Hempthy CBD Sugar Free Gummies 300mg

Two different pouches, one generic name, and gelatine in the middle

Hempthy makes two products that are thirty pieces, ten milligrams each, three hundred milligrams a pouch. This one, and the pick and mix.

They are not interchangeable. The pick and mix is a sugared assortment and it is vegan. This one is a single mixed fruit flavour, sweetened with maltitol, and it contains gelatine and beeswax.

Now look at how they are sold. Search for either of them and you get pages titled simply as a Hempthy three hundred milligram gummy pouch of thirty, several of them sharing a single wholesaler stock code in place of a product name in the web address. The same generically named listing surfaces whichever of the two products you were actually looking for.

We cannot tell you which product those pages ship, because their descriptions are thin and their product data is not visible from the outside. What we can tell you is that the title does not distinguish them, and that the difference between the two is whether there is gelatine in the bag.

On our listing for the pick and mix we described the same generic titling as untidy, which it is when all that goes wrong is a shopper failing to find an assortment. Here what goes wrong is different. Somebody vegetarian or vegan, buying a Hempthy thirty-piece pouch on the strength of having had a Hempthy thirty-piece pouch before, can end up with the wrong one.

The fix on our side is simply to name things properly, which is what we have done.

The warnings on this pack, and who the regulator says should not take CBD

This is the first Hempthy product in seventeen we have written up whose own page carries a pregnancy warning. The brand states not to use it if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, to speak to your doctor if you are taking medication, and that the product is not intended for any medical purpose.

That warning is correct, and the more useful thing to say is that it does not only apply to this pouch. The Food Standards Agency advises vulnerable groups not to consume CBD at all, and it names people who are pregnant, people who are breastfeeding, and people taking any medication. That is the regulator's position on CBD as a category, not a property of this particular product.

So the fact that one product in the range prints it and sixteen do not is the point worth making. If you fall into one of those groups, the absence of a warning on a different pouch is not information about that pouch. It is a labelling choice.

We are reporting what the FSA advises and nothing more. Nothing here is health advice and nothing on this site will tell you what CBD does.

One small matter of attribution while we are here. A retailer summary for this product suggests taking one a day unless otherwise instructed by a medical professional. That wording is the retailer's rather than the brand's, and it is worth being careful with, because a food supplement that comes with instructions from a medical professional starts to sound like something it is not. CBD sold as a food is a food supplement in the UK, and no shop should be phrasing it otherwise.

What is in the pouch

Cannabidiol isolate, sweeteners maltitol syrup and steviol glycosides, water, gelatine, acid E330, caramel syrup, flavouring, coconut oil, and beeswax and carnauba wax as glazing agents.

The gelatine and the beeswax are the animal-derived items. Carnauba wax comes from a palm and is fine for a vegan diet, which is precisely why reading to the end of a glazing-agent list matters.

There are no colours declared at all, and no sulphites, because there is no glucose syrup in the recipe. Along with the imperial mints, the sugar free gummies are the only Hempthy sweets you can say both of those things about, which is a genuine point in their favour that no seller makes.

Maltitol is a polyol, and polyols come with a labelling rule and a well-known effect on some people if a lot is eaten at once. We have set that out properly on the thousand milligram listing, and there is a sensible reason to raise it here rather than just repeat it: thirty pieces is a smaller exposure than fifty. If you want to find out how you get on with a maltitol-based sweet, the smaller pouch is the intelligent place to do it.

The CBD is isolate at ninety nine point nine per cent, American sourced, made up in the UK, and stated as THC free. There is nothing in isolate to taste, so the flavour is entirely the mixed fruit and the sweeteners.

What they are like, and who they suit

A gelatine gummy has a springier, more elastic chew than the starch and pectin sweets that make up most of this brand. It holds its shape well in a pouch and does not compress the way a softer sweet does.

Mixed fruit is the only option and there is no sour coating, so the flavour is rounder than the fizzy range, with a slightly deeper note from the caramel syrup. Maltitol tastes closer to sugar than most sweeteners manage, with a faint cooling finish, and stevia adds its own liquorice-like edge right at the back.

At ten milligrams a piece this is the entry tier, and it is the sensible one for a first purchase whether or not sugar is your reason for being here. It is also the only sugar free CBD sweet on our shelves at that strength.

The pouch of thirty is a small commitment to three things at once: to CBD sweets, to a maltitol-sweetened one, and to a mixed fruit flavour you may or may not like. That is a fair amount to be finding out at the same time, and a smaller pouch is the right way to do it.

Who should skip this pouch

Anyone vegan or vegetarian. The gelatine settles it, and every other Hempthy sweet apart from the thousand milligram version of this one is open to you.

Anyone avoiding bee products, for the beeswax glaze.

Anyone who has reacted to maltitol or sorbitol before. A smaller pouch is a smaller exposure, but it is still a maltitol sweet.

Anyone pregnant, breastfeeding or taking medication. The FSA advises vulnerable groups not to consume CBD, and that applies across this whole shelf rather than only to the products that happen to print it.

And anyone who assumed sugar free means it is the healthier choice in the range. That is not a claim the brand makes, it is not one we would make, and the honest position is that it is the choice for people who want a sweet without sugar in it, which is a smaller and more specific thing.