10 St. Louis Area Edibles That Will Blow Your Mind

It’s a golden era for cannabis edibles, a time when famed chefs are getting into a market previously reserved for sketchy guys with goatees. And while the edibles of yesteryear regularly incapacitated us for hours or days, today’s products are clearly labeled and, for the most part, accurately dosed.

Then there’s the novelty factor. With full legalization still in Missouri’s future, only medical cardholders can purchase cannabis products legally, though recreational use is legal in Illinois.

Keep in mind that marijuana is still banned federally, of course, and don’t drive stoned, but it’s understandable to want to witness the gold rush going on across the river. We started in Sauget. With its slick design and professional staff, the Beyond/Hello dispensary — located among the strip clubs — is perhaps that scuzzy city’s most polished establishment, of any kind. Beyond/Hello’s other Sauget location, meanwhile, by the Gateway Grizzlies baseball stadium, is the highest-performing store among the parent company’s 39 national outlets. We also visited Ascend in Collinsville, Rise in Effingham, Heya Wellness in St. Ann and Greenlight Ferguson.

To celebrate 4/20, we sampled a quite-literally dizzying array of edible, and drinkable, products, and for your edification we’ve run down the highlights below. The biggest problem, we noticed, was that these foodstuffs are so tasty that restraining ourselves from consuming the entire container in one sitting took incredible willpower. — Ben Westhoff

Wild Berry “Chill” Camino Gummies

by Kiva Confections

Available at: Ascend Dispensary

Cost: $34 for 20 gummies (100 mg THC total)

Edibles have a stigma, with good reason. For decades, it was impossible to know exactly how much THC was in them. Sometimes a whole brownie wouldn’t get you high, while other times it only took a few bites to rocket launch you into a swirling galaxy of paranoia.

In the legalization era, however, edibles are a breeze. Take Camino gummies, by Kiva Confections, which are my go-to. I tell everyone about them (the way dog owners blather on about their fur babies) because, whether you eat a Camino to party, chill, vibe out or treat pain, it meets you at your level. It activates both your body and your head, making the high from the cannabutter edibles of yesteryear seem two dimensional in comparison.

My Camino obsession started one morning before work. I got out of bed and immediately thought I was going to die. It was that time of the month. Instead of making coffee and doing my makeup, I lay coiled up on the floor in the middle of my room. I was nauseous and sweaty, desperate for relief. And (of course!) I was out of Advil. I was doomed.

Then I remembered that my coworker gifted me a bag of Wild Berry Camino gummies (of the “Chill” variety) the day before at work. (Our employer was High Times magazine.)

I slowly crawled over to my bag. Angel voices sang as I pulled out the Caminos. I ate one gummy and then, within the span of an hour, my pain had dropped from a 10 to a 3. I got up off the floor and felt my internal flame reignited. Not bad, considering I’d nearly surrendered to death less than an hour before.

And so I became a Caminos evangelist. No rocket launching to other galaxies or paranoia, just pain relief and a mood boost to help me get through the day. Caminos make me grateful to be a stoner. —Mary Carreon

Lush Black Cherry gummies

by Mindy’s Artisanal Edibles

Available at: Beyond/Hello in Sauget

Price: $34 for 20 gummies (100 mg THC total)

Mindy Segal won a James Beard award for Outstanding Pastry Chef in 2012, and ran the beloved (and sadly currently closed) Mindy’s Bakery in Chicago. As such, it seems below her pay grade to be making THC gummies.

I mean, if there were ever a food that didn’t require a great chef, it’s gummies. When have you had a gummy bear or worm and thought, “That didn’t 100 percent hit the spot”?

So, predictably, Mindy’s Lush Black Cherry gummies are delicious. Coated in sugar, they taste a bit like Kool-Aid, or maybe XXX Vitamin Water. I wanted to play food critic, really savor it and identify some “notes” (mulberry? Brussels sprouts?), but it was so good I basically just inhaled it.

It was a Saturday, and I took it right after my son’s soccer game, his third of the day. Plus he’d been eating junk food since dawn, so I knew a meltdown was inevitable, and hoped Mindy’s product might steel me against it. It did!

To complement 5 mg of THC, Mindy’s gummies have 5 mg of CBD, making everything lighter and fluffier. I was able to console my son, convince him not to pound his brother and get him to bed a mere two and a half hours past his bedtime.

By now it was 11:15 p.m., and it dawned on me that I had never much written about marijuana before, and had no idea how to do it. The Reeferfront Times‘ Tommy Chims makes it look easy, but my only attempt was the time I got super high at a cabin in the woods and put on the music of Animal Collective in an attempt to understand them.

It was a total fail. Their music is un-understandable.

Anyway, after a while I gave up trying to review my Mindy’s experience and decided to just take a bath. So I popped in there, read a book about how to grow your own sprouts and then polished off a leftover burrito. And that was that. Thank you, Mindy, for helping me crush a Saturday night. —Ben Westhoff

Yuzu Elderflower Social Tonic

by Cann

Available at: Rise, Effingham

Cost: $30 for a six-pack (12 mg THC total)

Yuzu Elderflower is one of the first low-dose cannabis drinks to hit the market. Each can has 4 mg of CBD and only 2 mg of THC, which may make it sound like a scam. But a weed beverage that lets you consume multiple cans without getting so high you forget how to act? Well, that’s revolutionary.

Personally, I love a good ol’ fashioned cross-fade. The Yuzu hits the spot because it can also be used as a non-sugary mixer.

And check this out: After accidentally freezing a can one time, I realized Cann products can be made into ice cubes. And so, about a month ago, before an out-of-town friend came to stay at my house, I filled an ice-cube tray with Yuzu Elderberry. I made her a tequila drink with soda water and lemon, and then asked if she wanted “the secret ingredient” in her cocktail.

“Obviously,” she replied.

I splashed in some Yuzu Elderflower and also dropped one medicated ice cube in her drink, to go with one non-medicated one, and a sprig of rosemary for good measure.

She took a sip. “This is the best effervescent party fizz I’ve ever had!” she said. “I already want another.”

History was made, and the cocktail inspired what has become my new favorite phrase: “effervescent party fizz.” Medicated ice cubes are what summertime daydreams are made of. —Mary Carreon

Focus

by Wonder

Available at: Beyond/Hello

Price: $24 for 20 gummies (100 mg THC total)

Wonder’s press materials say their line of products was created for the “‘canna curious’ consumer — those who have never experienced cannabis before or have not in a long time.”

Perfect for me then, considering most of my marijuana use happened before my brain was fully developed. During those years I found it the best drug imaginable, but in my late 20s and 30s swore it off. The paranoia was debilitating; all I could think about was how unfashionable my clothes were.

But a new crop of edibles has brought me back to the game. These are “hybrid” products, where THC is combined with other cannabinoid strains, like CBD or, in the case of the Wonder’s Focus, CBG. Like CBD, CBG is associated with pain relief and considered “non-psychoactive,” but that depends on your definition of “psychoactive,” because CBD and CBG both get me more than a little high on their own.

I can’t differentiate the two, but I love both of them with THC. Weed’s downer effect is countered by their upper, optimistic characteristics, and the combination often has me up late sending long, convivial emails to old friends. Focus (or, as stylized, “focus”) is quite a concoction: It’s 5 mg CBG, 5 mg THC, ginger, and fruit and vegetable juice that give it a pear flavor. Very tasty! Other Wonder products include Laugh (5 mg THC plus turmeric) and Relax (10 mg CBD plus 5 mg of lemon balm) and mini mints, which have between 1 and 3 mgs THC each.

I’m not much of a microdoser, but I love this downward trend in cannabis dosing, especially when it comes to these hybrids. For anyone who’s sworn off marijuana because of paranoia, they will likely get you back in the door. —Ben Westhoff

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