Why How Fast You Feel It Changes Everything — According to Real-World Study Data

There's a moment every cannabis beverage drinker knows.

You've cracked something open. You're settled in — couch, back porch, kitchen counter, wherever you land at the end of your day. You take a sip. Then another. And then you wait.

For some products, the wait is short. For others, it stretches. And in that gap — between drinking and feeling — a lot happens. You start to wonder if it's working. You check in with yourself. You might take another sip when you probably shouldn't. Or you write the whole thing off before the effects have had a chance to land.

That waiting period isn't just a user experience inconvenience. According to real-world study data from the largest ongoing observational dataset on infused beverages, it's one of the most commercially significant variables in the entire category.

Onset speed — how quickly a consumer feels the product working — turned out to be a statistically significant predictor of whether they'd buy again, whether they'd recommend it to someone else, and whether they'd have a positive experience at all. All three. Without increasing negative effects.

That's a finding worth unpacking.

About the Study

23rd State products — including FRESH PRESS and SHAKE — participated in Cohort 2 of the MoreBetter Real-World Infused Beverage Study, the largest ongoing observational dataset on infused beverages. The cohort included 2,580 participants across 20 products over a 22-day study period. Participants reported daily on their consumption habits, the effects they experienced, onset timing, intensity, duration, and overall satisfaction.

Researchers then modeled which variables had statistically significant relationships with purchase intent, recommendation likelihood, and experience quality.

Onset speed emerged as one of the clearest signals in the dataset.

Everything that follows represents cohort-wide findings across all 20 products. All relationships cited were statistically significant (p < .05). 23rd State products participated in the study, and our results were directionally consistent with the cohort findings.

What "Onset Speed" Actually Means in This Context

In the study, onset speed was assessed based on how quickly participants reported feeling the product's effects after consumption. Researchers compared outcomes across participants who reported feeling effects quickly versus those who felt effects slowly — and versus those who reported feeling no effects at all.

This isn't a lab measurement of bioavailability or absorption rate. It's what participants actually experienced and reported — which, for a consumer product, is the only measurement that ultimately matters. You can have the most sophisticated emulsification technology in the world, but if your customer doesn't feel it working, they don't know it's working.

The data models the relationship between that felt experience — rapid versus slow versus absent — and three downstream outcomes: purchase intent, recommendation likelihood, and the probability and intensity of positive versus negative effects.

Finding 1: Faster Onset Predicts Higher Purchase Intent

The first model looked at the relationship between onset speed and purchase intent — whether participants intended to buy the product again after the study.

The relationship was statistically significant.

Participants who felt no effects had the lowest purchase intent in the dataset. Participants who felt effects quickly scored significantly higher. And the pattern was consistent: the sooner someone felt the product working, the more likely they were to report wanting to buy it again.

This finding matters because purchase intent is the upstream variable for everything in consumer goods. It's not a soft brand metric — it's the precursor to revenue. When onset speed predicts purchase intent with statistical significance across a 2,580-participant dataset, it's telling you something about what drives repeat purchase at scale, not just anecdotally.

For consumers, this probably doesn't come as a surprise. If you open something, drink it, and feel like it worked — you buy it again. If you open something, drink it, and feel like you're not sure whether anything happened, you don't. The study just quantifies what common sense already suggests: feeling the product work is the foundation of wanting it again.

Finding 2: Faster Onset Predicts Stronger Recommendation

The second model asked a related question: does onset speed predict whether someone would recommend the product to others?

Same result. Same statistical significance.

Participants who felt no effects landed around neutral on the recommendation scale. Participants who felt effects quickly landed between "agree" and "strongly agree" when asked whether they'd recommend the product.

Word-of-mouth is still the most valuable acquisition channel in cannabis and hemp beverages. The category is young enough that most new consumers are arriving through a personal recommendation — a friend, a partner, a coworker who told them to try it. The data suggests that the consumers most likely to become advocates for a product are the ones who felt it working, and felt it working soon.

A consumer who buys SHAKE or FRESH PRESS, has a clear and timely experience, and walks away thinking "that worked exactly like I wanted it to" is not just a repeat customer. They're a referral source. They're the person who brings one to a dinner party, who texts someone a photo of the label, who answers "what should I try?" with a specific product name and a reason.

Onset speed, according to this data, is one of the variables that separates a consumer who recommends from a consumer who merely repurchases.

Finding 3: Faster Onset Dramatically Increases the Likelihood of Positive Effects

This was the most striking finding in the dataset — and the researchers noted it themselves.

The relationship between onset speed and positive experience wasn't marginal. It wasn't a modest correlation that required careful statistical interpretation. The gap between participants who felt no effects and participants who felt effects quickly was, in the researchers' framing, an order of magnitude.

The faster the onset, the higher the likelihood of reporting a positive experience. The faster the onset, the stronger those positive effect ratings were.

Think about what this means from a consumer's perspective. An infused beverage is, at its core, a functional product. People buy it because they want to feel something — relief, relaxation, a mood shift, an easier evening. If the product produces a fast, clear signal that it's working, the consumer can orient around that feeling. They can relax into it. They know the experience has started, and they can let it unfold.

If onset is slow or absent, the opposite happens. The consumer stays in an anticipatory, uncertain state. They're monitoring themselves rather than enjoying themselves. That vigilance isn't neutral — it actively competes with the experience they were trying to have.

The data captures this dynamic at scale. Faster onset doesn't just correlate with consumers saying the effects were "better." It correlates with a fundamentally different quality of experience.

Finding 4: Faster Onset Does Not Increase Negative Effects

Here's where the data becomes particularly important — both for consumers who may have concerns about "feeling too much too fast" and for retailers evaluating which products to carry.

The study found no statistically significant relationship between onset speed and the probability of reporting a negative effect. None. The relationship was flat.

To be precise about what this means: in a dataset of 2,580 participants across 20 products over 22 days, there was no evidence that faster onset made negative experiences more likely. Faster onset was actually associated with a meaningful reduction in how intense negative effects were, when they did occur.

This matters because the intuitive assumption about faster onset is often the opposite. Consumers and operators sometimes worry that a product that hits quickly might hit too hard — that speed is a trade-off against control, that a faster onset might mean a less predictable or comfortable experience.

The data doesn't support that concern. In this cohort, faster onset meant more positive, more intense positive effects — and no corresponding increase in negative outcomes. The downside that operators often worry about didn't show up.

What did show up was a clear, consistent, statistically significant upside: better experiences, higher satisfaction, more purchase intent, stronger recommendation. All of it, without the trade-off.

What This Means When You're Choosing a Product

If you're a consumer trying to figure out which infused beverage is actually going to work for you, onset speed is one of the most useful things you can pay attention to — more useful than flavor variety, more useful than packaging, possibly more useful than dose alone.

A product that works quickly gives you something a slower-onset product can't: clarity. You know it's working. You can calibrate your experience in real time. You can settle in rather than wondering. And according to the study data, that clarity is strongly associated with reporting a positive experience, wanting to buy the product again, and recommending it to people you know.

FRESH PRESS and SHAKE are both formulated with onset speed as a design priority, not an afterthought. FRESH PRESS is a whole-plant pear cider built for the consumer who wants a clean, clear experience that arrives reliably. SHAKE is formulated with CBG alongside Delta-9 THC — a combination that supports a settled, functional effect profile. Both are built for the kind of evening wind-down experience where you actually want to feel the product doing what you opened it to do.

That's not marketing language. It's a formulation choice that, according to this data, has measurable downstream effects on experience quality, satisfaction, and the likelihood that you'll come back for another one.

A Note for Retailers

If you carry 23rd State — or you're evaluating whether to — here's what the onset data means for your shelf.

Purchase intent and recommendation likelihood are the two variables that drive both repeat foot traffic and new customer acquisition. The study found that onset speed is a statistically significant predictor of both. That means the product that delivers a fast, clear signal to your customer isn't just giving them a better experience in the moment — it's increasing the probability that they return to your store, and that they bring someone new with them.

Infused beverages are still a category where a meaningful percentage of consumers are on their second or third purchase, trying to find the product that actually works the way they want it to. Onset speed is one of the clearest ways to shorten that search. When your customer finds a product that works quickly and clearly, the data suggests they stop shopping around.

For SKU selection, this is a practical filter: products with faster, more reliable onset have a statistically significant advantage on the metrics that drive your turns. Not because of how they're marketed — because of how they're formulated.

FRESH PRESS and SHAKE were both part of this study cohort. Our results were directionally consistent with the findings described here. We're happy to talk through the data in more detail with any retail partner who wants to go deeper.

The Bigger Picture: Why Real-World Data Matters

One of the ongoing challenges in cannabis and hemp beverages is that the product experience is hard to communicate before the consumer has had it. You can describe flavor. You can describe dose. You can gesture at a feeling. But the actual experience — the onset, the quality of the effect, the arc from first sip to settled evening — is something the consumer has to discover for themselves.

Real-world study data changes that equation slightly. It doesn't replace the personal experience, but it gives consumers and retailers a framework for making better predictions. When a study of 2,580 participants finds that onset speed consistently predicts better experiences, more satisfaction, and stronger recommendation intent — without increasing negative outcomes — that's a meaningful signal. It's the category doing what every maturing industry eventually does: generating evidence.

23rd State participated in this study because we want to know what our products actually do for real people in real conditions. Not in a controlled setting with carefully selected participants. In living rooms and back porches and kitchen counters at 5:30 on a Wednesday. The data we got back is useful, and we think our customers and retail partners deserve to know what it says.

Onset speed matters. The data is clear. And we built our products with that in mind.

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How to Read These Numbers

All findings cited in this post come from Cohort 1 of the MoreBetter Real-World Infused Beverage Study (N=2,580; 20 beverages; 22-day study period). All statistical relationships cited were significant at p < .05. Cohort-wide averages reflect results across all 20 products in the study. 23rd State products — including FRESH PRESS and SHAKE — participated in the study, and individual product results were directionally consistent with cohort findings.

This is an observational study, not a clinical trial. Findings reflect self-reported participant data — association, not causation. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. 23rd State products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or medical condition. Products are intended for adults 21 and over.

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