When does TGIF take on a new meaning? When the 'F' is not just any Friday, but a First Friday, at the Vertosa HQ in Oakland, CA.
Vertosa creates industry-leading active ingredients for infused products and partners with brands to successfully bring consistent, reliable, quality and stable infused products to market.
Rhythm Sparkling CBD Water is one of those lucky brands. So on a cool Friday evening in February, I jumped on BART to go break bread with our friends at Vertosa, or in this case, eat infused ice cream.
I was shocked to arrive and learn there was actually some non-infused food and beverages there, but I didn't have to look far to see Vertosa founder and Chief Science Officer, Dr. Harold Han's handywork.
First was a stop at the Mimosa station for an 'Infuse Me Mimosa', which consisted of Ginger Ale, Pineapple Juice and 10mg of CBD per 4 ounces. After pouring myself a double Mimosa, listening to the beats pumping from the house DJ, and meeting Dr. Alison Ash from Turnon.love, who spoke earlier in the evening about intimacy and cannabis, I was starting to feel pretty social.
After learning about a CBD-infused fortune cookie with fortunes written by San Francisco-based comedians (true story!), I went for the grand finale, the CBD-infused ice cream from SF-based ice cream innovators, Humphry Slocombe.
As you might expect, it tasted amazing! Any hint of CBD was artfully masked by the goodness of all the ingredients. I don't know what the exact flavor was, but along with a vanilla ice cream base, caramel swirls and chocolate chunks were in there.
Even though my dinner was sufficiently spoiled by that point, it was time to head downtown to go eat some non-infused food. Looking forward to what awaits at the next First Friday!