The Purple Stuff

By Tyler Hurst

Lean Back Sizurp works, folks.

Made with pure cane sugar, water, cannabis concentrate (flower, not trim) and natural flavors with typical preservatives and colorings, Lean Back Sizurp contains no codeine, despite its name. It does, however, contain 66.4 milligrams of THC and 2.5 milligrams of CBD per fluid ounce. Directions for use state, "shake well or twerk while drinking…start low and go slow…find the dose that works for you," which a person may connect to the popular-in-the-South-but-illegal sizzurp, lean, or purple drank. A spokesman for creator Dirty Arm Farm likened the product's name to "something silly you'd say while relaxing and drinking syrup," so we'll go with that for now.

The taste is straight-up grape syrup, without the bitterness or dryness you'd expect from the similarly named street drug, and zero cannabis aroma or resin aftertaste—a welcome improvement from previous liquid concentrates.

Dirty Arm Farm says Lean Back Sizurp was designed for mixing with flavored sodas. To test, we grabbed some West Coast-based canned beverages best suited for summer camping or beach trips: vanilla bean soda from Dry, BrightCider from 2 Towns Ciderhouse, Revel Berry Yerba Mate from Guayaki, and a shot of cinnamon-flavored tequila someone may have forgotten in their fridge.

Results were varied. Lean Back Sizurp mixed with the soda without stirring, adding a slight grape sweetness without any sugary, slimy aftertaste. The Yerba Mate was tasty, too, with the flavor perfectly matched with the berry, while elevating the sugariness to noticeable but not overpowering levels.

The cider mix tasted like a dissolved Jolly Rancher, giving it a poorly back-sweetened finish more suitable for spiked lemonade. Don't ruin good apples and yeast here, people. The tequila was also disgusting. Not recommended.

The aforementioned "high" was the same: pleasant relaxedness without anything fuzzy or cloudy. At $40 per 4-ounce, four-serving bottle, it's not cheap, but it's still good value for the quantity of THC and CBD. Could Lean Back Sizurp as a mixer be a way to sip cannabis with your craft-beer-snob friends? Properly and responsibly dosed, this could be a hit at summer backyard pot parties. 

Lean Back Sizurp is available at PDX TreeHouse Collective for OMMP card carriers.

WWeek 2015

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