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Introduction
A couple years ago, it wasn’t unheard of to see LYF products on most dispensary menus, but it wasn’t a brand that really gained a ton of traction. Earlier this year we saw Valens re-introduce these same edibles to the market under their Vacay brand, and also bring in some new innovation that we hadn’t seen from them yet. With four new drinks available on the market, including several CBD-dominant options, it seems like Vacay is here to stay this time. But with so many lemonades to hit the shelves this summer, will their Sparkling Pink Lemonade make the cut?
The Scoop
This wasn’t the first Vacay beverage I’m trying, but I was a big fan of both of the Tropical Sparkling Sodas. When I saw they had a new release coming, I was happy to give it a try. Every summer seems like there is “flavour of the season” across the industry and 2023’s Flavour of the Summer seems to be Lemonade. I’ve been slowly making my way through them, and this one falls pretty high up on the list, but I won’t pretend it doesn’t have it short-falls.
As soon as I opened the can, I was greeted with a very potent aroma as I was pouring this into the glass. It was a strong, sour lemon smell, which was to be expected. This came with a really nice sweet & sour taste to it as well that perfectly masked any taste of cannabis to it. It was sweet enough, with 19 grams of sugar per can, but also had some tartness to balance it out - flavour was on point. I appreciated that it tasted like a full-bodied lemonade and not a Sparkling Water that's been flavored similarly to lemonade (Tweed, I’m looking at you here). I wasn’t really coming here to comment on the effects, as results may vary depending on your consumption levels. For me, a single drink typically won’t cut it, but after drinking this one fairly quickly I thought I almost felt a buzz coming on. Unfortunately, just as quickly as the feeling came, it went.
All that being said, I do have some issues with this product. They called this a Sparkling Pink Lemonade, but if they didn’t want it to sparkle, they didn’t have to - lemonade comes flat all the time, and sometimes it’s actually preferred. But if you’re going to call it a Sparkling Lemonade, it needs to be carbonated. I poured my drink into a glass, snapped a couple photos, and by the time I finished taking them 2 minutes later, it was already losing significant carbonation. After about 6 or 7 minutes, my drink was almost entirely flat - but good thing it’s lemonade!
My second issue with this product is less to do with the contents of the can, and more to do with the can itself. One of my biggest problems with cannabis beverages as a whole (and this may or may not get a whole separate post of its own) is their choice of child-proofing. Most of the beverages on the market come in not just child-proof, but also adult-proof cans. On several occasions now, I have had to puncture the side of the can and then pour it into a glass. They’re difficult enough to get into without Valens trying to use the excise stamp as an additional seal. Unfortunately, it seems like Valens has chosen to very poorly apply their excise stamps across the top of the can where you should be able to physically grab and tear the child-proofing. At first I thought this issue may have been a one-off, but after looking in my fridge the Neon Rush Cali Blast is also sealed the exact same way and several other CannaViews writers have also had this problem. If your product needs me to use a knife to get into it, I won’t buy it anymore.
Finally, the effects of this drink were lacking, but I’m not going to pretend like that’s a Vacay issue, or really “penalize” them for it. I’m just saying that 10mgs isn’t enough. If and when Health Canada decides to allow for higher dose edibles & beverages here, then we can come back to discuss whether or not the effects were really lacking. We’ll call them “average” for now, since that’s sort of become the baseline for distillate-infused edibles.
Taste: 4 / 5
Cannabis-Aftertaste: 5 / 5
Carbonation: 1 / 5
Effects: 3 / 5
Overall: 13/20
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