A guy walks into a bar and checks out the tap handles. “Whad’ya in the mood for,” asks the bartender. “I dunno, something a little hoppy but kinda crisp, takes the edge off a bit,” answers the patron. “I got just the thing: a local NA, nice and light, clocks in at 3% THC from hemp, touch of CBD rounds it out,” the barkeep says. “Folks are loving it.”
If you live in Minnesota, you just might walk into a bar…soon…and strike up that very conversation. As reported by Beer Business Daily last month, over 4,000 businesses in the state have registered to sell products containing Delta 9 hemp-derived THC. Among those applicants are over 200 bars, along with hundreds more liquor stores, breweries and distilleries, restaurants, grocers and other retail categories. Among the “other” are nail and hair salons.
Call it what you will, but for us, what comes to mind is convergence. It’s no longer alcoholic drinks versus THC in various forms, but rather, alcohol and THC. In other words, one bigger market that, pursued the right way, doesn’t have to be about stealing share, but rather, healthy sustained growth for all. (To be clear, this is not an argument for making products that contain both substances, nor does it advocate for consuming distinct products, each containing one of these substances, simultaneously.)
The convergence tea leaves are scattered everywhere. While a recent Carnegie Mellon University study found that the number of Americans who use cannabis nearly daily has surpassed the number who drink that often, a 2024 study by Numerator found that 64 percent of cannabis users who drink have not reduced alcohol consumption. Furthermore, commenting on the latter study, a Bernstein analyst warned that consumers are unreliable reporters when it comes to surveys about “sin,” suggesting that the 64% number may, in fact, understate reality.
High Noon’s breakout, sustained success argues for where things may be going, bigger picture, and how new THC beverage brands may want to think about communicating what’s in the can. From the start, and very intentionally, High Noon was a chameleon – a cocktail or spritz to some, a seltzer to others. That approach – holistic, agnostic, whatever you want to call it – strikes us as the go-forward blueprint across alcohol and cannabis beverages taken as a whole.
And of course, flavor, which High Noon nailed, and is still a Holy Grail for THC beverages. (When was the last time you heard someone rave about how one of those tastes…or really believes it when they do?) But that will get solved. Upstart independents like Delta 9-infused Bud’s Beverages – yes, that’s the name – were formulated by bona fide mixologists and ingredient developers, and Bud’s is coming to market as RTD THC cocktails. In other words, not either or, but rather, both.
We’ll see what happens in Minnesota, California and other so-called hemp carve-out states. And of course, this is all a rehearsal for eventual federal legalization of cannabis. But there’s no time like the present to plan for and start reaping the benefits from a “both” mindset. Consumers are showing us the way, right now.