At Grass & Co they believe that ‘CBD is better with company’. Their online store offers a range of innovative products that combine CBD with a blend of beneficial botanicals such as plant extracts and powders. Although they stock everything from oils and balms to pillow sprays and scented candles the only items infused with CBD are the oils, chocolates and topicals.

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been using the 500mg (5% strength) CBD oil from their CALM range. The 10ml bottle contains a combination of European hemp extract, ashwagandha, chamomile, mint, almond oil and l-theanine suspended in an MCT carrier oil. Each ingredient has been chosen for its ability to relax your body and calm your mind.

Grass & Co say that there is ‘no trace of THC’ and describe their oils as being made with ‘a pure filtered form of CBD’. It’s suitable for vegans and there are a few mentions of ‘organic hemp’ on the website, but I couldn’t find any evidence of organic certification. The packaging has lots of details about how to use the oil and what it contains. The design is reasonably simple and well-suited to a product that aims to be both botanical and boutique.

I’ve only tried a couple of oils where CBD has been combined with other active ingredients, so I was keen to determine if the effects were any different.

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Contents

Who are Grass & Co?

Grass & Co was founded by brothers Ben and Tom Grass. Together, they wanted to create a company that would combine their shared interests of the benefits of hemp, a love of nature and the great outdoors’ healing power. They decided to create a UK CBD by importing hemp from Europe and the US to be made into oils and other products locally.

Their focus is ‘life enhanced by nature’ and they combine various blends of therapeutic botanicals to make useful products with soothing natural formulas. Not only do they aim to get the best effects from the CBD and other ingredients, they also hope to ‘delight the taste buds and enliven the senses’.

They produce premium products with the highest quality CBD, so only buy it from ethical suppliers who don’t use pesticides or artificial fertilisers. Grass & Co say that their extraction method is ‘natural’ (whatever that means!) and that they also use filtration. The combination helps them ensure that the final product contains the lowest amount of THC possible.

Grass & Co products are now available at Holland & Barrett. They sell a range of CBD oils, we’ve tried most of them so we can answer once and for all is Holland & Barrett CBD oil is actually any good?

3rd Party Lab Tests

Grass & Co provide third-party lab results for each batch of all their CBD products. If you buy directly from them, you can find them on their website, or if you get them via a retailer, such as CBD Shopy, as I did, the certificate for your batch will likely be on the retailer’s product page. The batch number for my oil was 22756.

The certificates only show a cannabinoid profile and there is no information about contaminants or terpenes. More detailed certificates, such as those provided by Endoca, give a much broader analysis of each sample but these offer the basic information only.

The third-party lab tested for twelve cannabinoids, including THC. Just 4.88% (488mg) of CBD was detected along with a tiny trace CBDV. This is slightly less than the 500mg displayed on the label but within a range you would expect. No THC was found and the lower limit of detection was 0.00250%.

Ease of Use

The bottle is sturdy and seals easily, but there’s no child-safe cap. I found the bulb tipped dropper effective at getting the oil out of the bottle, but I struggled to count the correct number of drops, so I had to stand in front of a mirror each time. An excellent way to address this is to put a scale or measure on the dropper, so you know how much to apply each time.

There is lots of helpful guidance on both the bottle and box, including some detailed instructions for use. The serving sizes and amount of CBD per drop are clearly explained, so I found it simple to calculate how much I needed to take. Although this is a well-designed bottle with detailed instructions, it could be even easier to use with a few more useful features.

Grass & Co CALM CBD Oil Taste

The CALM oil isn’t unpleasant, but it’s not particularly tasty either. The blend of floral notes and mint give it a flavour similar to something you might smell in a spa. The highlight is the fact that there’s no bitterness and very little detectable hemp flavour. If you don’t like strong tasting CBD oils, you’ll get on well with this one.

Potency/ Effectiveness

I took a daily amount of 40mg in two 20mg measures, one in the morning and one about half an hour before bed. Because each drop contains 2.5mg of CBD, I took eight at each serving. The bottle lasted me for just less than two weeks.

I didn’t experience any strong effects, just a mild relaxation for about an hour after each application. Strangely, the most relaxing thing was the association I had between the flavour and the smell of being in a steam room at a spa. This is a pleasant oil that was a welcome break from the standard CBD products, but it wasn’t particularly effective for me.

Value for Money

For £39.50 you get 10ml of 5% oil which gives you a total of 488mg of CBD. This isn’t the most expensive oil I’ve tried, but it’s still very much at the top end of the market. I think that’s likely to be because of the additional ingredients, although if that’s the case, I’d like to know how much of each is included.

For me to be happy paying this price for this oil I’d like to see some more information about how the hemp is extracted. It would also be useful to see more detailed lab results and know that the bottle actually contained the label amount (it was only the batch I had that didn’t reach 500mg, others I checked were fine).

I did come to like the flavour after a few days, but the real deal-breaker for me was that I didn’t notice any impact from taking 40mg daily. As a result, this is not an oil that I think offers value for money.

Would I Buy Again?

No, I would not buy Grass & Co CBD oil again. The price is higher than average and I did not get the effects I have from other similar priced oils.

There are much better and more cost-effective oils available and these can be found in our best UK CBD oils article. As the product only uses hemp grown without fertilisers and pesticides it cannot be included in our best organic CBD oil reviews either.

If what you seek is a high-strength oil, at 5% it is a long way off the threshold of 25% to be included in our list of the strongest CBD oils available in the UK.

Grass & Co CALM CBD Oil Final Scores

Grass & Co 500mg CALM CBD Review

Overall

This CALM CBD oil contains a blend of botanical ingredients, including CBD, ashwagandha, chamomile and mint. They’re suspended in an MCT carrier oil to enhance the absorption of the cannabinoids. The bottle is sturdy and easy to use, but it lacks a child-safe cap or a handy scale on the dropper. There are lab results available for every batch which show CBD alongside traces of one or two other cannabinoids depending on the batch. The flavour is mint with a floral aftertaste and there's no sign of any hempy bitterness. The effects were very mild and only provided some gentle relaxation.

Third-party lab results

6.5

Ease of use

7.5

Potency/ effectiveness

Value for money

Pros

Made with an MCT carrier oil

Contains additional botanical ingredients

It tastes of flowers and mint

There are lab results for every batch.

Cons