Colorado Pot Brownie: Wait, What? Oh, Man.

Our Fifty Plates tour gets Rocky Mountain High thanks to Coma weed brownies.

By Mary Romano
Summer is road-trip season, so we're taking a culinary tour of America. But because Portland is a city of immigrants from other states, we don't have to leave town to do it. We're traveling to 50 Portland restaurants to try one distinctive food from each state. Our 50 Plates tour continues with a pot brownie from Colorado, which joined the union on August 1, 1876 and became the first state with legal pot for sale in January.

The state: Colorado, where toned, tan health-nuts scale plateaus on mountain bikes before breakfast, the birthplace of the boys of South Park and the first Naked Pumpkin Run, and where the first legal marijuana store for recreational use has opened. Ahead of the curve even in 1932, Colorado repealed alcohol prohibition more than a year before the federal government passed the 21st amendment.

The food: The most popular creation myth for the brownie holds that a resourceful housewife made up the flat chocolate cake bar for her quickly-approaching dinner guests when she'd run out of baking powder. One can imagine the first pot brownie was invented during a similar situation: A lone housewife has several guests on their way for a smoke session, and nothing to offer but a measly few nugs. At least she could compensate with a batch of her world-famous fudge brownies…. WAIT! She tosses the remaining weed into the butter, sauteeing it before adding it to the batter, and voila—a sufficiently stoned soiree. Though Colorado can't lay claim to the creation of the pot brownie, they're at least selling the first legal one. (Sadly, not at the Rockies stadium, despite what the Internet told us.)

Other foods considered and rejected: Colorado-raised lamb, Rocky Mountain rainbow trout, the Denver omelet, green chili (not to be confused with marijuana-infused chili, though it could eventually be a contender).       

 

Get it from: The “Chocolate Coma Brownie,” found at Pure Oregon Dispensary and baked by Coma Treats, is possibly the tastiest pot brownie this patient has ever ingested. Even my fellow patients—one in a Yale sweatshirt and one in his police uniform—couldn't prepare me for the revamped quality of the new generation of cannabis cuisine. Marbled fudge frosting covers the elegantly sliced brownie, which is moist and dense like a cheesecake. Made with 6.44 g of cannabis infused-olive oil, there is little to no taste of marijuana whatsoever, though that could be why the brownie isn’t extremely potent for the average smoker. More for flavor than fun.




Click on the map to see each state's distinctive food and where to get it in Portland.

Pennsylvania Maine Louisiana Texas West Virgina Nevada NC Colorado Alaska Mississippi Washington Minnesota Tennessee Nebraska Missouri Massachusetts Michigan Wisconsin Ohio Arizona south carolina newyork Connecticut rhode island Wyoming New Mexico Kentucky Idaho alabama new jersey georgia kansas california iowa montana oklahoma indiana vermont hawaii utah arkansas maryland Virginia oregon Illinois Florida New Hampshire South Dakota Delaware North Dakota

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