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The Leaf

PLEASE WELCOME to the LEAF

Legendary “Cocktail Whisperer” and “Cannabis Whisperer” and famed mixologist WARREN BOBROW

With weed stories, NYC club stories, and the do’s and don’ts of creating your own finest cannabis cocktails

The Leaf: Warren Bobrow

This Wed High Noon PST (3pm EST) with our smokin’ Host CHIP Z’NUFF

on the Monsters of Rock channel on Dash Radio – https://dashradio.com/monstersofrock

Much more to come on THE LEAF!!  You ain’t seen nuthin yet!!

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Klaus Reviews

23 Valentine Gift Ideas for Him or Her

https://ganjly.com/12-thoughtful-and-one-of-a-kind-cannabis-gift-ideas-for-valentines/

Cannabis Cocktails, Mocktails and Tonics Recipe Book by Warren Bobrow,

Cannabis Cocktails Mocktails & Tonics Warren Bobrow

Warren Bobrow is a chef, mixologist, and a 6-time published author. He came up with a recipe book called Cannabis Cocktails, Mocktails, and Tonics – The Art of Spirited Drinks and Buzz-worthy libations. This book is amazing and has a collection of 75 unique drink recipes including coffee, tea, lemonade, and milk-based beverages. In this book, Warren will also teach you how to de-carb cannabis in the correct way to release its full psychoactive effects. Get it for your loved one for $15.

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Articles Klaus Klaus Apothicaire Reviews

Curtis McMillan (@manindabag) TikTok Review

@DjManindabag

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Klaus Skunk Magazine

LADRAA (EL BLUNTO) GETS BUSY IN MASSACHUSETTS: REV BRANDS PARTNERS WITH EL BLUNTO

Boston, MA (January 24, 2023) – Leading Massachusetts cannabis retailer and wholesaler Rev Brands is partnering with El Blunto, America’s top blunt producer, to bring their one-of-a-kind cannabis products to the Massachusetts market. El Blunto implements an evolution of historic cigar-making tradition that borrows age-old techniques from master cigar rollers to create products of the highest caliber with the highest level of finishing.

“National expansion and product accessibility has been a fundamental part of our growth strategy at El Blunto and an integral part of our success,” said Q. Ladraa, CEO and founder of Albert Einstone’s, El Blunto’s parent company. “We are delighted to be partnering with Rev Clinics, which is the number one distributor in Massachusetts and has a glowing reputation for being a standard-bearer in product quality and customer service.”

marijuana-culture-industry-business-alliances-cooperatives-unwrapped-weed-blunts
Photo Caption: Q. Ladraa

El Blunto’s line of cannabis products uses top-shelf, indoor premium quality flower that is broken down by hand, never ground, to ensure maximum terpene preservation, highest potency, and longest burn time. They are then hand-rolled in a 100% tobacco-free wrap made from all-natural fibers and sealed with El Blunto’s in-house cigar glue to guarantee a clean and superior product.

“We’re thrilled to be partnering with El Blunto to introduce this incredible brand to the Massachusetts market,” said Tom Schneider, Chief Marketing Officer of Rev Brands. “The uniqueness and superb quality of these glass-tipped, whole flower blunts are what has us most excited about the partnership, and we look forward to sharing it with our customers and retail partners alike.”

The partnership will launch with ‘El Blunto Gold,’ which will be available as a single 1.75g blunt for $30 at all three Revolutionary Clinics medical dispensaries in Cambridge and Somerville and at leading dispensaries throughout Massachusetts.

marijuana-culture-industry-business-alliances-cooperatives-various-blunt-products
Photo Credit: Q. Ladraa

Rev Brands and El Blunto plan to roll out additional products including El Blunto’s mini blunts and mini-blunt packs (El Bluntito and El Bluntito 4-packs respectively) and their ‘Rose Gold’ (infused with melty ice-water hash) and ‘Platinum’ (infused with premium THCa diamonds) line-ups in the coming months. To learn more, visit www.revbrands.org.

ABOUT REV BRANDS

Founded in 2018, Rev Brands is a leading cannabis manufacturer and wholesale operator exclusive to Massachusetts. Rev Brands is committed to delivering greater reliability from seed through service with a focus on quality and variety in its product lines. Rev Brands is guided by customer feedback to meet the demand for novel products and searches for the most unique and viable strains to deliver high-quality products throughout dispensaries in Massachusetts. Revolutionary Farms, its grow facility in Fitchburg, is the largest and most high-tech in the state with more than thirty-five grow rooms. The facility supplies over 150 retail establishments with sought-after products and flower. Rev Brands employs more than 250 employees across its manufacturing and wholesale operations and proudly supports the local industry by using local vendors and donating time and money to community causes. To learn more, visit https://revbrands.org/ or follow along on social at @rev_clinics.

marijuana-culture-industry-business-alliances-cooperatives-elblunto-logo

ABOUT EL BLUNTO 

El Blunto is a California-based cannabis brand that offers ‘The World’s Finest Cannabis Experience’. Born from a passion for craftsmanship and quality, El Blunto is an evolution of the historic cigar-making tradition. Borrowing age-old techniques from master cigar rollers, we create products of the highest caliber with the highest level of finishing. Product design and development is approached like a true science, ensuring customers get the same, phenomenal experience every single time. The El Blunto lineup includes El Blunto (cannabis cigar), El Bluntito (mini-blunts), El Jointo and El Jointito (joints and mini-joints), as well as pouches of full-flower and Roll Your Own Blunt Kits. El Blunto products are available in 1000+ dispensaries across the United States. El Blunto is a subsidiary of Albert Einstone’s. For more information, visit www.alberteinstones.com.

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Articles Klaus Klaus Apothicaire Reviews

The Key to Combining Cannabis and Mixology? Remove the Booze.

Led by longtime drinks professionals, brands like MXXN and Klaus think THC can thrive in cocktail culture, sans the alcohol

BY KIRK MILLER / APRIL 20, 2022 6:25 AM

The worlds of THC and alcohol haven’t really crossed over, and to be honest, that’s probably for the best. Not all potentially buzzy experiences need to or should be intertwined.

But if you take away booze from that crossover while keeping the idea of mixology in place, suddenly the small but growing industry of bartender-friendly, cannabinoid-infused “spirits” and mixers makes more sense.

We’ve covered this meeting-of-minds before, although not specifically related to THC, the main psychoactive compound in cannabis. First there’s Flyers, a line of alcohol-free sparkling cannabis cocktails with full-spectrum CBD distillates that are crafted, in part, by award-winning mixologist Ivy Mix. Then there’s The Pathfinder Hemp & Root, a non-alcoholic “spirit” fermented and distilled from hemp; two of the three founders have extensive liquor brand experience, and the mixer works nicely in both boozy and non-boozy drinks. 

When I spoke with the founders of those drinks brands, they all suggested that THC-infused variations were on the way.

One that’s already here? MXXN (pronounced “moon”). The BIPOC-founded brand claims to be the spirit industry’s first 1:1 non-alcoholic and THC-infused replacement for gin, tequila and bourbon. The company is led by Darnell Smith, a booze industry vet with over 15 years of experience at Diageo, Pernod Ricard and Bacardi. 

“I was working in the spirits industry in product innovation and found myself drinking more than I cared to due to the nature of the profession,” Smith tells InsideHook. “I was looking for a way to cut back on alcohol but still take part in the social aspects associated with drinking and cocktail culture. And I had been a consumer of cannabis for chronic pain after 15 years as a football player and would make my own tinctures at home, so I started bringing the tinctures out to social events, ordering a tonic and lime and putting a few drops in. My wife encouraged me to find a way to bring the tincture and tonic idea to the public in some capacity.”

MXXN’s website offers variations on well-known cocktails, although the proportions are interesting, given the idea that you’re getting about 6 mg of THC per 1.5 oz pour — an Old Fashioned riff, for example, suggests a very small .75 oz measurement of MXXN’s Kentucky Oak, as opposed to a standard 2 oz pour if you were using a regular bourbon.

An Old Fashioned made from The Pathfinder, a n/a hemp spirit that actually works well in boozy cocktails

Review: The Pathfinder Is a Non-Alcoholic Spirit That Shines in Boozy Drinks

We were recently able to try MXXN Jalisco Agave (the drink is available in California and direct-to-consumer in a few markets). It’s a cloudy, straw-colored liquid with grassy and floral notes. On the palate, it’s soft but also spicy and with a pronounced salinity — it’s not offensive on its own, but it feels much better suited for a cocktail. I turned my initial small pour into a very nice Paloma alternative, which lacked the usual alcohol “kick” but maintained the essence of agave and heightened the grapefruit notes (while also a touch of spice). 

I’m not alone in my thoughts on how the product mixes. “When we started MXXN, we were trying to emulate the tastes of spirits in standalone form,” explains Smith, who also notes that bartenders were consistently giving feedback during the product’s formulation. “But we found it to be extremely difficult to find a substitute for the specific flavor and profile ethanol provides in that form, so we pivoted a bit to create a product that emulates the base flavor profiles of these spirits when mixed in a cocktail with other ingredients.”https://www.instagram.com/p/Ca-Ypv9Ma0X/embed/captioned/?cr=1&v=12

The recipe wasn’t an easy process. In the brand’s early stages, the technology wasn’t there to get the THC evenly distributed throughout the base formula (“Which for dosing reasons was an obvious problem,” Smith notes). They eventually utilized nanoemulsion technology from Vertosa to solve that problem, but the company also had to finalize the flavor profile and make the product shelf-stable, which proved more difficult to do without alcohol while still utilizing natural ingredients. 

In the end, Smith thinks products like MXXN will appeal to the health-conscious (and non-boozy drinkers), but also believes they offer real potential to unite the worlds of drinks and cannabis.

“We’re not here to completely replace your booze or how you consume it,” he says. “We’re here to provide a new experience and evolve cocktail culture.”

Klaus takes a different approach. And that involves a gnome.

Just launched, Klaus is a ready-to-drink (RTD) cocktail in a can, albeit with a “10 mg terpene-forward cannabis emulsion per drink” as opposed to a boozy ABV. These were crafted by popular mixologist Warren Bobrow, who credits…well, I’ll have him explain.

“The inspiration for my product, funnily enough, was my drinking gnome named Klaus,” says Bobrow. “Klaus traveled the world with me in my prior career in liquor sales. He also came with me to competitions where I served as a rum judge for both the Ministry of Rum and the Florida-based Rum XP.” (That association explains the launch of Klaus with Mezzrole, a take on the classic Ti’ Punch.)

As Bobrow remembers, he was signing copies of his drinks guide Bitters and Shrub Syrup Cocktails at the Pharmacy Museum when noticed an exhibit named “Cannabis in the Early Apothecary,” which led to an idea for his next book, Cannabis Cocktails, Mocktails and Tonics. And the success of that book led to the idea of creating a canned, THC-infused cocktail. 

(Yes, but the actual gnome influence? “To me, Klaus is much more than just a German drinking gnome. He represents goodness, kindness and the amalgamation of my life experiences. Sure, he loves to drink, but he’s recently switched over to my refreshing infused mocktails.”)

For Bobrow, it was not an issue emphasizing the cannabis aspects of his drink. “The ‘craft’ in craft cocktails isn’t always about the liquor. It’s the balance of the ingredients,” he says. “My Mezzrole cocktail — named for Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet’s friend and cannabis dealer, Mezz Mezzrow — has no alcohol, but it’s terpene-forward. It smells like a perfectly cured cannabis bud and provides consumers with a lovely, relaxing, talkative yet grounded feeling.” (It’s apparently also great for sleep. We’ll have samples soon to review.) https://www.instagram.com/p/CZ2ObaFDuqb/embed/captioned/?cr=1&v=12

Unlike some of his peers, Bobrow feels THC is a versatile and somewhat enviable ingredient to work into mixed drinks.

“It can be flavored with terpenes as an adjunct to the other fine ingredients in a craft cocktail, or it can be flavorless and woven into a seltzer,” he says. “To me, the process is not challenging because cannabis possesses terroir. The plant embodies the taste of the place it was grown, like wine, except there are perhaps even more terpenes in cannabis than wine.”

As for serving suggestions, Klaus’s drinks — which will soon include a riff on the Tiki classic Zombie — only have 16 calories and 0.6 grams of sugar per can; each of those 8 oz cans features 10 mg THC, which Bobrow estimates is perfect for two drinks and a nice mental middle ground. “We’re somewhere between a microdose and the opposite end where the effects are a little too strong.”

https://www.instagram.com/drinkklaus/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=6cf1c6e0-4a98-4a77-9cd6-aba561850ae6

Even if their approaches (and taste profiles) differ, Bobrow and Smith share a similar audience expectation: health-conscious, social, open to a “buzz” but wanting to feel better in the next morning.

“Many folks in my former world of liquor struggle with alcohol, and several have already reached out to tell me how much this beverage means to them,” says Bobrow. “Alcohol and cannabis provide different experiences. I feel out of control when drinking liquor, and I think a lot of people can relate. But I’m not here to preach. I’m here to make the world’s best craft cannabis libations and raise the bar.”

https://www.insidehook.com/article/booze/mixology-cannabis-thc-spirits-klaus-mxxn/amp

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Articles Klaus Klaus Apothicaire

Leaf Magazine’s Cannabis Edibles Hall of Fame

Introducing the first ten inaugural inductees into our Leaf Magazine Cannabis Edibles Hall of Fame honoring lasting contributions to the world of marijuana-infused foods. These pioneers and legends changed the way we consume weed, from brownies to beverages and beyond. Send your nominations for future inclusion to dan@leafmagazines.com. 

Warren Bobrow a.k.a. The Cocktail Whisperer

Author, chef, mixologist and “Cannabis Alchemist” Warren Bobrow got his start in the alcohol industry, having studied food writing at New School University and the French Culinary Institute. He’s also written multiple books, including “Apothecary Cocktails, Whiskey Cocktails, Bitters and Shrub Syrup Cocktails” and “The Craft Cocktail Compendium.” His 2016 book, “Cannabis Cocktails, Mocktails & Tonics: The Art of Spirited Drinks & Buzz-Worthy Libations,” introduced the mainstream to marijuana-infused liquid beverages – now an entire segment of the legal weed industry. In fact, he’s also the co-founder and CEO of Klaus (@drinkklaus), creating terpene-forward craft Cannabis cocktails for the marijuana marketplace. 

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Interviews Klaus

From craft cocktails to weed mocktails: How Warren Bobrow of Klaus reinvented cannabis in a can

Warren Bobrow fell in love with cannabis long before he took his first sip of alcohol. But when talent with mixing earned him the moniker, “The Cocktail Whisperer,” alcohol took center stage in his career. As Bobrow puts it, “I was a pretty established drinker—people would come to me and say I made them the best drink they’d ever had.” But swearing off the hard stuff in 2018 has allowed him to bring his true love to the fore without sacrificing his passion for intoxicating concoctions. Now, the only cocktail whispering Bobrow does involves cannabis, his go-to secret weapon for the perfect drink. 

Before Bobrow became a world-renowned cocktail connoisseur, his dream was to become a chef. But as he is quick to point out, he started from the bottom up. “I’ve worked plenty of the least glamorous jobs in the industry,” he says, recalling his first job washing dishes in York Harbor, Maine. “Working as a dishwasher teaches you to work hard and be diligent and treat people exceptionally well, because you never know when they’ll come back into your life. Always, always be nice to the dishwasher.” 

The grunt work paid off when Bobrow trained as a chef and started his own fresh pasta manufacturing business. He lost the business in 1989 after Hurricane Hugo, and was deep enough in debt to accept the necessity of a twenty-year detour in banking–though he hated every minute of it. In 2009, he took the chance to reinvent himself. “I took some classes with the New School in food writing and became a published food writer,” says Bobrow, referencing his tenure with publications such as Saveur Magazine. “Then that led to six books on cocktail making, and it seemed to work out very, very well for me.”

According to Bobrow, his foray into writing didn’t necessarily turn down the pressure of the service industry. “My publisher only gave me a month for each of my books,” he says, cheekily suggesting that if you can’t write 160,000 words in a month you have no business in publishing. “But I’ve been writing magazine articles all over the world, so that’s easy for me.” 

Asked how he comes up with his recipes, he just shakes his head. “I dreamt them up. I sleep on my successes—everything that I come up with is delicious, I just can’t explain it.” Of course, not all of his material was dreamed into existence—in his 2013 book, Apothecary Cocktails, Bobrow drew on the centuries-old history of herbal concoctions for curing ailments. He argued that drinks like the Milk Thistle Spritz or Lemon Balm Gin and Tonic do more than just intoxicate—they heal. 

When a promotional tour for one of his books took him to the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum, which featured a temporary exhibit on the history of medicinal cannabis, something clicked. He began to see that his beloved potions didn’t need to involve liquor, a substance which no longer felt medicinal to him. “After seeing the exhibit I knew immediately what I was going to do with the rest of my life,” he says. The deal was sealed when he enrolled in the New Jersey medical program and successfully used cannabis to treat a terrible case of glaucoma that had been plaguing him for years. In 2016, Fair Winds Press published Bobrow’s Cannabis Cocktails, Mocktails & Tonics.

warren bobrow

Now on its tenth printing, the book contains tasting notes and descriptors that illuminate the medicinal and recreational aspects of the plant. Recipes often combine cannabis with alcohol—though with caution—but  are focused on cannabis.  In addition to cocktails and mocktails, the  primer contains basic recipes for butter, oils, tinctures, and creams, followed by a plethora of fun and healing ways to apply the infusions. 

Of course, making a craft cannabis cocktail from scratch is a whole lot of work, and it’s perhaps best left in the hands of the master himself. So it’s no surprise that as cannabis beverages storm the market, Bobrow is throwing his hat in the ring to show us how it’s done. Enter Klaus, a craft cannabis cocktail company named for Bobrow’s Internet-famous traveling “1850s German drinking gnome,” who apparently now agrees that cannabis cocktails are to be preferred. 

“It’s not like one of those seltzers that, you know, people are chugging to get stoned,” Bobrow insists. “This is a carefully composed craft cocktail that’s made with love and non-industrialized ingredients.” 

The cocktail currently on offer is called the Mezzrole, named for Mezz Mezzrow, a jazz clarinetist who earned his notoriety in the Swinging 20s for being the weed dealer to Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, and Bix Beiderbeck. The ingredients include Pickett’s Hot N’ Spicy ginger syrup, Les Vergers Boiron Lime, and Fee Brothers Bitters. And Bowbrow is careful not to offset the medicinal aspects by overloading the drink with sugar. “I’m very sugar-conscious,” Bobrow says. “Added sugar is a big problem in the liquor industry, so we’ve only added 6/10 of a gram of sugar.” 

And of course, as the star of the show, the cannabis is just as lovingly selected. “I’m using an emulsion created by a company called Virtuosa in Oakland, California, a cannabis-infused nanotechnology based on coconut oil,” he says. “It’s a beautiful product that gets you really high.” 

For the time being, California is the only market that can benefit from his potions, and even then supplies are limited. “This is carefully, carefully crafted with small run, small producer products that are not industrialized—we’re not making 20,000 cans, we’re making 5,000 cans,” he says. Though he hopes to increase his reach eventually, at the moment Bobrow is content to be clamored for. “There’s nothing wrong with saying that you have the best tasting beverage that no one can buy,” Bobrow says. ”But eventually the market is going to demand it.” At least Bobrow hasn’t left us completely without recourse while we await the day we can pop open a can of Klaus. In the meantime, we can flip open Cannabis Cocktails, Mocktails & Tonics to try our own hand at a cannabis concoction—if only to better appreciate the beverage when it arrives.

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Different Leaf Klaus Reviews

Different Leaf loves Klaus!

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Clio Awards – Bronze!

Klaus

The Topography of Visual Positioning Via Experimental Videos

Entrant Company: MAMUS Creative

Medium: Social Media | Category: Single Platform

City / Country: Tampa / United States of America | Year: 2022 Play

Klaus: The Topography of Visual Positioning Via Experimental Videos
Klaus: The Topography of Visual Positioning Via Experimental Videos
Klaus: The Topography of Visual Positioning Via Experimental Videos
Klaus: The Topography of Visual Positioning Via Experimental Videos
Klaus: The Topography of Visual Positioning Via Experimental Videos
Klaus: The Topography of Visual Positioning Via Experimental Videos
Klaus: The Topography of Visual Positioning Via Experimental Videos
Klaus: The Topography of Visual Positioning Via Experimental Videos
Klaus: The Topography of Visual Positioning Via Experimental Videos
Klaus: The Topography of Visual Positioning Via Experimental Videos

Credits

Entrant Company: MAMUS Creative, Tampa
Public Relations Agency: MATTIO Communications, New York
Design Company: MAMUS Creative, Tampa
Chief Creative Officer: John Mamus / MAMUS Creative
Creative Director: Masako Di Dio / MAMUS Creative
Illustrator: Danilo De Donno / MAMUS Creative
Website Development: Bob Plaskon / MAMUS Creative

This Clio Cannabis 2022 Bronze winning entry titled ‘The Topography of Visual Positioning Via Experimental Videos’ was entered for Klaus by MAMUS Creative. This piece was submitted to the Social Media medium within the Single Platform category. It consists of 1 video and 10 images.