Interview: Iconic Tonics Executives On The Hemp-Derived THC Landscape
April 8, 2025Last month, entrepreneur and rapper Snoop Dogg announced a new line of hemp-derived THC beverages, the Death Row Records branded “Do It Fluid” and Snoop’s own “Doggy Spritz.” The drinks—including offerings with 3mg, 7mg, and 10mg of THC—are made in partnership with Harmony Craft Beverages under the Iconic Tonics name. While Snoop Dogg is Iconic’s highest profile celebrity partner, the company has been producing hemp-derived THC and cannabis beverages through a variety of partnerships including with musicians like Wayne Coyne (of the Flaming Lips) as well as craft mixologist Warren Bobrow, in addition to the company’s in-house brands. SNDC senior editor Shane English recently caught up with Iconic Tonics CEO and co-founder Evan Eneman and president Jim Baudino to discuss Iconic’s brands and the state of the THC beverage market in the U.S.
SNDC: How did the partnership with Snoop Dogg develop?
Eneman: I’ve been in the cannabis space and Jim as well since around 2014 or just before that with Snoop and his broader team. In 2018, I was no longer working with Snoop but got involved in this opportunity to look at low- and no-alcohol beverages. Given that I had a lot of affinity towards plant medicine and functional ingredients, we decided to create some beverage brands.
Fast forward, after piloting a couple of brands in the regulated space, we got reconnected with Tiffany [Chin] who runs Death Row Cannabis for Snoop. In the fall of 2024, it was decided that we would have Snoop come into a relationship with Harmony Craft Beverages and partner with us to create Iconic Tonics, which now houses the seven brands in the portfolio: the two that Snoop had been developing and the five that we had been developing on the other side as well.
Baudino: Also, we were on the board of the Cannabis Beverage Association, which was an early trade organization. That’s really where we started seeing all of the trends within the beverage landscape and understanding where things were going on a national level.
SNDC: What are some of Iconic’s leading products?
Eneman: Do It Fluid, under Death Row Records, and Doggy Spritz with Snoop Dogg, are the two prominent brands in the portfolio. They’ve been in market, they have national distribution across DoorDash and some other retail accounts like Total Wine in Texas. We have the largest focus on those two brands.
The two others that are also active and in market are Love Your Brain and Klaus. We piloted Love Your Brain in the fall of 2024. That is with Wayne Coyne and the Flaming Lips and leans into creativity, music, lifestyle, culture. And then Klaus with Warren Bobrow, who wrote the book on cannabis beverages back in 2015. That brand leans very heavily into mixology and hospitality and really the core understanding of what a functional mixed beverage should be. Klaus is the one that we have launched in a regulated market in New York. The Delta9 brand will also be coming out soon.
SNDC: What does your distribution footprint look like? What are your strongest markets?
Baudino: With DoorDash, we’re seeing Georgia and Texas become two strong states, then Minnesota retail as well. We’re excited about the on-premise for a lot of the brands because, as the markets pick up and you’re able to get these drinks into on-premise accounts, you’re going to see a lot more high-quality alcohol replacements.
SND: What does your on-premise strategy look like?
Eneman: We started to explore it last year. We had a two-day show where we were going to sample Love Your Brain for the Flaming Lips in Oklahoma City. We wanted to see how our beverage would work at a live music venue. We ended up sampling over 3,000 participants. For the first hour and a half where we actually had the beverages available for sale at concession, they outsold every other liquid on the premises. Water, beer, cider, spirits, RTDs, wine, energy drinks, literally anything else that was available for sale, we outsold it.
It was a really good indication of where we want to be and where we’re going to be spending a lot of our time. While I would say the on-premise is nascent for us, now that we’re taking this path to market, our distributors are very much in line with that approach.
In part two, we’ll dive deeper into Iconic’s other brands and the overall hemp-derived THC market in the U.S.
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