Will Cohen, who grew up in Cincinnati, and Ben Kraim – better known online as Tokin’ Jew – had been looking for an avenue to get into the THC beverage space. After searching high and low, the duo turned to Minneapolis’ Big Watt Beverage Co. to produce their kosher L’Chaim Infused Grape Drink, just in time for the High Holy Days.

“We started with kosher edibles, and it was just super successful,” said Cohen, who now lives in Colorado. “We always knew beverages were a wave we wanted to jump on, but we wanted to do it a little bit differently.”

Rather than the ubiquitous skinny 12-ounce cans that many THC beverages are found in, Big Watt produced a 750ml product that looks like a bottle of wine.

“We felt like what is so stereotypically Jewish is Shabbat; you know, kiddush wine. Why has no one ever done a wine?” Cohen said. “And so we went down that route.”

The route was hardly smooth; it took three months of finding the right production partner and another nine months of respite testing, getting the right bottles, production, pasteurization, and labels.

“We ended up at Big Watt; we liked what Rick [Dow] was doing, we liked Jackson [Gese], their recipe guy,” he said. “It was a mutually beneficial relationship that took a little bit of time for us to get off the ground.”

Dow, who works in sales and marketing at Big Watt, said the company’s beginnings were in canned, cold-pressed coffees, which expanded to sparkling waters and eventually co-manufacturing beverages for other companies and stores. As THC beverages started taking off, it became a significant part of Big Watt’s business.

“I came in one morning and was checking the mail, and I got this inquiry from ‘Tokin’ Jew,’ and my immediate reaction was, ‘Oh shit, this is fucking hilarious!’” he said. “ I said to myself, I don’t care what it is. We’re doing business with these guys immediately.”

Dow echoed Cohen’s assertion that the production was difficult.

“We explored a lot of different things, and it turned out to be, frankly, really complicated to find the proper formulation, the right bottle, all of that,” he said. “So it took us way longer than we had thought, and it really stretched the relationship.”

Dow is seeing huge growth in the THC beverage market.

“I call it the rapidity of normalization (that) has just been taking everybody by surprise,” he said. “You know, it’s grandparents, soccer moms, it’s in convenience stores, it’s on menus in restaurants. It’s available everywhere.”

Cohen is thrilled with how the beverage came out.

“It’s not just a grape juice that’s carbonated in a wine bottle,” he said. “It has a lot more of a robust taste. We wanted this to be something that you could have the whole bottle of and not feel disgusting after.

“We’re really excited for it. I think it’ll be a really cool foray into the beverage space.”

Tokin’ Jews’ Kosher certification is by Rabbi Yaakov Cohen’s Whole Kosher Services out of Houston, Texas. He asked Rabbi Sholom Brook, who leads Chabad Young Jewish Professionals in Minneapolis, to be present when the beverages were produced on Sunday morning, Aug. 16.

“Every rabbi of a kosher supervision agency needs someone locally to oversee certain things, that all the products are kosher, and that the production is done properly, and they kashered the big machines and big tanks that carry the liquid,” Brook said. “I was answering to Rabbi Cohen because it was his supervision.”

Rabbi Cohen has been at the forefront of where kosher and CBD come together after his late son, Elisha passed away after suffering from brain cancer.

“I was hoping [the buzz] was going to die down,” he said with a chuckle. “It has its controversial issues, but for the most part, the understanding (within Jewish law) is that cannabis medicinally is OK. Then, of course, you’re going now into the area of edibles and things like that. So therefore you’re in the gray area where most people understand that as recreational, but it can also be used medicinally.”

Rabbi Cohen said he gives his kosher supervision for medicinal purposes.

“I’m not an advocate of recreational (cannabis use),” he said. “I don’t even think the word ‘recreation’ is in the Torah.”

Rabbi Cohen said that most rabbis forbade marijuana and its byproducts mostly because of the stigma attached. But then research showing the medicinal properties led to a second look.

“People need it medicinally either to help them go to sleep or arthritis, you know all the kinds of ailments that a person who normally would take drugs, they could take this in place of their normal narcotics or whatever prescription drugs that they were taking,” Rabbi Cohen said.

Will Cohen said that being a kosher product adds a layer of complexity to the process – but it’s a good one to have.

“In this industry there’s so much uncertainty of what the final product looks like, and I think we’ve realized our our consumers trust us, and that’s what that that’s what that’s what’s paramount about this loyalty that we’ve built with our customers,” he said. “First and foremost, we are never using the cheapest ingredients because of our Jewish guilt. But also naturally because kosher is a requirement, and so we’ve built kind of our standards that mirror and ratchet up very nicely with the kosher certification process.”

The added steps of certification and the transparency that comes with it is important to Cohen and Kraim.

“It’s so integral to who we are and the transparency and the trust that we give,” Cohen said. “A lot of our consumers are Jewish moms. We get emails from people who are like, ‘I’m too scared to go to the dispensary. Like, I need you to tell me explicitly: what do I need to get here?’ We feel excited that we’re able to build such an open and honest and transparent shopping experience in an industry that’s usually not that.”

Cohen said that growing up a Reform Jew in Cincinnati, cultural Judaism was always important to his life, even if religious Judaism wasn’t.

“The actual learnings that I think underpin Judaism was not something I really took to heart when I was younger,” he said. “And now that I have this, I’m like, ‘Wait, there’s something really special here’ that we’re able to bring out through the lens of Tokin’ Jew because it’s cut with comedy, and that’s what I think people have been able to grapple with and gravitate towards.”

Not only is Cohen’s Judaism enhanced by Tokin’ Jew – so is his boyfriend’s. Sort of.

“My boyfriend is not Jewish, but like, the most Jewish at the same time because of my day-to-day life,” he said.

What was started by Cohen and Kraim as a meme account turned into an Instagram following of more than 177,000 and between 10 and 20 million monthly viewers.

“We always knew there was something there, and it was on the back burner for a little bit as we built the community on the meme engine,” Cohen said. “But we knew there was something bigger. I think we still feel that way, which is exciting.

“We have this community that’s super loyal, and I think we’re definitely the type of people who pilot things, we learn, we fail, and we move to the next thing. And then we find the next successful thing, and we go at it really hard. It’s exciting.”

This article was originally published by Cincy Jewfolk. Reprinted with permission.