Editor’s note: This is part of Know’s, Staff Favorites series. Each week, we give our opinions on the best Colorado has to offer for dining, shopping, entertainment, outdoor activities, and more. (We’ll also let you in on some hidden gems.)
count me among manyAnd many People who have had trouble sleeping since the pandemic.
Truth be told, I’ve always been a night owl. But in the past two years, I’ve developed a frustrating habit: I’ll lie in bed—dead tired—and turn off the lights only to find my mental wheels spinning, keeping me awake for hours. Suddenly, it’s 1 a.m., and I’m reluctantly going to the medicine cabinet for 5 milligrams of melatonin.
Since a friend gifted me a bag of CBD marshmallows Karen Marie SweetsHowever, I have found a new routine.
Each homemade marshmallow is infused with 100 milligrams of cannabidiol, or CBD from Typhoon Pharma Cannabis farm in Montrose. And while the company — like all CBD companies — can’t make medical claims about its products, I’ll tell you anecdotally that these little sweets have almost amazingly improved my ability to sleep.
Karen Mary Confectionery began nearly a decade ago, more than a thousand miles off the West Slope in Colorado, when co-founder Karen Eakes was an athlete at DC Rollergirls in Washington, D.C. Eakes says, a roller derby team that regularly hosted bake sales to She raised the money, and she and her husband, Ryan, made marshmallows—sans the CBD—that proved popular with customers.
The confectionery business later took several years as the Eakes family moved, with two young children, between Austin, Texas and the East Coast after job opportunities. In July 2020, they land in Montrose after Ryan takes over as Chief Operating Officer at Typhoon Pharma.
This was also around the time Ibn Eix began seeing an occupational therapist for a sensory processing disorder.
“When speaking with his therapist, she was like, ‘Looking at what you’re doing, have you tried CBD with him?'” Karen said. “We’ve thought about it, but he has sensory sensitivities. I can’t just give him something that tastes like CBD oil.”
So Eakes revived his homemade marshmallows, this time loading up the recipe with white CBD isolate powder extracted from locally grown hemp by a lab in Colorado. The isolate is optimized, as the term suggests, to the point where it’s just CBD—there’s no THC in these foods—and lab test results are included in every box for those interested in checking the cannabis content.
Speaking of which, the dosage — 100 milligrams of CBD per mallow — is definitely one of the most eye-catching factors about this product. According to Eakes, the human body only absorbs a small portion of the CBD a person ingests, so they chose to infuse as much CBD into the food as possible without compromising on flavor.
And these treats aren’t just for helping you sleep, Karen is quick to note.
“The fun thing about marshmallows is, they’re kind of a comfort food. When you use them, you can put them in hot chocolate or s’mores, and it’s a common relaxing event.”
Karen Mary Confectionery primarily sells its products online at karenmaryco.com, though Karen hopes to expand distribution in retail stores across the state soon. A box of 20 marshmallows costs about $40. Year-round flavors include classic vanilla and Nutella, and the company regularly releases seasonal flavors, like mint, chai latte, and lemon.
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