The beverage giant Arizona Iced Tea is stepping into the cannabis industry with a $10 million deal with a famous CBD edibles company from Denver. They plan to sell cannabis-infused products together.
The company from Denver, Dixie Brands Inc., already caters to marijuana products in five states of America. This new partnership with Arizona Iced Tea will help them widen their market from the United States to Canada and Latin America. They plan to start with vape pens and gummies, slowly moving into the field of beverages with tea, lemonade, soda, coffee, and seltzer.
Arizona Iced Tea has adopted such marketing strategies in the past as well. They launched a pop-up with Adidas in July, in which they sold sneakers of different tea brands for as low as 99 cents. People formed long queues even before the pop-up opened its doors and made it very popular among one and all.
However, this popularity didn’t last for a long time. In an incident, a 15-year old and 17-year old were assaulted. Because of this, NYPD had to close the event, much before it could gain more popularity among the people.
Hopes are high with this new project of cannabis beverage, and the companies plan to take it to greater heights.
Although it will be the first international corporation to have plans of selling cannabis in the United States before the drug being legalized federally, probably it won’t be the first of its kind.
Companies like Svedka Vodka, Mondavi Wine, Walmart, Coca Cola, Molson Coors, and Lagunitas (owned by Heineken) have already made their entry into the cannabis industry.
Svedka Vodka and Mondavi Wine made billion dollars of investment in Canopy Growth Corp. Even Walmart hit the headlines with its news of investigating CBD products. Molson Coors plans to partner with a Canada-based marijuana producer, Hexo Corp., and launch a cannabis-infused drink called Truss.
“Truss’s portfolio of brands will taste great and be scalable because of its infusion technology and flavoring capabilities within its Belleville, Ontario, facility,” said outgoing Molson Coors CEO Mark Hunter. “And Truss’s portfolio will meet an array of consumer occasions.”
One of the early entries into the cannabis market was made by Lagunitas, with its drink called Hi-Fi Hops. It is a drink where cannabis is infused with mineral water, and it comes in two editions.
With all these beverage giants stepping into the field of marijuana-based products, it is not going to be an easy road ahead for them. An investigation in this field by Amanda Chicago Lewis has brought into light some of the constraints that exist with the permissible limit of drinkable marijuana. According to the investigation, it is not going to be an easy-going market for cannabis beverages.
