From food to beauty and even pet health, CBD’s reach is vast and it’s no surprise that it’s being labelled as one of the fastest growing industries. Don’t worry if you’re struggling to keep up with all the new faces though – we caught up with three of the newest brands to recognise its benefits.
Real Cannabis Club
Phil, Peter and Matthew, an entrepreneur, a doctor and a lawyer, started Real Cannabis Club – which is home to CBD oils and capsules – with a genuine passion for alternative medicine after witnessing the transformative power of cannabis themselves and through friends and family.
It is their ambition to reduce the stigma around legalised cannabis-derived products that highlight the health benefits that cultures around the world have used for centuries.
Phil Patterson told us: “All the founders of Real Cannabis Club are proponents of cannabis and have embedded CBD into our lives. It is a natural plant with amazing properties.
“We witnessed first-hand the transformative power that cannabis can have in people’s lives. We wanted to launch a brand that was synonymous with a really quality product, and decided that the optimal means of proving our product authenticity was by mapping our supply chain on blockchain. We make all the certificate of analysis available to our customers. If you buy from Real Cannabis Club, you can have confidence in the exact composition of your product.”
In addition to stocking sativa oils and capsules, RCC has immediate plans to grow its range to include balms and other cannabis derivate products. It will also be releasing a subscription model and gives 5% of every sale to charitable partners.
Phil added: “We want to cultivate that ‘club’ feeling by driving a community of CBD users all on a wellness journey together. With our accountability ethos and blockchain usage, we believe we offer our customers unparalleled traceability and faith in the product.”
Kolibri
According to Google, searches for ‘CBD drink’ are at their highest rate in five years – up almost 300% compared to 2018.
Promising to deliver on not only flavour and health benefits, but a one-of-a-kind drinking experience, Holland & Barrett’s CBD-infused alcohol-free cocktail range, Kolibri CBD Cocktails, features a patented flavour cap that allows drinkers to tailor their own cannabidiol dose.
Drinkers blend as much or as little of the 20mg broad-spectrum CBD drops in to the full-bodied cocktail base to create a bespoke drink. It also comes in two flavours: Dark Forest – a dark-berry blend with woody, smoky notes balanced by an intense profile of pine and black pepper – and Citrus Grove – a zesty blend of curacao, dried fruits and goji berry with a long bitter and herbaceous finish.
Founder Kamila Sitwell said: “Kolibri was created to excite the mindful consumers – the flavour-seeking friends who are either choosing to cut back on alcohol or those who are already enjoying the CBD experience but not its current formats of tinctures and pills.”
She believes that the future of CBD drinks is through customisation by giving the consumer the ability to control their functional ingredients, just as they do with all other forms of CBD such as pills, tinctures and vapes.
She added: “The benefits of separating the CBD from the drink not only gives the consumer control through our patented micro-dosage cap, but it preserves the potency of the CBD so that consumers experience its full potential – ensuring that the standardised, pre-formulation drinks approach to drinks stays in decades past.
“With CBD, there is no ‘one-size fits all’. The dose of CBD that one person takes will differ from the next person due to many factors including the desired effect to body mass. This is the reason why we’ve decided to put the consumer in control of how much CBD they’d like to put in their drink, and increase the dosage with each sip if they wish.
“CBD is now part of my daily routine. I quickly become bored of taking pills and couldn’t stand the taste of tinctures anymore, which is one of the reasons why I decided to create a delicious tasting non-alcoholic CBD cocktail.”
Kolibri Drinks will launch nationwide in Holland & Barrett stores on February 14 and be available from kolibridrinks.co.uk in April.
MUHU
Last year Sally Wynter was sipping on a G&T and realised something. There’s not a village, town or city in the UK that’s not got a gin named after it. Pining for something less gimmicky, she decided to start a line of infused spirits that offered something extra to the drinking experience. She also ditched the stuff you don’t actually want in your gin such as sugar, artificial colourings and sweeteners.
The result is MUHU – the UK’s first cannabis oil-infused gin, which has flavours and ingredients from across the world.
Sally Wynter said: “I created MUHU to shake up a stale drinks market that was saturated with samey, provenance-driven brands. The idea behind the brand is to bring exotic flavours, and later spirits, from around the world to the UK. No more strawberry and rhubarb!
“For me, CBD extract works really harmoniously with drinks. I was using CBD in my drinks for around six months before I started to work on creating the brand. It makes me feel relaxed and elevates my mood. Research seems to suggest that CBD extract stimulates the release of serotonin, sometimes called the ‘happy chemical’, so the evidence would appear to back up my personal experience. In the past, I’ve found that alcohol has sometimes elevated my anxiety levels and I’ve found CBD really alleviates that. I’ve got plans for two further drink releases this year. Watch this space!”
First up is MUHU’s sweet hibiscus gin that’s inspired by journeys through Asia. It’s a floral gin infused with citrus botanicals and CBD from responsibly farmed, high quality hemp. With Dry January almost over, it’s the perfect time to get acquainted.
