Nano Dreams

A look at the cutting-edge process that’s
transforming the cannabis-infused beverage scene.

WORDS Lauren Yoshiko
IMAGES Taylor Tinkham

Cannabis-infused beverages have been the talk of the town the last couple of years, with industry experts and amateur Robinhood analysts alike hailing this wave of THC seltzers, tonics and every CBD cold brew in between as the next big thing in weed. It’s possible they’re all correct.

However, were any of them to time travel back a few years and crack open a first-edition cannabis beverage, they wouldn’t recognize the stuff. Off-putting green oils pooled on the surface of the liquid and clung to the sides of the can. They also offered wildly random dosage experiences for consumers; since they were often not homogenized, one sip sometimes contained all of the bottle’s THC content.

The difference between those inconsistently mixed, first-generation weed beverages and the premium potables of today? Nanoemulsion technology.

GETTING GEEKY

Nanoemulsion is absolutely as sciencey as it sounds, but it can be broken down into fairly simple terms. As simple as salad dressing, in fact. Think of a vinaigrette: Without an emulsifying ingredient like Dijon mustard, the oil just sits on top of the vinegar. The emulsifier is a vital ingredient that, when stirred vigorously, attracts and combines the watery vinegar with the hydrophobic oil molecules to create a creamy, consistent liquid that doesn’t separate.

In order for the oily texture of cannabis concentrate to mix evenly into a water-based beverage, a similar kind of emulsification is key. Here is where things get a bit more complicated.

If you remember the first time you possibly ate a pot brownie, you might also recall the unpredictability of that high. Maybe it hit within 30 minutes, and maybe the peak of the high didn’t hit for two hours. That’s the name of the game when metabolizing cannabinoids through our digestive system—most foods need to be fully digested, or broken down into molecules, before absorption of said molecules, including THC or CBD, can begin.

Some modern edibles take advantage of a faster onset of effects via sublingual application, as in a spray under the tongue or sucking on a lozenge, which bypasses the digestive system. A similar line of thinking can be applied to infused beverages, as unlike other edibles, the cannabinoids can be absorbed into the bloodstream through the mouth and stomach without the prerequisite of digestion.

Ultimately, when it comes to infused beverages, savvy cannabis scientists and edible manufacturers needed to figure out how to keep a liquid mixture evenly combined on shelves.

Not only that, but if they ever wanted to successfully produce drinks that could serve as legitimate substitutes for alcoholic beverages, they had to create water-soluble products that hit our systems a lot faster with accurate and consistent dosing. Nanoemulsion solves both those problems.

HOW DO YOU NANO?

The salad dressing analogy speaks to both the formulation of the beverage and the way we process that form of cannabis. By converting cannabis compounds into much smaller nanoparticles that have more surface area and thus higher bioavailability, our bodies can process the cannabinoids more quickly and efficiently.

As to how cannabis concentrates go from sticky oils to tiny particles that seamlessly blend into liquids, there is no one way to nano. It’s not unlike the numerous, often confusing processes in which weed wizards and lab technicians take cannabis leaves and buds and turn them into extracts of myriad textures, potencies and flavors.

There is an extra layer of mystique for nanoemulsions as well, because while this is a trend showing up across the cannabis beverage spectrum, it’s also one of the most valuable trade secrets in the cannabis game right now. Those who have cracked the code can be a bit dodgy about the detailed steps behind their hard-won formulas.

Unlike the study of vinaigrettes—or pot brownies, for that matter—this is very new territory for cannabis edible manufacturers. So new that there is no regulated standard for this process.

“While emulsion technology isn’t new to the food and beverage industry, how we apply our technology and utilize our ingredients in our process is,” says Diana Eberlein, VP of Sales and Marketing at SoRSE Technology, a prominent player in the nanoemulsified cannabis space, as well as the current president of the Cannabis Beverage Association.

“Once a combination of temperature and pressure reduces the particle size, our unique emulsion delivery method then enrobes the cannabis particles with a micellular layer. That disguises the tiny droplets so the body treats and absorbs them the same way it would water.”

That micellular layer does a few things: it allows the body to skip the digestion step of processing, increasing bioavailability and enabling a faster onset of effects; it is “charged” to repel these enrobed particles off of each other to maintain stability and even dosing throughout a product; and it mitigates the strong cannabis flavor.

“The best metaphor to describe the role of the micellular casing is to compare it to the hard shell around the chocolate of an M&M, the chocolate in this case being the cannabinoids,” explains Eberlein. “If you place an M&M in your mouth and let it melt, it will take time before you taste the chocolate on the inside because of the shell. In the same fashion, the micellular layer is preventing your tastebuds from detecting the cannabinoid flavor upon consumption of the product.”

Although companies like SoRSE Technology and Vertosa are capable of a variety of infusions, they’re only operational in certain locales. As each state has its own rules for testing and manufacturing, it’s taken time to set up totally separate and totally compliant locations in multiple states.

CREATIVE INFUSIONS

For operators like David Yusefzadeh, the Michelin Star Chef who founded Cloud Creamery, a Massachusetts-based infused ice cream brand, if he wanted to incorporate cannabis in a way that tasted and felt as consistently good as the rest of his creations, he had to figure out how to do it himself.

“Our infused ice cream is made with a trademarked liposomal powder that we make through a partnership with a company called Bountiful Farms,” explains Yusefzadeh. “It’s basically a fast-acting, long-lasting powder that’s part traditional infusion and part nano.”

He also runs the Boston-based infused dinner series Sacrilicious and Plant Jam, a licensed edible company in the state, making him an authority on the chemical conversions of cannabis for various form factors and flavors. Because of its proprietary nature, however, he shies away from sharing too many details.

“I can tell you that it’s a very long process, with a similar start to the heat and pressure processing method used to make hash rosin [a cannabis concentrate], plus the addition of other ingredients to help stabilize and crystallize, and a low and slow freeze-dry process to help the compounds keep the same shape without losing bioavailability,” says Yusefzadeh.

In some studies and a few white papers on the subject of nanoemulsification, methods involving “sonication,” a process of applying ultrasonic frequencies to agitate particles in a liquid and reduce particle size, are referenced.

Magic Number, a cannabis beverage brand out of Bend, Oregon, tapped into the region’s craft brewery scene to develop their methodologies—which literally involves industrial brewing equipment—using a mixture of water, live cannabis resin, MCT [medium-chain tryglycerides] oil and gum acacia in their emulsion process.

There are all kinds of approaches to nanoemulsification happening state to state, and it’s not yet clear which, if any, deliver more consistent effects than the others. One thing is for sure, though: Nanoemulsion is not only the secret to great tasting cannabis beverages that hit your system as fast as a glass of wine—it is the future of all cannabis-infused edibles.

“It’s almost instant,” noted Yusefzadeh, who uses his nanoemulsified powder in his gummies as well. “Everyone has that bad memory of an edible taking so long to have an effect that you eat a second one that you soon regret. This eliminates that wait-and-see timeframe, and just lets people know what dose they’ll need, right away. It’s still an emerging technology, but it’s here to stay.”