Backed by an experienced team of beverage operators, Massachusetts-based startup HighTide is aiming to capture a very specific title: the country’s number one cannabis-infused, non-alcoholic, ready-to-drink margarita brand.
Rolling out to licensed dispensaries later this month, the company’s flagship release — a three-SKU line infused with adaptogens and 5 mg of THC per 12 oz. can — follows a similar path to other cocktail-centric cannabis beverage brands playing in the RTD space, including names like Artet, Klaus and AMASS. Honing in on margaritas, the country’s most popular cocktail, will allow HighTide to access an inviting and familiar platform for first-time consumers, according to the brand’s co-founders Shea Coakley and Joshua Grab.
“I would say generally speaking, I’m really attracted to spaces that are sort of being built as you’re in them,” said Coakley, whose previous business ventures include office-based food kiosk company LeanBox and coffee supplier Back Bay Roasters. “I like the fact that cannabis is still a little bit of the wild west and is still working itself out as an emerging market. That lends itself not only a lot of opportunity, but a really interesting work environment where intelligence will thrive.”
Also onboard is Grab, a beverage veteran and experienced sales manager with previous stints at companies like Flow Alkaline Spring Water, FIJI Water, Zing Zang and Boston Beer Company. Having worked extensively on the other side of the table, most recently as a beverage industry consultant, Grab called HighTide a “passion project as much as an opportunity” to build his own brand in a rapidly evolving category. The brand has also enlisted several notable board members to its board of directors, including Steve Hoffman, an ex-Bain consultant and the former Chairman of the Massachusetts Cannabis Commission.
In starting with margaritas, HighTide’s founding team are looking to create a recognizable and appealing bridge for canna-curious drinkers to enter the segment while circumventing lingering social stigmas around consumption. The three sparkling varieties — Classic Margarita, Diablo Spicy Margarita and a fruit flavor, potentially Watermelon or Grapefruit — feature a custom cannabinoid and terpene profile design to produce the social, uplifting-but-calming experience the brand is looking to capture. Each drink is 80 calories and contains 15 grams of sugar.
Beyond the quality of the drink itself, HighTide’s team sees its collective experience in selling beverages as one of the key differentiators for the brand. However, within the current dispensary channels, reliable merchandising tools like case stacks and endcap displays remain off limits, while regulations mean individual stores’ purchase orders are limited to the available real estate in locked vault storage. Getting dispensaries to dedicate real estate and resources to selling beverages and away from other cannabis categories is an ongoing process.
“There are so many new and interesting challenges in the cannabis market, but what people often forget is that people have been (selling beverages) forever,” said Coakley. “And there are so many things that can be gleaned from that, or game plans that have been implemented in the traditional beverage space that quite frankly just aren’t yet applied to the cannabis space. So I think it’s a combination of having the wherewithal and the background (in beverage), and also being able to approach a new market and build something completely from scratch with a constantly changing chessboard.”
“I think the question of how beverages are best sold in a dispensary still isn’t known yet,” Grab added. “I think people have ideas and we have some ideas but I don’t think ‘stack them high, watch them fly’ is gonna be the way to do it.”
Having developed the product and secured funding “well into the millions” from a variety of investors, Grab and Coakley are proceeding carefully as HighTide prepares to launch in Massachusetts. Though other cocktail-style flavors are likely to follow, the co-founders are keen to deliver “experiences” as much as beverages.
“One thing we are passionate about, above all else, is creating an authentic brand and product that consumers can get behind,” Coakley said.