Black Ink - CBD Infused Coffee

We’ve previously introduced CBD oil, skincare and a few edibles; today we’d like to talk about another way of getting your daily dose of CBD, that we’ve been experiencing at The Amazing Blog. It’s one that’s perfect for the coffee enthusiast, or for those who want to try CBD, but dislike the earthy taste of hemp. Welcome Black Ink CBD Coffee.

Black Ink CBD Coffee is founded by Irish entrepreneur Gavin RC Moore and is now one of the leading CBD coffee brands here in the UK and Ireland. It owes its reputation to its premium-quality organically certified Arabica coffee beans, and its full-spectrum infused European CBD. The coffee beans are grown on the Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, which is what gives the beans their world-renowned flavour. You’re probably wondering what purpose there is to mix CBD and coffee. Well, CBD and caffeine each have similar beneficial properties, some of which include mood-lifting and antioxidant effects. Because of these shared properties, caffeine and CBD enhance each other. As most of our regular readers will know, the real benefit of taking CBD is to calm anxiety and nerves and help soothe pain, as it has a ‘relaxing’ effect. As surprising as it may be, this is where the CBD comes into play; its relaxing effect balances the stimulant of the caffeine, helping to eliminate the jitters and anxiety. Now, you might be wondering how you are going to get your usual morning pick-me-up if there is CBD inside. Rest assured, the CBD will not completely overpower the caffeine, so you will still be able to get that alertness from your morning coffee, the caffeine’s ‘drawbacks’ are simply balanced. The result is a pretty good feeling of being energised but relaxed all at the same time, a sort of ‘serene concentration’.

The girls at the office have been having this as their morning coffee, and say that the coffee tastes rich and smooth with a touch of very well-rounded nuttiness and subtle berry flavours. However, interestingly not with a trace of hempiness! It’s an almost identical match to pure Arabica coffee, with no bitter aftertaste. On the safety and ethical sides, you’ll be pleased to know that this product is third-party lab tested, that the grains and hemp used for the blends are organic and that their packaging is entirely recyclable. Each pack has 200g of CBD-infused ground coffee beans and should make about 20 cups. A cup of coffee includes approximately 10mg of CBD which provides you with your morning wellness nutrients (it takes about 20 minutes for these to spread through the body).  We used our trusty Aeropress for single cups. They suggest brewing your coffee in a cafetiere, by adding about 10-15g of Black Ink CBD Infused Coffee per person, pour near-boiling water, stir, and cover. Wait about 3-4 minutes, then push the strainer down. Your CBD-infused cup of coffee is now ready! Even though this is the traditional way to make it, you can also drink it as a cold brew. Like any other coffee, it should be kept in a sealed container in a cool, dry place and away from direct sunlight to last. Remember, it needs to be consumed with three weeks from opening to get the full benefits from the fresh ingredients. If you want to make BLACK INK CBD Infused Coffee part of your morning routine, you can purchase the pack of 200g for £30 here. You can also turn it into a monthly subscription and save up to 10%.

THE PASTRY CHEF’S GUIDE by Ravneet Gill

Here at The Amazing Blog we not only enjoy eating delicious food but also finding new ways to simplify and cook it ourselves.  We’ve been making sure that we have got a supply of flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda so we can enjoy the current baking craze whilst staying at home.  Talking of which, today we’re featuring  The Pastry Chef’s Guide which will help ‘to up your game’ and get you onto another level in the world of baking. It also helped satisfy a sweet tooth! 

The Pastry Chef’s Guide is written by the inspirational Ravneet Gill for both chefs and home bakers, it’s a reference book that should be on everyone’s cookbook shelf.  Don’t be ‘afraid’ of baking is the message!  Gill writes about her love of baking and pastry which shines through, it’s easy and fun to read. It shows how to go back to basics and explains the use of each ingredient in detail like butter, gluten, gelatine; so you know how to get it right every time. Having started her love of sweets with chocolate covered raisins and Cadbury’s Fruit & Nut;  Gill studied at Le Cordon Bleu before taking over the pastry sections at St John, Llewelyn’s and Wild by Tart. Now a freelance chef, during 2018  she set up an industry networking forum called Countertalk, it’s a job service and community that advises on healthy work environments in the food industry. She has since successfully hosted events that encourage chefs to expand their knowledge outside of their stations by learning directly from other chefs.

The book is a joy to read as well as being straightforward in telling you how to line your tins, boiling points and what equipment you really need.  This book is all about the ingredients and taste-making sure it is seasonal whilst producing impressive puddings and pastries, Gill says she learned a lot of that from Fergus Henderson who writes the introduction to the book.  The Cherry and Custard Pie that she created here, is still on the menu at St John’s Restaurant.  The recipes are seriously good having been organised into sections of Sugar, Custards, Chocolate, Pastry, Biscuits, Cakes and Puddings.  There are step-by-step recipes to help you master custard, nail crème patisserie, or bake the ultimate gluten-free chocolate cake.  So whether you want to make a fluffy birthday cake, smooth and rich ice creams macarons, or meringues, Gill gives great advice to make it all seem easy, a good pastry chef is all about balance.  There are also great tips to help avoid the pitfalls, i.e. for meringues use a clean dry glass, ceramic, or metal bowl to avoid the egg absorbing any smell, colour, grease from a plastic bowl. French, Italian even Swiss meringues are all clearly explained; as are all the uses for custard from ice cream to doughnut filling, delicious. You can buy the book here at the price of £18.99, we think it’s a must for any cook!  

For those who want an online course, you can join Ravneet Gill at the Puff Bakery School for pastry online, where there are some great reviews on their courses.

Naturopathica CBD+ Turmeric Capsules

We’re back again on the CBD trail, this time at The Amazing Blog it’s with a range of capsules that have just launched. However, these are not just any capsules they are CBD+ Turmeric combined from Naturopathica.

In a partnership between CBD brand Elixinol and supplement brand Pharmacare, they created  Naturopathica with a range of CBD+ capsules. These are a selection of six different CBD + products, each one has a different health benefit and also addresses a specific issue, i.e. they’re appropriately named Digestion, Mind, Night, Wellbeing, Turmeric and Unwind. With 5mg of CBD per capsule, they say that these are ‘super-concentrated’ with full-spectrum CBD that’s sourced here in the UK. It’s worth remembering that the optimal dose of CBD to take will always depend on a range of factors: Bodyweight, the condition being treated and the individual’s body chemistry.

We chose the Naturopathica CBD+ Turmeric which focuses on healthy joint and cartilage function. Both turmeric and CBD come from plants with a long list of impressive qualities.  Taking this supplement is a must for anyone who has an active lifestyle or suffers from arthritis. Other than the CBD, the two main ingredients are curcumin and vitamin C. Curcumin is found in turmeric which contains over 100 different chemical compounds. However, one that stands out is the curcumin, it’s proven to alleviate both osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis symptoms and has both antioxidant and has anti-inflammatory properties. The vitamin C here is one of the most important vitamins for helping maintain a healthy body function. It has numerous benefits including boosting the immune system, lowering blood pressure, collagen formation and reducing fatigue. Naturopathic even have a lab report that you can read on these ingredients here. Probably the best-known beneficial effect of the combination of this 5mg CBD and 265mg of turmeric is their mutual ability to quell inflammation. We have only taken this supplement for 30 days and can’t honestly say that we’ve noticed any difference, we think that it needs at least 60-90 days to be able to monitor properly any changes in the body. The capsules are easy to take, and as a regular curcumin capsule-popper, I might be persuaded to swap my daily 500mg with this; however, I might have to double the dose!  If you’d like to try these, then see here to buy the CBD+ Turmeric Capsules at £39.99 for 30 capsules.

Orange County: CBD Gummy Buttons

Don’t they look delicious? Having seen a lot of positive reviews on this CBD brand, we were excited to finally get the chance to try these goodies out. Needless to say that with the team here at The Amazing Blog, the jar did not last long! Yes, today we are reviewing Orange County CBD’s Gummy Buttons, and we are telling you all about these sweet treats!

Orange County CBD is an all-American CBD company that produces all sorts of CBD-infused goods, from E-liquids to beauty care products, along with…edibles! All of Orange County CBD’s  products are home-grown, manufactured, and tested in the U.S. The hemp is grown in controlled farms in Colorado, Kentucky, and Northern California, where the company is based, and the manufacturing occurs in a GMP certified lab. Since their beginnings, they have been aiming at producing high-standard quality products, and today they are recognised as one of the companies with the highest-quality CBD oil, which is used to infuse their products. Their distillate is indeed one of the purest on the market, thanks to their extraction method that uses supercritical CO2, a method with low environmental impact and that has been approved by the U.S. FDA. The distillate is broad-spectrum, meaning that it contains mainly CBD as well as a few other phytochemicals (CBDV, CBG, CBC) present in the hemp flower, but no THC. In other words, yes, it will relax you and soothe you, but no, you will not get high with CBD edibles, as CBD is non-intoxicating and has no psychoactive effects. What’s more, all of Orange County CBD's manufactured products are thoroughly tested in a third-party laboratory to ensure that their high standards regarding the accuracy of the cannabinoid profiles are reached. And you can check these yourself before buying (or eating if you purchase online) thanks to the embedded QR codes on each packaging, it doesn’t get any safer than that!

The product that we have received at the office is the CBD Gummy Buttons, in Small size and with 10mg per gummy – which is higher than most gummies on the market. They come in a small plastic jar and are available in three strengths: 10mg, 25mg, and 50mg per sweet, and three sizes: the small grab bag with 8 buttons containing 25mg each (approximately 200mg total), the small jar (which is the one we have) that contains approximately 20 buttons and a large-sized jar at 1250g. When we tasted these, they were not, as we suspected, too sickly sweet and we were surprised how fruity, soft and chewy they were – unlike traditional gummies which are glutinous and have a much firmer bite. No wonder they were won the ‘Best Edible’ Award at the Hemp and CBD Expo 2020, and got so many positive reviews! Usually, CBD edibles have a strong CBD oil taste which leaves a bit of an aftertaste -  not the case with these. They taste sweet and fruity, almost like traditional gummies, and each colour is a different taste. You can taste the berry, orange, lemon, and apple. Also, they have a 2-year ‘best before’ date, so if you can resist having them near you all this time you don't have to worry about a near expiration date. Although they are all vegan and GMO-free, they do contain sugar (no corn syrup or artificial sweeteners here), so if you feel a bit concerned about the presence of sugar, you may want to take them at strategic times during the day, like just after getting up, or just before/after a workout, and avoid eating these at night. If your main concern is insomnia or sleeping at night, you may want to try taking one before going to sleep to beneficiate from the relaxing effect of the hemp. As most of you know, CBD can be a great help to cope with joint, nerve and muscle pains, or anxiety. We think that edibles are perfect for a stressful period at work or to combat the winter blues! Orange County CBD recommends eating 2-4 gummies a day to get your dose of CBD in your system. The perfect dosage varies from a person to another, so we recommend that you experiment step by step, starting with small doses then increase them in case the relaxing effect is not there, especially if CBD is new to you. You can purchase the Small CBD Gummy buttons 10mg here for £16.99. Also thanks to CBD-Produce who sent us these and another CBD food product from their extensive range (visit here ) if trying CBD for the first time, or if you’re an experienced user, we think you’ll find something to tempt you at this this great one-stop shop for all things CBD.

Soular Alchemy - Classic 5000mg CBD Hemp Spagyric Infusion

If you tune in regularly to read our blog posts, you’ll know that here at The Amazing Blog the girls and I have been big fans of all things CBD for quite some time now. Several studies have demonstrated that CBD is good for the body and the soul, so of course, as wellbeing and beauty devotees, we try to incorporate different types of CBD products into our daily routines.  With CBD oils and tinctures being some of the most popular forms, it’s a tincture we’re reviewing today. In basic terms, the difference between CBD oil and a tincture is the alcohol-base, that said, they both mimic the same therapeutic properties. 

The brand that we are talking about here is the award-winning Soular Alchemy. Based in the U.S., it was founded by Kristopher Grove and Trevor Polinsky who both have a background in the organic foods and/or the natural wellbeing sector. Polinsky and Grove came together to primarily share their knowledge and to educate people on the health benefits of the hemp plant. What makes this brand so unique – and also why it caught our eye – is the ‘beyond full-spectrum’ statement which they advertise. We all know about isolate, broad-spectrum and full-spectrum; but beyond full-spectrum CBD? That’s a new term for us. In an interview, Polinsky explained that the notion of beyond full-spectrum refers to the fact they use the whole plant to make their tinctures; thus the user gets the maximum ‘entourage effect’. This means that they use the whole hemp plant rather than a single aspect, this offers significant beneficial results with the compounds working together boosting the health benefits, and overall therapeutic effect of the cannabinoids.  Unlike other brands, the process they use is actually a lot more complex than just a CO2 or ethanol extraction. The process that they use is called ‘spagyric’, which is from a method of ancient alchemy used in the preparation of tinctures. Spagyric production depends on the manipulation of the three mythologised substances that alchemists believed made up everything: salt, mercury, and sulphur - which translated to the minerals and salts representing ‘body’, the essential oils and organic acids being ‘soul,’ and alcohol was its ‘spirit’.  In short, it consists of several extractions to separate and recombine multiple plant components, including CBD, terpenes and flavonoids with a little bit of the organic cane ethanol as solvent. When all of these components are brought back together, they interact chemically with each other, creating what is called ‘ester’, a state where the elements enhance each other, creating a full entourage effect, carrying the whole benefits of the plant. Reassuring points are that all their products contain less than 0.2%, are produced with Good Manufacturing Practices, and are also EU compliant. And, the bonus here, is that the hemp is organic and free of pesticides, heavy metals, and microbials. We like that you can access their full lab analysis on each product directly from their website (i.e. for the Classic Hemp Spagyric Infusion see here).

The product that Soular Alchemy sent us is the Classic 5000mg Hemp Spagyric Infusion in 50ml. It contains a potent 50mg of total cannabinoids per ml. This is the biggest size of the tinctures that they sell and it includes all of the terpenes present in the hemp flower. The other distilled botanical terpene extracts here in the blend are sacred frankincense, blue mallee, Bavarian hops, lime and basil. All of these ensure that it’s an all-round efficient product, without addressing one specific need. Apart from the hemp spagyric, there is organic MCT coconut oil too. It comes elegantly packaged and is very instructive detailing the different terpenes present inside each plant and their benefits. To use, shake the bottle then put the drops under the tongue, hold the liquid sublingually here for a minute, then swallow. This allows the Infusion to bypass the digestive system avoiding it being broken down by enzymes and enables it to transfer through the membrane reaching the bloodstream quicker. Soular Alchemy recommends starting with 12 drops and then increasing as and when needed. If you’ve tried other full-spectrum CBD oils, then you’ll know how some can taste earthy and bitter leaving a bit of kick at the back of the throat when swallowed. Not this one. We couldn’t get over how pleasant, smooth and palatable it was, leaving absolutely no aftertaste. Our Executive Editor who thoroughly testing this out, remarked on having a better quality of sleep, less anxiety and noticeable pain relief from both her perpetual stiffness and arthritis. Although the price tag may seem hefty, it certainly seems to have lasted her well with plenty more to use. When asked if she would buy more - the answer was a resounding yes! Their two awards attest to this tincture's quality: Best CBD Tincture at the CBD Expo East 2019 Orlando, and Finalist for Best Tincture at the World CBD awards 2019 Barcelona. Apart from this Classic Infusion, there are also nine other Infusions to choose from, see here. So, if you are searching for a more specific action-oriented product to soothe a specific condition, Soular Alchemy does smaller doses of 1500mg of their hemp spagyric infusions in a 15ml bottle. These contain the selected terpenes to target particular conditions like depression, insomnia, anti-bacterial action, pain relief, to name but a few. As for this Classic 5000mg Hemp Spagyric Infusion at 50ml that we’ve reviewed today, you can buy it directly from their website here for $250.00.