Tinley Makes Cannabis Cocktails Possible

Nowhere is retail cannabis making more strides right now than in the beverage category, where recent developments in “consumption nanotechnology” are enabling infused liquids to take effect way faster than the usual 45-minute wait for edibles. Riding the crest of this wave is Tinley Beverage Company, which produces lines of both “tonics” (with margarita and Moscow mule flavors) and “elixirs,” which replicate the bottle design of hard liquor brands and, minus the boozy heat, their flavor profile, with coconut (think rum), almond (amaretto), and cinnamon (uh, Fireball?) options.

Once imbibed straight up or as part of a cocktail (non-alcoholic or otherwise), the cannabis effects start within minutes, intensifying over the next half hour. It’s not quite as instantaneous as smoking, but there’s no need to inhale or unleash pungent aromas either. With a capful of elixir containing little more than a one milligram dose (four capfuls is a 5mg shot), the ability to manage intake is precise as possible. (That said, friends who’ve had unpleasant edible experiences struggled a bit with these, too.)

I asked Tinley’s founder/owner Jeffrey Maser how this all came to be. “It started three years ago when I was at a party, holding a cocktail in my hand and really wishing that it was going to give me a cannabis effect instead of an alcohol effect — that would be way more fun and healthier and leave no hangover,” Maser told me over the phone from his Los Angeles office. “I wished there was some way I could create the product, so I set out to see if it could be done.”