Interview, Part 2: Cantrip Founder And CEO Adam Terry
March 4, 2025In the second part of our interview, Cantrip founder and CEO Adam Terry discusses popular products in the portfolio, the on-premise scene, and the longer term outlook for the hemp THC drinks category.
SNDC: What products and dosages are especially popular within the Cantrip portfolio?
Terry: About 50% of our cases sold are 10 milligrams THC. So that is our whole soda line, and we have a 10 milligram seltzer as well. About 30% are 5 milligram SKUs, and 20% are 50 milligram SKUs. That rough breakdown corresponds to where we see the market going. The 50 milligrams are very popular where they’re sold, but not every retailer is comfortable with them. Total Wine won’t carry anything over 10-mg. A lot of people love stronger products, but 10 milligrams I think is the clear category winner right now.
People quickly graduate from 3-mg. to 5-mg., and then if they enjoy it, they’ll probably start consuming it more frequently. Once they start consuming more frequently, they’ll probably start consuming more 10-mg. products.
SNDC: What other consumption trends are you seeing?
Terry: THC is just not like alcohol in the way that people want it to be. I think it’s going to be a slightly lower volume business when it comes down to it than other categories. People don’t chain-drink THC drinks the way they chain-drink alcohol. You have a beer at a bar, and when you’re done with that beer, you grab another drink right away. We don’t really see people doing that with these. It’s not as common even among the low-dose products.
It’s more the way people consume energy drinks; they’ll drink one and then a few hours later they might have another, but they’re usually not drinking multiples in a row. There’s a lot of consumption behaviors that I think we’re still learning about.
SNDC: How does that impact the potential for on-premise development?
Terry: I think most people’s instincts are to try it at home first, and then if they like it they will drink more on-premise. We have many on-premise accounts where people enjoy them at a 5 and 10 milligram range, and I think on-prem does skew to the lower dose.
SNDC: What’s happening on the new product front?
Terry: We launched a 50-mg. grape soda, which people are already demanding that we make as a 10-mg. product too. We launched a diet cola for the first time in January. We also launched two new variety packs. One is an 8-pack with two cans each of cola, diet cola, orange soda, and root beer. And then we have a 12-pack of seltzers, which includes our 3-mg. ginger peach, 5-mg. lemon basil, 5-mg. blackberry lavender, and our 10-mg. grapefruit hibiscus. The distributor pickup has been pretty strong. And then upcoming we’re going to increase the focus on sodas and sugar-free offerings.
SNDC: How is the pricing environment in the category?
Terry: We’ve certainly seen some competitors try to force price compression in the marketplace, which is always an interesting choice that I’ve actually never once seen work. A new brand comes in, they’re well backed, so they just sell everything at half the price of everybody else to try to drive price compression and volume. Two things happen. First, they just don’t make any money. And second, people look at that as a signal of quality, and start to think you’re not a very good product.
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