Roy Choi’s New Edibles Pack Punch and Crunch

The Los Angeles chef worked with the Snoop Dogg-backed TSUMo Snacks to produce two fun snacks infused with THC.

Roy Choi TSUMo Snacks

California is a crowded and super competitive market for edibles, but TSUMo Snacks has emerged as a distinctive and growing brand in the consumable cannabis space. While a majority of options still rely on gummies and other sweet vehicles for delivering THC, CBD and related beneficial compounds, the Oakland-based company makes savory and salty snacks that are extremely competitively priced (usually around $16). TSUMO’s latest releases are Cheesy Ramen and Spaghetti and Meatballs snacks made in collaboration with Roy Choi, a beloved Los Angeles chef and restaurateur who hosts a TV series called Broken Bread that looks at food and social justice in a delicious, inspiring and impactful way.

Nine Cheesy Ramen or 12 Spaghetti and Meatballs pieces deliver about 10 milligrams of THC, which is about twice the dose I’d recommend to entry level eaters. Seasoned consumers of edibles might be tempted to push past 10 milligrams, but I haven’t found it personally necessary with these products. Ingesting a lot of sorghum (and cannabis) can also be less than gentle on the stomach, so sensitive tummies may want to tread lightly if choosing to have multiple servings at once. Choi posted on social media that he consumed one bag over the course of one weekend at the Coachella Festival, but he certainly didn’t eat everything in the above picture while sitting on the couch or he may have never gotten up again.

After trying both products (as well as others in the TSUMo pantry), the only real problem is that they taste too good and it is easy to exceed your intended dose if you don’t keep count of what you’re eating. You may want to consider pairing them with carrot sticks or non-infused cheese puffs or chips in order to keep the crunch pleasure train going without feeling run over later.

Some people who sampled them with me didn’t feel the effects of the THC for more than an hour, while others felt a pleasant buzz right away. This isn’t something that’s easy to predict, but you know your own metabolism and that will offer some clues as to how you’d react.

One of few prominent women owners in the California edible world, Caroline Yeh launched TSUMo Snacks in 2021 and grew quickly. One year later, she announced that she had raised $4 million in a seed funding round led by Snoop Dogg’s cannabis-related investment fund, which is called Casa Verde. After the Doggfather made his investment, TSUMo released two kinds of Uncle Snoop’s Snazzle Os, rings made of puffed sorghum that are reminiscent of Frito Lay’s Funyuns. The company also makes Turkey Dinner snacks for Thanksgiving as well as different flavored corn chips, tortilla chips and Cheetos-esque doodles with different zesty and spicy seasonings.