The Good Oil: Edition 6

Written By Adrian Crawford Mar 24th 2023

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Table Of Contents

Expert’s Corner

Last month I introduced you to Emily Loss, my teammate and certified Integrative Health Coach. This time around, we’re joined by CBDistillery®’s Quality Assurance Director Alex Blanchette.

Adrian Crawford: First things first. Can you give me an idea of what the role of Quality Assurance Director entails?

Alex Blanchette: At the highest level, my job is to ensure that our products are safe for our customers. This includes overseeing our internal programs, such as sanitation, traceability, allergen management, equipment calibrations, etc. We have over 60 of these programs to ensure we are meeting regulatory requirements. The Quality Department also manages our third-party testing program to test all our finished products for potency, micro, heavy metals, residual solvents, and pesticides to meet state requirements for hemp products.

AC: Next up, the origin story. What first sparked your interest in wellness coaching and what has the journey been like along the way?

AB: I spent most of my career in QA for food manufacturing. Seeing the difference that good QA programs make in a company is very satisfying and can’t really be understated. The hemp industry used to be a bit of the Wild West but is now developing into a much more mature industry with more and more companies doing things the right way.

Our conversation continues on the blog.

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Four Pairs of Cool Kicks for Springtime Looks

I may have mentioned it in these pages before, but prior to joining the team at CBDistillery® I spent a few years working in marketing for a nationwide sneaker retail chain. This felt like a dream job, since I’ve been a sneaker enthusiast since the early 1990s.

One of my favorite parts about the spring is that, when the weather warms up and the snow recedes, newly clear sidewalks are the perfect opportunity to break out some fun, colorful sneakers after months of wearing winter boots and traipsing through slush. With the changing of seasons upon us, I thought I’d offer up some recommendations in case you’re looking for some fresh kicks to celebrate spring in!

New Balance 9060

New Balance, long thought of as a “sneaker for dads,” is one of 2022-23's coolest shoe brands, and I say that distinctly separate from my role as a father. The Boston-based company has been around for more than 100 years, and rode the running boom of the 1970s to become one of the most recognizable footwear brands out there. New Balance has an impressive archive of retro running sneakers for casual wear, and 9060 is a new model that takes visual inspiration from the iconic 990 and 860 collections. The 9060 boasts a sleek design, a versatile range of unisex colorways and, just as importantly, is extremely comfortable.

adidas Samba

They say fashion is cyclical, and what was once in style always comes back around. German brand adidas’s major strength is the sheer depth of its sneaker catalog, which dates back to the years immediately following World War II. One of those shoes is the Samba, a model originally designed for soccer players training on icy pitches. Released in 1950, it’s a timeless silhouette boasting those iconic three stripes, the Trefoil logo and a low-top design that works with shorts, jeans or anything in between. The Samba is enjoying a renaissance in 2023 with the rerelease of the original colorways (black on white, white on black) but you can find them in a variety of shades to suit whatever springtime outfit you have in mind.

Nike Blazer

You might have worked this out by now, but the majority of trendy sneakers on the market for the past, say, 30-plus years have been models that were once used by athletes. The Blazer was Nike’s first performance basketball shoe, all the way back in 1973, and was considered a high-tech piece of equipment at the time. Its full-grain leather uppers and vulcanized rubber soles were supportive and grippy, but shoe design has come so far in the past 50 years that you’d probably want to avoid wearing them on the court today. Instead, the Blazer is now a perfect casual sneaker that comes in low-top and “mid-cut” form as well as a range of materials like suede, nubuck, leather and mesh for easy pairing with a range of looks.

New Balance 550

While we’re on the subject of “former basketball shoes for casual wear,” you simply can’t go past the New Balance 550. It’s not as old as the Blazer, with a 1989 original release date, and it’s not as immediately recognizable, but a collaborative series with New York designer Teddy Santis’s label Aimè Leon Dore in 2022 brought new life and new interest to the 550 silhouette. It was tough to get your hands on a pair last year, but they’re becoming more and more attainable and make for a great casual low-top sneaker for the warmer months. Most of the colorways are predominantly white with hits of color to match your outfit of the day, and they can be had for well under $100 for those who are ballin’ on a budget.

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Worthy Consumables

I don’t often shine the spotlight on our products here because not only is it this newsletter’s intention to share things other than CBD, but you’re subscribed to our emails so there’s a great chance you already know how beneficial CBDistillery® products can be.

This time, though, I thought I’d give you the heads-up on my experiences with one of our newest supplements to hit the shelves, the Microdose Synergy+ THC + CBD Oil Tincture. It’s the latest addition to our Synergy+ line of products that feature Delta-9 THC, although there’s a difference with this one.

The Microdose products come in tincture or softgel form and while they do contain THC, it’s in precisely measured servings so that you’re not taking enough to risk intoxication but still get the effects of THC and CBD working together.

I’m a big fan of our Unwind Synergy+ gummies for nighttime relaxation after the baby goes to bed, but I was definitely curious about the potential for daytime THC use without the associated mild high, which wouldn't be terribly conducive to business-hours concentration.

I added the Microdose tincture to my daily routine with a dropper every morning and, while I’m only about a week into it so far, I’m already enjoying some early benefits. Last week coincided with my return to the gym and running after recovering from an injury, and so I’m back to experiencing a little physical discomfort after my early-morning workouts, but I’m noticing that the tincture is more than taking the edge off that.

I’m going to write a full review for the CBDistillery® blog once it’s been incorporated into my routine for at least two weeks, but as I said – early returns are encouraging!

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The Last Drops

That's it for the March edition of The Good Oil! Thanks again for reading, and I look forward to gracing your inboxes again in February. Until then!

-- Adrian