As many different types of CBD products as there are in the world today, the gummy candy format has somehow become one of the most popular ways of taking CBD. When you view the selection at a top-quality CBD site like Patch Adam, it’s virtually a guarantee that you’re going to see at least one CBD gummy product in addition to the standard products like CBD oil. That only adds to the challenge of selecting the right product if you’re new to CBD. You know that CBD oil is the most popular type of CBD product overall, but CBD gummies seem so friendly and convenient. Couldn’t you just get those instead?

CBD gummies can be great for newbies, in fact – but there are also some very good reasons why standard CBD oil is still the most popular form of CBD. Before you choose any CBD product, it’s extremely helpful to know why that product might be the right one for you – and that’s what you’re going to learn from this article.

These are the pros and cons of CBD gummies.

CBD Gummies Are Extremely Convenient

There may not be any type of CBD product that’s more convenient than CBD gummies. You can take the bottle or pouch along with you when you’re out and about and chomp on a gummy whenever you feel like you need some CBD. Gummies are also the easiest CBD products to use – you just eat them. Some people have difficulty swallowing capsules, and you may not be particularly fond of holding CBD oil under your tongue. Almost no one has difficulty eating a piece of candy.

CBD Gummies Are Discreet

If you take a supplement to alleviate a specific health condition, it’s a personal thing that you may not want to talk about extensively. When you take CBD oil, though, the fact that you’re holding a dropper under your tongue is something that others are bound to notice if you’re in public. If you don’t feel like getting into an extended conversation about your muscle pains or chronic anxiety every time you take your CBD, you’re going to love CBD gummies because they’ll call no attention to you at all.

CBD Gummies Facilitate Consistent Dosing

Do you prefer a CBD product that allows you to get exactly the same dosage every time? That’s not always easy to do with an eyedropper. If you want to avoid the minute dosage variations that occur when an eyedropper is a little overfilled or isn’t quite full, you’re going to love CBD gummies because the dosage is already measured for you. Each gummy has the same amount of CBD as all of the others in the package. One gummy is always one dose, and the effects of that dose are always the same.

CBD Gummies Taste Better Than CBD Oil

Many CBD oils contain natural flavorings like mint and citrus, and most of the people who use CBD oil find the flavor quite tolerable. Some people, however, have very different opinions about the flavor of CBD oil. It’s not unusual for CBD oil to taste rather “hempy,” and some people really don’t care for that flavor at all. Others just don’t like the sensation of holding oil under their tongues. You don’t have to worry about either of those issues with CBD gummies, which taste the same as any other gummy candy. If you like gummies, you’ll like CBD gummies.

CBD Gummies Absorb More Slowly Than CBD Oil

Holding CBD oil under your tongue may not be the tastiest thing in the world, but there is a point to doing so: It allows the CBD to absorb directly into your bloodstream through your sublingual artery. By the time you swallow the oil, you’ve already absorbed most of the CBD. The rest is processed by your digestive system, giving you a little boost of CBD in an hour or so. When you use CBD gummies, however, you don’t get the fast sublingual absorption; all of the CBD is absorbed through your digestive system. That means you need to take a CBD gummy at least an hour or so before you actually need the CBD. If you take CBD to alleviate a condition that can flare up suddenly and without warning, CBD gummies may not be the best choice for you.

CBD Gummies Are Less Bioavailable Than CBD Oil

Holding CBD oil under your tongue doesn’t just mean that the CBD enters your bloodstream more quickly. It also means that the CBD goes directly into the bloodstream rather than going through the digestive system. When you take any supplement or medication orally, only a portion of the active ingredient actually reaches your bloodstream. The rest is neutralized by the liver in a process called first-pass metabolism. The bioavailability of drugs and supplements taken orally is relatively poor; that’s why many prescription medications are administered via injection, inhaler or oral mucosal spray. If you use a route of administration that brings a medication directly into the bloodstream, you can use a lower dose of that medication.

Due to the first-pass effect, you need to use a higher dose of CBD with CBD gummies to achieve the same results that you’d get with a lower-strength CBD oil used sublingually.

CBD Gummies Are More Expensive Than CBD Oil

The final drawback of CBD gummies is that, compared to CBD oil, they tend to have a higher cost per milligram of CBD. That’s because CBD gummies have more ingredients and cost more to produce. A CBD oil product can have an ingredient list as short as just hemp extract and carrier oil. Many CBD brands put their hemp extract through additional purification and refinement to improve the flavor and remove unwanted compounds such as plant waxes – but the extra purification steps don’t really increase the cost of CBD oil because those steps are necessary to produce CBD isolate. CBD isolate is used for a wide variety of CBD products including capsules, topical creams and gummies. CBD gummies, however, don’t just require CBD isolate – they also require a separate production line and separate list of ingredients for candy making. The additional ingredients and production steps increase the final cost of the product.