Tag Archives: vegan

Highly Edible Cannabis Watermelon Pucks with NXT Review

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The first time I tried Highly Edible Watermelon Pucks was on a wonderful day hanging with a dear friend at an amazing spa. Ideal! It was a great mood-lifting edible and I knew right away I would have to enjoy them again and that I had to take notes for a review.

highly-edible-watermelon-pucks.jpgThese gummies come in a little more than 10 mg of THC per piece and there are ten pieces per container. The pucks are bigger than your average gummies. The candy piece is like if two and a half gummy bears were melted together and put into a one inch disc mold. Watermelon Pucks taste good, not too sour, not too medicinal.

After eating the cannabis candy it took approximately 45 minutes for effects to set in. Highly Edible Watermelon Pucks have a steady, energetic high. My mood definitely felt lighter, happier. I was able to communicate with angst ridden teenagers with success while at the same time was still completely mobile and able to finish the tasks I had planned for the day.

This edible was recommended to me by a good friend and I was happy to try them on a visit to Colorado. I thought they tasted great and for me the effect was an uplifting, happy one. I rarely get the giggles from being high, but I had a touch of them on these pucks!

These edibles claim to have faster absorption because of what the label refers to as NXT –  “Feel it faster with NXT extraction technology”. Nowhere on the bottle does it detail what that technolgy is or how it works. Also a search of the website brought up no results for NXT. On a dispensary website I found this – “…with their new Nano eXtraction Technology (NXT), these gummies pack a powerful punch. The NXT system lets you feel it faster by allowing tiny THC molecules to absorb sublingually. You feel it faster and longer as your stomach metabolizes the THC buried within the gummy.” If you are interested in more there is some explanation from a company that makes the “nano extractor” here.

Highly Edible PucksWatermelon is just one of the flavors, which include peach, cherry, assorted fruity and golden strawberry. They are vegan and gluten free. As with other of this brands products, there is no mention of which type of cannabis (Indica, Hybrid, Sativa) or which strain (Blue Dream, Kush, etc.) to guide consumers on what effects to expect. From the effects we experienced we are guessing it is a Sativa dominant hybrid.

I did get the munchies. So be warned. Have healthy food and drinks available!

The high lasted a solid 2 1/2 hours and left me feeling great with energy and not lethargic.

I will definitely be using Highly Edible Watermelon Pucks again. They are probably my favorite gummy on the market. The buzz and mood uplift are amazing. Highly recommended. Highly.

These gummies come from the folks at Cannapunch, who also make CannaPunch drinks and Dutch Girl Stroopwafels (our review here).

Flavor: 7

Strength: 8

Website: CannaPunch

Kiva Cannabis-Infused Chocolate Bars Review

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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.

Kiva Dark Chocolate Blackberry Cannabis Infused BarsThe 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.

KIVA Dark Chocolate Blackberry Cannabis Infused BarThe 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.

Strength: 5

Flavor: 6

Website: http://kivaconfections.com/

Atlas Ember, Stratus & Nimbus Cannabis Edibles Review

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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.

four bags of Atlas brand cannabis edibles
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.

Atlas Sativa Ember clusters
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 Sativa Ember pkg clusters
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.

For a review of their Indica edible, Click here for our reviews of Origin.

Flavor: 7

Strength: 9.5

Website: atlasedibles.com

Suck It 10mg THC Sour Apple Cannabis Sweets Review

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Canyon Cultivation makes various forms of cannabis produts – SuckIt hard candies, ChewIt gummies, LickIt Lollipops, DropIt liquid THC, PopIt capsules and DrinkIt cannabis coffee. Several of the lines have a variety of flavors. All of the products are non-GMO, gluten free and use all-natural ingredients. Many of them are Vegan as well, including the SuckIt hard candies I tried.

Sour Apple Flavor Suckit Candies from Canyon

I greatly prefer edibles and other cannabis products that are strain-specific and labeled with which strain was used to make the edible. From reviewing the Canyon website, I don’t see any indication of the stain used in any of the products. I am much more hesitant to try a product when I don’t know what effects to expect.

Flavor

I tried the Sour Apple flavor of the SuckIt hard candies. The taste is quite strong, in a supercharged Jolly Rancher sort of way. The strong flavoring helped mask most of the THC taste, but there still is a medicine- like flavor that is unpleasant and a THC aftertaste.

Effects

I tried these several times and for me they had a decent hybrid effect, if one that was more uplifting like sativa. The effects were uplifting but not really energizing. I had a clear head and generally good focus with a little of the dreamy/spacey head effects that some strains create. I was functional without being over-hyped. There was a mild body relaxing effect without the couch-lock or sleepiness that comes with some Indica dominant strains.

This makes good sense as a late afternoon or after work edible, if you are looking for a mild physical relaxation with a clear head and an uplifted feeling. I prefer something more energizing in the morning or early afternoon, so these are great if I am done for the day and plan to stay at home.

It is a shame that the product is way over packaged, with ten small candies only taking up about 1/6th of the large container. I know that Colorado requires the use of standard packages that meet child safety requirements, so Canyon may just be following the regulations. Its always good to see no more packaging than a product requires so I’m hopeful that the packaging can be reduced in the future.

Overall I found SuckIt hard candies to be a not so tasty yet effective edible with a mild uplifting effect.

Flavor: 4

Strength: 6

Website: Canyon Cultivation

Kiva Lost Farms Strain-Specific Live Resin Cannabis Gummies & Chews Review

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Kiva’s line of Lost Farms edibles are strain specific, live resin cannabis gummies. They combine great taste with specific effects and so are one of our favorites.

The line comes in four flavors of gummies and three flavors of chews, each featuring a specific strain of cannabis. For experienced cannabis users who are familiar with specific strains, these are a welcome change to the usual edibles that are often made with a variety of strains mixed together, often not even labeled as one of a group such as Sativa, Indica or Hybrid.

Each gummy has 10mg of THC and 0mg of CBD per serving, for a total of 100mg THC and 0mg of CBD per package. These gummies are not just infused with the usual distilled THC but are formulated with a specific strain like Blue Dream or Clementine to help create more specific effects.

Kiva Lost Farm Family of Cannabis Infused Gummies made with live resin

My local dispensary charges $22 for a package, making it $2.20 for each 10mg serving of THC, close to the same price point as the Kiva Camino gummies or the Kiva 100mg cannabis Chocolate bars.

These gummies do not contain gelatin, so they are vegetarian and vegan friendly. They do contain potato starch but it’s not a large percentage of the ingredients. The gummies are not individually wrapped and the packages are pretty easily resealable.

Dosing & Flavor

The smell from the tube or bag is primarily a strong fruit smell. Unlike the Camino gummies which are smooth and see-through, these have a more of a fruit chew appearance and a sugar-covered texture. They easy to bite through and melt about the same as Camino gummies.

The gummy flavors are Raspberry, Strawberry Lemonade, Juicy Peach and Citrus Spritz. Raspberry is made with the strain Blue Dream for the Sativa strain and Wedding Cake for the Indica strain. Strawberry Lemonade is made with Super Lemon Haze for the Sativa and Strawberry Bananaz for the Indica. Juicy Peach is made with the Sativa-dominant hybrid strain Mimosa. Unfortunately, as of March 2021, the Citrus Spritz flavor made with the strain Clementine is no longer available.

The chews come in Blueberry made with hybrid strain Blue Dream, Key Lime made with the Sativa-dominant hybrid strain Lemon Meringue and Watermelon made with the Indica-dominant strains Wedding Cake x Watermelon Zkittlez.

The flavors are somewhat sugar-forward since the outside of the gummies are coated with a sugary substance. The chews come without the outer coating and a bit more translucent. They all do have fruit flavors but they seem to border right on the line between solid natural flavor and more candy-type flavors. Mostly it is a mild citrus and fruit flavor that doesn’t have any bad aftertaste or strong THC flavor. A mild sour note gives these that suggestion of sourness and the fruit flavors suggest a flavor but you wouldn’t think you are biting into a real berry or slice of watermelon, they are more candy-flavors, although they do use real fruit powders as part of 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 chews and gummies are easy to bite in half to give a 5mg dose of THC. Since I am experienced with edibles and my usual dose is 10mg of THC, I began with half of one 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 gummy for a total dose of 10mg THC. I sometimes use two and a one quarter pieces for a 12.5mg dose of THC when I want a stronger effect, if I have recently eaten or if I’ve taken CBD, which can tamp down the effects for me.

Effects

The effects I experienced were closely aligned with the effects I’ve enjoyed when smoking these strains, only adjusted to be edible effects. For the hybrids, a lovely elevated and relaxed feeling, while still being alert and energetic. More alertness and energy with the Sativa-dominant strains like Super Lemon Haze, and more relaxing and chill impacts from the Indica-dominent strains like Wedding Cake. I love the Sativa and hybrids for interacting with nature whether it’s gardening, “forest bathing” or a walk on the beach. As someone who enjoys photography, those are great for staying alert to great images without feeling over-hyped and at the same time the mild relaxation leaves you open to possibility. Similar impacts with the Blue Dream, a positive effect of a dreamy, elevated mind along with an Indica kind of body relaxation that isn’t too strong that you just want to sit down. The Indicas I find very relaxing as I’m sensitive to the effects of Indica strains.

Enjoyable flavor profiles and strain-specific effects are exactly what I look for when I want to elevate and Kiva’s Lost Farm cannabis edibles do a great job on both counts.

Read the reviews of Kiva’s Camino gummies here.

Taste: 8

Strength: 7

Website: https://www.kivaconfections.com/brand/lost-farm

OM Cannabis Infused Epsom Salts – Lavender and Arnica Pain Relief Review

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OM’s Cannabis infused Epsom salts are infused with 25mg each of both THC and CBD in the 6.5 ounce package. The focus is on soothing aches and relaxation. Lavender helps calm the nervous system as well as aid in sleep and relaxation. Arnica aids in pain relief. Both arnica and lavender work synergistic with cannabis.

They also have products based on CBD in other formulations including fragrance free, lemon ginger, rose geranium, and an “athletic” formula.

Product

All of the ingredients are naturally occurring and contain moisturizing oils including apricot kernel, avocado, jojoba, and argan oil. The arnica product also contains lavender, camphor, and rosemary. The lavender contains vitamin E and aloe vera. This product is vegan friendly with no animal products or by-products like gelatin.

Dosing

OM recommends using the entire bag for the maximum effect. As with all edibles, tinctures, patches, creams, balms, and bath products, it is best to start with a small amount. Consider trying a quarter of a bag just to see if you notice any effect and to make sure you don’t have an adverse reaction, since some folks have sensitive skin. If you don’t have sensitive skin, you are likely safe to try half a package the first time. Like all topicals, since it is absorbed through the skin and not into the bloodstream, it doesn’t produce the psychoactive effects typically associated with THC.

I found very mild effects with a partial bag and the effects were more noticeable with a full bag.

Effects

I tried the lavender purely for relaxation with no expectation of pain relief. It was a pleasant fragrance and the oils provided a lot of moisturizing with the vitamin E and aloe vera. Very relaxing and set me up for a good nights sleep.

The arnica did have a more pronounced impact on sore muscles and aches. The full bag really provided an impact in relieving soreness and pain. The orange, lavender and rosemary oils gave it a pleasant sent without being too medicinal. I found it less effective treating joint pain or anything deeper than surface muscle and nerve pain. It’s hard for a topical to penetrate deep into joints from the skin even with a long soak.

OM’s line of epsom salts is a good choice to try if you are looking for a topical rich in natural oils that can address muscle or nerve pain. While it does not work on all types of pain, I found it relaxing and effective for treating minor aches and pains.

Flavor: n/a

Strength: 5/10

Website: https://www.om-wellness.com/