Infused beverages – “drinkables” – make up a small slice of the market today but are among the categories expected to grow by leaps and bounds in the near future. Solving the ‘salad dressing’ effect has led to beverages that are palatable and effective. Innovators have pushed the possibilities of cannabis drinks as a novel format. (Recent profiles of Matt Vincent of Oh Hi and Jonathan Eppers of VYBES are good examples.) Drinkables are in line with several macrotrends as well: the shift away from flower and more consumption occasions and social settings consumers find suitable for cannabis. (That beverages can be newbie-friendly helps as well.) Infused beverages are hardly without challenges, but among the most critical is taste. Apart from ‘shots’, beverages are made for sipping and few consumers will stomach a full can of seltzer tasting of grass clippings. To that end, we were curious to discover how consumers thought about infused beverages.
While we were asking people to complete a survey and not a taste test (and thus we can’t speak to interest in citrus flavors compared to floral notes) the results confirm areas of promise and highlight riskier propositions in drinkables:
The chart above includes options presented to participants that consumers might want – drinks containing alcohol and cannabinoids – but as those products will likely never see the shelf, the results effectively break down between infused beverages (“non-alcoholic drinks”) and infused alcohol knock-offs (“alcohol-flavored drinks”) and the winners are obvious. The following comments ignore the “alcoholic drinks” response options for sake of clarity.
Introducing a few wrinkles into the data shows some interesting breakouts of the results. For example, comparing cannabis consumers who gravitate to products containing only CBD to consumers who also regularly use products containing THC as well:
Focusing exclusively on current consumers of products containing CBD and THC, cutting the data by age also turns up some intuitive and not-so-obvious results. Of all the age groups, only those 35-44 express serious interest in alcohol-flavored beverages infused with CBD. No other group put that variety in the top two spots. The younger set (21-34), unsurprisingly, is interested in NA drinks with THC above all others.
Lastly, drinkers see the world quite differently. Keeping our focus on THC+CBD consumers, we can see notable differences in how beer consumers differ from those who prefer wine, spirits, or cocktails.
While technology and regulations will act as stronger guide-rails for innovation, consumer preferences will play an increasingly strong role as infused beverages grow. And while there’s some doubt in the consumer’s mind today about “alcohol-flavored” drinks, if asked years ago, no one would have expected bourbon-flavored everything to be as ubiquitous as today. The next great drinkable could be resting in a charred white oak barrel, just waiting to be tapped.
Prior to co-founding High Yield Insights, Mike Luce led multi-million dollar insights engagements with Fortune 100 consumer goods companies. Mike has nearly 20 years experience developing market insights for some of the world’s leading consumer brands, including Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo and General Mills, and retailers, such as Wal-Mart and Kroger.
High Yield Insights applies best practices and capabilities drawn from that experience to the dynamic cannabis industry.
Mike can be reached directly at [email protected]
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