Shelton Hull
Words by Shelton Hull
As you would expect, I hear about all kinds of interesting new products coming out, and I’ve collected a few over the past few weeks, so let’s talk about them today. As always, please feel free to send along any samples or suggestions — the weirder, the better.
We’ll start with the Penjamin Cart Pen by Smyle Labs, a company based in Los Angeles that specializes in novelty vapes and torches. You have surely seen the commercial on Facebook. It’s designed to look like a pen, in eight different colors, with nibs that can be bought cheaply on their website. The barrel is too thick to be a regular pen — it should be a Sharpie-type. They also have other designs like mock lightsaber handles or a fake key fob. (It would be great if that actually worked, but that would obviously be illegal.) At $25, you can get a passable battery for half the price at any head shop; but you can buy 3 for $18.99 each, which makes it a fun joke gift, but that’s it. Functional, but not fancy. You’re not gonna fool any cop or teacher, but it’s perfectly good for casual use, and an excellent conversation starter. Speaking as a man who hosts trivia nights every week, trust that it paid for itself quickly.
Also based in L.A., the Puffco brand should be well-familiar to readers of this column. We featured them here back in May 2023. “Cupsy” (a portable water pipe that looks like a coffee cup) remains one of their most popular items, for good reason, but they specialize in products for use with oil, wax and shatter. They roll out new items so fast that even they have a hard time keeping up with their own productivity. But we touched base recently, and they sent me some stuff from their latest line of designs for the dab scene. The Puffco Plus dab pen ($89) is a sleek black top-loading device, easy to transport and clean, and it pairs nicely with their hot knife, aka Heated Loading Tool ($50), which is ideal for anything waxy, oily or sticky.
The jewel of their collection is the gorgeous Puffco Peak Pro, a $420+ dab rig with a 3D water chamber, four heat settings, customizable LED lights and “Custom Dab Metrics,” which allow users to monitor their usage for unknown analytic purposes. It’s a modified version of their Puffco Peak, which was already imposing at $199, but this version might be the most complex smoking device ever invented. It’s a fully functional work of art, but a lot more complex than anything I need, so after testing, it ended up with a friend who was celebrating her birthday that night. She walked in the door and immediately yelled, “Is that a Puffco?” Yes, it was, and that is a memory she will (probably) never forget. In fact, it’s the next day, and she just messaged me. “Dude, this thing makes smoking so easy, wowowow!” Glad she liked it, but when your pipe has its own app and Bluetooth setting, that’s madness.
Let’s wrap up with a look at Nama Products, based in Clifton, NJ. I reached out after seeing an ad for their Buzz Drops online, so they sent a whole-ass sample pack, and thanks for that. This is the debut product from The Drink Lab, which will surely be someone’s mixology gimmick soon, if it’s not already. Buzz Drops are basically a tincture, smartly marketed to non-drinkers or what Demi Lovato famously calls “California Sober.” Bless her heart. Each drop contains 2.5mg each of water-soluble THC and CBD, enough to spike any juice or coffee, but come on — this is Florida, and we drink here.
I can report that it’s basically tasteless and odorless, so it doesn’t alter the flavor profile of any fancy cocktail, while also promising no hangover and no calories. (You can find some flavored tinctures at any dispensary; those are great, decidedly more hi-octane — in the Zoe Cassavetes sense.) Personally, I think it works best in a Lemon Drop, but there’s a QR code that scans for a bunch of specialized recipes, all of which will have been thoroughly adulterated by the time you read this. Drops come in 15 for $29, 30 for $54 or 60 for $89 (a $27 savings). Best part is that it only takes 10 minutes to hit, way faster than usual.
Nama also makes a whole range of gummies that are very interesting in composition. All eight variants are made from delta-9 THC, which can affect people in wildly unpredictable ways, more so than edibles already do. Their Sleep line has melatonin, while Energy (my favorite) includes L-Theanine and about 42,000% of your daily B-12. The THC Sampler pack contains one dose of six types for just $15, which is basically free, and from there you can customize your own bundle. They’re far more adventurous in their formulations than most gummy peddlers right now, and it would be interesting to see similar recipes adapted with the enhanced potency of dispensary-grade cannabis. The same applies to the Buzz Drops, which are a perfectly useful item, ready-made for purses, backpacks and cargo-short pockets alike.
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