Bars and Restaurants Are Rallying Behind THC Cocktails

Bartenders’ favorite new cocktail ingredient is THC, courtesy of cannabis spirits, RTDs and homemade solutions. [...] Read More... The post Bars and Restaurants Are Rallying Behind THC Cocktails appeared first on Wine Enthusiast.

Apr 15, 2025 - 20:34

It could be the perfect recipe for change: Cannabis and THC laws continue to loosen around the nation and more consumers are interested in nonalcoholic drinks. This newfound curiosity in alternate beverage options has opened the door to drinks made with THC, the main psychoactive in cannabis that makes you feel high.

Ready-to-drink options with THC have been popular for a few years, and as more people have started to try them, bars are taking note. Suddenly, THC mocktails, or “canna-cocktails” as they’re sometimes called, are appearing on bar and restaurant menus across the country.

Could they become as common as their alcoholic counterparts? These bartenders all argue these drinks are more than deserving of a spot on the menu.

THC Paloma Eight Row Flint — THC Paloma from Eight Row Flint / Image Courtesy of Agricole Hospitality

From Dry January Proxy to Preference

Take Morgan Weber as an example. He owns a distillery, is the beverage director and co-owner of the popular Agricole Hospitality group in Houston and, admittedly, likes to party. But ask him what his favorite drink to make right now is and it might surprise you—it’s one with THC.

Weber started experimenting with THC beverages ahead of a Dry January challenge this year, trying nearly 40 different types of RTD options in the process.

“I quickly was like, man, I really like the way this feels,” he says about drinking them. He could still drink sessionably with friends and liked how the drinks made him feel, but his acid reflux disappeared and he found he was sleeping more soundly.

“When February came around,” he says, “I was just like, I’m not really ready to go back to the old habits, but I really wanted to get more sophisticated flavor profiles out of [these THC drinks].”

And so he started to experiment with THC “spirits” like Pamos and Nowadays to make drinks at home and subsequently, his bars.

“I’ve never been super inspired by mocktails,” Weber says of his new-found passion, “but this feels like a totally different world.”

At his Eight Row Flint restaurant in Houston Heights, he serves a THC Paloma by mixing 8th Wonder’s Ocho Verde Cannabis Spirit, imbued with a subtle but bright citrus flavor, with grapefruit juice, simple syrup, soda and salt.

And at Sean Brock’s Audrey, in Nashville, THC drinks have been on the menu, too. Their Paw Paw Colada combines toasted coconut and acidified orange juice with Artet’s THC aperitif as an alcohol alternative. Brock’s now-closed Bar Continental also served a zero-proof cocktail made with shiso, lime, fresh herbs and Artet’s aperitif to celebrate record day (which incidentally coincided with 4/20).

Nick Kosevich / Image Courtesy of Earl Giles Dstillery

The Rise of THC Cocktails

A so-called loophole in the 2018 Farm Bill classified anything under 0.3% THC by weight as industrial hemp and made it legal at the federal level. State by state laws vary, but the bill paved the way for the RTD THC beverage market as well as the new elixirs and THC “spirits” that Weber and others are using, a market that’s projected to grow to $117 billion by 2032.

There are a few reasons for this. “We’ve seen across the country there’s a decline in liquor consumption, and there’s an increase in mocktail demand,” says Nick Kosevich, beverage consultant and CEO at the Minneapolis-based Earl Giles Distillery. “I think bartenders would be very surprised to know how many people are consuming these THC beverages.”

From 2023 to 2024 Earl Giles’ onsite THC drink purchases were up 130%. Their bottling business was up nearly 300% during the same timeframe.

“I do think there’s a lot of potential that people are not really exploring right now making these drinks,” Weber adds, pointing to the wide range of guests who have tried his THC drinks. One 80-year-old woman liked the THC version of a ranch water she ordered at Gypsy Sally’s, his casual burger and taco spot in Leakey, Texas, so much she had a second round.

Kosevich feels strongly that adding THC options to Earl Giles’ lineup is another way to attract people. “Having another lever to pull that can bring more people in and then potentially offer something to people who weren’t drinking alcohol anyway is really the bigger space of opportunity,” he says.

And these drinks are also destigmatizing THC. “I would like to think that this beverage wave is also educating more people and opening more people’s eyes to cannabinoids and their effects,” he continues.

“Some people don’t drink alcohol, but still want to get that buzz,” adds Jared Bouchard, general manager at Whiskey Kitchen in Raleigh, North Carolina. “Being able to provide what people want is what we do in this industry,” he says about why they started exploring THC drinks on the menu about two years ago, first as RTD options and then as mixed drinks about six months ago.

Earl Giles Distillery Chronic Tonic Cocktail / Image Courtesy of Earl Giles Distillery

Are THC Cocktails Any Good?

Crafting a great THC “cocktail” is akin to making a great mocktail. It’s all about layering flavors. Bartenders often use similar ingredients, like nonalcoholic spirits and juices, to make these drinks sing.

While THC spirits are “not as flavorless as vodka would be,” Weber says, “they don’t add a ton to the drink or take away.”

“The complexity of flavors [in these drinks] is important because you’re not getting anything from a spirit, which does have a very complex taste,” agrees Bouchard, who makes a THC solution for his cocktails. It’s “pretty tasteless,” he says, so the drink’s character is defined by the other ingredients.

Kosevich agrees adding a THC component doesn’t typically impact the flavor of the drink he’s making, so he approaches making these like he would a mocktail.

“[Making drinks] is something that we’ve been doing our whole career,” Kosevich reminds me. “It’s a really great opportunity to take that acumen that we have from cocktail making and use them in [the THC] space.”

His THC Cosmopolitan combines Calmezzi’s THC spirit with Lyre’s nonalcoholic triple sec and a cranberry-hibiscus elixir from Earl Giles. Lyre’s is well known for how closely their NA spirits mimic the real thing, as is the Seedlips brand that Bouchard recently used in his latest creation.

Bouchard mixes gin-reminiscent Seedlip Grove 42 with a combination of citrus juices, ginger beer and soda, and adds citric acid to boost the acidity and “bite” of the drink. Their proprietary THC blend finishes off the Kid Frankie.

Getting Accustomed to THC Cocktails

Just like an alcoholic spirit, each THC spirit has its own standard dose per pour, which helps bartenders know how much they’re serving. For bars like Whiskey Kitchen that make their own solution by mixing THC powder and water, dosage instructions are clearly labeled to ensure accuracy.

THC will affect everyone differently, just like a shot of alcohol does, so there is a bit of a trial and error period for figuring out how you’ll react to these drinks.

“It is kind of like learning how to drink again,” says Weber. “It’s like if you’ve never had alcohol and you don’t know if you like a glass of wine.” He recommends starting with a 2-2.5 milligram (mg) dose, as you can always add more.

THC cocktails are also something you can make at home. My current go-to is a shot of Artet’s aperitif mixed in with my mocktail, which is often a riff on a transfusion with grape juice and ginger ale or a can of the Recess Grapefruit “Paloma” if I’m feeling lazy. It’s 2.5 mg of THC per serving which makes me feel less anxious and gives me the same sort of head high and buzz that I get from a large glass of wine. The effect lasts about two hours, so I still can have multiple drinks throughout the night. My husband needs closer to 10 mg per serving to feel the same buzz.

If you’re looking to reduce your alcohol intake without going completely sober, THC cocktails might be worth trying the next time you see one on the menu. They’re a non-intimidating and enjoyable way to experiment with a substance that was once taboo but is now more widely accepted and a way to still get a buzz—sans booze.