Cycling Frog Review – 20 Calories a Can, and the Part the Calorie Maths Misses

Who Actually Makes This

Worth establishing first, because it is the strongest thing about the product and it is not obvious from the packaging.

That review found an independent Leafreport assay returning +2.36% potency variance with heavy metals, microbials and pesticides all passing, on the cheapest product we had costed anywhere. It found a company that grows its own certified-organic hemp and runs extraction, formulation and manufacturing in-house, is incorporated as a social purpose corporation, and offers a lifetime 60% assistance discount to veterans, people on long-term disability and households below the poverty line.

Some of that plausibly carries over — a testing culture and control of the supply chain are properties of an organisation, not of a label. But we would not assume the specific terms transfer. We did not verify that the 90-day guarantee or the assistance programme apply to this separate brand and its separate site, and you should check rather than assume.

The Calorie Case, Which Is Real

This is the reason a weight-focused site has any business reviewing a THC seltzer, and the arithmetic is genuinely favourable.

A saving of 100 to 300 calories per drink is not trivial, and it compounds in a way most dietary changes do not. Someone having three drinks twice a week is looking at somewhere between 600 and 1,800 calories a week from a substitution that requires no portion control, no measuring and no going without.

Alcohol is also the calorie source people most reliably forget to count. It is rarely logged, it does not feel like eating, and at roughly seven calories per gram it sits between carbohydrate and fat. For a lot of people it is the largest single item they are not tracking.

The Half of the Arithmetic Nobody Publishes

Every article comparing THC seltzers to alcohol on calories stops at the table above. That comparison is incomplete in a way that matters specifically to this site’s readers.

So the honest ledger has two columns and only one of them is printed on the can. The 100 to 300 calories saved on the drink are measured, published and certain. The calories eaten afterwards are unmeasured, unpublished and entirely capable of exceeding the saving.

Put it in concrete terms: a 100-calorie saving against a light beer is erased by a small handful of crisps. A 300-calorie saving against a cocktail is erased by a modest snack. The substitution is only a net win if the hour after the drink looks the same as it would have done.

We are not saying the swap is pointless — for some people it will genuinely be a large net saving, particularly anyone whose drinking currently comes with its own late-night eating. We are saying nobody can tell you which it will be in advance, and that the only way to find out is to watch what actually happens rather than to trust the front of the can. Alcohol disinhibits eating too, so this may still be an improvement — but it is a comparison of two appetite effects, not one clean saving.

What Else Changes When You Swap

Calories are the narrowest way to compare these, so a fuller picture is owed — in both directions.

Genuine advantages over alcohol: no hangover in the conventional sense, no contribution to alcohol-related liver disease, and none of alcohol’s established relationship with several cancers.

But this is a substitution of one intoxicant for another, not a health intervention, and THC brings its own:

• Dependence is possible. Cannabis use disorder is a recognised condition, and regular use of a pleasant low-dose product is exactly how habitual use forms.
• Impairment lasts longer than a drink. Three to six hours, peaking well after you finish.
• Anxiety and paranoia in some people, sometimes unpredictably.
• Cardiovascular effects, including increased heart rate.
• Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome with heavy long-term use — rare, but real and often mistaken for something else for years.

The honest framing is a different risk profile, not a smaller one, and it will suit some people considerably better than alcohol and others considerably worse.

Doses From 2mg to 50mg, Which Is a 25-Fold Spread

The seltzers most people will buy are sensible. The range as a whole needs reading carefully.

Standard beginner guidance is 2.5 to 5mg. So the 2mg and 5mg seltzers sit exactly where a sensible product should — and 50mg is ten times the upper end of that advice.

Read the milligram figure on every single product, every time, and treat the brand name as carrying no information about strength.

The Stacking Trap Is Built Into the Format

This is the single most common way a THC beverage evening goes wrong, and the drink format causes it.

Now consider how people drink cans. A beer is finished in twenty minutes and felt almost immediately, so the pace regulates itself. Here you finish a can, feel nothing at twenty minutes, and reach for another — at which point both peak together at 45 to 60 minutes, which is how a pleasant evening turns unpleasant.

The format actively invites the mistake. A can in your hand at a barbecue carries a lifetime of learned pacing that is simply wrong for this pharmacology.

Standard harm-reduction guidance: wait at least 45 minutes before considering a second, and start at 2.5 to 5mg rather than 10mg. Set a timer if you need to. “It isn’t working” at twenty minutes is not information — it is the expected state.

What a Well-Run Intoxicant Company Looks Like

We have reviewed several intoxicant sellers for this site and rated most of them very low. It is worth being explicit about why this one rates higher, because the difference is not that THC is safer than kratom.

The difference is disclosure. Every intoxicant carries risk; what separates a defensible seller from an indefensible one is whether the buyer can find out what they are taking and how much. Here you can. Elsewhere in this series we found a full extract range with no alkaloid figure anywhere, and gummies whose neurotoxic constituent was undisclosed and whose name described a different drug entirely.

That is why this rates in the threes and those rated in the ones. Not because the substance is benign — but because an informed decision is possible, which is the minimum a seller of an intoxicating product owes.

It Will Fail a Drug Test, and You Cannot Drive

“It was federally legal hemp” is not a defence to a positive result, because the test is not measuring legality. If your job, licence or custody arrangement involves testing, this product is not for you at any dose.

On driving, the delay makes the usual intuition dangerous. With peak effects at 60 to 90 minutes, you may be considerably more impaired an hour after finishing than you were when you put the can down — the opposite of how alcohol feels. Plan not to drive at all, rather than planning to wait a bit.

The 12 November 2026 Question We Could Not Settle

These products are sold as federally legal under the 2018 Farm Bill, on the basis that THC concentration stays below 0.3% by dry weight.

That test is unusually generous to a beverage. A 12oz can is mostly water, so 5mg of THC is trivially under 0.3% by weight — a threshold designed for plant material applied to a drink.

What we can tell you is that the ground is moving, that the date is close, and that state law varies independently and several states already restrict these products. If you are considering buying in quantity or subscribing, check the current federal and state position first rather than relying on this page or on the seller’s marketing.

Who Should Not Drink This

• Anyone pregnant or breastfeeding.
• Anyone under 21.
• Anyone subject to drug testing for work, licensing or legal reasons.
• Anyone driving or operating machinery that day.
• Anyone with a psychotic or bipolar disorder, or a family history of psychosis.
• Anyone with significant cardiovascular disease — THC raises heart rate.
• Anyone combining with alcohol or sedatives, which compounds impairment unpredictably.
• Anyone using it to replace an alcohol problem without support. Substituting one dependence for another is a well-worn path, and a clinician is a better route than a shop.

How It Compares

Pros and Cons

Who It Is For, and How to Use It

It is for an adult who already drinks alcohol and wants to drink less of it, and who is comfortable that they are choosing a different intoxicant rather than sobriety. For that person the calorie case is real and the product is honestly made. It is not for someone who does not currently use anything.

If you buy it:

• Start at 2mg or 5mg, and read the milligrams on every product — the brand name tells you nothing about strength across a 2mg-to-50mg range.
• Wait 45 minutes before a second, minimum. Feeling nothing at twenty minutes is the expected state, not information.
• Do not drive at all that day. Peak impairment arrives after you have stopped drinking.
• Never combine with alcohol or sedatives.
• Watch what you eat afterwards for the first few occasions — that is the only way to learn whether the calorie saving survives contact with the appetite effect.
• Check your state law, and check the federal position given the November change.

Limitations of This Review

We have not bought or drunk any Cycling Frog product. The independent assay we cite was of the parent company’s CBD tincture, not of any Cycling Frog beverage — we are crediting an organisational testing record, and we have not seen a beverage independently assayed. Given that our own reviews have repeatedly found brands whose tincture passed while another product failed badly, that inference should be held loosely.

We did not verify that the parent’s 90-day guarantee or 60% assistance programme extend to this brand, and did not obtain Cycling Frog pricing, so we make no value claim. Product doses and calorie figures are as reported and formulations change — read the can. Calorie comparisons for alcoholic drinks are broad category averages and vary enormously by serve size and mixer.

The appetite point is a general property of THC rather than a measured finding about this product, and we have not seen a study quantifying net calorie balance when THC drinks replace alcohol — that comparison appears not to exist, which is precisely why we have framed it as an open question rather than a conclusion. Onset, peak and detection windows are typical ranges and vary substantially between individuals. The legal position is changing on 12 November 2026 and we could not establish how it affects beverages; verify current federal and state law yourself. None of this is medical or legal advice.

Frequently Asked Questions

Verdict

This rates far above the other intoxicants in this series, and the reason is disclosure rather than safety. Cycling Frog states its dose in milligrams on the can, names the product for what it is, offers sensible 2mg and 5mg entry points, and is made under Lazarus Naturals — which we rated the highest of any CBD brand here, on an independent assay of +2.36% potency variance with every contaminant screen passed. Elsewhere in this series we found a full extract range with no alkaloid figure anywhere, and gummies named after a drug they did not contain. An informed decision is possible here. That is the minimum, and most of this category fails it.

The calorie case is genuine. Roughly 20 calories a can against 100 to 300-plus for beer, wine or a cocktail. Three drinks twice a week is 600 to 1,800 calories, from a substitution requiring no measuring and no going without — and alcohol is the calorie source people most reliably forget to count.

And here is the half nobody publishes. Every comparison of THC seltzers to alcohol stops at that table. THC increases appetite — a point we have made in every CBD review on this site as a reason not to buy cannabinoids for weight loss, and one that lands directly here because this product contains actual THC. The saving on the drink is measured and printed. The eating afterwards is neither. A hundred calories is a handful of crisps. Nobody can tell you in advance which way your ledger comes out, and we could find no study comparing net calorie balance when THC drinks replace alcohol. Watch what happens rather than trusting the front of the can.

Two hazards are structural. The range runs to 50mg — ten times the upper beginner dose — so a familiar brand spans a 25-fold difference in strength, and familiarity is what disarms caution. And the can format teaches the wrong pacing: onset is 15 to 45 minutes and the peak is 60 to 90, so drinking a second at the twenty-minute mark makes both peak together. Wait 45 minutes, minimum.

It fails drug tests — the molecule is identical and no test finds a source — detectable up to 90 days with regular use. And do not drive, at all, that day: cannabis roughly doubles crash risk and you will be more impaired an hour after finishing than when you stopped.

Buy it if you already drink and want to drink less, understanding you are swapping intoxicants rather than becoming sober. Do not start if you currently use nothing, and check the legal position given that federal law changes on 12 November 2026 in a way we could not resolve for beverages.