Canada's Hill Street Beverage Co has taken a step closer to launching a cannabis-infused wine after signing a deal with a drug technology company.
Recreational cannabis use was greelit across Canada earlier this year
Hill Street said the agreement, with Vancouver-based Lexaria Corp, will license Lexaria's cannabis beverage formulation for a range of alcohol-free red and white wines. Lexaria claims its patented DehydraTech allows the active ingredient in cannabis - known as THC - to act quickly, but without adding taste or odour.
According to Hill Street CEO Terry Donnelly, the tech helps make the effects of cannabis beverages more in line to those of alcohol.
"Our goal is to provide traditional beer and wine drinkers with great tasting products that use cannabis to mimic the onset and duration of effect that has historically come from alcohol, but without alcohol's toxicity and added calories," Donnelly explained.
Hill Street, which is based in Ontario and makes alcohol-free beer, wines and adult-format beverages, is waiting for regulatory approval for cannabis beverages in Canada before releasing any products in the emerging category. Canada has already decriminalised cannabis sales across the country, but cannabis-infused beverages will remain unlawful until next year.
In California, where cannabis beverage sales for recreational users were given the go ahead at the start of the year, Heineken's craft beer unit Lagunitas has unveiled a cannabis-infused sparkling water.
