*By Jacqueline Corba*
This summer season, CBD-infused beverages were among the hottest new drinks on the market. The drinks, said Dirty Lemon's CEO Zak Normandin, offer an alternative way for some to just chill ー sans alcohol, and sans the traditional marijuana-induced high.
"A lot of consumers are actually replacing ... an alcoholic beverage \[with this\]. So at the end of the day you've had a long day at work incorporating this product into your daily routine to just relax," Normandin, also a co-founder of the beverage company, told Cheddar's CannaBiz on Tuesday.
Dirty Lemon, which launched in 2015 with a charcoal-infused lemon-flavored beverage called a detox "elixir," introduced its first CBD drink this July. The new product sold out of the first batch, roughly 20,000 bottles, in only two days.
"It's been challenging for us to keep up with demand," Normandin said. "People want to experience it for themselves."
Normandin said the combination of ingredients in a ready-to-drink format is driving the success of his company's beverage products and his new CBD drink, which uses cannabidiol produced by cannabis brand [Beboe](https://cheddar.com/videos/the-hermes-of-marijuana-wants-to-bring-you-cannabis).
Dirty Lemon is just one example of many companies that want to capitalize on the benefits of this marijuana extract, which does not actually contain THC or produce a high.
"It's a very crowded field and there is a lot of competition," Green Market Report CEO and editor-in-chief Debra Borchardt told Cheddar Tuesday.
CBD maker Charlotte's Web went public on the Canadian Securities Exchange [last week](https://www.newcannabisventures.com/charlottes-web-ipo-and-secondary-offering-boosted-to-16-45-million-shares-as-underwriters-exercise-over-allotment-option/). Its products are sold in 2,700 retail locations and the company is looking to triple its annual revenue this year. Borchardt said the company has already been able to capture 14 percent of the market.
And investors are taking note ー the stock surged more than 13 percent Tuesday, its third day of trading on the public market.
This is only the beginning for CBD products on the market, Borchardt said.
"You're going to be seeing people buying CBD water, and they are going to feel good. It's a wellness thing."
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/dirty-lemon-adds-cbd-to-its-beverage-menu).
Data from a Slack Future Forum survey shows employees returning full-time to the office are not thrilled with their experience. Sheela Subramanian, vice [resident of the Future Forum, joined Cheddar News to talk about how worker satisfaction is worsening in returning to the office compared to those workers with flexible schedules. "Employers need to actually empower their teams to create team level agreements and also skill their managers to better lead distributed teams because everybody's work is different," Subramanian noted.
UPSIDE foods, a company that makes cultivated meat products, recently raised $400 million in a Series C round.
UPSIDE says it's developing a way to grow real meat, poultry, and seafood, without the need to raise animals for human consumption. It's a process that gets the attention of some big-name backers, including Bill Gates and Richard Branson. Dr. Uma Valeti, Founder and CEO of UPSIDE Foods, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Samantha Tan, professional racing driver and team owner of Samantha Tan Racing, joins Cheddar News to talk the motorsport community, being an ambassador for the AAPI Victory Alliance, and her mental health.
Hosts of the new MTV ]show "Help! I'm in a Secret Relationship," recording artist Travis Mills and actor Rahne Jones, joined Cheddar News to talk about the new show and how sheds light on romantic partners who are keeping their other halves hidden away from other parts of their lives. "Travis and I go in and we investigate and figure out what is going on in hopes that we can sit the two parties down and have a resolution, a conversation, a productive conversation, in hopes that the relationships remain intact," said Jones. "But unfortunately that does not happen all the time, which is where, where the drama, where the drama comes." Mills added that “I honestly think that the pandemic gave people who want to hide their partner a really good excuse."
Once called the rent-forever generation, Millennials are bucking the trend. But just as they age into their prime home-buying years, they’ve run up against a red hot housing market exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. Cheddar News senior Reporter Chloe Aiello went to Hudson, N.Y., to learn more.
Every year on April 8th, we celebrate the deliciousness of empanadas for National Empanada Day! This time, Cheddar's News Wrap was joined by New York's own Empanada Mama to try some of interesting flavors.
The Biden administration is making changes to federal student loan programs, bringing more than 3.6 million people closer to debt forgiveness under the new rules, providing 40,000 with immediate debt cancellation, and allowing several thousand more with older loans to get some relief. Rob Franek, Editor-In-Chief of the Princeton Review, joined Cheddar News to break down how these changes might impact the lives of student loan borrowers and addresses some of the pushback against doing even more. "This is not a bankruptcy bailout of industries that are supporting the American economy," he said. These are for students right now who would otherwise be hobbled financially if they didn't experience some sort of forgiveness overall."
Emmanuel Macron staves off the far right challenger Marine Le Pen in France, conservative lawmakers find themselves embroiled in varying controversies, and pickleball is hotter than ever in the U.S.
