Welcome Note
Welcome Back Gardeners to the 104th edition of Herbal Profiles!
Happy Friday yall! Hope everyone enjoyed the short week. I have begun to put together a directory of brands, it currently has a little over 200 brands in there! If you know any brands, please leave a comment on the spreadsheet or shoot me an email and I will get it added. I do plan to add some more columns like format (shot, enhancer, spirit, rtd, etc) to the spreadsheet as well as a ‘minimum thc’ column too. So it’s still very much a work in progress. But take some time and review it and hit me any brands you see that are not currently included!
And don’t miss the latest episode of the Free Spirits Podcast.
Let’s get into it.
-Lars
The subreddit I moderate with Chris Fontes hit 1,200 subscribers! Subscribe over on Reddit and follow along there!
The Free Spirits Podcast with David Gonzalez and myself just dropped episode 13 of season 2 with Hyde’s Hail Mary Founder, Micah Hyde!
If you could take the time to drop a review of the podcast or even just share it with a friend or two, it really does help us grow and continue to bring you this show.
You can find us on Youtube, Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts!
Any comments or questions? Leave comment on this post or shoot me an email. Would love to hear from you!
News Roundup
- Vena Brings Back Happy Tonix THC Seltzers & Skinny Mocktails – THC Drinks Are Back
- Alcohol Takes Another Hit: THC Drinks Rise as the New Social Choice
- Gov. Abbott restricts THC sales to minors through executive order
- Colorado Hemp Beverage Coalition Launches to Lead Policy Reform
- Milwaukee restaurant adds THC beverages to draft lineup
- Marijuana May Help Heavy Drinkers Cut Back On Alcohol, New FDA Study Finds
- Levia’s Originators to Re-Acquire Cannabis Beverage Brand
- Hemp Beverage Alliance Launches Regulatory Framework Campaign
📰 Got news? Submit it here! 📰
Any other questions or inquiries you can respond to this email or DM me on Twitter
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Your Brand’s Organic Social Media Isn’t Working, Let’s Fix It
In the year of our lord 2025, most beverage brands organic social content sucks. Let’s call a spade a spade.
Scroll through Instagram or TikTok and you’ll see the same thing on repeat, cans on a table or an endcap, event recaps, people holding the cans, maybe a forced meme. None of it makes people feel anything. None of it builds cultural real estate. And that’s why most organic content in this category doesn’t land.
But there’s a playbook emerging from outside cannabis that THC beverage brands can steal from right now.
Lesson 1: Own Cultural Real Estate (Not Just Compliance Messaging)
First we need to think about taglines and owning real estate in people’s minds. Maybelline’s iconic “Maybe she’s born with it” still has an 84% recall rate decades later. That’s brand real estate. THC brands need their own version of that.
THC beverages don’t have this yet. Most lean on dosage talk or generic wellness claims. What’s missing is a sound, a phrase, or a hook that people can remix on TikTok or Reels and carry into conversations you never planned.
Lesson 2: Episodic > One-Off Posts
People truly DO NOT care about your cans, your end caps, that new distro deal. What they do care about? Being entertained, informed, or inspired. Treat your channel like a show, not a billboard.
Local businesses are outpacing national brands because they understand the power of serialized storytelling. Document the arc of a product launch from R&D to retail. Build a recurring content series around consumption occasions.
Most THC beverage brands treat their feeds like billboards — drop a photo, move on. Instead, think about your channels like a show. Build a recurring content series, document the arc of a product launch, give followers a reason to come back.
Think Your Hemp Beverage Has What It Takes?
The 2025 America’s Best Hemp Beverage Triple Crown is live — and it’s the chance for your brand to earn serious recognition across taste, branding, and consumer appeal.
I’ve partnered with America’s Best Beverages to make it easier for you to enter. Use code HERBAL15 at checkout for 15% off your entry fee.
📍 Submit your beverage → America’s Best Beverages Entry Page
Don’t miss the opportunity to put your brand in the spotlight.
Lesson 3: Build Challenges, Not Campaigns
Challenges are quickly becoming the next big brand strategy. 1st Phorm launched 75 Hard in 2019 and it’s now one of the biggest fitness challenges out there. Bandit Running used a free marathon training plan to anchor their community.
For THC beverages, the possibilities are wide open. A “21 Days of Better Sleep” challenge tied to infused nightcaps. Or a creative series where consumers share art, playlists, or routines sparked by the product daily for a month.
Lesson 4: Employee Voices Build Trust
Behind-the-scenes storytelling increases customer connection by 73%. Local businesses know this intuitively, but most THC brands keep their feeds corporate and faceless.
Hand the phone to your team for a day. Let your head of ops explain what it takes to keep cannabinoids stable in a can. Show a field rep’s reality of getting shelf space. People want to connect with people, not logos.
The Shift: From Attention to Participation
The real issue isn’t that THC beverage brands lack attention — our industry is really having a moment right now. Posting cans into the void doesn’t invite belonging.
The next wave of winning brands will create audio hooks that spread, stories that build over time, challenges that drive transformation, and content where employees and consumers — not the brand itself — are the main characters.
If your organic social isn’t sparking culture, building community, or giving people a reason to share, it’s invisible.
👉 In 2025, THC beverage brands that treat social like participation marketing, not just attention marketing, will be the ones that actually matter.