CBD brands see high potential in half-baked category | Tech News

Made by hand, the dark chocolate espresso chews from Lord Jones are designed to attract the most discerning of foodies. They’re sourced, the company says, with the finest Ecuadorian dark chocolate and packaged in a colorful cardboard box emblazoned with the brand’s royal crest. But these aren’t your grandmother’s chocolate chews. The confections contain CBD, an extract derived from hemp plants that’s quickly becoming a panacea for the aches and pains associated with everything from menstrual cramps to cancer.

“The whole idea behind the brand was to normalize the use of these compounds for wellness and to destigmatize it,” says Robert Rosenheck, a former ad exec who founded Lord Jones five years ago.

Priced at $30 a box, Lord Jones chocolates epitomize the upscale possibilities associated with hemp-derived CBD products. The brand, which began wholesaling in January and now sells at 100 boutiques nationwide, is collaborating with the Standard Hotel to stock its minibars, and has partnered with Icelandic band Sigur Rs on medicated sound baths. (For the uninitiated, that’s a sort of music-meditation blend that does not include water.) Gone are the grungy stoner tropes popularized in pothead flicks like “Up in Smoke” and “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle”; this new breed of retailers and brands is promoting a more aspirational lifestyle associated with wellness and health.

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