With the Fourth of July holiday recently in the rearview mirror — and Labor Day just barely visible on the horizon — the country has entered peak picnic season.
For the next several weeks, acres of gingham blankets will be unfurled in grassy parkscapes coast to coast upon which thousands of wicker hampers will disgorge their comestible contents for the benefit of those who wish to dine al fresco. And with 19 states now allowing recreational consumption of cannabis by those 21 and over, there's a fair chance that a pot product or two will be along for the ride.
As anyone who has left the corkscrew back on the kitchen counter can tell you, the first law of picnic dynamics is that the more effort you put into planning your picnic on the front end, the greater the benefits you'll reap on the back end. And that goes double if you're planning to herbally enhance the plein air experience of your way back in the backyard hang (or wherever else you're legally consuming — laws vary from state to state). However, because a lot of sesh stuff that comes off as cool when it's sitting on your coffee table (like a gravity bong for example) turns out to be unwieldy or impractical out in the great wide open, what's a nature-loving weed head to do?
To help answer that question, I turned to two people whose enthusiasm for all things weed is rivaled perhaps only by their love of traveling and picnics: YouTube cannabis content creators Alice and Clark Campbell, a.k.a. That High Couple. I recently asked them to pack a picnic basket (they packed two), grab a blanket and meet me at a grassy, tree-dotted park not far from their Van Nuys apartment.
There, in addition to a range of festive foodstuffs (think strawberries, a trio of cheeses, a crusty baguette and a cluster of grapes worthy of a Roman emperor), they shared some of their go-to weedstuffs (if that isn't a word, it should be). And, even if only one or two of the below make it into your wicker basket this season, you'll still be well on your way to the perfect high summer picnic.
Savory snacks are an integral part of any picnic spread, and front and center in That High Couple's hamper was a bright orange bag of Fiery Hot cannabis crunchers. Think of these extruded, corn-based, fire-dusted hotties as the stoner cousin of Cheetos where the only thing (relatively) mild is the 10 milligrams of THC per single-serving, 1-ounce bag. (If you've got a crowd clamoring for savory snacks, you're good there too. In June, the brand rolled out bigger 100 milligram bags of Fiery Hot along with its other flagship flavors: Hint of Lime, Zesty Ranch, Classic Cheese and Salsa Verde.) tsumosnacks.com
No married couple agrees on everything, and for the Campbells one rare difference of opinion in the picnic-packing comes in the THC-infused beverage department. In this instance, Alice is all about the just-launched Mary Jones line of sodas from 25-year-old, Seattle-based craft soda maker Jones Soda Co., which adds 10 milligrams of THC to 12-ounce bottles of four of its most popular flavors (green apple and root beer, among them). "All through high school my friends and I would do photo shoots to try and get on the Jones Soda bottles because they were all [user] submitted," she said. gomaryjones.com
"She's reliving her high school years," Clark quipped. "[And] I'm reliving my college years with PBR." With that, he held aloft two skinny cans emblazoned with the iconic Pabst Blue Ribbon logo. Instead of beer, though, each can contained a nonalcoholic flavored seltzer (in this case, strawberry kiwi in one hand and pineapple passion fruit in the other) and 10 milligrams of THC. "I have many fond memories of beer pong and just celebrating with PBRs." pabstlabs.com
"On the sweet side here, we've got some Camino gummies," Alice said, explaining that the comparatively low dose (5 milligrams of THC per gummy) and lack of a finger-stickying sugar dusting made them a good on-the-go option. Clark added that the Watermelon Lemonade version in particular struck the right note.
"That's the kind of flavor I look for when I go picnicking," he said. "Something that tastes like a bite of summer — it's super citrusy." kivaconfections.com/brand/camino
Even when you’re not necessarily trying to get high on the sly, there’s something about the tranquil, outdoorsy atmosphere of the picnic that feels tailor-made for stealth smoking gear. And That High Couple has no shortage of that, including an Empire Glassworks pipe that resembles a mini baguette, a cheeseburger-shaped stash jar and a pipe shaped like a slice of pepperoni pizza. Clark’s favorite in this department looks like one of those ubiquitous wide-mouth Nalgene water bottles. It’s only when part of the screw-on cap is flipped up to reveal a hidden ceramic bowl that you’ll realize it’s actually a portable — and very under-the-radar bong called the Budsy.
Although it can still be purchased online, the company behind it, Puffco, has stopped making it and is now focused on a smaller (and even more stealth) silhouette designed to resemble a to-go coffee cup and dubbed the Cupsy. puffco.com
Sharing your picnic blanket doesn't have to mean sharing clouds of secondhand smoke thanks to the final item Alice plucked from her vintage picnic basket and held aloft — a personal air filter called the Sploofy. "Remember exhaling into toilet paper tubes filled with dryer sheets to cut down on the smell? That's what inspired this," she said.
In an email confirming Alice's origin tale, company founder Brian Huynh explained that his homage to the old-school smoke-suppressing trick has a three-part filtration system: a foam pre-filter for diffusing larger smoke particles, a HEPA filter for capturing the smoke and activated carbon to neutralize the smell.
Since launching the direct-to-consumer company out of his San Gabriel Valley garage in 2015, Huynh says he's sold more than 1 million filters, which means the only thing you're smelling now is the sweet smell of success. sploofybrand.com
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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