Charlotte’s Web Review

By Main Hemp Patriot on March 12, 2022 No Comments / 242 views

Welcome to our Charlotte’s Web Review!

As one of the most experienced and prolific CBD brands to shape the industry, Charlotte’s Web requires little introduction to CBD newbies and veterans alike.

Still, like everyone else, we’ve been tracking their evolution throughout the CBD boom, meaning they get plugged into our comprehensive ranking system.

According to that system, we gave Charlotte’s Web a score of 86.8/100.

The major categories we assign points for in this comprehensive, 27-point brand review include the following:

Quality
Transparency
Website Experience
Customer Service
Value
Brand Value

For anyone who has yet to familiarize themselves with the brand, we’ll start with a bit of background.

Check Prices at Charlotte’s Web

Charlotte’s Web CBD Oil (60mg)

As their most concentrated, full-spectrum CBD oil, this product is both valuable and easy to use.

The high presence of non-CBD cannabinoids gives the entourage effect a better chance to take hold, a difference that our testers noticed.

We also like that it comes in mint chocolate, lemon twist, and orange blossom flavors, offering something for everybody.

Next, we can’t ignore the rapid rise of CBD gummies, and thanks to these tasty and effective Calm Gummies, we don’t want to.

Check Prices at Charlotte’s Web

Charlotte’s Web Calm Gummies

Boosted by lemon balm and another highly balanced cannabinoid extract, these gummies are no gimmick.

At doses of three or more gummies, are testers noticed a balanced, focused sense of calm that persisted for hours.

The lemon lime flavor is among the sweetest, yet most natural-tasting we’ve sampled.

Next, our favorite balm from Charlotte’s Web brings a potent extract at a solid value.

Check Prices at Charlotte’s Web

Charlotte’s Web Hemp-Infused Balm With CBD

Boosted by lemon balm and another highly balanced cannabinoid extract, these gummies are no gimmick.

At doses of three or more gummies, are testers noticed a balanced, focused sense of calm that persisted for hours.

The lemon lime flavor is among the sweetest, yet most natural-tasting we’ve sampled.

Charlotte’s Web Review: Table Of Contents

How Charlotte’s Web Got Started

Based in Boulder, Colorado, Charlotte’s Web was founded by the Stanley Brothers—a group of seven brothers raised by a single mother—in 2011.

The brand (and the CBD movement that ensued) centered around young Charlotte Figi, who greatly benefited from Charlotte’s Web’s CBD products as she battled a form of childhood epilepsy.

Charlotte’s inspiring story, the tenacity of the Stanley Brothers and a feature on Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s documentary entitled Weed helped Charlotte’s Web gain recognition early on.

From that point on, Charlotte’s Web was regarded as one of the forefathers of the CBD movement and a brand that everyone could trust.

Speaking to that image, the company grows much of their hemp themselves on Colorado farms (with supporting family farms in Kentucky and Oregon).

What Makes Charlotte’s Web Unique?

Aside from becoming the first major CBD brand, Charlotte’s Web differentiates themselves with philanthropy, clinical research, and high-quality processes.

Philanthropy: From mentoring black-owned CBD and hemp startups to campaigning for hemp accessibility for communities and families that rely (or could rely) on hemp products, Charlotte’s Web has been focused on supporting the industry and giving back to communities since the beginning.

They’ve also achieved B Corp Certification, a designation awarded to brands who adhere to a set of social and environmental responsibility standards.

Research Participation: Charlotte’s Web has been actively involved in multiple studies involving their own products to assess the effectiveness of CBD and other cannabinoids.

They’ve also been called on by the FDA to participate in studies assessing CBD’s effects on the liver, which will ideally provide key insights the agency needs for creating a regulatory pathway.

Our Charlotte’s Web Review

We tested several Charlotte’s Web products, made our usual rounds of the brand’s website, and spoke with our contacts in the company to complete this review.

Speaking of, each of the six categories mentioned above our weighted based on their impact on product quality and safety, user experience, the CBD industry as a whole, and more, totaling 100 points.

If you’d like to learn more about how each category and the criteria within it are scored, we’ve created a simple, detailed guide.

As always, we’ll start off with the key issue of quality.

Quality

Max score = 35 points.
Charlotte’s Web = 34.25 points.

Two companies can arrive at the same ingredient list in very different ways, and moreover, ingredient quality isn’t the only factor that can affect user experience.

For these reasons, we also assess how and where the products are sourced and manufactured, tested, packaged, and more.

Product Quality

The packaging and labeling on this shipment of products and all others we’ve sampled was durable, informative, and easy to use.

Between the outer boxes and the inner containers, everything we wanted to see was there: supplement and ingredient facts, general product info, QR codes for quick access to lab reports, and so on.

Charlotte’s web offers full-spectrum and broad-spectrum extracts, and they offer some permutation of each of the three formulation types we look for (relax, relief, and active), though not in CBD oil form.

They use clean ingredients, many of which are organic, and no harmful preservatives.

Testing and Certification

Charlotte’s Web’s products are tested by a reputable, ISO-accredited third-party lab called Eurofins.

Also earning an easy A in the subcategory of industry certifications is Charlotte’s Web’s US Hemp Authority and USDA Organic certifications.

Extraction Method

Charlotte’s Web uses CO2 and ethanol to extract CBD and other hemp-borne compounds (terpenes and other cannabinoids) from plant biomass.

As these two methods are regarded as the safest and most effective, it’s full marks for hemp extraction quality as well.

Transparency

Max score = 12.5 points.
Charlotte’s Web = 8.375 points.

We designed this category to award brands for clearly providing key points about their products, processes, lab results, and supply chain structure, all of which signal authority and trustworthiness.

If a customer has to dig for more than a minute to find this information, we consider it a speed bump in the total user experience and dock points.

Info Accessibility

Both in terms of the products themselves and the team behind them, Charlotte’s Web is very transparent with their audience, sharing everything you would want to know about who they are, what they do, and what’s in their products.

However, they are the only top-tier brand we’ve reviewed to not directly present third-party lab results (i.e., on Eurofins letterhead) to their customers, instead having their quality assurance department create separate reports claiming to contain the same results.

Since there is no signature from Eurofins analysts on any of the Charlotte’s Web reports, there’s no way to authenticate the information, which is why we applied a hefty deduction here.

Supply Chain Transparency

Finally, we don’t expect a thesis on all the finer points of the supply chain, but we at least want to see a neatly packaged, customer-facing breakdown of where the CBD comes from, where it is formulated and tested, and any other steps in the supply chain.

While Charlotte Web was forthcoming with this information, we made a small deduction (15 out of 100 points for this factor) because the information was a bit harder to find on the website.

Website Experience

Max score = 7.5 points.
Charlotte’s Web = 7.5 points.

As an online publication, we know all too well the pitfalls of bad website development, whether you’re moving hundreds of products a day and/or simply presenting information to an audience.

Beautiful design is good for a few points, but we’re more pragmatically minded in this case, prioritizing product navigation and purchasing functionality as well as the quality/quantity of educational content.

Before officially entering the e-commerce section of the site, you can hover over the shop link to reveal a drop-down menu that allows you to shop by product type (CBD oil, CBD gummies, etc.) as well as a few introductory blog posts to inform a smarter purchase.

Once you’ve landed on one of their attractively designed and minimalistic category pages, you still have access to category, price, and health benefit filters.

Clicking through on product images takes you to a similarly designed product page, offering all the information you need and easy fields for selecting quantities/concentrations etc.

Browsing on mobile was just as seamless, with no noticeable bugs.

Site Content

Between their thorough, yet concise breakdown of all the important questions (what is CBD, how does it work, etc.) on their CBD 101 page as well as their many well-written blog posts, Charlotte’s Web definitely checks the box for consumer education.

Moreover, customers don’t have to bounce around to seven different blog posts to learn what CBD is, how it works, the difference between hemp oil and extract, and so on—it’s all on the CBD 101 page.

Customer Service

Max score = 10 points.
Charlotte’s Web = 6.1 points.

How a CBD brand or any other responds to customer questions, comments, and concerns is highly indicative of their true intentions.

It’s easy to sing your own praises through a few lines of web copy because web copy works for free.

Rather, what we’re looking for are the three major support channels (messenger, phone, and email) with helpful and responsive human beings on the other end.

Contact Options and Responsiveness

Charlotte’s Web offers email, phone, and messenger support channels, but the messenger isn’t live.

Because they technically had all three services, and because the non-live chat was still loaded with helpful information, we just took ten points off out of 100 for this factor.

However, responsiveness was a different matter altogether.

The quoted response time for queries sent through the messenger (when looking for a human response) was 72 hours, and we held on the phone for half an hour before hanging up, both of which are definitely too long for customers who have several brands to choose from.

As a result, Charlotte’s Web lost 3.5 percentage points off their overall score.

Shipping and Return Policies

Charlotte’s Web maintains a 30-day customer satisfaction guarantee on all their products, which we consider to be the gold standard, so they received full points for return policy.

Products ship in 7 business days and for a flat $9 shipping, which isn’t unreasonable on either front.

However, since we’ve seen other top-tier brands beat both of those numbers, we just shaved 5/100 points off for this factor.

Overall, these are the fair, flexible and accommodating shipping and return policies you would expect from a brand that is confident in their products.

Value

Max score = 10 points.
Charlotte’s Web = 6.81 points.

How much do the products cost?

How does the ingredient quality compare to this cost?

That’s it.

Pricing and Ingredient Quality

A month’s supply (1500mg) of Charlotte’s Web’s standard CBD oil tincture costs exactly $100 after we reduce the closest concentration (1800mg) to this quantity, which equates to slightly less than $0.07/mg.

According to our scale, which we developed with the help of thousands of respondents in our US CBD Consumer Report as well as an in-depth analysis of market prices, this earns 32.5/100 points for raw price.

This doesn’t mean $0.07/mg is far too expensive—especially for a brand like Charlotte’s Web—it just means all CBD is too expensive with the exception of the very top quartile of this range.

Also, Charlotte’s Web was able to make up a solid block of points in the “ingredient quality relative to price” factor, earning 80/100 for their clean, organic ingredient lists.

Brand Value

Max score = 25 points.

Charlotte’s Web = 23.75 points.

This category seeks to answer a fairly open-ended question: How is this brand changing the CBD industry, its local community, and the world?

As you could imagine, there are many efforts that could fit here.

To be as broad as possible, we award points for any significant action a brand takes towards medical study participation, hemp industry legislation, community and industry events, industry memberships, general philanthropy, and more.

We also consider institutional knowledge and product innovations to be integral to brand value, since these can influence others in the space to up their standards.

Product Innovation

Charlotte’s Web has every popular CBD product type, many of which were developed very early on in the CBD boom, which earns them a solid chunk of points for product innovation.

After acquiring Abacus Health Products, maker of the CBDMedic line of topical products for arthritis pain, Charlotte’s Web was able to offer more targeted benefits for their consumers as well.

Community, Research, and Legislative Involvement

Charlotte’s Web has been involved in multiple studies, many involving their own products, and at least one in direct response to FDA requests for information.

Their work with the US Hemp Authority has helped shape CBD legislation, and they’re continuing to work towards clearer standards.

Considering the Charlotte’s Web team literally works hands-on with the hemp itself, they also earn full points for supply chain oversight.

Their work with Realm of Caring, and the very impetus of the company itself (in support of Charlotte Figi) speak to an ongoing commitment to philanthropy.

In other words, full points for community, research, and legislative involvement.

Our Charlotte’s Web Overall Rating

All totaled, Charlotte’s Web earned an overall rating of 86.81/100.

Here are some highlights to sum up our review:

Clean formulations using organic ingredients
Moderate pricing, high value for the quality
Excellent customer education and e-commerce experience
High authority and trust throughout the CBD industry
High participation in medical studies, hemp legislation, and philanthropy
Issues in COA transparency and customer service

They checked some very important boxes (safety, quality, and brand value), but were dinged for technical issues that could be easily improved on for major score improvements (into the 90s, most likely).

Overall, Charlotte’s Web is a top-tier brand that we recommend to anyone looking for CBD products.

Charlotte’s Web Product Reviews

Charlotte’s Web CBD Gummies: Calm

Concentration

The gummies we sampled came in a 30-count jar of 5mg gummies, yielding 150 total milligrams of “plant-based cannabinoids,” per the label.

Charlotte’s Web also offers 60-count and 90-count sizes at the same concentration, yielding 300mg and 450mg of cannabinoids, respectively.

Here is the cannabinoid breakdown per the COA for the 300mg tub we sampled, expressed in per-serving (two gummies) values:

Hemp extract concentration: 10.5mg
Delta-9 THC: 0.006%, 7.2mg total, 0.25/gummy
CBD: 6.5mg
CBC: 0.3mg

As expected, our product passed all tests for microbials and heavy metals.

Overall, this is a solid report, especially for people who like to emphasize non-CBD cannabinoids, since CBD makes up less than two-thirds of the overall cannabinoids.

Value

Here are the prices per size:

150mg: $29.99 ($0.20/mg)
300mg: $44.99 ($0.15/mg)
450mg: $56.99 ($0.13/mg)

While most of Charlotte’s Web’s products are priced somewhere in the middle of the market, the gummies are slightly more affordable at larger concentrations.

It also helps that you don’t have to go beyond 2000mg, or even 1000mg to reach this discount.

Packaging

These gummies come in a darkly tinted plastic tub with a threaded lid.

On the labeling were included a blurb about the product, supplement facts and other ingredients, use suggestions, a QR code for accessing third-party lab results, and other standard info (concentration, flavor, etc.)

Everything we wanted to see was there, and the product blurb helped to prime us for the experience.

Ingredients

Here is the ingredient list for these gummies:

Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis), hemp extract (aerial parts), tapioca syrup, beet sugar, fructooligosaccharides (FOS), water, natural flavors, MCT oil, pectin, less than 1% of: malic acid, spirulina extract (color), sodium citrate dihydrate, organic lemon juice concentrate, citric acid, organic sunflower lecithin, tapioca starch.

There’s no getting around the use of some form of sugar and at least one or two preservatives when you’re making a gummy, but that doesn’t mean these ingredients are all the same.

Indeed, this list shows us the right way, using safe preservatives and avoiding high-fructose corn syrup.

Taste

This is one of the better tasting gummies we’ve tried; the lime was very zesty and sweet.

It took Charlotte’s Web 1.5 grams of sugar per gummy to get there, which is right around the average (we draw the line at 2.5 or more grams).

The delicious, acidic flavor covered up and/or neutralized the hemp bitterness very effectively.

These gummies would be a great option for sweet tooths looking to avoid the bitterness of hemp.

Effectiveness

It required at least three gummies, but after climbing to that level, we experienced marked improvements in stress levels.

As CBD is meant to do, it wasn’t a feeling of sedation, but a subtle “leveling out” that helped us respond to stressful situations calmly.

We can’t say this gummy helped with falling asleep as much as some others have, but taking it in the morning or early afternoon made for smoother workdays.

Pros & Cons

Let’s start with the pros:

Great taste
Clean ingredient list
Affordable for gummies, especially high concentrations
Effective at promoting calm

And now the cons:

Lower concentration per gummy

Charlotte’s Web 15mg CBD Oil Liquid Capsules

Concentration

These 15mg capsules come in 30-count (450mg total), 60-count (900mg total), or 90-count (1350mg total) containers—we sampled the smallest size.

Here is the cannabinoid breakdown per the COA for our product:

Delta-9 THC: 0.1%, 21mg per container, 0.7mg/capsule
CBD: 17mg/capsule
CBG: 0.3mg/capsule
CBN: 0.1mg/capsule
CBC: 0.7mg/capsule

The cannabinoid content is over-delivered by nearly four milligrams, and the THC is well within the legal limit.

The supporting cannabinoid content (THC, CBG, CBN, CBC) is right around 10 percent of the reported CBD content, which is stronger than most capsules we’ve seen.

Overall, there’s a solid shot of cannabinoids with plenty of room for the entourage effect to take hold.

Value

Here are the prices for each size:

450mg: $39.99 ($0.09/mg)
900mg: $69.99 ($0.08/mg)
1350mg: $89.99 ($0.07/mg)

As capsules go, and compared to their CBD oil, this is a little more expensive than expected.

Granted, these are liquid hemp extract capsules, which partially explains the rigidity in the pricing structure.

Still, other top-tier brands are regularly cruising right under this line.

Packaging

Between the outer container and the darkly tinted tincture bottle, customers have access to blurbs about the Stanley Brothers and Charlotte’s Web, use suggestions, ingredient list, supplement facts, and a QR code for lab reports (box only).

This is everything we like to see, and the two blurbs really help to lay down some context and build confidence in the product as well as the brand behind it.

Ingredients

Here is the ingredient list for our product verbatim:

Hemp extract (aerial parts), organic extra virgin olive oil, vegetable capsule (hypromellose)

It doesn’t get much simpler; everything is natural and safe, so it’s top marks here to be sure.

Taste

These transparent liquid capsules aren’t faintly sweet like some others; they bring an extremely subtle note of bitterness.

It took us roughly a minute of mulling these capsules around in our mouths to arrive at this assessment, so by all means, the everyday consumer is very unlikely to notice anything.

After consuming, we didn’t notice any unpleasant aftertaste, so we’re very pleased with the “taste” of these capsules.

Effectiveness

When taking a minimum of two capsules in the midday or early evening, we noticed that it was easier to fall asleep, and one of our testers—a sensitive sleeper—slept through a fairly severe storm.

As usual, there was no feeling of sluggishness or sedation in the morning.

We also noticed in some cases that we were much less susceptible to the distractions of working from home after having three capsules in the morning, making workdays easier and more productive.

Overall, these are solid results, and we attribute much of the success to the high non-CBD cannabinoid content.

Pros & Cons

Let’s start with the pros:

Super clean and minimalistic ingredients
Effective at promoting calm and sleep

And now the cons:

Not as discounted as most capsule product lines

Charlotte’s Web Original Formula CBD Oil

Concentration

Our Original Formula CBD Oil came in a 50mg/mL concentration, which is available on the Charlotte’s Web online store in 30mL (1500mg) or 100mL (3000mg) sizes.

Here is the cannabinoid breakdown per the COA for our product:

Hemp extract concentration: 62mg/mL
Delta-9 THC: 0.19%, 54.6mg total, 0.9mg per serving
CBD: 61mg/mL
CBG: 1.1mg/mL
CBN: 0.1mg/mL
CBC: 3.4mg/mL

The CBD is over-delivered by more than 20 percent, the supporting cannabinoid content is once again around ten percent of the CBD, and the THC is well within the legal limit.

Value

Here are the prices for each size:

1500mg: $119.99 ($0.08/mg)
5000mg: $274.99 ($0.05/mg)

Considering this is priced almost exactly the same as the standard CBD tincture we used to grade value, our stance is the same: middle of the road, not bad for a top-tier brand.

Packaging

Between the outer box and the tincture bottle, users can access basic product info, supplement facts, other ingredients, suggested use, CW blurb, Stanley Brothers blurb, and a QR code for lab reports.

Once again, this provides everything we would want to see with the added benefit of some background on the brand.

Ingredients

Here is the ingredient list verbatim:

Hemp extract (aerial parts), fractionated coconut oil, organic mint chocolate flavor oil (organic sunflower oil, natural flavors).

There’s no room for criticism here; this is an excellent ingredient list showing a commitment to high safety and quality standards.

Taste

Both the mint and chocolate were on the subtle side, covering up most of the bitter hemp taste.

It personally isn’t our favorite flavor, as the citrus tends to do a better job of masking the hemp while tasting great, but it wasn’t unpleasant by any means.

Hardcore Thin Mints fanboys and fangirls, on the other hand, might have a new favorite here.

Effectiveness

This time, it only took one dose for our testers to experience some noticeable benefits.

Chief among those benefits was improved stress management.

One tester in particular found that this tincture greatly improved his mood after multiple nights of sleeping less than six hours.

Taking a full dropper in the morning and half a dropper in the evening was a great rhythm, allowing clear, calm functionality during the day and an easier time falling asleep at night.

Pros & Cons

Let’s start with the pros:

Great taste
Clean ingredient list
Higher concentration
Effective at combating stress

And now the cons:

Pricier (1500mg)

All Charlotte’s Web Products

Charlotte’s Web offers a medium range of product types, but delivers within each category with a large variety.

Here are their major product types:

CBD Oil
CBD Capsules
CBD Gummies
CBD Topicals
CBD for Dogs

The brand primarily focuses on tinctures and dog products, but the addition of CBDMedic and continued expansion of their gummy line have added more variety.

CBD Oil

Despite other categories gaining ground, Charlotte’s Web is still known for their CBD oil tinctures above all else.

Here’s what they’re currently offering:

Original Formula: 50mg/mL
CBD Oil: 7mg/mL, 17mg/mL, and 60mg/mL
THC-Free CBD Oil: 25mg/mL

CBD Capsules

Charlotte’s Web offers CBD capsules in two concentrations: 15mg and 25mg.

These are liquid CBD capsules, meaning they contain standard CBD oil inside a capsule.

Best Use: CBD capsules are best for people who don’t like tinctures, or those who want a quicker, more convenient way to take CBD. They offer the same potential benefits as CBD oil.

CBD Gummies

Charlotte’s Web offers three kinds of CBD gummies:

Calm
Sleep
Recovery

Each of these is formulated with a botanical blend of natural ingredients like lemon balm in addition to the CBD from the full-spectrum hemp extract.

Each of the variations come in tubs of 30, 60, or 90.

Best Use: Gummies are best for those who find it more enjoyable to take CBD in an edible form, and are looking for help with calming down, sleep, or recovery.

CBD Topicals

Charlotte’s web offers the following topical products:

Hemp-infused cream with CBD
Hemp-infused balm with CBD
Hemp-infused balm stick with CBD
Hemp-infused cooling gel with CBD
Lavender/Peppermint hemp-infused roll-on with CBD

Best Use: Topicals are best for point-specific or region-specific applications, and are an easy way to introduce hemp-derived CBD into your routine without orally ingesting a product.

CBDMEDIC Topicals

Charlotte’s Web acquired the brand CBDMEDIC officially in June of 2020.

CBDMEDIC offers OTC-registered (over-the-counter products allow for health claims) topicals infused with broad-spectrum hemp extract, which contains CBD, but is THC-free.

All CBDMEDIC topicals are available on the Charlotte’s Web website.

The products include:

Acne Natural Foaming Facial cleanser
Acne Treatment Medicated Cream
Active Sport Pain Relief Ointment
Active Sport Pain Relief Stick
Arthritis Aches and Pain Relief Cream
Arthritis Aches and Pain Relief Ointment
Back and Neck Pain Relief Ointment
Cooling and Moisturizing Hydrogel Patches
Eczema Therapy Medicated Ointment
Foot and Ankle Pain Relief Stick
Itch, Rash & Pain Medicated Ointment
Massage Therapy Pain Relief Oil
Muscle and Joint Pain Relief Ointment
Muscle and Joint Pain Relief Spray

CBD for Dogs

Charlotte’s Web offers a handful of dog products, including:

Hemp Extract for Dogs
Hip and Joint Chews
Calming Chews
Chews for Senior Dogs
Canine Hemp Infused Balm

Conclusion

As The CBD Insider editorial team, we only recommend brands that we have personally vetted, so you can feel comfortable purchasing their products.

In many areas, Charlotte’s Web continues to live up to the very high standard they and the industry have set for the brand.

However, Charlotte’s Web’s competitors in the CBD industry continue to consolidate and catch up, meaning there’s always room to improve and tighten up processes.

We confidently recommend Charlotte’s Web products to anyone looking for the many potential benefits that CBD can provide.