#107- How Family Experiences with Fragile X Led to the Start of Tribe CBD

Introduction

Alec  00:01

For me, personally, the reason why I wanted to get into CBD was, I was more focused on the marijuana side of things. I thought that that was really exciting. And then my cousin had a son who has Fragile X, which is a form of autism, and they began to give him CBD every day. And he was actually the first child with Fragile X to take CBD and he worked with the doctor while he was doing it. And so it was an overnight walking, talking more, eating more, like an unbelievable transformation that my family was — it’s a pretty conservative family and we were all just completely blown away, like what the hell just happened.

 

Vadim  00:46

All right. And we are back in class. This is Vadim, the CBD professor from cbdschool.com: Your school to learn all about cannabidiol. Hey, CBD School listeners, this is Vadim, the CBD professor here and I want to tell you a little bit about the guest and sponsor for this episode of the CBD School Podcast, Tribe CBD. Visit them at tribecbd.com, that’s spelled TRIBECBD.com. And just for you, the lovely listeners of the CBD School Podcast, we’ve got a great discount code. Use the coupon code cbdschool30 to score a 30% off discount on any of Tribe CBD’s broad-spectrum CBD products. They’ve got tinctures, topicals. They’re soon going to have gummy bears by the time this episode comes out, and they’ve also got energy shots for both daytime and nighttime. To grab that discount, make sure to use the coupon code cbdschool30  for 30% off at tribecbd.com. Again, that’s tribecbd.com, which is spelled TRIBEcbd.com. Thanks for listening and enjoy the show. 

 

On today’s episode of the CBD School Podcast, I am joined by Alec who is the owner of Tribe CBD. And welcome to the show, Alex — Alec. I’m sorry. I’m probably gonna do that a few times. 

 

Alec  02:27

No worries. No worries. Thank you for having me.

 

Vadim  02:29

Yeah, I’m sure you’ve dealt with that all your life. People saying Alex instead of Alec.

 

Alec  02:33

I have. You know, I actually asked my parents about that. I asked my mom, like, “Why do you name me Alec? Why not Alex?” And she’s like, “Actually, I had a crush on Alec Baldwin,” which is not, you know, extremely awesome, but just a little tidbit. 

 

Vadim  02:48

I actually like Alec Baldwin, so that’s, yeah, I’m fine with that. Well, welcome again to the show. It’s nice to have you here. We were bantering a little bit beforehand. But I always like to let the listeners know where the guest is currently. So where are you calling from?

 

Alec  03:03

I’m calling from Denver, Colorado. That’s where we’re based out of. We’ve been in the cannabis business out here for about 10 years. So we’ve been out here for a while.

 

Vadim  03:12

Oh, cool. So not just CBD.

 

Alec  03:14

Yeah, my partner’s background is in more of the marijuana side. And he has dispensaries out here that, you know, the retailer locations that actually sell marijuana. And then he also has a product company where he makes concentrates and other products and sells them in a lot of dispensaries out here. 

 

Cannabis Scene in Colorado

 

Vadim  03:31

Great. So we’ll have plenty to talk about. What is your overall opinion on the whole scene out there in Colorado with the legal space?

 

Alec  03:39

Well, in terms of marijuana or CBD specifically? 

 

Vadim  03:45

Oh, both, but I bet the marijuana first off.

 

Alec  03:47

Got it. Yeah. I mean, you know, it’s been very progressive out here since the beginning, you know, of course, and so it’s a great spot to be. This is kind of where everything started. And that’s why I moved out here. My cousin is from here. He’s the one who owns those businesses. And I started working with him on some things. And that’s ultimately what brought me out here. And it’s a great scene. I mean, there’s a lot of cannabis companies out here. Just a ton that started out here and that now they’re in multiple states, and a lot of them are based out of here. So a lot of the, you know, people who were in the beginning that were pioneering the space are based out of here, which is really exciting.

 

Vadim  04:24

Yes, I imagined. Like I was telling you before in 2016, I worked at a few of the cannabis growers in Colorado, not in Denver. Oh, actually, one was in Denver. It was in a warehouse. Like many of them are.

 

Alec  04:38

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

 

Vadim  04:39

I think it’s still there, probably. I guess they kind of put them on the outskirts of the city.

 

Alec  04:43

Yeah, they do kind of hide them. You can actually smell a lot of them from, you know, a quarter mile away even so. They kind of put them on the outskirts.

 

Vadim  04:53

But I mean, moving on to CBD, like how has that changed or affected the space there?

 

Alec  05:00

You know, I think that even though a lot of companies are based out here that are CBD companies, it’s more of a national business, you know. You’re not just operating here in Colorado. So it’s very different from the marijuana side of things where doing business in multiple states is extremely difficult. You have to have processing facilities and offices in multiple states. You know, with CBD, you don’t have to do that. So being based out here, you know, there’s not too many laws out here that have really affected us in terms of CBD. Again, Colorado is pretty progressive about it, and they’re very welcoming towards it. They are very tough when it comes to vetting companies that can sell products in the city of Denver. Other than that, we haven’t had any issues.

 

Vadim  05:41

And I imagine people had been using CBD from marijuana for a long time and purchasing it at dispensaries before it became so widespread.

 

Alec  05:51

Yeah, and that’s kind of how we got started too. We were selling CBD products in dispensaries all over the state. And so we ended up building a brand in the dispensary side of the business. And then we actually pulled everything out of the dispensaries and started selling it in just regular stores that wanted to add CBD products. Just because from a business perspective, it’s just a lot easier than selling in dispensaries. Again, it’s really hard selling, you know, products that are in cannabis dispensaries. You know, there’s just a lot of hoops and things that you have to jump through. But overall, it’s been great for us out here, right? We really like being based out here and very welcoming. 

 

Vadim  06:27

It’s great. One of the first things I always ask people is how did you get into CBD. But obviously, you’ve answered so you actually came from the marijuana space?

 

Alec  06:35

I did. Yeah. I think the thing that pushed us — for me, personally, the reason why I wanted to get into CBD was, I was more focused on the marijuana side of things. I thought that that was really exciting. And then my cousin had a son who has Fragile X, which is a form of autism, and they began to give him CBD every day. And he was actually the first child with Fragile X to take CBD and he worked with the doctor while he was doing it. And so it was an overnight walking, talking more, eating more, like an unbelievable transformation that my family was — it’s a pretty conservative family and we were all just completely blown away, like what the hell just happened. And so I completely transferred everything over to CBD. And I was like, this is where I want to focus my time on. I think it’s really exciting. You know, it’s special.

 

Vadim  07:23

How was he taking it?

 

Alec  07:25

He was taking it in a tincture. I mean, really, you know, back in the day, that was kind of the only option years ago. And you know, he was taking it in a tincture and there was only like one or two companies that were actually selling it. I believe it was like three or four years ago and he started. And, you know, so finding like a good company that was selling it at the time was really difficult. None of them had lab testing results online. They were usually some sort of blend where it had THC in there as well. And so you’re just really limited on what you could get.

 

Vadim  07:58

And I’m sure it was marijuana-derived, right, not hemp-derived?

 

Alec  08:02

I’m sure it was back in the day. I mean, there were some companies that were starting to play with that, even though they really weren’t supposed to be. But yeah, I’m sure that most of it was.

 

Vadim  08:13

Well, anybody that is intimately connected with cannabis knows that the line is pretty fine between hemp — the hemp varieties that are used for CBD and marijuana. I mean, they’re very, very close. 

 

Alec  08:25

Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, one has higher THC and one has lower THC, right? You know, and after you extract a lot of this material, it’s like they diluted a lot of it down, you know, to make the THC go way down, like what you see with a full-spectrum product, for example. It’s kind of common practice in the space. But yeah, usually, I mean, the marijuana ones are just very high THC from what I’ve seen.

 

Vadim  08:46

Exactly. A lot of people still see hemp as this totally different thing, but it’s really all cannabis. And it’s just different varieties of the cannabis plant. 

 

Alec  08:56

Yeah, it’s part of the same movement in my mind. Yeah, that’s all kind of connected together, of course.

 

Tribe CBD: What’s Behind the Brand

 

Vadim  09:01

What made you decide to name the brand Tribe? I really liked the name.

 

Alec  09:05

Thank you. God, you know, when we first started this a couple years ago, first of all, there weren’t as many CBD companies as there is now. But back then, it was like, I guess even now, it’s still pretty bad. But back then, you know, every single CBD company was whatever CBD was their name. And it was like awesome, awesome CBD, for example, you know, and the vast majority of them didn’t have lab testing. They didn’t have anything. And it was just kind of, like there was no branding behind it. When I was first trying to purchase these products, I was like, I feel like I don’t know where I’m buying these products, like it was from a real company with a real brand. I want to know who’s making it, where are they making it and so on so forth. And from our naming perspective, we were thinking something more community, where like a community of people who are just kind of fed up with the products that they have out there that are most of these CBD products, you know, a lot of them really aren’t that great for you because a lot of sugar and like a lot of added ingredients and just stuff that’s just not great. And so we wanted to focus on all natural products and kind of set a standard with lab testing and so on, so forth. 

 

Vadim  10:13

Exactly. And what challenges have you faced with the lab testing? Because it seems like one of the challenges that I’m hearing about is that even when companies want to do everything right, sometimes the labs themselves are kind of making mistakes or not up to par, not doing things correctly.

 

Alec  10:31

I mean, I don’t really understand what the big deal is about it. I mean, it’s you make your product, you have basically an ingredient list, the formulation. All right. It’s supposed to have this much CBD, this much oil, you know, et cetera, et cetera. And then you just get it tested. And I don’t understand why it’s such a hard, you know, such a big deal. If you’re getting it made in a facility that knows what they’re doing and you know what you’re doing from a formulation perspective, testing shouldn’t be a big deal. You just send one of your products to get tested, it should come out right exactly or very, very close to what you’re expecting. And so, you know, there are a lot of companies who just don’t do it, and which is just very shady. And we don’t understand why. If you’re doing everything right, you just do it. It’s not a big deal.

 

Vadim  11:16

There’s nothing to hide if you’re doing everything correctly.

 

Alec  11:18

Yeah, of course. And you know, companies do make mistakes with formulation. It does happen. But if you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing 99% of the time right, you’re not really gonna have any issues.

 

Vadim  11:27

Exactly. And I guess one of the other issues is there’s this lack of standard, like a national standardization of the — not necessarily the CBD content, but the other, you know, like the pesticides and all that stuff. Different states have different rules. Like California is different from Colorado. And I think that the FDA or somebody should come out and just make things standard. And then that way, everyone can conform to that. And seems like it would just be easier.

 

Alec  11:55

Yeah, it would be easier. I’m not afraid of regulation at all. I think it’s a good thing, to be honest. 

 

Vadim  12:01

I agree. 

 

Alec  12:03

So I feel like they can’t bring it fast enough. But, you know, I feel like the ones who are doing it right. I mean, there is a standard. It’s like, you know, you get tested for pesticides, there’s no pesticides. You get tested for heavy metals and solvents. There’s none of that. You know, it has whatever you’re putting on the label. It has its chosen potency and the terpene levels, and so on so forth. I just feel like it’s not really rocket science. Like if you’re buying ingredients that you’re not testing for pesticides, heavy metals and solvents before you put into products, then, like, what are you doing? It’s just kind of nasty. People are gonna ingest it, you know, so you got to test for all those things.

 

Sourcing Quality Hemp and Extraction Methods

Vadim  12:37

Exactly. By the way, are your products, what kind of extraction methods do you use?

 

Alec  12:42

So, for our products, we use a broad-spectrum ingredient. And the company that we actually purchased this from is one of the biggest ones in the US, but they have a weird, proprietary technology. And I’ve seen it before, but you know, it’s a very clean extraction method. I mean, again, there’s no heavy metals or solvents. So if you’re going to look at the lab results, and a lot of people are touting, you know, CO2 extraction is really the way to go, which is, you know, it’s a clean method of extraction and so on, so forth. But the most important thing is you look at the lab results and you just look at the solvents, and see, are there any remaining solvents in the method of extraction. From what I understand, the first process that our farm takes is they’re using an organic, like a USDA Organic hemp, and they put it through an ethanol extraction. And by the time it goes all the way through, you know, there are no traces of any solvents leftover in any of our products. So we don’t really have those issues that others have.

 

Vadim  13:37

Yeah, it’s beautiful. I think that the CO2 thing kind of became a buzzword, but there’s plenty of other extraction methods that are good too. Like ethanol. It’s like you said. It’s the end product and how clean it is what counts.

 

Alec  13:51

Well, exactly. You know, for example, if you ever drink like flavored soda water, when it says natural flavors in the logo, like a label, excuse me. Like all that’s done with ethanol extraction, you know, for those natural flavors. And so CO2 extraction, it works. There’s not really too many broad-spectrums like we have that are using CO2 extraction. But you know, in the end, you just look at the solvents, and is there anything in there? Is there ethanol in there in the final product? No. You know, because it’s safe levels and so on so forth what they’ve been doing with other ingredients for tens of years.

 

Vadim  14:23

So you guys have a broad-spectrum CO2 extraction?

 

Alec  14:26

No, we have a broad-spectrum. The first step of it is an ethanol extraction.

 

Vadim  14:31

Okay, okay.

 

Alec  14:33

We don’t do a CO2 extraction. But our partner who does all of our ingredients is actually one of the first farms. They’re one of the largest farms in the United States hemp farms but they actually are the largest USDA Organic hemp in the country, which is kind of a game changer. When you really look at the final products like pesticides, solvents, and all that stuff and it comes from a USDA Organic product versus conventional hemp, I mean, the difference is really staggering.

 

Vadim  15:02

What do you notice? The taste or the look? Like what is it?

 

Alec  15:04

Itreally is the taste and the smell, of course, which, you know, sounds really weird. But I really do consider taste and smell and all these things when we’re sourcing products. But in the end, you’ll see trace amounts of pesticides and other things that you just don’t want in there when you’re using conventional hemp. And that’s not all the time. But it’s a lot of the time just from my experience, where I have run those tests, and we go, I don’t want that in there. It’s kind of nasty. You know, it just looks weird.

 

Vadim  15:29

Why not if you can avoid it. 

 

Alec  15:31

Exactly. Yeah. 

 

Broad-Spectrum: The Premium Middle Ground

 

Vadim  15:32

Now for any of the listeners at home that don’t know what broad-spectrum is, that just is a CBD product that has all the beneficial components that naturally occur in hemp but no THC. So it’s something that was invented really to capture the full-spectrum benefits, but without that THC for people that, you know — Well, I’ll ask you, I mean, I’m sure part of the reason you chose to do broad-spectrum was to appeal to people that really have to avoid THC.

 

Alec  16:03

Yes, yeah, I mean, there’s a couple reasons why I wanted to do it. You know, the way that we take the ingredient is we take a hemp distillate, which is basically a full-spectrum, and we just put that through a pharmaceutical grade chromatography machine, and we rip out all that THC and you preserve some of the terpenes and flavonoids and other cannabinoids. And I mean, the reason why I wanted to go with that is because, personally, when I was out talking to a lot of people in the beginning, when we started this company, a lot of people were saying, you know, I really don’t understand how much THC is in there. And like I don’t want it in there at all. I just want the benefits of CBD. Or hey, I get drug tested for my job or you know, I don’t know, you know. Or, you know, I get affected really easily by THC. That’s another one I heard a lot. 

 

Vadim  16:53

I’ve come across people that are extremely sensitive. And, you know, they get high from the CBD products. 

 

Alec  17:00

Yeah, totally. And you know, sometimes you’ll take some of these CBD products, and if you take like a 60-milligram tincture that’s full-spectrum, there could be almost two milligrams of THC in there.

 

Vadim  17:11

Which is enough to feel it. Exactly, exactly.

 

Alec  17:14

Yeah, totally, totally. And so a lot of people don’t want to have anything to do with that. But really, the CBD isolate ingredient, it’s still a fine ingredient. You know, it’s CBD, which is really important. But you know, you’re not getting the extra bang for your buck in there, which is really kind of that, you know, the spectrum of cannabinoids and, you know, the essential oils from the plants that add a lot of health benefits, and that overall from my experience provide a better effect. So that’s why we’ve gone down that road.

 

Vadim  17:42

Yeah, I really think broad-spectrum is the golden middle ground for a lot of people. You know, they’re getting the full-spectrum benefits, but they’re not worried about THC.

 

Alec  17:52

Yeah, I mean, I think so too. And that’s why we put all of our eggs in this basket. And most of the companies just don’t want anything to do with the broad-spectrum that are creating CBD products, just because it’s a really expensive ingredient. I mean, when you actually look in the market for a CBD full-spectrum and a CBD isolate are actually about half the cost of a broad-spectrum ingredient that you put into products. So it’s really just a way more premium ingredients. Because it goes through three levels of extraction, when you take, you know, hemp flower into crude and crude into distillate and then distillate into a chromatography machine into a broad-spectrum. It’s just a way more premium ingredient.

 

Vadim  18:30

I never thought of it that way, actually. That’s a good way to put it. It’s a different perspective. And you’re right. There’s not a lot of broad-spectrum, truly broad-spectrum, products out there. I mean, there’s people saying that they are but I don’t think they actually are. And have you ever had an issue with the THC staying in there? Or like some of it sitting in there? Or is it just literally zero?

 

Alec  18:51

Well, no, we’ve never had issues of trace amounts of THC. I mean, if you’re spending the money on sourcing like a really premium ingredient, you’re not going to have those issues. Because you’re buying it from labs and farms who really know what they’re doing. And so we don’t have those issues at all. Our whole thing is we say there’s zero THC in there because we go look at our lab results and the lab results for THC are always below LOQ, the limits of quantification on those lab results. And then even, you know,  I always ask these labs that do our testing, well, what is LOQ? And the levels are so, so small that it’s relatively zero, you know, so to speak. 

 

Vadim  19:29

I think a lot of the listeners have seen that LOQ on labs that they’ve looked at. So that’s the limit of quantification, right?

 

Alec  19:36

Yes. Yeah, exactly. Below limits of quantification. And yeah, no, I mean, you know, look at a lot of these full-spectrum products, you know, again, you get a lot of THC in there that you really wouldn’t think about. Because I don’t know about your experience with, you know, CBD of course, but I feel like you kind of start small and you always increase it to a level that you feel it’s finally, like, I found my level. And then you take it out. And some people, it’s 10 milligrams of CBD; other people, it’s 30, and some people, it’s 60 milligrams to 100. And if you’re really taking that much CBD, there’s going to be a decent amount of THC in there if you’re using a full-spectrum product.

 

Vadim  20:13

I think I calculated at one time and it was absolutely enough THC to get someone high if they were using those. Even like 50 milligrams a day of a full-spectrum is enough to have the THC in there. 

 

Hey, lovely listeners of the CBD School Podcast. Just want to take a moment to remind you about our sponsor for this episode. You can visit them over at tribecbd.com. That’s TRIBEcbd.com. And Tribe CBD has a special offer just for you. That’s coupon code cbdschool30. That’s right. 30% off your whole order of any of their broad-spectrum tinctures, topicals, energy or sleep shots. And they’re even going to have gummies rolling out by the time this episode airs. So make sure to use that coupon code cbdschool30 over at tribecbd.com. Thanks for listening and enjoy the rest of the show. 

 

Where Should People Start With Tribe CBD

 

Let’s say someone is completely brand new, and they don’t know where to start. How would you recommend someone get started with CBD? 

 

Alec  21:27

Well, first, you got to figure out whether you want to use a product that has THC or doesn’t have it. And you know, if you’re a little nervous about something that has THC, or you have a job where you get drug tested, or you just don’t want to try it, then I think broad-spectrum really is the only other ingredient to look at, that has all those benefits that the full-spectrum does. And so I think that what we recommend is that, hey, start at like seven or eight milligrams and just kind of increase a little as you go from there until you find your dosage, essentially. And a lot of our products are dosed at about 20 milligrams per serving. When you look at our gummies, for example, and our tinctures are kind of around there. And that’s just because what we’ve found is that’s a good place to be usually for the average person. A lot of people, you know, it’ll be 30, 40, 50, 60, or even higher. And, for example, when I take our products, I take at least 50, just because I use a lot more, I think, than the average person, but some people use a lot more than I do. So it just depends on the person.

 

Vadim  22:24

I tend to stick to 50. But I mean, it probably depends on just how often you’re using it and your tolerance and that sort of thing. But have you ever seen people who just, it does nothing? Or like they don’t feel anything from it? And they’re like, is it even working? Have you ever seen that happen?

 

Alec  22:41

Yes, I have. And usually more so than not, it has to do with them not having figured out the right dose for them. That’s usually what I think that it is. But you know, sometimes you’ll have people that just, they’ll go and eat some CBD gummies or take a tincture for no reason. And they’ll go, well, I don’t feel anything or, you know, whatever it is. And usually what I recommend people, is that when you’re going to use CBD products, you’re using it for a specific issue. My personal reason that I use CBD is, you know, I have trouble falling asleep. And that’s why I personally use it at the end of the day. It’s to help relax me. You know, my girlfriend, for example, uses our cream because she has cramps every month and that really helps out with that. And so it’s for specific reasons. I feel like if you’re just gonna be like, oh, I tried 10 milligrams CBD gummy, didn’t really do anything for me. Like, I’m not really surprised, you know.

 

Vadim  23:33

Exactly. Some of those products are kind of not necessarily really a therapeutic dose. There might be more of just a fun supplement type of like a vitamin but not necessarily a therapeutic dose.

 

Alec  23:46

Yeah, exactly.

 

Vadim  23:47

I noticed one product in your product line, it’s unique, that I’ve haven’t seen a lot from others is the energy shots. What was the thinking behind those?

 

Alec  23:56

Yeah, that’s an interesting one. So I got a bunch of feedback from our customers that they were putting their tinctures, the droppers, they were putting in their coffee in the mornings.

 

Vadim  24:07

Yeah, that’s popular.

 

Alec  24:08

And I thought that was so weird. When I first heard that, I was like, why would you ever do that? That’s so odd. But you just, you know, if you talk to your customers, and you kind of learn, you get ideas for new products, and how to make products better, and so on, so forth. And we’re always working on our products. I mean, we’ve changed each product probably like 10 or 15 times in the last year, you know, just small changes to make them better. And so that was the feedback that we got about the coffee. And so then basically we went to some customers, and we were like, “Well, what about like in the middle of the day? And would it make sense for you to have a little bit of a boost?” And they said, “Yeah, I would like something that’s an energy shot.” And the reason why they’re putting in their coffee is because they want some energy, but they also like that there’s a little bit of a focus and almost like a little bit of a calming effect. So it’s not too powerful like the caffeine is and that’s what brought us into the energy shots and so we really focused on, you know, making those no like a burst of energy but more of a calming and focusing, you know, overall effect. So, you know, it’s not like when you take a 5-hour Energy and you shoot out of a cannon. It’s a little bit more focusing and the way that I like to think of it, and I’m like, wow, I wish I had these back in college. You know, it’s like when I’m studying things, they work great for something like that.

 

Vadim  25:22

Yeah, they still sell those 5-hour Energy?

 

Alec  25:25

Oh, they’re everywhere. And yeah, I used to use them every once in a while, but they’re just so powerful. Some people, they’ll down the entire 5-hour in one sitting. And I’m like, wow, that’s crazy. I’m just maybe more sensitive to caffeine. I don’t know. 

 

Vadim  25:39

I’ve never found that caffeine makes — it’s always too much, basically, for me, if I take in that kind of — it’s never beneficial if I’m taking high doses. But I think what people are saying with the CBD is it takes the jitters off or something or takes the edge off.

 

Alec  25:51

Yeah, that’s some of the feedback that we heard as well. And some people were even saying that, you know, when they have too much caffeine, they get kind of almost an anxiety.

 

Vadim  26:00

Yeah. Yeah, I do. I do. 

 

Alec  26:02

Yeah. And I do a little as well. And so that was kind of the other thought too, is that the CBD just mellows you out, right, when you kind of hit the peak. So yeah, we have them in a couple 100 stores right now. And they’re selling really well. It’s a very new product, and I’m still really working on it. But yeah, it’s doing well for us.

 

Vadim  26:20

What product is most popular?

 

Alec  26:22

You know, right now, I’d say it’s kind of a tie between our tincture and our cream. We’re selling the creams in a lot of stores right now nationwide. 

 

Vadim  26:33

Awesome. 

 

Alec  26:33

But online, we sell like a lot more tinctures. We have a subscription program where we give people a discount. You may buy a tincture and it shows up every month, you don’t have to deal with it. And that’s kind of our most popular item online. And then we just brought out some CBD gummies that I’m really excited about, that really could be our top selling products in the next couple of weeks.

 

Vadim  26:53

And those aren’t on the site yet, though. 

 

Alec  26:55

They’re not yet. They’re going to be in like a week. So around like October 10th  or October, maybe 7th or something, they’re gonna be online. But have you tried some of the CBD gummies in the space? 

 

Vadim  27:07

Oh, yeah, a lot of them.

 

Alec  27:08

Yeah. Okay, great. So it’s okay for me to, you know, I don’t want to talk too much crap. But most of them are just loaded with sugar and artificial ingredients which is, you know. 

 

Vadim  27:18

Yeah. Almost like 99% of them are pretty much —

 

Alec  27:20

Yeah. And it’s like that because the majority of the manufacturers are candy manufacturers. 

 

Vadim  27:27

Yeah, exactly. 

 

Alec  27:28

You know. And so we work with the largest gummy vitamin manufacturer in the country. They worked with us and a couple other clients. They didn’t work with everybody. And we had them design a gummy for us that it’s made with agave syrup and natural flavors and fruit juice. And that’s it. There’s no artificial anything, there’s no sugars. And so you can actually eat one of those things and you don’t feel guilty about it afterwards because it’s candy, you know. So I really like that product. And it works really well. You still get a little bit of, you know, the hempy taste on the back end. But you know, it actually is a good product. And most importantly, it just works really well, that we found from testing and people really like it. So we’re going to really start bringing it out everywhere.

 

Vadim  28:11

I’m glad you mentioned that hempy taste because I actually really like that, and some people really don’t, but I love — like one of the first things I noticed when I eat CBD gummies was like that taste, and I mean, I just like the taste of cannabis completely. So I mean, it tastes good with that.

 

Alec  28:28

Yeah. And I think some people get turned off because it has a little bit of a bittery note on the back end. Like not when you first take it, but when after you swallow it, you’re like, it’s nasty. Most people I think are kind of weirded out by that. But honestly, when I’m taking CBD supplements, I kind of look for that a little bit because I know that it’s there. You know, when something doesn’t taste like, you know, have any sort of either hempy, like earthy taste or, you know, that slight slight bitterness, I’m kind of like wondering what’s going on,you know, with that ingredient? Is it gonna even work? 

 

Vadim  29:02

Exactly. Where would you recommend someone start? So I’m totally new to CBD and this is my first time shopping. Which product would you recommend to get started with?

 

Alec  29:11

You know, most people start with the tinctures, just because it’s easy. It’s easier for them. And that’s pretty standard with most companies. You know, everybody has a tincture. And we have a citrus tincture that I honestly think is the best tasting tincture I’ve ever had. And so I think that starting with that because you’re not going to have that gross kind of feeling going down the back of your throat when you have an unflavored tincture. It kind of turns you off. And so we put some orange oil on that. And so it really helps. But, you know, a lot of people, I think, are starting with gummies as well because it’s just easier to consume. And so that’s why we’re really going all out with the gummies. And we spent so much time — spent probably about 18 months working on these gummies, to be honest. It’s a long time.

 

Vadim  29:54

Wow. Really? Cool.