You know the feeling: After a long work day, right around 4pm, you’re ready for a break. Enter the Happy Hour: If you’re a cocktail drinker, that means you reach for an aperitif, typically a low-ABV quaffs designed to bridge the gap between bright, busy days and slow, sultry nights. But a new THC beverage product is here to prove that cannabis can also play in the golden hour – and be crafted into craft infused cocktails to boot.
Meet Artet, a cannabis infused beverage designed with mixability in mind. From its stunning packaging channeling the vintage travel and cocktail posters of yore, to its nuanced palate bursting with spices and botanicals, Artet feels like the kind of product you’d find on any fancy backbar – and in all kinds of late afternoon aperitifs. With 2.5 mg THC per serving, Artet is also reminiscent of the low-ABV liqueurs that star in happy hour cocktails: one drink takes the edge off; two helps you unwind; and the third is sheer relaxation.
Neat, Artet is surprisingly complex. With a sweet lime nose, kissed with honey and white flowers; the mid-palate’s soft citrus upfront gives way to a surprising good amount of pepper and ginger spice, and then gives way to grapefruit pith and touch of mint freshness and lingering raw cannabis flavor on the flavor. It’s an exercise in balance and requires very little to be mixed into any simple cocktail with just a spritz of citrus and sparkling water, and its nice, rich mouthfeel makes for a smooth, easy drinker.
But products like this beg to take the place of spirts in cocktails, so, with the aperitif in mind, I set out to create a few summertime cocktails featuring Artet. These drinks would be sippable at sunset – and beyond, and typically would feature vodka, gin, or a low-ABV sipper like Lillet or Campari (some of my personal favorites). Scroll for four recipes I think you’ll love these long late summer afternoons!
I Like That Peach
1 oz. peach purée
1 oz. chamomile tea
1/2 oz. ginger simple syrup
1 /2 oz. lemon juice
1 oz. Artet
Place 1 large peach in a pot of boiling water for 45-60 seconds. Remove with tongs or a slotted spoon and immediately submerge in ice water for 60 seconds. Remove and peel skin when cool. Using a knife, carefully halve the peach, working around the pit. Twist to separate halves if using freestone peaches; if not, cut into slices around the pit. Place into blender and purèe until smooth.
Ginger simple syrup: Bring 1 cup water to a boil, add one cup sugar, stir to dissolve. Add peeled ginger, sliced into coins, and bring to a boil. Let simmer for 1-15 minutes, then remove from heat. Allow to steep for up to one hour or to taste. Will be spicy!
Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker, fill with ice, and shake vigorously. Pour and serve up in a coupe.
L’Orange L’Artet
1 oz. Artet
1 oz. fresh squeezed orange juice
3/4 oz. mint simple syrup
Fever Tree Tonic Water
Combine Artet, orange juice and simple syrup and shake over ice. Strain and pour into an oversized wine glass with a fancy marigold ice cube. Garnish with mint and orange slice.
Not Your Mommas Palmer
2 oz. Artet
3/4 oz black tea simple syrup
1/2 oz. lemon juice
Stir over a large ice cube in a rocks glass. Repeat as needed.
Cheaters Always Prosper
Ok, ok… I know I said they’d be booze-free. But I couldn’t help myself! This is a simple take on my go-to cocktail, a Campari & Soda.
2. oz. Campari
2. oz. Artet
3/4 oz. lime juice
Splash of sparkling water
Grapefruit wheel garnish
Serve over fancy ice.