Molson Coors Brewing’s cannabis joint venture with Hexo will start selling non-alcoholic, cannabis-infused drinks in Canada from December 16.
Jay McMillan, Hexo’s vice president of strategic development. told Bloomberg: “We’ll have a very large supply so we’ll be in a good position to be able to meet the demand of the marketplace and at the same time also ensure that we’re meeting the variety that the marketplace wants.
Truss is also looking at selling CBD-infused beverages in the United States, which legalised them late last year, with the goal of having products in eight states by 2020.
The joint venture will sell everything from cannabis-infused water to a “beer-like product”.
However, government regulations include the stipulation that alcohol-related terms like “beer” and “wine” can’t be used to market them.
“You’re going to have to call it a cannabis-infused yeast extract,” Darrell Dexter, executive director of the Cannabis Beverage Producers Alliance, joked in a panel discussion at the World Cannabis Congress.
Canada a springboard to the world
McMillan told the World Cannabis Congress that the Canadian release of cannabis drinks will be a “springboard” for the company's global drinks expansion.
“Canada is this great experiment, this great place where we can come and establish these high-quality products, this great distribution, be able to see how it works across different demographics, get that feedback from the consumer and then we will move into other jurisdictions, whether that’s into the UK, the US or Latin America,” McMillian said.
Cannabis beverages currently sold in the US have been criticised for tasting like "bong water", inconsistent potency, and unpredictable effects. McMillian said Canada has the opportunity to set the “gold standard for the world” in the category.
A recent report from Deloitte has predicted the market for next-generation cannabis products, which includes beverages, will be worth $2.7 billion annually.
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