As the curtains opened to reveal a battered ship of weary convicts rowing through ocean tides, waves lapped in my mind, lulling me along.
I was about an hour past finishing my NewGrav can from earlier in the evening. I had met up with some friends before a showing at the Tanger Center of Les Misérables, the Broadway musical based on Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel.
As the talented cast opened the show with “Work Song (Look Down),” I worked hard to look up. The sparkling THC drink was working its liquid magic.
My relationship with drinking has ebbed and flowed through the years.
As an Asian person, I’ve been blessed with the dreaded “Asian glow,” otherwise known as alcohol flush reaction since my first sip. This sort of allergy to alcohol used to make me break out in hives, turn red, get pounding headaches and generally left me feeling crummy. I later discovered taking Pepcid AC before drinking could offset some of the effects. (Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor and don’t necessarily recommend doing this because of some health effects, but I still do it before drinking these days.)
When I discovered THC drinks these last few years, it was a godsend. No longer would I feel like I was out of it while others drank freely around me. I could relax without fearing complete discombobulation. I could be a free spirit.
Since then, I’ve tried all kinds of THC drinks, which use hemp to infuse THC and other cannabinoids found in the marijuana plant into drinks, resulting in a high not dissimilar to smoking pot or consuming edibles. You feel relaxed but not out of it. You feel comfortable but not tired. The best part? It’s totally legal, for now.
At home, I keep a bottle of Nowadays, a kind of THC liquor, stocked at all times. But last week, when I got invited to watch the three-hour French saga on stage, I decided to try NewGrav, a THC brand by Greensboro’s own Little Brother Brewing. The drinks, which co-owner Josh Coe calls a kind of THC “cocktail,” are sparkling and come canned in various flavors.
I opted for the Ginger Mule. The bite from the ginger coupled with sugary sweetness washed over my tongue. I became buoyed. The thing about Delta Spirits—the company’s THC “liquor”—is that it doesn’t taste like weed. As I drank the cocktail, it mostly tasted like a gingery soda or seltzer, but better. No weird sugary aftertaste.
The company uses real fruit to make its syrups, Coe said. No extracts, no artificial flavors. That’s what makes them taste so pure.
“Our cans have real fruit purée and are made to actually be like a cocktail,” Coe said. “So you’re getting more of an actual drink experience.”
The lack of strong THC flavor makes the drinks easy to have with food. As I scarfed down my Parkside Pull-Up tater tots before the show, it was like I was a kid again, drinking a ginger ale with my Happy Meal.
Back in the theater, I attempted to follow the storyline closely. But as intermission drew near, I kept wondering if it was the high from the drink or the complexity of the musical that left me dazed.
I turned to my friends on either side for reassurance.
“Oh, I have no idea what’s going on,” they each said.
Satisfied, I watched the rest of the story play out on stage. The lights, the singing, the set—all beautiful. But the best part? With the help of my fizzy friend, it all flowed by in a blissful blink.