Cocktail Whisperer
No plans for Valentine’s Day? Try making cannabis cocktails at home with your loved one. The combination of spirits and cannabis can elevate you both while keeping you relaxed and ready for anything. Here are five cannabis cocktails to try this February 14th.
Cannabis journalists spread the word on industry-related happenings across the globe. Whether it’s local or international news, these reporters have shared stories on all channels, sometimes gaining traction through just a single tweet.
We love following cannabis journalists on Twitter because they share their own insights about the industry while paying close attention to report accurately and fairly. They allow us to partake in experiences with them, whether it’s baking ziti, traveling the world, or learning incredibly timely updates in the industry.
This holiday season, we wanted to give thanks to these cannabis journalists who allow us to get a glance at their perspectives. We thought a great way to show our appreciation would be to showcase some of these rockstar reporters. So, we’ve compiled a list of our 11 favorite cannabis journalists to follow on Twitter.
We thought the number 11 would be a perfect fit. Some say it’s unbalanced. Asymmetrical. We think there’s something special about this truly unique number. Even though 11 can’t begin to quantify the number of journalists we love to follow on Twitter, we thought it’d be a great start to shine some light on some of our favorites.
Warren Bobrow=WB: Where are you from? Why cannabis? Did you go to business school? Who is your mentor?
Derek Peterson=DP: I was born and raised in Massachusetts. Cannabis was always part of the culture in the Northeast and I never took to binge drinking alongside my peers in high school and college. I used cannabis recreationally in my younger years, but it wasn’t until an extraordinary surfing accident later in life that led me to truly understand and appreciate medical cannabis. I fractured a vertebrae in my neck and have used cannabis to manage the daily residual pain from that injury for the past 13 years. I put myself through Pepperdine studying finance and business. As a college student I tended bar to pay my bills and it was there that I met a gentleman named Mike Zacarro who worked in finance and encouraged me to intern for him while I finished my degree.
John Moynan, General Counsel for SLANG Worldwide
Warren Bobrow: Where are you from? Why cannabis? Did you go to law school? Who is your mentor?
John Moynan: I’m originally a Southern California guy, but Colorado has been my home since I moved to Boulder to attend the University of Colorado School of Law in the summer of 2013. The first ever recreational marijuana sales occurred about six months later. At that point, there was a palpable buzz about the industry and its potential throughout Colorado. However, most seasoned lawyers and firms were reluctant to start representing cannabis clients. That summer, I was in need of an internship and the industry was in need of people with a legal skillset. Fortunately, I was matched up to work with the General Counsel for O.penVAPE, who at that time may have been the first ever GC in the adult use cannabis industry. He was not only my first professional boss, but also my first legal mentor. My favorite bit of advice from him has been “good lawyers negotiate points, great lawyers align incentives.” I’ve been lucky enough to be surrounded by a handful of professional mentors along the way that have helped me define my career path and shape my skill set. Much of that has been by way of legal mentorship, but I’ve also been extremely fortunate to partner with a group of amazing entrepreneurs through my career, many of whom are still with or around the company, and continue to facilitate my growth as an executive on a daily basis. One of the great things about working at SLANG, is our cultural commitment to mentorship– from the c-suite to customer service, we’re all mentors and we strive to raise one another up.
Warren Bobrow=WB: Please tell me about yourself. What path did you take to cannabis (CBD)? Why cannabis?
Gunhee Park=GP: My name is Gunhee Park, and I’m the founder of Populum. I’m originally from South Korea and I immigrated to the US when I was 15. Growing up, I had a lot of health issues where my mom would have to make weekly visits to the doctor. During that time, my mom also turned to traditional Eastern herbal medicine, investing a lot of time and effort in getting me all these plant-based supplements. The most exotic supplement I’ve tried is a Divlji ginseng. These strains grow undisturbed deep in the mountains for decades and is supposed to be more potent (and effective) than regular farm cultivated ginseng. CBD piqued my interest in 2015, as I became more familiar with the hemp plant. While I initially enjoyed the nutritional advantages of eating hemp seeds and protein, I was particularly drawn to hemp-derived CBD for its benefits as a plant-based supplement. At the same time, I was initially skeptical with CBD as I often found exaggerated claims from brands that promote CBD oil as some form of cure-all. After spending some time looking for reputable and trustworthy products, I realized how difficult it was to find a brand that was transparent and honest about what they were selling. Eventually, I realized that this lack of information and credibility was depriving the public of access to CBD, and through Populum, I set out to help reframe the way people view CBD, and to provide high-quality, trustworthy hemp products to conscious consumers like myself.
Warren Bobrow=WB: Please tell me about yourself.
John Korkidis=JK: I’m a bit of a mixed bag. When most people look at me, I’m not sure they see the son of an immigrant who speaks several languages. But the fact that I am easily slept on, typically often gives me an upper hand. Little known fact: I dropped out of college in NY where I was studying graphic design and spent most of my 20’s living and working in China as a creative. During my time there I cut my teeth in various agency roles and had the honor of working closely with the artist Ai Weiwei in his Beijing studio. Ultimately, I came back to the US (San Francisco) after taking a job with a large Chinese social media company, MOMO (NASDAQ) to help develop new mobile products for the US market. I fell in love with the Bay Area immediately but over the course of about 5 years of working in high-pressure performance marketing roles, my love affair with the tech scene started to fade and I began turning to my hobbies as a creative outlet. Hence the birth of my beverage platform Chron Vivant.
Warren Bobrow=WB: Why cannabis? What brought you to this path?
Paul Botto=PB: I had a catastrophic leg injury where I nearly had my leg amputated and was in the hospital for over two weeks. When I came out of the hospital, I was immediately put on 48mg of Dilaudid, which is 2.5x the clinical definition of “opiate dependency.” I heard you could treat pain and wean yourself off of opiates much faster through cannabis. With five surgeries, 23 screws, and three plates stacked up against me, I set out to learn about its benefits and experiment on myself to get off that killer cocktail as soon as humanly possible. This happened nearly three years ago, when the market was even more nascent than it is now. I was so impressed with my own recovery experience with cannabis that I was determined to turn it into my next business. While I was raising capital for the new venture and building out a retail team, my business partner Larry Levy, who I worked with at my last company in supply chain data technology, called me and excitedly pitched his idea for us to go into business together. Coincidentally, he had the same idea to make the leap into the cannabis industry. After I told him what happened since we had last spoken, he yelled, “Brilliant! I mean, sorry about your leg, but it is an even better fit than I had hoped!”
Not only can you see my incredible 5 Questions for Forbes Vices! here but you can also go to the source!! Click link below.
Cheers!!
Raki is an all-purpose, age-old remedy for any and every occasion. The signature sweetened, anise-flavoured drink of Turkey is “the go-to spirit for celebrating a promotion or a birthday or for muting the pain of a job loss or the end of a relationship,” notes an article on CNN Travel.
As Canadians celebrate legalization 2.0, raki is also the recommended choice for a THC infusion, Bosporus cocktail. “The infused mix is delicious and gets you stoned without anyone smelling anything—it’s a non-confrontational way to consume cannabis,” Warren Bobrow, known as the Cocktail Whisperer in the hospitality industry, tells The GrowthOp.
Mixologist, bartender and contributing writer for Forbes, Bobrow is the author of, among other books, Cannabis Cocktails, Mocktails & Tonics: The Art of Spirited Drinks and Buzz-Worthy Libations.
His only piece of advice: “The cannabis strain that you use must not be CBD. In my opinion, CBD is useless; I don’t work with hemp, either. It does nothing other than lighten your pocketbook,” he says.
Cannagars are my passion and the people who make them are equally as intriguing. I love to seek cannagars out in my quest to discover the art of ultra-high-end cannabis. Until a couple of years ago, no one had any idea what a cannagar was, or what valuable ingredients goes into one. That was then.
When Christopher Louie moved to Colorado from New York, the market had not been established yet. He saw the financial opportunity to do something brilliant and educational too. To smoke one a hand-made Xiaolin Cannagar is an emotional and philosophical experience. And while not everyone can say that they’ve enjoyed a Xiaolin Cannagar, they are available legally in Colorado.
