THC Drink of the Week (part I): Triple High Seltzer wants to push your beer buzz to new heights

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.

The new wave of legalized marijuana is coming for the drinks landscape. That doesn’t just apply to the 24 states where recreational weed is baked into tax revenue. Thanks to 2018’s Farm Bill, cannabinoids derived from hemp are legal across the United States.

This means beverages made from Delta-8 or Delta-10 cannabis have quickly been coming to market. Across a landscape where hard seltzers have proven there’s demand for low-calorie drinks that provide a reasonable buzz, that could be a gold mine.

That’s mixed news for me. Alcohol will always be my one true vice, but I’m getting older and, thus, fatter. My face got roughly 15 percent wider the moment my daughter was born. I would like to cut out calories without cutting out my weekend boozing ritual.

But weed has never done much from me. Hits from bowls or vape pens have either had minimal effect or left me with headaches. Swapping out alcohol for THC has never been a 1:1 trade on my end. But Triple High Seltzer is trying to fix that.

The branding promises each can will replicate the buzz of a standard beer or canned cocktail, which is a helpful reference guide. To that end, I’m gonna roll through all three flavors in the mix pack in one night and see where I land. THC drinks in the past have left me a little underwhelmed when it comes to overall effect. I’ll be pleased if this a) tastes good and b) shepherds me off to a restful eight hours of sleep.

Low expectations, sure. Let’s see if Triple can exceed them.