Shopping for THC products can be a daunting task for everyone. It doesn’t matter if you are as happy and confident as the prize pony or nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs, there is a lot to take in and a lot you may not know about. RiverBluff is here to try to make your next shopping experience go smoother and more enjoyable by giving you tips we’ve acquired shopping and working in the industry. So, kick back in the cut and let’s learn how to buy some weed stuff. 

How Do You Want to Consume 

There are three basic ways to consume THC products:  

1. Drink 
2. Eat 
3. Inhale. 

Knowing which of these three you are looking for before shopping will immediately shorten your time in the store. If you can’t smoke or have sugar, your options will be limited. If you genuinely don’t know which is best for you, don’t be shy. Ask your budtender! They are there to be a resource and guide you through your experience. 

How Do You Want to Feel? 

Once you know how you want to consume your THC products, you should consider why you are consuming them. People use cannabis and hemp products for a large variety of reasons recreationally and medicinally. To learn more about specific hemp compounds check out this article. The most common medical reasons are lack of sleep and mood elevation. If you need sleep, seek Indicas out or if you are THC adverse CBN gummies. You should probably avoid Sativas. If you seek help with mood elevation, avoid Indicas and seek out Sativas or if you are THC adverse CBG gummies. If you are a recreational consumer, the world is really your oyster. Sativa is great for creative endeavors, it is less lethargic than an Indica, and is most consumers daytime choice. Indica is great for relaxation and zoning out with some gaming, binge watching your favorite show, or reading a good book after a long day. It is most consumers’ nighttime choice. Some people only consume Indica. Some people only consume Sativa. Most mix and match. The important thing is finding the right one for you. 

How Much Should I Take? 

If you don’t know the answer to this because you are a new consumer, always start off at the smallest dosage. No need to be brave here. You can always take more. When it comes to inhalable THC products, this is a tougher question to answer. The effect of smokable THC varies greatly from person to person. Again, no need to be brave here. Slow and steady wins the race. Here are some general tips: 1-4 hits of cannabis or hemp flower should suffice for a new consumer and 1-2 hits of THC concentrates. That means 1g of flower could last over a week and 1g of concentrate over a month. So, consider how often you plan on consuming so you can have an idea of the quantity you will be shopping for and again shorten your time in the store. 

Now You’re Ready to Shop! 

If you have a general idea of where you are at with those three topics, you are ready to shop. The only thing left to consider is your budget, feel free to be the prize pony again. Cannabis and Hemp dispensaries can be magical places. We hope we eliminated some of your questions so you can safely enjoy the wonder of buying weed legally from an open store front. We have locations on either side of the Mississippi River for you to enjoy. You can visit our location in Dubuque for most of your edible needs. Sorry no smokables in Iowa. You can stop at our East Dubuque location and check out our full line of products. If you prefer shopping from the comfort of your own home, our website has a slightly limited selection in comparison to our store fronts but provides easy discreet shipping right to your door. 

In this article, we will cover specific products that we recommend for specific issues, specific products for different methods of consumption, and specific products for different levels of experience. At RiverBluff, we strive to have a product for everyone, and we believe we’ve accomplished that. So, kick back in the cut, fire one up, and let’s learn about some weed stuff. 

What if I Only Smoke? 

We offer many hemp-derived products for you to enjoy smoking: 2g Blended Disposable Pens, 1g Delta 8 THC Cartridges, 1g Prerolls/6 Packs of .5g Prerolls, our variety of Dabs (The 3.5g THC-A Badder is a steal), and of course our By-Weight Flower. Since we are a hemp-derived store, our smokables have no purchase limits! Unfortunately, we only  offer our smokeable products in-store at our Illinois location. If you are looking for help sleeping or with pain management, check out the Indicas we offer. We enjoy our 2g THC-A Sunset Sherbert disposable. It is sweet, citrusy and easy to smoke. If you are just looking to elevate your mood, check out our Sativas. We like our 2g THC-A Ghost Train Haze disposable. The strain is earthy and tastes like weed. We assure you we have a smokeable option for everyone. If you need help selecting your purchase, your budtender will be glad to help guide you. 

What if I Only Do Edibles? 

Riverbluff built our reputation on the quality of our edibles. We don’t do Indica or Sativa edibles, everything is Hybrid. To achieve the effects desired by those shopping for Indica/Sativa, we use other compounds from the plant commonly found in Indicas/Sativas. If you want a Sativa effect, try our fast-acting water soluble 5mg THC 5mg CBG gummies. Besides being great for mood elevation, these strawberry gummies also work well for migraines, trembles, and even clarity and focus. If you want an Indica effect, try our fast-acting water soluble 5mg THC 5mg CBN. These grape gummies may be the most requested item in our store. Perfect for relaxation and a good night’s sleep. For a more recreational experience, try our 150mg Delta 9 THC chocolate bars. Our French Toast bar offers a legendary experience you won’t find elsewhere; At 15mg per square, it is epic flavor explosion you’ll never forget. For the more advanced consumer, we suggest our Starman. At 50mg per gummy, this powerful grape gummy covered in candy packs quite the punch. It is available in a single count or a 5 pack.   

What if I can’t Smoke and Don’t Like Edibles? 

Fear not, we’ve spent the last year upping our game for you. RiverBluff offers a host of premade drinks as well as our notorious Simple Syrup. We have two Lemonade options for new to moderate consumers: Kyles Killer Lemon Haze, a classic tart lemonade, and The Dude, a slightly sweeter tangier raspberry lemonade. Both options are dosed at 10mg Delta 9 THC. For the more advanced lemonade consumer, we present Shake and Bake, our 100mg Delta 8 THC strawberry lemonade. Shake and Bake is not for the faint of heart. Want something bubbly, try our Cresent 9 seltzers. Want something bubbly and sweet, RiverBluff in partnership with 7 Hills brewery has released our Soda Pop. Coming in Grape, Lime, and Punch, each flavor comes in a 10mg Delta 9 THC option and 50mg Delta 9 THC option, and are handcrafted in Dubuque, IA. Want to get creative, you can try our Delta-9 Simple Syrup and create your own concoction.  

Always Pushing Forward 

RiverBluff is constantly developing new hemp-derived products to meet the needs of our customers. We listen to our customers and make decisions based on their wants and needs. In this article, we’ve barely scratched the surface of all the products we have available. If nothing mentioned in this article is up your alley, stop into our Dubuque or East Dubuque locations and talk to one of our budtenders to see if we have a product that does suit your needs. If you prefer online shopping, continue on the website (sorry no smokables). We want your shopping experience to be as satisfying and easy as possible by giving you the basic tools to identify the products you need.  

Like the chicken and the egg, which came first, the soda or the pop is a question that rattles around some of our brains. We don’t know why we want to know, but we know we want to know. With the recent release of our outstanding RiverBluff soda pop, we set out to answer that question and look deeper into why some people call it soda, some people call it pop, and some people call it soda pop. So, kick back in the cut, fill one up, and let’s learn about soft drink stuff. 

Spoiler: It was the Soda 

Early methods of carbonating water consisted of adding sodium bicarbonate to water to create a fizzy drink. Hence the name soda. They first came in seltzers and tonics as they were believed to calm the stomach. That is why many early soda fountains were in pharmacies and why your parents told you to drink lemon/lime soda when you were ill. This dates back to when ginger was a common ingredient in sodas as ginger is believed to help relieve stomach discomfort. The term soda water dates back to 1798 2. 

How Did it Become Pop? 

By 1812, bottled soda water started to become available. In that year, English poet Robert Southey is credited with creating term Pop 1. in a letter he wrote saying, “drank some most admirable cyder, and a new manufactory of a nectar, between soda-water and ginger-beer, and called pop, because ‘pop goes the cork’ when it is drawn .” Early soft drinks contained all sorts of wild ingredients, so who knows what was in that mystical drink Robert Southey consumed…but Coke was named Coke for a reason. 

What About Soda Pop? 

Around 1863, the terms soda and pop had started to be connected when ordering a soft drink. By this time some companies had started using other methods than cork to seal their products, so no more pop. They were also now carried in saloons, a far cry from their early days in pharmacies. New sealing methods and the introduction to the saloon were a direct result of America’s westward expansion. The product needed to travel farther to the consumers and not every town had a pharmacy but almost all of them had saloons. The cultural crossover in the west made soda pop the standard for the time. 

If Soda Pop Became the Standard, Why Do We Still Say Pop or Soda? 

Chances are if you are on one of the coasts, you call it soda. If you live in the middle of the country, you probably call it pop. If you live in the south, you probably call it Coke because of brand loyalty (Coke was founded in Atlanta, GA). So why not soda pop anymore, given the chance to say something quicker, most people will air on the side of brevity. Why would you use two words that most people understand mean the same thing when you can say one? To that we say, “We are bringing soda pop back! 3” 

What Did We Learn? 

It doesn’t matter what you call it. People have loved soda pop for centuries. It is in many of our first memories. It is as American as apple pie and baseball. Some of the most recognizable brands in the world produce soft drinks. We strive to be the most recognizable brands in cannabis world. With that in mind, in partnership with 7 Hills Brewing, RiverBluff set out to develop our hemp-derived THC soda pops. A traditional soda pop taste with a lift! The result gave us three soda pops we are proud of and delighted to be able to offer, don’t wait purchase them today! 

Hexahydrocannabinol (Who was time to say it like that?) or HHC is a relative newcomer to the hemp-derived market. It keeps popping up in more blended products as well as products on their own such as HHC edibles like caramels and gummies. People have had questions about the compound. So, we’ve gathered some of the most asked questions and will try to shed some light on HHC, the forgotten cannabinoid. 

1. Will It Get Me High? HHC is psychoactive and can most definitely get you high. Most consumers report feelings of euphoria, elevated mood, relaxation, and stimulated appetite. Some consumers claim it heightened their sense of taste and smell. If you are a foodie, this may be the compound for you 1. 
2. Does It Feel More Indica or Sativa? HHC is most commonly found in Sativa 2 and offers more of a Sativa feel than an Indica feel but has characteristics of both. HHC can be great socially, the elevated mood and euphoria make even the shyest people perk up in conversation. Yet, it offers enough relaxation that it can be used like a mild Indica. 
3. Where Do These New Compounds Come From? Few of the compounds that show up in modern hemp-derived products are new. Most of them were first identified in the 1940’s by Roger Adams (Keep an eye out for an article on him) including HHC 3. The reason most people haven’t heard of these compounds is until the recreational market started to boom so did the knowledge base of the consumer. They discovered that many compounds that may prove helpful in their daily lives were not available at their typical dispensary. That is where hemp dispensaries stepped up and companies like ours were born.
4. What is the Best Way to Consume It? This boils down to personal preference. We carry in it stand alone edibles as well as blended concentrates. More and more people are avoiding smoking due to personal health concerns so most of our HHC offerings are edible. Still, we know the ritualistic side of smoking is big part of cannabis culture which is why we included it in some of our blends.
5. Will I Fail a Drug Test? The rumor that you could take HHC to get high and still pass a drug test has persisted for years. Is it true? Maybe. Should you test it to find out? No! While most drug tests only test forms of THC cannabinoids and HHC is not THC, that doesn’t mean you should try your luck. Anyone who sells you a psychoactive substance and claims you will pass a drug test is just trying to sell you something. They do not have your best interest in mind. 

That is our brief introduction to HHC. Now, you have the information needed to make an informed decision or at least more informed than before. As always, we encourage you to do your own independent research, or stop into one of our 2 locations so our budtenders can help further guide you. Everyone’s experience is different. HHC might not be right for you, but it may be right for your best friend. Don’t yuck their yum just for the sake of doing so. HHC is just another part of a plant we all love different parts of, so always keep an open mind.