice of watermelon, they are mostly vague candy-flavors, although they do use some natural flavoring.
As we always recommend with new edibles, try half of your usual dose before trying a full dose as you never know how strong something will effect you. The triangle gummies need to be cut in thirds to give a 10mg dose of THC, then split the smaller triangle again for a 5mg dose. Especially with something that is “nano-molecular enhanced” for faster onset, it’s important to try a partial dose first to see how you react.
Since we are experienced with edibles and our usual dose is 10mg of THC, we began with half of one piece, with 5mg THC. After having only light effects for that trial run, we then moved closer to our usual dose on another day, taking one whole gummy for a total dose of 10mg THC. Once we know how a gummy has effected us by taking it several times, we sometimes use one and a one-eighth pieces for a 12.5mg dose of THC for a stronger effect, or if we have recently eaten or taken CBD, which can tamp down the effects.
Effects
The effects were closely aligned with the effects we’ve enjoyed with similar type-specific gummies. For the hybrids, an elevated and relaxed feeling, while still being alert and energetic. More alertness and energy with the Sativa-dominant strains, and more relaxing and chill impacts from the Indica products. These are not strain specific, so you are not getting the specific effects you might from a single strain. The effect is more of a middle-of-the-road Hybrid, Sativa or Indica effect.
Sativa provides some uplift and energy, Hybrid is an alert yet relaxed effect and Indica is relaxed body-focused impact. The Sativa products can sometimes make us feeling over-hyped and fidgety, so limit your dose of those if you are prone to that over-caffeinated kind of feeling. Similar impacts with the hybrids, a positive effect of an elevated mind along with an Indica kind of body relaxation that isn’t too strong that you just want to only sit down. The Indica produts effects are very relaxing and are definitely an “in-da-couch” type of effect.
Strong effects, nicely potent and fast acting but not our favorite flavors. If you don’t care about natural flavors, then these are a good choice. While we generally love the effects from these, they are not something we would go to regularly because of the flavors. Type specific effects are what we look for when we want to elevate and Stiiizy triangle cannabis edibles do a good job on providing those effects.
Note: Stiiizy Delivery offers cannabis delivery to the greater Los Angeles and Inland Empire area in Southern California only. They offer free delivery for orders over $100.00, with a minimum order of $70.00. You mist register through their website and setup an account to take advantage of that. They do not deliver anywhere other than those specific areas in and around L.A.
Micros from Stokes Confections are small candies with 5mg of THC that come 20 mints to a bottle for a total of 100mg. They come in Mint (Sativa), Watermelon (Hybrid), Tangerine Cream (Hybrid) and Honey Lemon Ginger (Indica).
I always prefer edibles that indicate if they Sativa, Indica or a Hybrid and I find it most helpful when they list the strain used to make the oil. I appreciate the Micros indicating what type of cannabis used so I can better anticipate the effects.
The mints are tiny and the pill bottle container is small, so these are easily portable and discrete. Regrettably there is a lot of wasted space in the container. I understand edible makers have to make compromises when dealing with the regulations for child-proof containers and I wish there were smaller packaging that met requirements.
Taste
The Mint Micros smell minty, if a little chalky, and taste pretty much the same. There is a strong mint oil flavor, not much THC flavor and just a hint of a chalky taste. These are sugar free so don’t expect them to be sweet, they just taste like mint without being sweet or sour. Mint is a flavor I like and it has a natural sweetness so I didn’t feel I was missing anything.
If you don’t chew them, they take a good 5 minutes to dissolve in the mouth. The effects begin within an hour for me, with full effect around the 90 minute mark.
Effects
Stokes Mint Micros (Sativa) Cannabis edible.
These are potent little mints. I took my usual dose of 10mg one afternoon and the Sativa effect was able to break right through my usual mid-afternoon lack of energy. I found the effects were uplifting, energizing and focused – exactly what I would expect from a Sativa edible. I was able to get more accomplished than in a typical late afternoon.
While these are not my favorite edible in terms of taste, I really like the effects, so they will be a part of my edibles cabinet.
The bar I tried has 100mg total in the bar and it is scored to make it easy to break off 5mg pieces I am an experienced user of cannabis edibles and I know my usual dose is 10mg of THC, so I began by having a 5mg piece and waited to judge the effects. Within an hour I felt a little bit of an effect. After two hours the effects were mild, so I felt comfortable taking another 5mg dose to bring me up to my usual preferred strength.
The initial effects were mild and more on the Indica side, feeling relaxed and a little tired. Since Kiva uses both Sativa and Indica, for me the effects are a bit schizophrenic. I feel relaxed, then tired, then a bit of uplift, then unmotivated, then creative, then tired again. For me personally this is not the kind of effect I enjoy the most. I don’t like feeling creative but too relaxed to do anything about it. I don’t like it when my head wants to be productive and my body wants to take a nap.
More Than Buds 