How chill can you get?
All photos by Joey Wharton.
Unless you’ve been asleep for the past few years (hey, no judgement here), you’ve likely heard everyone from the dude at your local headshop to your mom’s friend Susan talking about CBD’s magical healing powers. CBD (short for Cannabidiol, if you really need to know) is a non-psychoactive compound found in the cannabis plant. It shares many of its fellow compound THC’s health benefits without the psychoactive properties. TLDR: it won’t get you high. Whether your problem is insomnia, stress, or even acne, experts and regular folks alike claim that CBD could be your solution.
Being the fastidious Good Times Experts we are here at Belle Isle, we thought we’d follow this trend to its most logical next step: CBD cocktails. In honor of this weekend’s hemptastic holiday, we’re sharing a few deliciously dank CBD cocktails to help you simultaneously turn up and wind down this 4/20.
DANK BEFORE DECAF
Need a little pick-me-up without the jitters or crash? Mellow your coffee cocktail with a few drops of CBD bitters! We used these Mountain Elixirs orange bitters to brighten up (and mellow out) this drink’s robust coffee notes.
Ingredients:
1 ½ oz. Belle Isle Cold Brew Coffee
1 oz. oloroso sherry
1 oz. cold brew coffee
¾ oz. chicory simple syrup
1 egg white
5-10 dashes (5-10 mg) Mountain Elixirs Orange CBD Bitters
Preparation:
Add all ingredients to a mixing tin with ice. Shake vigorously for about 20 seconds. Strain out ice, then dry shake for another 15 seconds. Strain into a chilled coupe glass. Garnish with chicory on top.
ALL HOPPED UP
Ever catch a whiff of an IPA and think it smelled, well…weedy? There are more than a few similarities between the hop plant and cannabis. We played up that alluring aroma in this simple Ruby Red Grapefruit sour topped with IPA. We added a few drops of full-spectrum CBD oil from Seattle-based Dazey.
Ingredients:
1 ½ oz. Belle Isle Ruby Red Grapefruit
½ oz. fresh lemon juice
½ oz. simple syrup
10-15 mg Dazey CBD oil
3 oz. grapefruit-forward IPA (We used hometown favorite Hardywood VIPA)
Preparation:
Add first four ingredients to a mixing tin with ice. Shake and strain into a Collins glass over fresh ice. Layer with IPA by slowly pouring the beer on upside down spoon over the cocktail.
IN the weeds
One of the cannabis plant’s many superpowers is its antioxidant capability. This cocktail ups the antioxidant ante by adding a hefty dose of matcha powder to the sweet heat of our Honey Habanero moonshine. We topped our ‘tail with the delicious peach-ginger soda from CBD-infused sparkling water purveyors Recess.
Ingredients:
¾ oz. fresh lemon juice
¾ oz. simple syrup
¼ oz. matcha powder
2 oz. Recess Peach Ginger CBD-infused sparkling water
Preparation:
Add first four ingredients to a mixing with ice. Shake vigorously and double-strain to a rocks glass over fresh ice. Top with Recess soda and garnish with a lemon wheel sprinkled with extra matcha powder.
**As different substances affect people differently, we recommend you try CBD on its own before attempting to mix it with alcohol.
Want more cocktail ideas?
Belle Isle Moonshine is a premium, handcrafted spirit proudly hailing from Richmond, Virginia.
We take the name Belle Isle from a small, 540-acre island located smack dab in the middle of the James River where Civil War soldiers used surplus corn rations to make moonshine in copper kettles.
Belle Isle Moonshine is distilled from 100% organic corn, grown by three family farms and responsibly sourced. Once triple-distilled, we charcoal filter Belle Isle four times over. Then, we cut it with purified water right from the James River. Our infusions are made with 100% real ingredients, never artificial flavors or color. We use real grapefruits sourced from Texas and California, local honey from the Shenandoah Valley, organic habaneros grown an hour away, and freshly roasted coffee beans from the most socially conscious roastery in Richmond, Blanchard's Coffee Roasting Co.
From there, each bottle of Belle Isle Moonshine is filled, corked, labeled, and packed by hand by our Production team, who check each bottle and batch for quality assurance. Since Belle Isle is made in small batches, you can find the batch number handwritten in the bottom right corner of each bottle.
Distilled from good times and 100% organic corn.