Cannabis brand Cookies tries its hand in the alcohol market

Can a cannabis brand succeed in the alcohol industry?

Cutting against the recent trend of beer and liquor brands launching THC-infused drinks, marijuana brand Cookies is crossing over into the spirits industry with a tequila-based beverage.

Cookies sees alcohol as an opportunity to flex its brand power, but critics say this distracts from the company’s main mission of providing premium cannabis products.

Launching an alcoholic beverage will give the Cookies brand a broader consumer reach, said Crystal Millican, head of marketing and retail at Cookies. The labels will include the brand’s classic C-bite logo and a tiny Cookies script.

The global ready-to-drink cocktails market was estimated at $3.21 billion in 2024 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 15.4% from 2025 to 2030 as consumers prioritize convenience, according to Grand View Research.

The market share of tequila, Berner’s spirit of choice, also is growing. The global tequila market size was estimated at $10.53 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 9.5% to reach $19.73 million by 2030, according to Grand View Research.

“I’ve been wanting to launch a product like this for years,” Berner wrote in an email to MJBizDaily. “Agave-based spirits like tequila and mezcal are my personal favorites, but they’re also the fastest-growing category in the U.S.”

Crafted with premium tequila from Casa Rica and real fruit juice, the Adios beverage line will feature four flavors – Lime, Spicy, Mango and Strawberry.

“One of our core values is to honor the (cannabis) plant,” Millican said.

“When we were stepping into this new category, we wanted to find a brand that had the same core values. They use the same words – small batch, naturally zero additives and honor the agave plant – that core connection really brought is together.”

Adios, which debuted July 19 during the Manny Pacquiao versus Mario Barios fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, is Cookies’ first foray into the spirits industry.

A cultural milestone

The Cookies brand goes beyond cannabis. Berner created a clothing line, a cannabis-focused venture capital fund called 12/12 Ventures and the Vibes rolling paper line.

“With Cookies and with Berner, the ecosystem is just bigger than cannabis,” said Millican, noting that the partnership with Jalisco, Mexico-based Casa Rica honors Berner’s Mexican American heritage. “There’s clothing, Berner has some collabs on the snack side – he’s a serial entrepreneur and renaissance person.”

Berner’s started his career in cannabis working as a budtender and intake representative in San Francisco dispensaries while he was building his rap career. The dual path allowed him to create a unique grand identity and marketing strategy.

Cookies has a global footprint with more than 70 retail locations in multiple countries.

Distributed by CKS Distro, Adios benefits from a proven system for rapidly scaling culturally relevant brands.

Cookies and Casa Rica worked together to create the flavors through collaborative tasting sessions ad market feedback before landing on the four flavor profiles.

“The Cookies team brought their cultural pulse and consumer insight, while our Casa Rica team ensured the integrity and quality of the tequila remained front and center,” said Adriana Rios, CEO of CKS Distro.

Ready-to-drink market growing

Even with the growth in RTD products and tequila, Avis Bulbulyan, CEO of California-based cannabis consulting firm Siva, said he’s not sure a cannabis brand expanding into alcohol makes sense.

“It’s a money grab, it’s an identity crisis,” Bulbulyan said. “There is some cross-promotional opportunity, but it’s more of a distraction than anything else.”  

Launching an alcohol brand comes at a time when several craft brewers are getting into the hemp-derived THC beverage market make up for declining alcohol sales.

The no-alcohol beverage market is expected to grow by 7% through 2028, according to London-based global drinks data provider IWSR.

Brewers can use existing production lines to make the hemp THC products much faster than it takes to make beer, Jason Pickle of Volunteer Botanicals, which supplies water-soluble emulsions of cannabinoids, told MJBizDaily in May. 

Margaret Jackson can be reached at margaret.jackson@mjbizdaily.com.