Hi-er Highs: Cannabis Beverages Chase THC Dosage
Source: https://www.brewbound.
February 17, 2025
From micro-dosed to macro-dosed, many intoxicating hemp beverage brands are expanding into stronger payloads, offering more THC per dollar.
Having established ties during the category’s recent emergence, intoxicating hemp drink brands and beverage-alcohol distributors are growing closer as they together seek to open up new opportunities in higher-dose products as value becomes a more pressing metric for shoppers.
Whether it’s driven by category normalization or consumers shopping for the best value per milligram, THC levels are ticking upward as a wall of options puts pressure on brands to go bigger to meet demand.
If current growth trends are any indicator, there is still a lot of white space to occupy. Sales of intoxicating hemp beverages grew annual sales from $102 in 2023 to $382 million in 2024, and are expected to hit $750 million by 2029, according to the Brightfield Group.
Cann Goes ‘Hi-ER’
In 2019, Cann was one of the creators of the microdosed category providing a “sessionable product for a mainstream alcohol consumer” with no cannabis tolerance, co-founder Jake Bullock told BevNET.
“If you do the math and you did the testing with consumers on what a sessionable drink would look like for a regular cannabis consumer, it’s five [milligrams],” he said. “The reason it’s five is because you don’t just drink one, you drink around four over a couple hours.”
By that logic, Cann’s expansion from its original 2mg THC/4mg CBD cans into its HiBoys line (5mg THC/10mg CBD) seemed like a natural progression. Now, the brand is launching a 10mg THC HI’ER Boy (no CBD) to meet the growing demand that is largely being driven by consumers in states with no recreational cannabis market.
“We’re seeing a shift entirely in how folks consume THC,” he said. “In the Southeast or the Midwest, where there are no dispensaries or only medical dispensaries, we’re finding there is a high-potency consumer that has no access to high-potency products. They want the 10 milligrams [THC].”
This sentiment is being echoed across the category with many brands reporting that the increased visibility on-shelf has brought a higher scrutiny over value.
Going After The Alcohol Consumer
“There’s a lot of interest in providing that bang for your buck in the RTD format,” said Euromonitor International senior analyst Nik Allen. “Because it’s marginally more expensive than the micro-dosed [options], a value per milligram perception is starting to enter into play within this channel.”
It’s one thing to seek out an intoxicating hemp beverage online and buy it directly through a brand’s website, but when faced with a broad set of options from flavors to format to dosage in a bottle shop or liquor store, price tags start to matter more.
At marijuana dispensaries, low-dose drinks struggle to compete in a value-per-milligram proposition with edibles, flower, vapes or 100mg shots; at your local liquor store or wine shop, the equation shifts, Allen said.
“There is a lot of curiosity about what a consumer is looking for in the specialty liquor distributor channel,” he said. “Are they willing to embrace this in the same way they’ve embraced high-dose RTD alcohol, FMBs (flavored malt beverages), triple IPAs or these 19.2 oz cans?”
That’s exactly what Cann witnessed when exploring sales trends for ways to grow in brick-and-mortar retail.
“We sell the 2-milligrams way better online [than 5-milligrams], about two-thirds to 70% better,” Bullock said. “But in-store, it almost reverses. It doesn’t reverse entirely, but the five milligram does better in retail. I think it’s because in a lot of these states [where THC drinks are sold], the energy of the market moves to the highest allowable dose.”
The states Bullock is referencing have adopted intoxicating hemp drinks often in place of having a regulated recreational or medicinal market. The category has shifted to the Southeast with states like Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, Florida and Texas where beverage alcohol retailers like Total Wine and More and Spec’s have built out canna-bev sets.
Brands are not only flocking to these regions but bringing more variety in dosage to cater to a wider swathe of potential consumers.
To name a few: North Carolina-based Drink Delta offers a line of 5mg Light Seltzers along with 20mg Cannabis Water. Rebel Rabbit of Greenville, South Carolina has three options: Mild (5mg), Wild (10mg) and Wilder (30mg). Further south, New Orelans-based Crescent 9 has set its sights even higher with a handful of 50mg drinks.
The data matches the wide diversity of consumer needs across the category. Most hemp-derived THC drinkers want one to two beverages per session (83%), according to tracking data from Brightfield Group.
The dosage is fairly evenly distributed at about 40% of consumers preferring a typical dose per session between one- and nine-milligrams THC. Another 27% prefer 10mg to 19mg, while 25% prefer over 20mg, Brightfield Group reported.
Dose Per Demographic Group
Category newcomer Lolli launched its delta-9 THC sodas in 12 oz. cans (10mg each ) this week. The brand strategy is built around the category searching for diversity in variety and need state. Lolli is targeting legal drinking-age consumers up to the age of 35 years old who are familiar with cannabis.
“Young consumers are growing up in a world where cannabis is becoming as normalized as alcohol,” said Lolli CEO Paulo Sobral. “There are plenty of brands catering to beginners or people who are looking for an alternative to alcohol, but that’s not what Lolli is. Lolli is for consumers who are already confident in their cannabis consumption.”
The brand’s three initial SKUs – Cherry Cola, Orange and Grape – are all “recognizable soda flavors” with an identity linked to “fun with indulgence,” Sobral said.
Platforming as a soda brand is not necessarily unique. Boston-based Cantrip has offered familiar soda flavors in 10mg and 50mg doses. Owen’s Mixers used similar ‘pop’ flavors and value-for-THC positioning when it entered the canna-bev set with its 10mg Daizy’s Social Soda, launched nationally in December at stores including Specs and Total Wine & More.
For Lolli, taking a soda-first approach also meant conceptualizing from the beginning through the lens of brick-and-mortar retail. Up until recently, much of the intoxicating hemp beverage category started in direct-to-consumer (DTC) and then moved into retail as different markets opened. The brand is launching in Spec’s in Texas with plans to move into Florida and South Carolina markets next. Its online store has yet to launch but expects to be live by the end of the month.
Positioning in soda and going directly into retail as its main distribution channel is all about moving velocity, Sobral said.
“Traditional soda is high-velocity, low-margin,” said Sobral, who worked in sales at PepsiCo for five years before transitioning into the cannabis beverage industry.
At $16 per six-pack, the price per milligram is more value-driven than many 5mg options sold in retail. The value also derives from regular cannabis consumers replacing other formats – whether it’s smoking or eating THC – with a drink.
Why not go even higher?
Ten milligrams per serving is not an arbitrary ceiling. It is where industry groups and lobbying organizations like the Hemp Beverage Alliance and the Coalition for Adult Beverage Alternatives have landed on a dosage that could be passed through regulatory bodies and, in turn, become more widely available among alcohol distributors.
“At this point the industry is self-regulating,” said Jason Peterson, partner and creative director at cannabis brand Cycling Frog, which makes THC-infused seltzers in ranges from 2mg to 50mg. “We may have to discontinue the 50[mg] at some point…but in the interim, those sell great in smoke shops where the heavy cannabis user is coming to buy products.”
The Pacific-Northwest-based brand uses its infused seltzers to drive brand awareness for its other products like gummies and vapes which yield better margins.
The brand’s 2mg Light seltzers cost nearly the same amount to make as the 5mg seltzers, Peterson said, even though the Light varieties tend to cost less on shelf.
“It’s all consumer-driven,” he said. “We’re taking that into consideration when we’re pricing.”
That’s mostly because the brand is a retail arm of the Woodstock Hemp Company, based in Portland Ore., which grows and extracts the THC used in the drinks as well as seltzers and vapes.
That’s not to say that it doesn’t see a future in drinks.
Cycling Frog is in the process of building out a canning facility in Portland, Ore. where it will devote more resources to the category which it sees as only having more room to grow. The company is doing R&D on a multiserve, 750ml option and is planning to extend its portfolio later this year with a line of 10mg, cocktail-inspired offerings.