My pal Moe went to go see W. Kamau Bell at the Punch Line comedy club in San Francisco on Tuesday night and noticed something unusual on the drink menu: a cocktail made with cannabis-infused vodka. I had to investigate.
The $14 drink is called the "Drug Mule" and it's a take on the Moscow Mule (which they offer for $14 too).
Yes, recreational weed is legal now here in California but I wondered if the club needed a license to have this on the menu. So, I tried calling them. It went right to voicemail.
Then I sat here wondering if it actually had THC (the psychoactive part of pot) in it at all or if it was only CBD (which won't make you feel stoned). After shooting off a note to a friend in the local cannabis business to find out, I realized that "Humboldt's Finest" wasn't just a boastful descriptor but the actual brand name of the vodka. Digging further, I discovered that Humboldt's Finest vodka is both THC-free and legal in all 50 states.
They use hemp which has no more "than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis" of THC.
As this 2016 Mashable article reports, "Although this isn't enough THC to get you high, the 40% alcohol will surely get you drunk."
Then why drink a "cannabis-infused" beverage at all? Well, the same article explains:
Humboldt Distillery owner and head distiller, Abe Stevens explains that "It does, however, retain an herbal and aromatic quality reminiscent of fresh cannabis, and we’ve found it works very well in place of gin, giving classic cocktails a fresh new spin."
So, it smells like weed.
I corresponded with one of Moe's friends, Shana Hyatt, who actually ordered the drink. I asked her why she was tempted to try it, "Sheer stupid curiosity. I love good cocktails and am sort of familiar with cannabis strains, edibles and the like. I wanted to see what effect if any it would have on me."
Hyatt, who is no stranger to CBD-only strains and edibles, wrote me, "It didn't even give the usual CBD effect." She said she wouldn't order that particular drink again ("waaaaay too sweet") but would like to try the weed vodka again, but as a shot. She writes, the club would "make a killing" if they sold it that way.
I got thinking about it later, I suppose ordering the "Drug Mule" would give out-of-towners bragging rights to say they imbibed on a canna-cocktail in San Francisco.
photo by Moe
