Molson Coors to sell cannabis drinks in Canada by Christmas

Beer giant Molson Coors will start selling its first non-alcoholic, cannabis-infused drinks in Canada on 16 December in time for Christmas.

Brewing giant Molson Coors will start selling its first cannabis-infused drinks in Canada in December

As reported by Bloomberg, the project, called Truss, is a joint venture between Molson Coors and Canadian cannabis brand Hexo.

“We’ll have a very large supply, so we’ll be in a good position to be able to meet the demand of the marketplace and at the same time also ensure that we’re meeting the variety that the marketplace wants,” Jay McMillan, Hexo’s vice president of strategic development, told Bloomberg at the World Cannabis Congress in New Brunswick, Canada.

“Canada is this great experiment where we can come and establish these high-quality products and be able to see how it works across different demographics, get that feedback from the consumer and then we will move into other jurisdictions, whether that’s into the UK, the US or Latin America,” he added.

A worker in one of Hexo’s greenhouses in Quebec

Molson Coors and Hex are currently developing a range of non-alcoholic cannabis drinks in time for the December launch, when cannabis-infused drinks will be made legal in Canada, along with cannabis edibles and vape pens.

McMillan believes the cannabis-infused drinks made by Truss will be superior in quality to those currently available in the US, which often taste like “bong water” and take a long time for the buzz to kick in, according to McMillan.

Both Molson Coors and Hex are keeping their options open and are flexible about tweaking their cannabis drinks offering depending on what proves popular. Currently in development are a Cannabis water and a “beer-like” beverage.

Truss is also looking into selling CBD-infused drinks in the US and plans to be selling an eight-strong drinks range in America by 2020.

One potential stumbling block in the marketing of cannabis-infused drinks is the fact that they won’t be able to be called “beer” or “wine”.

“Instead of beer, you’re going to have to call it a cannabis-infused yeast extract,” Darrell Dexter, executive director of the Cannabis Beverage Producers Alliance, said during the World Cannabis Congress.