As the nascent cannabis drinks industry has emerged, most of the focus has been on innovations in technology or branding. Instead, Warren Bobrow is looking to strike one back for the drinksmiths.
“I think it’s important that if you are going to have a well balanced drink, you have to involve people who do this for a living,” said Bobrow, sometimes known by his nickname “The Cocktail Whisperer.” “You need to use people who know about balance and flavor and taste and speed and efficiency, and not making it a garbage pail with 1,800 ingredients that don’t jive.”
In other words, you need people like him: a master mixologist, bartender and writer with a passion for the craft of beverage making. Bobrow earned his nickname from a career in the cocktail business that has gone from bartending to writing books to working as a brand ambassador to teaching classes and judging international competitions. And as an equally passionate cannabis advocate, he’s not pleased by the what he’s seen in THC-infused beverages thus far: mainly “candy flavored drinks” with “irresponsible” and “over the top THC levels,” or some simply “off-putting” infused seltzers.
Bobrow’s new venture — a line of premium THC-infused craft mocktails called Klaus, set to debut at licensed California dispensaries in the Los Angeles area in Q1 2021— is his attempt to supply the cannabis RTD space with injection of real ingredients and complex flavors, on top of a precisely dosed experience.
“I want to bring something to the market that changes the way people drink because it’s not sweet, it’s not like a punch, it’s not artificial, it’s not seltzer,” he said. “It’s a well crafted and balanced craft cocktail that makes you want to come back and have another, and hopefully another after that.”
In terms of formulation, developing Klaus forced Bobrow to embrace the “gastro-mixology” concepts that he had previously shied away from, as the product uses nano-emulsion technology from Vertosa to infuse the liquid. Part of Klaus’s premium positioning is its use of an emulsion derived from live resin, an form of concentrate made from fresh-frozen cannabis flower, thus maintaining the integrity of the plant species’ unique terpene profile; the use of the Mango Trainwreck strain in each drink, Bobrow noted, gives bright fruit notes. Offering 10 mg of THC per 8.75 oz. can for a suggested price of $14, the brand is trying to emphasize both its quantity and quality.
“It’s a very interesting price point because the other products on the market that it competes with are only 2.5 mg,” he said. “This is a full 10 mg of live resin THC and it has a quick onset of around three minutes.”
Yet Klaus’s flavors are where Bobrow’s hand can truly be seen. Certain avenues were not an option; had he made a seltzer, he half-joked, his peers at the U.S. Bartending Guild would have killed him. Instead, he has set himself to the goal of “changing the way America drinks” by creating balanced and memorable drinking experiences with premium ingredients.
The first launch will be the Mezzrow, named after Jazz Era weed pioneer Mezz Mezzrow, which mixes Pickett’s Extra Hot Ginger Syrup, lime and Fee Brothers West Indian Orange and Lemon bitters. Forthcoming flavors like Bosphorous — a Turkish-inspired blend of carrot juice, orange bitters and simple syrup — and 1851 Zombie — made with Les Vergers Boiron of France juices and Fee Brothers Bitters — take the brand in different moods and directions.
With manufacturing being done at California-based cannabis specialty co-packer Spacestation and package design and branding handled by Los Angeles-based firm Mamus Creative, Klaus is structured in a way that allows Bobrow to focus on what he admittedly does best: crafting drinks. Beyond flavor, the brand reflects parts of his personal history (it’s named after the circa-1850s German ‘drinking gnome’ that has accompanied him to cocktail classes and competitions around the world) and his outlook on beverages as a whole; the Cocktail Whisperer himself no longer drinks alcohol.
“Cannabis is such a provocative ingredient to life, and not everyone has the same effect,” he said. “That’s the difficulty that I have — it affects people in different ways. It’s a tricky world, so that’s why the drinks are so precise. The effect is the effect — it’s not going to change.”