‘Super Troopers’ Stars & WhistlePig Whiskey Are Making Cannabis-Infused Maple Syrup For 4/20
Stir up an Old Fashioned that’s sweetened with this “Sticky Icky” weed syrup.
The guys from the classic comedy movie Super Troopers and WhistlePig whiskey are once again celebrating 4/20 with a limited-edition, cannabis-infused, cocktail-ready maple syrup. WhistlePig Limited-Edition Non-Psychoactive Troopers Edition Sticky Icky Natural Cannabis Terpene Infused Barrel-Aged Maple Syrup—a name I am absolutely not typing out a second time—was officially announced this morning, but Vermont’s finest slipped me a bottle ahead of time.
For those of you asking, “what the hell is going on?” the Super Troopers guys (also known as the Broken Lizard comedy troupe) are in their second year of syrupy collaboration with Vermont-based WhistlePig distillery. But this is a major advance in collaborative shenanigans from 2024’s barrel-aged maple syrup. The “plot” of this partnership sees the guys evicted from WhistlePig’s Sugar Shack and, in their own words, “selling out for an endorsement deal.”
So how is this stuff, and how does it taste and feel to drink one? It’s complicated. I tasted the syrup on its own first, to get my bearings. While the bottle was pleasantly aromatic with terpenes, the flavor was very subdued on the palate. I packed a mini-cone of some sativa-leaning hybrid that a buddy gives me by the jarful, made my cocktail, put on some Phish for the hell of it, and took a couple of puffs after my first sip.
A word on maple old fashioneds: they’re kind of mid. Even with the normal sugar-to-whiskey ratios, they can be way too sweet. That’s the problem with “flavorful” sources of sugar—they just cover up too much of the whiskey’s character, including the good parts. A maple old fashioned can also taste terrible if you use the wrong whiskey—something without a lot of spice. So I liked that the WhistlePig folks keep pushing PiggyBack Rye—a 6-year-old 100 percent rye whiskey—for this cocktail. PiggyBack is absolutely a “mixing” whiskey, but such a great one to balance maple syrup against—just enough spice to cut through the sweetness and just enough time in oak to bring some tannins to bear on that gooey consistency.
The good news is that it’s a delicious drink for your weed-heightened sweetness sensory awareness. Frankly, that’s the absolute least you should expect from a company making their own whiskey and their own syrup. But they deliver with this drink every time once you get the ratios right. I generally found two ounces of whiskey and a heaping bar spoon to be the right ratio, but you can tune it to your palate. As for the bitters, I tried a few variations: first Angostura, then orange, before finally settling on grapefruit bitters as a surprisingly enjoyable “brightener” to this otherwise dark drink. They brought out a sort of citrus-hops character, or at least that’s what I told myself.
As for the “Sticky Icky” of it all, I don’t know, man. Supposedly, my high might have become enhanced in some way. The science on terpenes is still pretty vague, but studies have shown that certain ones may alter the effects of THC and CBD via what is hilariously called the “Entourage Effect.” In other words, the terpenes in that maple syrup probably do very little on their own, but if you “smoke the whole bag” you’re going to have a very different experience if you chug (this) syrup afterwards. They did, to a degree, but the difference was subtle. I don’t think enough terpenes are “in play” in one cocktail to make much of a difference—think more “extra voice in the choir” and less “extra note on the piano.”
But by the third round, the alcohol was definitely more “effective” than whatever terpenes had made their way into my system. My high was very pleasant, but the music and the cocktail contributed to the vibes more than the terpenes. If you’re smoking or vaping flower, chances are that you’ll never taste the terpenes again after your first hit, but even with distillates or waxes, maple is the dominant flavor. Is it worth your time to track down the Maple Old Fashioned Troopers Edition Sticky Icky Bundle for $75? Absolutely, if you enjoy cannabis or regularly drink with someone who does. And with an increasing selection of THC and CBD “spirits” on the market today, infused beverage ingredients are a whole area of experimentation that I’m going to indulge in next fall when it’s maple old fashioned season again. Of course, I might need to get a second bottle (WhistlePig once again failed to release a “Large Farva” version of this collaboration.) It’ll take me a year or more to burn through this maple syrup on cocktails. But the next time I get out the waffle maker, I’m going to find out what snozzberries taste like.
G. Clay Whittaker is a Maxim contributor covering lifestyle, whiskey, cannabis and travel. His work has also appeared in Bon Appetit, Men’s Journal, Cigar Aficionado, Playboy and Esquire. Subscribe to his newsletter Drinks & Stuff for snozzberry tasting notes, perspectives on drinks, and stuff.