Valentine’s Day, the romance-centric holiday that comes with February every year, is just around the corner.
Wine, flowers, jewelry, and heart-shaped boxes of candy are standard fare for the occasion, but in 2021, there are new and exciting options, thanks to legal cannabis.
Cannabis legalization has opened the door to a whole new world of cannabinoid-infused products, many of them perfect for a romantic holiday such as Valentine’s Day.
So consider taking a break from See’s candy this year because I have a few suggestions that are bound to help elevate Valentine’s Day for you and your special someone.
Sweets for the Sweet
It’s hard to deny the gentle euphoric feeling you can get when you eat chocolate, so the confection naturally goes hand-in-hand with romance.
When the chocolate also has THC in it, the candy instantly achieves a higher plane of existence.
Perfect for Valentine’s Day, Papa & Barkley’s recently sent a pair of non-GMO chocolate bars that are as potent as they are tasty.
Chocolate is always better with THC
Papa & Barkley’s Releaf 66% Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt
Dark chocolate is the more-decadent cousin of milk chocolate, with a higher cacao content and richer flavor.
Papa & Barkley has a 66% dark chocolate bar that I found to be pleasing to the taste buds and soothing to the body and mind.
The 100-milligram bar balances the right amount of sweetness with a full and robust cacao flavor without being too bitter or overpowering.
As you savor the rich dark chocolate, tiny crystals of sea salt mixed will burst through the mix and hit your taste buds like crunchy little shooting stars of flavor.
Papa & Barkley’s Releaf Milk Chocolate
On any given day, I prefer dark chocolate over milk chocolate, but I do enjoy both.
Both types of chocolate are even better when there’s cannabis inside.
Share the love on Valentine’s Day
Papa & Barkley has a tasty full-flavored milk chocolate bar that’s packed with 100 milligrams of solventless rosin.
The texture and the flavor of the milk chocolate are smooth, with a near-perfect sweetness that blends the chocolate and cannabis flavors nicely.
Soy lecithin is a common emulsifier in mass-produced chocolates.
As a result, finding chocolate that is soy-free in the modern world of confections can be difficult.
Emulsification is a necessary step in modern chocolate manufacturing, but soy, which tends to be GMO, is not an essential ingredient.
Dark and milk chocolate, something for everyone
Rather than using soy in their chocolates, Papa & Barkley uses cocoa butter and sunflower lecithin.
Papa & Barkley also uses Fair Trade-certified ingredients and triple-tests its products.
With a focus on quality ingredients, Papa & Barkley uses sun-grown cannabis produced through regenerative and organic growing practices.
For simplified dosing, each 100-milligram bar comes divided into twenty five-milligram triangles that snap off easily.
The high that comes with Papa & Barkley’s chocolate is a relaxing one, with notes of happiness and giddiness for the duration.
Papa & Barkley uses fresh-pressed solventless rosin in their chocolate bars, which brings the benefits of whole plant full spectrum cannabis oil, including terpenes and minor cannabinoids.
France, Romance, Cookies
You meringue?
Hervé Macarons
If expensive gold jewelry isn’t part of your Valentine’s Day plan this year, there is another gilded option that will surely bring delight.
Macarons are a traditional French meringue-based confection made with egg whites, sugar, and almond flour.
The typical French macaron has a layer of ganache, buttercream, or jam sandwiched between two almond cookies.
In the age of legal cannabis, the macaron has gotten a THC upgrade.
Nevada-based Hervé has some infused macarons that are as fancy as they are delicious.
These macarons are golden
Hervé recently sent me a box of raspberry buttercream macarons and a box of salted caramel buttercream macarons to sample.
The first one that I tried was the seafoam-colored Salted Caramel Buttercream macaron.
Between the two lightly sweetened almond cookies is a delightful layer of sweeter buttercream filling that oozes out delightfully with each bite.
A sweet spot of caramel sits in the center of the buttercream layer.
The salted caramel buttercream filling flavor balances very well with the almond cookies and is not overly sweet.
I tried the maroon-hued raspberry buttercream macaron next.
Elevated macarons
The raspberry buttercream flavor was slightly bolder than the salted caramel, with a pronounced sweetness and silky-smooth texture.
Gluten is a food-borne villain that, in 2021, prevents many people from enjoying many of the foods they love.
But gluten-free people may rejoice, for Hervé’s macarons contain no gluten.
And besides being gluten-free, Hervé’s macarons have another distinguishing feature that instantly sets them apart from the others.
Each macaron sports a swath of 23-karat gold on both the top and bottom cookies.
But even with the gold, these macarons won’t break the bank as a 30-milligram 3-pack only runs about $20.
Lemon is Sexy
Plus Strains Lemon Jack
Plus sent a 100mg tin of Lemon Jack gummies, filled with 20 lemon-flavored, full-spectrum, THC-infused cubes.
Sweet and delicous
The gummies are part of Plus’ innovative Strains line, which pairs cannabis strains with appropriate fruit flavors.
Made with real fruit and rolled in sparkling sugar, these dazzling little gummies are some of the best-tasting lemon candies I’ve ever had.
But they don’t just taste good, they also look sexy, and the Jack Herer-Lemon Kush blend uplifts.
With a full flavor and pleasant high, I can easily recommend these candies for Valentine’s Day.
The combination of natural Meyer and Eureka lemon flavors blend near-perfectly with the full-spectrum cannabis oil.
The candies are soft, sweet, lightly tangy, and full of real lemon flavor.
Tasty Terpenes
Each flavorful piece contains five milligrams of THC, as well as a healthy dose of terpenes, Terpinolene, B-Caroplyllene, and Limonene.
Sexy, sparkly edibles
Also found in cloves, hops, and rosemary, B-caryophyllene, is associated with pain and inflammation relief.
The fragrant and somewhat elusive terpene terpinolene, present in lilacs, nutmeg, and cumin, may have antibacterial properties and may help inhibit cancer cell growth.
There are therapeutic effects associated with the fruity, citrusy terpene Limonene, including elevated mood, stress relief, and improved absorption of other terpenes.
An elevated mood and reduced stress are two key elements of a good Valentine’s Day.
Peaches and strawberries are a beautiful match
Select Peach Strawberry Nano Gummies
Much like chocolate, strawberries are notable natural aphrodisiacs.
Peaches come with their own sexual connotations as well.
Putting the two together seems natural, especially when there’s a dose of THC involved.
I recently received a package of Select’s Fresh Treat strawberry-peach nano gummies.
Sweet, tart, and tangy
Upon opening the package, the aroma of strawberry and peach candies rushed out to greet me.
The granule-coated candies taste a bit tart, a bit sweet, and are fast-acting.
While the strawberry flavor is apparent, I found the peach flavor to be the more dominant of the two.
Each tart and tangy gummy square is infused with terpenes and five milligrams of THC, which get an absorption boost through colloid nanotechnology.
Faster absorption translates to a quicker onset of THC’s psychoactive effects, and that’s probably about the only thing you’ll want to happen quickly on Valentine’s Day.
Candy Grows Up
When PEZ comes of age
Hervé Le Mirage
Superman’s head isn’t on top of this dispenser, but the candy inside is better than what you ate as a kid.
Welcome to the adult version of PEZ.
In addition to their classy macarons, Hervé also has a new THC-infused candy that comes with a handy refillable dispenser that is child-resistant.
The lipstick tube-sized dispenser also comes with a pouch for discrete storage.
This candy’s not for kids
The dispenser refill packs are child-resistant, with plastic tabs on the trays to prevent them from coming out of the package.
The sublingual hard candies are 100 percent vegan, gluten-free, have no added sugar, and are only two calories per serving.
I received two refill packages from Hervé in peppermint and sour peach flavors.
The candy also comes in sour green apple and sour cherry flavors.
The sour peach flavor was delicious, one that I feel would go well at the beginning of a Valentine’s Day evening and periodically throughout.
The peppermint flavor is clean and minty, so you can freshen your breath after your Valentine’s Day dinner and get high at the same time.
Fill ‘er up
Better than a Tic Tac.
Each refill package contains two 25-milligram candy strips, segmented into five-milligram doses.
To load the dispenser, dial the carriage down to the bottom position and slide in the strip of candy.
Dispensing is as simple as rotating the dispenser a quarter-turn to raise the candy and pushing the plastic tab at the top to break off a dose.
Have some punch, you’ll be glad you did
Dark Chocolate Strawberry Punch Bar
If you’ve tried any of Punch Edibles’ products, you will be familiar with the consistency, potency, and quality of their flavors.
Hopefully, you got a chance to try their delicious gingerbread bar during the holidays.
If not, Christmas is only about ten months away.
You can play edible tic-tac-toe with this bar
Just for this month’s romantic occasion, Punch has released a Valentine’s Dark Chocolate Strawberry Punch Bar.
The strawberries, chocolate, and potent THC come together in this edible like an aphrodisiac Voltron.
The bar is infused with 90 milligrams of cannabis oil and blended with real strawberries pieces.
Punch Edibles are available in licensed cannabis shops across California.
Time to get a little saucy
Kiva Love Sauce
Remember the turkey gravy that Kiva released for Thanksgiving?
Kiva has a new limited edition sauce for this month’s occasion, but you won’t want to put it on mashed potatoes.
There are more creative uses for this sauce.
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Kiva is unveiling its cannabis-infused Love Sauce, a lickable combination of dark chocolate and 10 milligrams of THC.
With Kiva’s new cannabis-infused dark chocolate body budder, you can turn an on the body experience into an out-of-body experience.
Let’s Get Physical
If massages are part of your romantic evening, it’s safe to assume that oils might be part of the rubdown.
Sweet releaf
Papa & Barkley Releaf Body Oil
Along with the chocolate bars, Papa & Barkley sent a bottle of Releaf Body Oil.
Infused with cannabis oil and essential oils, I thought it would make a perfect Valentine’s Day massage oil.
The directions say to apply it liberally and massage it over the body from head to toe.
Rub it on, massage it in
What you do with the oil between the head and toes, I will leave to your imagination and personal tastes.
Along with a rich THC dose at a 1:3 ratio, the body oil contains jojoba oil, vitamin E oil, and a blend of essential oils, including tea tree and lavender.
The fragrant, silky-smooth oil spreads smoothly across the skin and absorbs without leaving a greasy feeling.
With beneficial ingredients, the oil is useful for topical relief and soothing aching muscles.
Safe is Sexy
As you prepare for your Valentine’s Day celebration with your significant other, remember to exercise caution with THC-infused products.
Especially the ones that you eat.
Edibles take longer to work their way through your system than inhaled products.
Know your tolerance and your limits, because you can always have more, but you can’t very well have less.
Have a safe and sexy cannabis-filled Valentine’s Day.
Updated 2/13
