April 20 has become known as a holiday for stoners. A time to indulge in every epic food fantasy imaginable and eat like no one is watching. Except this year, brands are watching, and they’re crafting food to match the idea of this consumer shaped by Willie Nelson and Cheech and Chong in the 70’s and Wiz Khalifa, Snoop Dogg, and Seth Rogen in more recent years.
Two brands in particular, Wings Over and Wingstop, are taking their wings to new heights with the sauces they’ve created for the holiday celebrated by cannabis enthusiasts.
Wings Over has seized the CBD trend and added the ingredient to its wing sauce for the holiday as part of a limited-edition flavor.
Wingstop has gone even farther, creating a mixture to sprinkle on top of its wings that’s made from hemp and terpenoids, two ingredients in the cannabis plant that aren’t psychedelic. Wingstop’s director of culinary Larry Bellah told Nation’s Restaurant News that it was “as close to weed as you can get without it actually being weed.”
Other brands didn’t go as far but did develop munchie-approved menus. Velvet Taco used Flamin’ Hot Cheetos in its Weekly Taco Feature, and Fuku — the David Chang concept out of New York — created a fried chicken doughnut sandwich.
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