CBD coffee, anyone? The CBD shot-serving Coffee Station.

CBD

coffee, anyone?

A chain of cafés across London and Essex has become one of the first in the country to offer a shot of CBD with their hot and cold drinks in some of their locations.

GROWING INTEREST

The growing Coffee Station group has 20 cafés situated at stations where they primarily serve commuters but also, where possible, passers-by and locals. The cafés offer quick service and serve handcrafted coffee and snacks.

CBD is an on-trend health supplement which is growing in popularity. Well established as a food supplement which can help to maintain a healthy lifestyle, the benefits of CBD are being enjoyed by increasing numbers of people.

Queen’s Park Coffee Station took the innovative step of introducing the CBD shots just before Christmas. The product was so successful they are now trialling it in two other locations, Pinner and Royal Victoria.

“The CBD shots took off straight away in our Queen’s Park branch which serves both Kilburn and Maida Vale,” says Coffee Station’s Christo Manunta. “It became a talking point with our customers, some of whom were knowledgeable about CBD and others who were curious about it. Many were keen to give it a go, and now we have plenty of customers who have a daily shot in their coffee of choice. The obvious next step is to trial it in our other branches, and we are looking forward to seeing this take-off across the chain.”

The CBD is delivered a shot at a time from a pump, and has been introduced by CBD One, a UK-based wellness company dedicated to the supply of high quality, 100% legal CBD products. A family company owned and run by brothers, Alex and Nick Tofalos, it was launched after they became acquainted with the possibilities that CBD and cannabis offered during their brother Deno’s battle with Multiple Sclerosis, the duo spending many years researching and sourcing the very best hemp for therapeutic purposes (CBD One has ISO 22000 manufacturing accreditation, whilst all products have Validated Applications with the Novel Foods certification where required).

SPECIALLY FORMULATED

Unlike traditional CBD oil that doesn’t mix with other liquids, claim CBD One, their ‘One Shot’ product is a unique, specially formulated, water-soluble emulsion that can be added to both hot and cold beverages to turn a standard drink into a CBD beverage. It presents the CBD in an ‘active’ state which means that it can be far easier absorbed into the bloodstream making it more effective than placing oil under the tongue.

“Our customers particularly enjoy a CBD shot in the morning to set them up for the day, but we take orders throughout the day,” says Christo Manunta. “People just choose their usual favourite coffee or other drink, and we add a shot to it. It’s as simple as that. It’s certainly a point of difference and brings customers through the door as we are offering something really original.”

Q&A with CBD One’s co-founder, Nick Tofalos

Alongside founding the company, Nick Tofalos has been a qualified osteopath for nearly 20 years.

What exactly is CBD?

CBD is an abbreviation of the word ‘cannabidiol’, a substance derived from the cannabis plant, also known as hemp. It’s worth saying at this point that hemp and cannabis are completely interchangeable words that just refer back to the same plant. Not many people realise that the human body actually produces its own cannabinoids, which are important for health, well-being, mood and sleep patterns.

Today, however, many of us are now deficient in these cannabinoids. This could be due to a number of factors including stress, and poor diets but particularly as cannabinoids are no longer present in the food chain. Once upon a time hemp was grown widely because it’s such a useful crop which can be used for things like textiles, paper, food. Because of this you’d get some of that passing into the food chain, and CBD ending up in diets. This is exactly why exogenous cannabinoids – in other words, ones that come from outside the body i.e CBD – can be a great way to top up these deficiencies.

If it comes from cannabis plants, won’t I get high?

In short, no. There are over 100 compounds in cannabis plants. Two of the best known are CBD and THC. THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol is the component which makes people feel intoxicated or ‘high’. CBD by itself has no psychoactive properties. Sorry to disappoint!

Why do people use CBD?

One of the big things we hear lots is that people say “I’m not sure what it’s done, but I feel better”. You name it. We’ve had customers with arthritis, mental health problems, digestive problems, chronic pain, who all claim it makes them feel good. When you’re taking vitamin C you don’t expect a sudden result, you don’t just take it one time. You take it because you know it does you good.

How often should CBD be taken, and is it dangerous to take too much?

I take it a few times a week. Some people I know take it daily, while others take it if they have an upcoming crisis or stressful event looming. You can take it any way that suits you really. Doctors estimate a person would need to smoke around 1.5 tons of cannabis in 20 minutes before it would have fatal consequences, due to the incredibly low toxicity levels in the plant. CBD has even lower toxicity levels. Obviously, you can take too much. If you drank a whole bottle you might end up with an upset stomach and bowels. So be sensible. But you’re more at risk of a ton and a half of cannabis dropping on your head than a severe reaction to using too much CBD.

What sets CBD One apart from other CBD companies?

Aside from having medical expertise at its foundation, combined with a genuine desire to help people, CBD One benefits from working with third generation specialist cannabis farmers, who grow hemp for the exclusive purpose of optimum cannabinoid levels. Many brands out there produce CBD products from hemp farmed mainly for industrial purposes – so the finished items are by-products made from plants grown with another purpose in mind – such as for their fibres in textiles.

Advice for re-sellers?

In the past, much of the public’s interest around cannabis was centred on the effects of THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, for its psychoactive properties. However, consumer focus has shifted to the ever increasingly popular CBD component of cannabis (CBD, or cannabidiol, is set to be worth a whopping $16.3 billion in the US alone by 2026 according to Big Commerce, thanks to evidence pointing to its therapeutic potential).

More and more businesses are starting to capitalise on CBD’s non-psychoactive properties, however advertising the benefits of CBD remains a grey area due to the illegal nature of parts of the cannabis plant so you need to know how to ‘good word’ without putting yourself or your business in a predicament.

The key is you cannot advertise that it comes with all manner of health benefits. Putting that on a poster in your window is asking for trouble. However, in a one-to-one with your customers you’re able to have a very open and honest conversation about personal experiences or what other customers have said about the product.

I strongly encourage resellers to simply offer CBD to customers. This can open up a conversation where customers are able to ask what it is and what it does. As long as you make reference to your own experience, or another customer’s experience, there can be no legal implications. Reassuring customers that CBD has no psychoactive effects, and that they will not be able to overdose on it can also help put them at ease. The simplest reply to people asking if CBD can help a certain condition is “I don’t know, but there’s no harm in trying. So, try it’.”

It can also help to explain to customers that the human body naturally produces its own cannabinoids, and they are compounds which help regulate health, wellbeing, sleep schedule and mood. As said, many people are now deficient, due to stress and poor diets, and taking CBD could be compared to taking vitamins to top up this deficiency. This can also explain why a customer might not notice an immediate effect.