Cannabis Beverage of the Week: Nowadays stands out in a crowded field of THC drinks

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 (or food) that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.

The good news is, thanks to the Farm Bill of 2018 and some hemp processing breakthroughs, you can legally get cannabis across the United States. The bad news is, well, it may not remain that way for long.

But, for now, there's an easy way to get at least a little THC in your life without too much hassle. Most of these products are exactly what you'd expect. A few edibles and a lot of seltzers. Lime seltzers. Mango seltzers. Anything White Claw did 10 years ago, the cannabis industry is taking on now.

Fortunately, not all these products are created equally. Nowadays isn't alone in treating cannabinoids like spirits to be doled out a shot at a time, but (spoiler alert) the company's ability to minimize the endemic herbal taste of hemp-derived THC may be the best in the business.

I drank a shot's worth of Nowadays' five milligrams of THC formula -- some nights slightly more -- each day for a week. What I got, as promised, was a gentle floating buzz and no hangover. I never thought I was high by any means, but it did seem to turn the volume down on my anxiety.

More importantly, it helped clear my head before falling asleep, whisking me off to a week of vivid, fun dreams. I remember very few of them, but that's fine because no one wants to hear about them anyway. Let's try Nowadays' lineup stuff and dig a little deeper.

As a straight up shot: B+

I was trepidatious about this one. MXXN's booze-inspired bottles of THC formula were roughly as harsh as blending a half-smoked blunt unless mixed into classic cocktails.

Fortunately, Nowadays doesn't have that problem. There's enough citric acid here to mask that weed-y undercurrent, leaving a sweet, slightly tart sip behind. It's not incredible, but it's an easy shot and perfectly fine over ice.

Mixed with seltzer: A-

You know where that citrus flavor comes in handy? When it's replacing the non-existent flavor in a La Croix. A can of the brand's key lime, on its own, tastes like homework. But drop a shot of Nowadays in there and it's much more interesting. It binds to that limited citrus flavor to create a more flavorful drink that gets closer to a soda at zero calories.

This wasn't limited just to Key Lime. I had success with Berry as well, and Coconut was fine, if a little weird. I had a pile of La Croix left over from my healthy Cokes taste test (horrible). Nowadays helped me finally clear that out.

There's a little roughness to the texture, but it's as easy to drink as it is to mix. While my palate is limited, Nowadays is the THC beverage that tastes the least like weed, giving it the most utility for a mixed drink.

10 mg THC: A-

I took a nip right out of the bottle before mixing it with a can of LaCroix for a guilt-free cocktail aimed at making me a litttttttle high before, ideally, knocking me out for eight hours of sleep. Despite being twice as strong as the low dose -- though, confusingly, this bottle also calls itself "low dose" -- there's minimal potent smoke-y weed taste involved compared to MXXN.

The doubled dosage takes hold after the standard 45 minutes. It does make me feel a little more detached from my anxiety, allowing me to step outside the invasive thoughts that keep me from reading the same article for more than three minutes at a time. It also put me to sleep after only five minutes of watching The Office reruns, so... mission accomplished.

Berry cocktail: B+

One of Nowadays' newer offerings is a premixed canned cocktail. These clock in at five milligrams of THC in a 12 ounce can. As someone who uses this as a sleep aid I like the smaller volume version, but if it tastes good all will be forgiven.

It smells like raspberry and has some canned seltzer hallmarks within. But it's more sour than I'd expect, leaning into that acidic background the bottles of Nowadays do so well. The berries are a broad pastiche of tart fruit, which isn't really a problem but slightly generic. Or maybe I just want more blueberries because, well, blueberries are great.

Ultimately, it tastes fine, if sorta defined by that tartness. It's sweet enough that you aren't turned off, and it's easy to keep coming back to. After an hour I feel pleasant. Not buzzed or high, but nice. Calm. Ready for bed. That's exactly what I was looking for. Nice.

Citrus cocktail: B

Since the Nowadays bottles are vaguely citrus to begin with, I feel like this will be pretty solid. It's another five milligram THC dose in a 12 ounce can. A regular can, too; not the slim cans that otherwise dominate the seltzer side of things.

It smells like sour orange once the can is cracked. That pretty much holds true. If Sour Patch Kids made an orange/lemon/lime soda, this is what it would taste like. It does a good job of covering up the weedier elements within, even if it's a very nebulous "CITRUS" flavor. It's also crisp and easy to come back to.

Again, it takes about an hour to kick in but the after effects are nice and calm. I'm able to sleep without too much fuss. My brain is tossed into a mode where I can dig into various weird Wikipedia rabbit holes and read each article to the end, which is a welcome change from my hyper unfocused, 30 tabs open at the same time standard.

Spicy Lime cocktail: B

It smells crisp and bright upon cracking the can, and while I know there's no real juice in here it seems more authentic than similar artificial seltzers. The first sip makes it clear spicy lime is more of a take on a margarita than a lime rickey or a vodka tonic.

The spice is minor; not very strong or bringing much in the realm of heat. You get it a little toward the end, but that's about it. I don't know if I'd want it to have any hot pepper vibes there, but it's still a little disappointing that "spicy" is right on the label but doesn't quite show up in each sip. It does seem to build a bit as you drink more, which at least assuages that concern.

It's also a little hollow toward the end, losing some of the dry, crisp bubbles that make the other cocktails so easy to drink. But it's unique and it seems to work a little faster than the other ones.

Would I drink it instead of a Hamm's?

This is a pass/fail mechanism where I compare whatever I’m drinking to my baseline cheap beer. That’s the standby from the land of sky-blue waters, Hamm’s. So the question to answer is: on a typical day, would I drink Nowadays THC over a cold can of Hamm’s?

They'd be sipped for different reasons than a beer -- again, THC's primary benefit for me is easier sleep -- but yeah, these are pretty great. They deliver their cannabis payload in a way that hides the more herbal aspects of THC drinks better than anyone else in the field right now.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Cannabis Beverage of the Week: Nowadays stands out in a crowded field of THC drinks