Chilled morning kickstart: CBD-infused beverages for “easy-going energy”

23 Jul 2019 --- Good Day, a US-based premium beverage brand, has debuted a line of CBD-infused beverages with the offering of keeping consumers “balanced throughout every part of the day.” The brand’s Cannabidiol (CBD)-infused Cold Brew Coffee (“for easy-going energy”) is its first beverage variety made available for immediate purchase on the Good Day website, with the Chamomile Herbal Tea and Citrus Sparkling Water varieties (“for enhanced relaxation and stress release”) to follow in the coming months.

“We experimented with a variety of different brew strengths and various amounts and types of CBD to ultimately craft our finished beverage, which we feel is a balanced blend of energy from caffeine and the calming effects of CBD,” Warner Siebert, CEO and Co-Founder of Good Day, tells NutritionInsight. “As many of our early consumers have reported, the result is a boost of energy without the jitters commonly associated with full-strength coffee.

Good Day's line of CBD-infused premium beverages.Good Day’s CBD-infused Cold Brew Coffee is made with a blend of fairtrade organic coffee sourced from farms in Guatemala, Nicaragua and Colombia. Each can is marketed as containing clean and minimal ingredients, including reverse-osmosis and ultraviolet-filtered water, and 15mg of hemp-extracted CBD sourced from Farm Bill Registered farms in Colorado, US.

The flavor profile of the brand’s unsweetened cold brew is described as “strong yet smooth,” with a gentle acidity and tasting notes of dark chocolate and spices. The coffee, along with the rest of the Good Day beverage line, avoids artificial additives such as sugar alcohols and “natural flavors” that are commonly seen on most CBD-infused beverage labels, which may often contain artificial constituents.

Each 8.4 fl oz aluminum can is sold in 7-packs for US$42 (US$6 per can). The brand will launch a subscription service next month which will offer automatic, recurring shipments of Good Day beverages directly to customers’ front doors. Good Day will also be available on store shelves in select retailers soon. All Good Day beverages are shelf-stable, but are best served chilled or poured over ice, according to the company.

CBD culture catches fire
Despite patchy legal assertions, cannabis-derived products have proliferated across a broad range of applications in recent months. Players of different backgrounds have been drawn towards the emergent space, which now spans food and beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care and even biotech industry sectors. Regardless of a pronounced demand, however, slow regulatory action has proven a hurdle for players who are ready to capitalize on this compound brimming with potential.

In some cases, regulatory shortfalls have lead to innovation. Last May, a synthetically manufactured, non-intoxicating alternative to nature-derived CBD, 8,9-Dihydrocannabidiol (H2CBD), was found to be just as effective in treating the frequency and severity of seizures in rats, pointing towards a potential therapeutic application for humans. The research was conducted by chemists at the University of California, Davis, US, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Reading, UK. 

“We believe that as cannabidiol becomes more widely available and misconceptions of CBD versus THC are cleared up with science-based education, CBD-infused food and beverages products will be normalized to the point that they are part of everyday culture,” says Siebert. “The trends are being driven by people’s desire to find and consume products that use healthy, natural ingredients that are minimally processed to provide short and long-term health benefits, or as we like to say, more good days.”

By Benjamin Ferrer