Orange County CBD Oil 500mg 10ml

The same strength as the 1500mg, in a third of the bottle

Concentration and quantity get conflated constantly in CBD, and this range is a good example of why that matters. A 500mg bottle sounds like the weak one. Per drop it is not.

Five hundred milligrams in 10ml is 5 per cent. Fifteen hundred milligrams in 30ml is also 5 per cent. Both give 2.5mg in a drop and 50mg in a full dropper. The only differences are how long the bottle lasts and, according to the trade, which extract grade is inside.

So if you want to try this strength without committing to 30ml, this is the bottle that does it, and nothing about how it behaves drop for drop will change if you move up later.

Set against the FSA's advisory figure, which suggests healthy adults keep CBD from food supplements to no more than 10mg a day, 2.5mg a drop makes that four drops. That is the same arithmetic as the larger bottle, for the same reason.

The shops and the brand do not agree about the THC

Here is what we found, and we are reporting it rather than resolving it, because we cannot resolve it.

Every shop selling this oil describes it as broad spectrum. Boots lists it as Orange County CBD Broad Spectrum CBD Oil 500mg 10ml. Specialist retailers do the same, and the retail copy states that each of these oils contains no THC at all. Our own records say broad spectrum too.

Orange County's own product page for this bottle lists the ingredients as full spectrum hemp-derived cannabidiol, MCT oil and terpenes, and says the product contains trace amounts of THC while maintaining trading compliance.

Broad spectrum means the THC has been removed during processing. Full spectrum means it has been deliberately kept. The manufacturer and the retail channel are therefore describing two different things, and this is the second product in the range where we have found exactly that, running the same way round.

Two explanations, and why we will not pick one

There are two ordinary readings of that conflict and we cannot tell which applies.

The first is that Orange County's oils genuinely are full spectrum across the range, and the trade has shelved them under the wrong heading. If that is right, the 0 per cent THC claim repeated across several shops is wrong.

The second is more mundane. The ingredient block on the brand's 500mg page is word for word identical to the ones on its 1000mg and 1500mg pages, terpene wording included. Copy pasted product text is the most common explanation for identical text, and if that is what happened here then the trade is right and the brand's page is simply out of date on this line.

One detail that cuts against the simple explanations: several of the shops selling this oil publish the same product identifier and the same template, so the apparent agreement across retailers may be one source reproduced rather than several independent confirmations.

What follows for us is straightforward. We are not publishing a THC figure for this bottle, and we are not telling you it does or does not contain any. The UK test is no more than 1mg of controlled cannabinoids in the container, counting THC, THCV and CBN, and it applies per container regardless of size. Until we hold the certificate for the batch we would send you, that is as far as we can honestly go.

Four options, and how to take it

Our picker carries four: Apple, Cherry, Mint and Natural, all currently available. The trade generally lists the three flavoured ones and Orange County's own page names none at all, describing the oil without variants.

Natural is the unflavoured version and tastes of what is in it, which is earthy and green. Mint covers that most effectively. Apple and Cherry sweeten it rather than hide it, so the base is still detectable underneath. If you have never taken a CBD oil before, Mint is the least demanding place to start.

The published method is sublingual: put the drops under your tongue and let them sit for 30 to 60 seconds before swallowing. Worth noting that Orange County publishes up to 45 seconds for the 1500mg bottle, so its own guidance is not quite consistent across the range. Anywhere in that window is the same idea, which is letting the tissue under the tongue absorb before the rest goes down.

A 10ml bottle holds roughly 200 drops, so it is a genuine trial size rather than a token one.

Where a 10ml fits in the range

Orange County makes oils in 10ml, 30ml and 100ml. The 10ml bottles are where the range is most confusing, because concentration and bottle size pull in opposite directions.

This 500mg 10ml is 5 per cent. The 1000mg 10ml is 10 per cent, so it is twice as concentrated in the same bottle, and it is an isolate rather than a spectrum extract. The 2000mg 10ml is 20 per cent and also isolate.

That means the 10ml shelf alone contains a broad spectrum 5 per cent and two isolates at 10 and 20 per cent. If you want a small bottle with no THC question attached at all, the isolates are the cleanest answer in the whole range, because isolate is cannabidiol refined away from everything else.

Who should not buy this one

If you need certainty that there is no THC in the bottle, this is not the product to choose while the brand and the trade describe it differently. The 1000mg 10ml isolate is the small bottle where that question does not arise, because isolate is cannabidiol on its own.

If you already know 5 per cent suits you and you take it daily, 10ml will not last, and the 1500mg 30ml is the same strength drop for drop in three times the volume.

If you want the strongest thing in a small bottle, this is the gentlest of the three 10ml oils by a distance. And if you dislike earthy flavours, take Mint rather than Natural, or an isolate oil, which has nothing in it to taste.