I’ve always been fascinated by Consumption Culture. I guess some could argue often too fascinated, but what can I say - I like to have a good time. I read “On The Road” by Jack Kerouac as a junior in high school and soon after my Mother gifted me “The Collected Poems of Allen Ginsberg” (she was a very cool Mom) the day before I hit the road myself - both books describing the ups and downs and easts and wests of life and how distinct and exceptional moments in time are shared with friends and strangers alike, often with drink and smoke in hand.
“Consumption Culture” is just a considerably clunky and flat-out unromantic way to describe the pieces and parts of the behaviors and traditions that we, as a society, place on recreational alcohol and cannabis use as social lube. But they are romantic, aren’t they?
We take our sweet time making cocktails for our friends and family. I’ve been to upscale bars with 6-touch cocktails that take 10 minutes to make, just for the hell of it I guess. But God, isn’t it romantic to savor that time? To perfectly muddle mint and sugarcane? To get just the right amount of bitters in a Manhattan? And then to taste it? Or to see your guest taste it and smile in the realization of not just how good the drink is, but the acknowledgment that you made it just for them?
That same romanticism is shared in Cannabis. The perfect rolling of a joint that’s tight, but not too tight to restrict airflow. The tray. The grinder. The giggling. The specific papers at a specific size. Making the sun shine a little brighter, the music sounding a little better as you spend that moment with your friends and loved ones, stuck in the shared experience. There’s a ritualistic and romantic piece to both that can’t be ignored and I’m here to say maybe it shouldn’t be.
I’m not saying we should be mixing the two together to be clear - I’m not that much of an animal. I’m just saying, folks are visibly catching on. Product innovation in the cannabis beverage space is substantial, to say the least. With products like the smaller micro-dose 2MG Cann Seltzers growing more than 2500% in CA between 2020 and 2021, and adversely, Major who “provides a major high - for cheap” at 100MG in a 6.7oz bottle dominating 50% of the Washington market in the beverage category in general - folks have made the clear connection.
I’m just kinda wondering if that takes some of the romanticism out of it. Major has too much. Cann has just enough but comes in a can. Don’t get me wrong, I love both products. I just want it to be wooed a little more! I want to take a little time. I’m good with a few ingredients - let’s slow down and have some fun with it. Like cooking, I like my drinks to have a little to do - a little foreplay, if you will. I’ll move on with that now.
I’m r/4r for a low dose, not-too-short shelf life, cannabis-infused ingredient. Not to mix with alcohol, but to be the stand-alone feature in my canna-mocktail. More than just putting a little tincture in a spritz, and less than dumping a bottle of Major into my pink lemonade and going to visit Neptune. If my calculations and my romantic heart are in the right place, I believe there’s room for growth in the Cannabis industry still in the beverage space. Is it in the canned and micro-dose “major high for cheap” universe - I’m sure. If I know anything about the weed business, is that there’s room for everyone in it.
But, what if you’re the new Angostura Bitters of the weed world? The Luxardos. The Jack Rudy’s. I think there’s something here. I can almost taste it.
