Which brew is best for you?
We decided to put California’s most well-known coffee companies side-by-side to see which company truly makes the best cannabis infused coffee out there. We purchased products from House of Jane, Ganja Grindz and Pot-O-Coffee and decided to do a blind taste testing at the Edibles List offices. Below are the pros and cons we felt about each company. Cheers!
Ganja Grindz Coffee Company
100mg G-Cup
www.ganjagrindz.com
Available Products: Single Serve G-Cups (Decaf & Regular), Cider (G-Cups), Bottled Cold Brew, Teabags, Coffee Filters
Packaging:
PROS: Ganja Grindz uses bold colors which are easily associated with cannabis in a consumer’s mind – red, yellow and green. It outlines a full ingredient list, nutrition facts, bar code & lot numbers (which means they must be able to track a bad batch if someone gets sick or did not feel medicated), best by date, type of cannabis identifier (Indica, Sativa, Hybrid), dosage, compliance information and even showcases the exact concentrate they use, The Clear Solvent Free Cannabis oil.
CONS: They use a sticker that you have to peel off before use.
Aroma:
PROS: Immediately upon brewing we were instantly hit with a rich, complex, delicious smell of coffee.
CONS: Once you detect the cannabis smell it begins to take over the coffee fragrance.
Flavor:
PROS: This coffee is obviously made from a high quality blend. We enjoyed the actual taste of this coffee. Just as it smells, the flavors are rich and complex, even a little bitter.
CONS: The Solvent Free Cannabis oil leaves an odd aftertaste in your mouth.
Potency:
PROS: Ganja Grindz offers their G-Cups in 25mg and 50mg. Their dosages are perfect for the typical marijuana consumer with an average tolerance level. The high was clean and many of us loved starting our day with cannabis AND coffee and were still able to maintain productivity. CONS: For this test we actually had to reach out to the makers to receive a comparable dosage to the others. Ganja Grindz should offer a better range of potency levels. Perhaps a higher dose for the people who truly need 100mg+ to medicate properly and a lower dose for true novice patients beginning at 10mg or 15mg or even lower.
Infusion Method:
PROS: Ganja Grindz flat out tells the consumer that their product is made using The Clear “ultra premium cannabis oil”. It is really nice to know exactly where the oil is coming from. The transparency is appreciated because at the end of the day this is medicine and we want to know what are consuming.
CONS: We made more than one cup of their coffee and noticed that the oil does separate from the coffee and you can actually see the tiny oil droplets.
House of Jane
80mg C-Cup
www.houseofjane.com
Available Products: Single Serve C-Cups & Pods (Decaf & Regular & High CBD), Instant Coffee, Creamers, Teas (C-Cups & Teabags), Bottled Teas, Hot Chocolate, Powders, Edibles
Packaging:
PROS: House of Jane’s packaging is clear and informative. Included are the ingredients, dosage, compliancy information and warnings. They do not include a lot of ‘fluff’. They also indicate whether the coffee is infused with Indica, Sativa, Hybrid cannabis.
CONS: The packaging can get lost amidst the other companies on K-Cup rack, as they used muted colors.
Aroma:
PROS: It smells like a good cup of coffee – bold and flavorful.
CONS: If this cup of coffee were sitting on the counter next to an uninfused cup, you would have no idea, which is which. This is concerning because without some sort of ability to detect cannabis after brewing it could allow for people to accidently dose themselves by confusing the cups.
Flavor:
PROS: The taste of cannabis is almost undetectable. The coffee is dark, bold and flavorful – all around it makes for a pretty good cup of Jane.
CONS: Some may say that the lack of cannabis flavor is a con. The coffee was sweeter than what I would like without adding any sort of additional sweetener. Also, there were several coffee grounds that made it through the filter and into the cup.
Potency:
PROS: HOJ offers their C-Cups in 20mg, 80mg & 200mg. After consuming the 80mg, which was a good dose for consumption in the morning, I was medicated but able to continue my day.
Infusion Method:
PROS: They use a high grade CO2 oil. The oil for the most part did not separate. Additionally, they use Maltodextrin, a food additive with some associated health risks and is not a suitable choice for someone with Diabetes.
Pot-O-Coffee
100mg O-Cup
www.potocoffee.com
Available Products: Single Serve-O-Cups & Pods (Regular & Hemp CBD), Teas – offered in Hemp CBD as well (O-Cups & Pods), Cocoa (O-Cups & Pods)
Packaging:
PROS: We liked their branding. The logo is clean and has that kind of label that actually makes an impression on the consumer. Pot-O-Coffee puts their single serve O-Cups in actual child safe packaging.
CONS: However, we also know that many people use the K-Cup stands to hold their coffee pods and that packaging will not work. While the child safe packaging includes dosage information and preparation instructions coffee pod itself only has dosage and compliance information. There is no consistency on information.
Aroma:
PROS: It smells like coffee…
CONS: But the cannabis scent pretty much overpowers the coffee scent.
Potency:
PROS: According to their website, they offer their Single Serve-O-Cups in 10mg, 50mg & 100mg. Their product selection offers dosages that allow people to choose how heavily they would like to medicate.
CONS: Unfortunately, we were unable to drink the entire cup of Pot-O-Coffee to get a true feel of the potency. When we brewed the coffee we noticed not just particulates in the cup, but a substance resembling cannabis wax floated up to the top. Pot-O-Coffee coffee leaves a residue on the inside of the cup where the coffee levels off. It is incredibly unappealing and since we did not know what that substance was we chose to not drink more than a sip or two. All of us cared to avoid ingesting the unknown clumps. Please note: We did brew more than one of the products to ensure it not a fluke.
Flavor:
CONS: This coffee was not the best. It is too Earthy for me – it tasted like coffee, cannabis and dirt.
Infusion Method:
CONS: All we know is that it is infused with “natural cannabis oil” – according to their website. No further information is provided anywhere. We are can only assume those mystery clumps may be oil solidifying that was not properly infused. Overall, it’s blatantly apparent a lot of money went into creating the packaging for this product. It is unfortunate that they did not quality control their product before rolling it out to the dispensary market. We wouldn’t recommend this one.
