Intoxicating Hemp

If beverage entrepreneurs somehow thought the THC drink business would be more “chill” than the non-infused side, they might soon learn a hard lesson.

Cannabis beverage brand Uncle Arnie’s is planning to nearly double its team from 40 to 75 employees after closing a $7.5 million Series A investment round co-led by Mindset Capital and Delta Emerald Ventures.

Boston Beer CFO Diego Reynoso is receiving around $1.2 million in Boston Beer Class A stock (SAM) in an effort to keep him with the company.

It’s still Not Beer, but now with a buzz. Dallas-based beverage brand Not Beer is expanding beyond alcohol-free sparkling water for the first time with Not Beer Vibed, a 10mg THC/10mg CBD seltzer available online in 12 oz. slim cans.

Tilray Brands is moving deeper into THC-infused beverages – and getting higher in the process.

Trinity Brewhouse (Providence, Rhode Island), one of the state’s oldest brewpub, will change hands later this summer. The owners of local restaurant The Patio on Broadway plan to acquire it from founder Josh Miller.

Jones Soda is offloading its Mary Jones marijuana beverage brand to privately held cannabis business MJ Reg Disrupters LLC as the drink maker “streamlines operations” and “focuses on core soda offerings.”

Launched in 2021, Darnell Smith’s THC-infused non-alcoholic (NA) spirit brand MXXN (pronounced “moon”) has had the distinction — or disadvantage, depending on your perspective — of being ahead of the curve on not one but two beverage trends. Now that consumers have caught up, he’s ready.

Despite rising regulatory hurdles nationwide, optimism still exists for intoxicating hemp beverages, as evidenced by smaller investment funds’ desire to back brands in the nascent category.

Legislation in progress across several states aims to bring beverages infused with intoxicating hemp into regulatory frameworks akin to alcohol’s three-tier system.

Texas is close to enacting a total ban on THC and THCA hemp products, as a law outlawing manufacturing, sales and possession heads to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk for final approval.

Not that long ago, the idea of buying cannabis online – especially in a drinkable format – would have seemed like an unlikely pipe dream. Now, order-by-mail has become a primary mechanism for distributing intoxicating hemp beverages.

Under new leadership for the first time in more than a decade, the Brewers Association (BA) is “relentlessly focused on members and what their needs are,” CEO and president Bart Watson said last week.

As some suppliers and wholesalers warm to intoxicating hemp beverages, bev-alc trade group leaders are looking for regulatory parity between their members’ products and the burgeoning segment.