Cann is in the middle of two big trends: sober-interest and seltzer. If you want to get high, you can drink a low-dose cannabis seltzer that “gets you a little bit high,” co-founder Jake Bullock told us. “It’s kind of like a light, floaty head feeling that’s fun and social,” he said. Its second drink, Unspiked, is alcohol-free and meant for people who don’t want to get high.
He and co-founder Luke Anderson talked to us about their drinks that make you feel like you’re on top of the world.
Any myths about cannabis bother you?
Luke: There are two that bother me a lot. It’s not for everyone. Some people say that even though a lot of states have legalised cannabis and it’s become more socially accepted, there’s still a hard first step of going to buy and use it that makes them feel like they’re doing something illegal. We are trying to package the product and use flavours and ingredients that are more like what you would find in a traditional store-bought drink to try to break that down.
This is a bad thing, because I think hemp’s name changed to “CBD,” and then a lot of CBD beverages started being sold in grocery stores a few years ago. This led to this weird idea that hemp drinks are cannabis drinks. Because so many people bought CBD drinks and then got tired of them, we’re still having to teach people about them.
When it comes to cannabis, it’s not just for people who like to get high. CBD isn’t the same thing.
No, they don’t do anything.
Luke: In this case, it’s really about what “something” is that people are talking about. Goji berries, too, do “something.” But it’s like, “Will you be able to feel the effects of a CBD beverage?” Jake and I say no, too. The placebo effect does work, and we have to remember that it does. Even if you take a sugar pill, sometimes you feel better. You often feel better when you think positive thoughts and eat something that makes you happy.
Do you think there will be a time when cannabis drinks are sold in bars, sports stadiums, and so on?
In Luke’s words, “Yes, yes!” We want to make that happen. In our minds, beer and wine are easier to get because they aren’t as strong. For some reason, cannabis is the same. Whether it’s 100 milligrammes or a concentrated dab, you can get to it the same way you can get to a two-milligram THC beverage, which is so much better for you than a beer. The people at Canns think that one day, right next to hard kombucha, you will see Canns.
When someone has their first and only experience with cannabis, they eat the whole thing.
The bad pot brownie experience is also something that people talk about a lot. Luke: It’s the thing that makes people say, “Never again.” if Everclear were the only way to get alcohol, we would all have bad Everclear experiences and we’d probably stop drinking alcohol because it was so bad.