Super Bowl Sunday is typically marketed as a high-energy event with fans downing beer and snacks while watching a gladiator-style competition. Certainly, that’s what fans are gearing up for a Sunday, February 11 when the Kansas City Chiefs will clash with the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII.
But nearly four years after Illinois legalized recreational cannabis, the big game might take on a more mellow tone thanks to a limited-edition THC-infused Buffalo wing sauce.
The sauce, a collaboration between Wicker Park sports bar the Fifty/50 and Cresco Labs, infuses that familiar mild orange wing sauce with 100 mg of THC via odorless and flavorless distillate cannabis oil. The 10-ounce containers will hit shelves on Friday, February 2 at Sunnyside dispensaries in River North and Wrigleyville, as well as suburban Buffalo Grove and Schaumburg. The sauce will also be available at Okay Cannabis, the dispensary chain that shares some of the same investors as Fifty/50.
Cresco, which also works with star baker Mindy Segal on her line of edibles, is selling the sauce under its Good News, a cannabis brand.
One of Chicago’s top spots for fried and smoked chicken wings, the Fifty/50 is especially well-loved for its honey-tinged OG Buffalo sauce (co-owner Scott Weiner has told reporters, “wings are my happy place,”). The company, also behind West Town Bakery, is already acquainted with the wide world of weed as last year it unveiled THC-infused cake and brownie mixes.
The oil doesn’t impact the consistency of the sauce, says Cresco spokesperson Jason Erkes, adding that it features a hybrid strain that won’t leave fans to spend game day melting into the couch. The team estimates that the 10-ounce container has enough sauce to dip about 24 wings, delivering a microdose of 3 to 5 mg smothered on each wing.
While the infused wing sauce will only be available for a limited time (the collaborators expect it to sell out quickly), there’s plenty of room for hazy hijinks down the road, says Erkes. “As the cannabis industry matures, this is the natural evolution of where cannabis products could go,” he says. “[At Cresco], our whole mission is to normalize and professionalize the industry.”
