Numb Nuts THC Peanut Butter Wants to Make You Feel Tingly Inside

For an edibles maker, competing against weed gummies isn't just swimming upstream: It's fighting a tidal wave, and godspeed to those who try. But weed gummies, although popular, are full of sugar and generally infused at low doses.

For those of us looking for a stiffer punch of THC without the sugar, peanut butter could be the best option. High in protein and fat, peanut butter is both filling and welcoming to cannabinoids, which bind to fat cells. A spoon of infused peanut butter could replace four or five gummies, and you don't have to stop at THC.

Based in Boulder, Numb Nuts began making roasted nuts and peanut butter with CBD almost five years ago, but is now trying to reach cannabis users, too. The brand’s THC peanut butter has been a hit with marijuana patients in Colorado, and founder Adam Weiss says Numb Nuts will have recreational edibles on the shelf soon.

The University of Colorado Boulder graduate founded Numb Nuts after working in cannabis cultivation, extraction and retail sales for a decade. A lover of all things cannabis and a self-described economist, Weiss saw a void that needed to be filled at dispensaries, but says that his interest in cannabis-infused peanut butter extends beyond the bottom line. We chatted with the longtime cannabis industry veteran to learn more about cannabis nut butters, how he plans to compete against weed gummies, and why we should feel tingly about Numb Nuts.

Westword: Take us into the conception of Numb Nuts.

Adam Weiss: We started off roasting non-infused and CBD-infused nuts. That all started in Boulder, and we ship to all fifty states now. When I saw all of these sugar edibles constantly coming up in 2017 and 2018, I started working on a CBD project with a group I can't mention, but it was kiboshed, and I was stuck with $5,000 worth of CBD. I wanted to put it to use, though, and my wife and I like edibles but are wary of our blood sugar, so we started roasting nuts with CBD. My wife told me if I ever turned it into a product, I needed to call it "Numb Nuts." I thought there was no way it wasn't trademarked already, but saw no one had done it yet. We launched in 2019 at Aspen Food & Wine, throwing sacks of nuts at celebrities and everyone else. We got a lot of traction in the media, and people were buying in.

How did you end up making THC peanut butter after all of that?

Peanut butter was easier for compliance and meeting consumer needs, and we eventually found our pet-friendly peanut butter to be our best-selling product. THC was always the plan. The entourage effect is a big deal for me, and THC is where the margins hit. I think CBD isolate is snake oil, because there's nothing really working off each other. I always want to work with at least a full-spectrum CBD product, but adding THC was always the end goal. There is no money to be made in CBD anymore. Unless you have a special, special product with a direct effect, it's very difficult.

How do you make the peanut butter, and where can people find it?

Our number-one thing is freshness and quality over everything. We have a few different sources of nuts depending on freshness, and we heat up the peanut butter for infusion. A lot of concentrates like rosin, distillate or live resin are sourced, because we get specialty orders sometimes and try to fill the needs of all consumers. Currently the products with THC are only available on the medical dispensary side due to compliancy. We have six ounces of peanut butter infused with 1,000 milligrams for sale on the medical side.

Any plans or hopes to get in recreational dispensaries?

Yes. We have other products we're trying to bring on the recreational market. You'll be seeing peanut butter cups soon, and we're working on some other things we can't share quite yet. But peanut butter cups, crackers and more savory nut-related products are on our mind right now.

I've looked at several different ways to get peanut butter on the rec side. Everyone asks me about the 100-milligram and ten-milligram dosing rules, but ten single-serve packets would price us out of the market quickly. We're looking into it and want to bring it to market, and we're looking into other markets like Michigan, Florida and New Jersey, as well. Some markets have different requirements. For instance, in Michigan the rec requirements allow the format of medical products.

It would be nice to have edibles that aren't so sugary. Why do you think gummies and candy are so popular?

That was my number-one basis in starting Numb Nuts, trying to find a better alternative for sugary edibles. But unfortunately, with how the market is, we'll probably have to develop some sugary items to provide more income for the company. It's 80 to 90 percent of the edibles market.

It could be textural and meeting that childhood connection of comfort food. It might be the easiest deliverable currently for a pleasurable flavor experience. The majority of people don't want to taste the cannabis, and the majority of gummies do a great job of covering that up — some more than others. There are also a lot of vegan and gluten-free options in gummies.

Is THC peanut butter more popular among regular users with higher tolerances?

For sure. We're selling out on the medical side, and I've had people DMing me, asking for 5,000 milligrams in the same sized package. I will deliver that to the people at some point. I may have found the right instrument to dose it on the rec side, too, but now I need to find the right package to fill it. The difficult part about working with peanut butter is that it's insanely painful and hard to get off your body when it's hot, and trying to fill different packaging is challenging.

Other than the classic PB&J, what at-home recipes do you like to use Numb Nuts for?

Funny enough, one of our first collabs was with Stoned Appetit and Yuan Wonton. We made a peanut sauce for one of their dumplings. We've made sauces for chicken wings, salads and pad Thai, we've made croissants, and then you have the obvious ones like cookies, oats, peanut butter brownies. We have a lot of recipes on our website. Eventually, I'd like to reinvent the PB&J experience in a thoughtful way.

Do different kinds of nuts, like cashews and pistachios, make butters that are for good for absorbing cannabinoids?

Relative to fats and protein, nut butters are some of the best ways for THC and cannabinoids to be completely absorbed into the product. We've tried making everything: cashew butter, and my wife wants to me get the pistachio butter out there. We currently have cinnamon almond butter that's only infused with CBD, but I do have a THC version formulated.