Willie Nelson is selling hemp-infused coffee

Start your day the Willie Nelson way. Since 2015, the country legend has sold marijuana and marijuana products — in states where they are legal — through his company, Willie’s Remedy. Now he is branching out to sell Willie’s Remedy Coffee, a whole bean coffee roasted and infused with full-spectrum hemp extract. An 8-ounce bag of coffee retails for $22.50.

Nelson isn’t the first to come up with the idea of infusing coffee beans with hemp. A quick search on Amazon will yield many results. However, he is the first country legend to branch out into the hemp coffee-selling business, so that sets his company apart from all the rest.

Willie’s Remedy site describes the coffee as a medium-dark blend with “flavor notes of cherry and cocoa.” It contains beans from the Castillo, Colombia and Caturra variety, infused with hemp oil produced in Colorado. An 8-ounce cup of coffee promises 7 milligrams of CBD, or cannabidiol, a calmness-producing compound within cannabis.

Hemp is a strain of the cannabis plant well-known for being used in fabrics. It has a very low level of THC, the psychoactive component of cannabis, so hemp products, including hemp oil, will not get you “high.” CBD, which has become a popular ingredient in lotions, beauty products, food and drinks, does not contain any THC and will not get you “high” either.

Willie’s Remedy gets Nelson’s endorsement for combining both caffeine and calming CBD.

“It’s two of my favorites, together in the perfect combination,” Nelson said in a press release. “Like coffee, cannabis is a plant that works for me.”

He also likes that hemp-infused coffee supports America’s farming community and could offer potential health benefits in the process. (The health benefits of CBD, as well as THC, require further study.)

“Hemp production in America was stifled for so long, but it could now make all the difference for small independent farmers,” Nelson said in a statement. “Hemp isn’t just good for our farmers and our economy, it’s good for our soil, our environment — and our health.”

Elizabeth Hogan, the head of brand development at Willie’s Remedy’s parent company, GCH, told Hemp magazine that this is just the beginning for Willie’s Remedy line, too.

“Willie’s Remedy is meant to celebrate beneficial plant-based healing solutions,” Hogan told the magazine. “The product line that we have planned includes various products that use more than one plant to deliver the benefits of CBD along with other herbs or plants. So, coffee is the starting point.”

As they expand, they’re hoping to tap into all that hemp oil has to offer.

“The opportunities in this category are endless,” she said. “There’s so much innovation, there are so many benefits that people are starting to understand and talk about. We are eagerly anticipating a little more freedom in our hemp economy, so we can take better advantage of the plant.”

For now, you can brew coffee just as Nelson does and get a jolt of caffeine without all of the nervous energy.