August 2018

“I wanted a beverage, something I could grab on the go,” Eppers said. “It’s not awkward to pull out a beverage in front of friends, but no one wants to pull out a tincture.” He found a maker of CBD isolate and then another company to make the isolate water soluble.The next step was finding flavors and packaging that could take his beverage out of the dispensary and into mainstream beverage outlets. “Beverage could be one of the most successful formats to provide CBD to consumers,” Eppers said. “I think there’s a ton of growth here.” (See the May-June issue of Marijuana Business Magazine for an article about the use of CBD in alcoholic beverages.) Technology Makes It Happen The CBD beverage boom has science and technology to thank. Cannabinoids are fat soluble, not water soluble, which is why CBD and THC are added to fats and oils before being eaten or dropped under the tongue. Even carried in oils, most CBD doesn’t make it into the brain. It’s like the vinegar in a vinaigrette salad dress- ing: impossible to fully combine in the water-based bloodstream. “CBD is hydrophobic – it won’t dis- solve in water,” explains Pulak Sharma, co-CEO of Kazmira, a Colorado com- pany that produces CBD isolate. But as cannabis has come out of the black market, research into better production techniques has boomed. Cannabis entrepreneurs now can find capital to invest in better ways to extract and isolate cannabinoids from the plant. “We’ve got the technology perfected to make (CBD) water soluble, and now it can go into anything,” said Sharma, whose company claims to get a whop- ping 2,000 milligrams of CBD into a 20-ounce bottle of water. “The bio- availability is much higher because our bodies are mostly water.” Prices are coming down, too. CBD isolate can now be bought for about $20 per gram, depending on quality and size of the order. And turnaround is quicker, with suppliers promising to have isolate by the kilogram shipped within two business days. Next Stop: Flavor There’s more to crafting a winning CBD beverage than figuring out how to get the cannabinoid into liquid, though. The bigger challenge is making a bever- age people want to drink. Consumers want a tasty beverage that competes against fruit juices or heavily sweetened energy drinks, not something that tastes like medicine. “We have to make a great-tasting product first and foremost,” said CBD producer Scott Leshman. His company, Detroit-based Cannabinoid Creations, has long made cannabidiol nutritional supplements such as tinctures, vapes and topicals. “Most people are used to hay-tasting or grass-tasting products when it comes to edible hemp,” Leshman said. “It took us 2.5 years to perfect the flavors, to come up with a formulation people really want to drink. It’s a slow process, but one that really pays off.” The company’s five flavors of CBD Hemp Sodas now sell in about 2,000 convenience stores nationwide, priced at $6-$7 for 6.3 ounces containing 25 milligrams of CBD. Final Steps Even the most delicious drinks packed with dissolved CBD won’t help a beverage company if consumers don’t pick up a bottle. That’s why packaging, marketing and education are just as important as the beverage itself. For Eric Pike, co-founder of San Diego’s CBD Natural Solutions, the bottle of his company’s new Root Origins brand of CBD water was a big consideration. “You’ve got to take the time and deliver great packaging,” said Pike, whose waters are going into specialty grocery stores in Southern California. “If you’ve got the packaging and your product has the efficacy, you’ve gotten over the pain points for retailers, and The developers of Root Origins CBD water said packaging could not be rushed when trying to assimilate on the shelves of mainstream stores. Photo courtesy of CBD Natural Solutions 72 • Marijuana Business Magazine • August 2018