Hemp beverage brands use uncommon flavor profiles to slow down sipping

Hemp-based beverages containing tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) currently exist in a space akin to a Wild West boomtown: If you’re brave enough to cross a contentious landscape of shifting laws, uncertain public opinion and reasonable safety concerns, the opportunities are endless.

This category, which is reportedly worth nearly $30 billion in the U.S., is already disrupting existing markets like craft beer. But there’s a lot to consider in terms of flavor, efficacy and safety when formulating with delta-9 THC, even when it’s derived from hemp, which may include the seeds or any other part of the cannabis plant.

According to Ben Kennedy, cofounder and CEO of Fable Libations, “That brings to bear challenges, like what is a [can of] Fable? What is Fable going to do to me? How do I consume Fable? If I have three glasses of wine, how many Fables can I have?

“We’ve baked a lot of that into the development of the drink,” he went on. “You’ll find that Fable has a bite or a burn to it. We use ginger to create that, we use capsicum, Szechuan pepper, and this is all very intentional … we want to slow down the consumption.”

Calming down consumption

Kennedy claims that a major concern when developing a THC-infused drink is assuming the consumer will drink one and be done. Yet drinkers who are new to cannabis products sometimes take the first dose, then wait a few minutes (or the time it might take for an alcoholic drink to kick in) before assuming it’s not working and grabbing another.

“The concern with an infused soda is you’re drinking that in three minutes,” Kennedy said. “And then you’re sitting there and you’re saying, hang on a minute, I’m not feeling anything. So, you drink another one and another one, and then it hits you like a bus … we think people consume a Fable in 20 minutes or so, by sipping it, just like a cocktail. That’s the level of detail that we’ve put into this drink because our audience is not a stoner.”

With spicier flavors, Kennedy not only mimics the distinctive prickle of alcohol — an industry he’s looking to disrupt — but also encourages the drinker to slow down and experience the product safely.

And Fable Libations works hard to ensure the safety of its drinks, whether it’s through prolonging the experience or acquiring a THC emulsion derived from pure “mother liquor” created by a company called Vertosa.

The mother of all liquors

To an expert like Harold Han, chief science officer at Vertosa, one of the biggest threats to the hemp-derived THC-infused beverage market is the lack of clear regulations on how to create these beverages and the accompanying potential for anyone to do anything they want during formulation, including using potentially unsafe ingredients.

Han specializes in emulsion, which describes the science of stabilizing oil and water together in one system. Vertosa creates emulsions, which can be added to a ready-to-drink (RTD) beverage, from mother liquor, a byproduct of extracting cannabidiol (CBD) from hemp. CBD is a natural substance found in cannabis and hemp that is not intoxicating or psychoactive but may impart certain health benefits; it’s even a proven treatment for specific kinds of epilepsy.

“Mother liquor is the waste product after you get CBD out of hemp,” Han said. “However, when we open the scope to hemp gummies and vape cartridges, there’s a huge amount of those products in the gas stations nationwide. And with those products, most of the THC from hemp is converted from CBD.”

Through an acid-catalyzed reaction, you can convert CBD into THC — a slightly older method that can create large amounts of THC but requires special care, equipment and training to ensure the resulting emulsion is free from potentially unsafe byproducts.

“For every batch of emulsion we sell to our clients, we have this chain of custody, meaning we can trace it back to the original hemp farm,” Han explained. “But also, on the testing level … we test not only potency, but the big six. Six different categories of testing: potency, microbials, heavy metals, pesticides, solvents and mycotoxins. We regulate ourselves. The material is clean; it doesn’t have contamination.”

Distribution and beyond

By using Vertosa’s all-natural THC emulsion derived from mother liquor, brands like Fable are formulating their functional adult beverages in a safe, responsible way. Kennedy even said that bad actors within the category are his “biggest fear” because their products can be unpredictable and dangerous, eroding public trust.

When it comes to boosting the category’s credibility, however, he believes formulators should lean on existing infrastructure, just from a different industry.

“I think the alcohol industry should be trusted to distribute THC-infused hemp products because they understand the regulated world, they understand the 21-plus environment and they are professional and have systems in place to act as safeguards,” Kennedy explained.

He also advised a cap on dosage along with clear packaging requirements to ensure these products never attract the eyes of children, which is why collaborating with the alcohol industry — again, a market Kennedy is aiming to disrupt — could help legitimize hemp-based beverages. The category is generating enough buzz that, unless it’s outlawed entirely, it’s not going anywhere but up.

“Our head of sales, Ralph Alvarez … He’s a career beer guy, and he said to me yesterday, ‘This is crazy. Everybody’s calling me back,’” Kennedy recalled. “And I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘You don’t appreciate how hard it is to get a new beer into these distros. You don’t get called back. But everybody is calling me back.’”

So, someone who’s been selling beer for decades was shocked at the level of curiosity and hype around a new kind of functional adult RTD beverage. A sign, perhaps, that it’s time to start taking said beverages seriously — but as the hemp-based drink sector continues to weather its Wild West phase, balancing safety and innovation will be vital to transforming this intoxicating phenomenon into a lasting presence in the marketplace.