The Perfect Mix: Vodka and Marijuana

Pot brownies. Marijuana-infused candies. Cannabis coffee. Even weed wine. These are just a few of the endless varieties of food, beverages, and other assorted treats infused with the world’s favorite drug. Even meat makes the list.

Now add vodka.

Humboldt Distillery, located in the Emerald Triangle, brings an enticing mix of hard liquor and soft drugs. The company’s vodka-marijuana mix comes with a distinctive taste: alcohol, naturally, but also the flavor of cannabis.

Edibles have long been an integral part of the marijuana community, but their popularity has exploded in recent years. Cannabis can be found in everything from gummy bears and Merlots to bacon and vegetables.

Vodka with a herbal flavor

But Humboldt’s Finest is different. Unlike marijuana cookies and sodas and chocolate bars, this vodka won’t get you high. At least, not very high. The point is less the intoxicating effect of the drug than the cannabis-like taste of the booze, said distillery owner Abe Stevens.

Stevens said his goal wasn’t to get tipplers baked. The vodka can already get them drunk pretty fast, as it is 40 percent alcohol per volume, or 80 proof. And the distillery doesn’t want people to green out when mixing liquor and weed.

“Humboldt’s Finest doesn’t have the THC that you’d find in marijuana, so it’s not going to get anyone in trouble with the law,” Stevens said. “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.”

It’s hard to argue with the idea of a marijuana martini, though it remains to be seen whether the peculiar flavor combination of Humboldt’s Finest will be a winner with consumers.

This isn’t the first time cannabis and alcohol have come together. Weed-infused wines can already be found in some parts of California, but marijuana vodka could presage a kind of merging of the two industries.

Growing popularity among consumers

“As the vodka has grown in popularity I’ve found more and more consumers asking us to add some of the ‘local flavor’ to our alcohol,” Stevens said. “That obviously wouldn’t be legal for us to do, but I couldn’t ignore the consumer demand.”

Mixing high-proof alcohol with intoxicating marijuana is illegal for now. And it may never come to fruition: The combination would likely lead many users to cross fade or greenout.

Instead, Stevens said he decided to blend his vodka with the taste and aroma of marijuana “without breaking the law.”

No matter what the mix, the rules of common sense apply: Above all, don’t drink vodka or use intoxicating marijuana and get behind the wheel. That will definitely be true if ever distilleries add real THC to their booze.