In the American Canning Machines facility in southeast Austin, silver drink cans jitter in what looks like a miniature cattle corral.
The machine in front of me dances to an alien tempo. It whirrs and pops in 6/8 time. With a forest of spinning limbs, it plucks each can out of the corral and lines them up.
David Racino, co-founder of ACM, said the scene reminded him of Willy Wonka.
“Remember when they’re on like that train,” he said. “Or some contraption.”
The cans are rinsed, filled and sealed so quickly that my eyes aren’t sure where to land.
This is one arm of an industry with an estimated value in the billions. Last year, the hemp beverage industry sold around 2.3 million cases. Texas is one of the largest markets.
But these are no ordinary drinks. These drinks will get you high.
On a hot day in June, a few miles north of the canning facility, business owners gathered in an Austin convention center for the Hemp Beverage Expo. The expo is a joint effort between Jage Media, an event organizer in the cannabis space, and the Hemp Beverage Alliance, an advocacy group for the industry.
According to the Hemp Beverage Alliance, hemp beverages are any drinks that contain hemp-derived cannabinoids. Those are the chemical substances found in cannabis and other plants. CBD and THC are the most common, but there are hundreds of other so-called “minor cannabinoids.” Your body even makes its own, called endo-cannabinoids.
The expo was not exactly what you picture when you hear the word “hemp.” Neat rows of corporate chic booths fill the echoey, well-lit expo space. Business owners exchange cards and promises to stay in touch.
Not the ideal habitat for a stoner.
This was something else — hemp would like to turn over a new leaf.
“We’ve come a long way since brownie-on-the-couch days,” said Jasmine Hupp, a representative from one of the many beverage companies, Joy of the Adventure Living. “Now we have these incredibly, accurately dosed, reliable products. You’re gonna know how you feel every time you take a shot.”
As I passed through the stalls of the expo, I saw a Cambrian explosion of beverages: opaque purple liquids, turquoise glasses, Corporate Memphis mascots enjoying quality-tested highs. There were energy drinks, tequilas, tropical beers, and even wine.
George Jage, CEO of Jage Media, said this growth seemed to be a natural progression of our culture’s built-in love of social drinking.
“Beverage has never been really big in the cannabis space,” Jage said, “But I’ve always believed that if we can change the intoxicant — but not the social lubrication that’s so ingrained in our society of gathering around libations and socializing around beverage — that this is where THC as a molecule and cannabis and hemp combined as a plant, as really nature’s medicine, can have a massive transformative effect on our culture and society.”
Some companies riffed on beer, such as the Austin-based American Weed Company. Ryan Brooks and Jessica Latham, co-founders, picture their products beside the grill.
“This is more like alcohol or tobacco. It’s going right into your bloodstream. And you feel it in two to five minutes,” said. Brooks. “For example, for me, almost every single time, it’s two minutes and 37 seconds, two minutes and 47 seconds. And you really feel it. And it’s an energetic, uplifting thing.”
