New data from the MoreBetter Real-World Infused Beverage Study reveals that wellness — not partying — drives nearly every THC beverage purchase.
If you've been paying attention to the THC beverage space, you've probably noticed the marketing. Neon cans. Party vibes. "The new social drink." And look, we get it. Cannabis beverages are fun. They belong at cookouts and happy hours and Friday nights with friends.
But what if that entire narrative is missing the point?
We recently participated in the MoreBetter Real-World Infused Beverage Study as part of Cohort 2, and the data coming out of this research is reshaping how we think about our own products at 23rd State — and how the entire THC beverage category should be talking to consumers.
Last week, MoreBetter released a key finding from their Cohort 1 dataset: 48.3% of THC beverage consumption happens at the end of the day to wind down and relax. Just 5% happens at social occasions — bars, restaurants, and social events combined.
That alone is a striking number. But the follow-up question is even more revealing.
The Question That Changes Everything
MoreBetter asked 2,504 independently recruited study participants a simple question: What effects are you seeking when drinking THC beverages? Participants could select up to five motivations from a list.
The results were not ambiguous.
Stress relief — 81.8% Improved mood — 71.3% Better sleep — 66.2% Pain relief — 50.8% Enhanced creativity — 32.4% Improved focus — 30.2% More social — 30.1% Feeling high — 24.4% More aroused — 13.9%
Read that list again. The top four motivations — stress relief, improved mood, better sleep, and pain relief — are all wellness-driven. They aren't about getting the party started. They're about getting through the day, managing discomfort, and finding a moment of calm before bed.
"More social" and "feeling high" — the two motivations that most THC beverage marketing leans into — landed in the bottom half of the list.
The Number That Stopped Us in Our Tracks
Here's where it gets really interesting. When MoreBetter looked at how these motivations cluster together, two statistics emerged that deserve serious attention from anyone making, selling, or marketing THC beverages.
First: 98.8% of participants selected at least one wellness or symptom-relief motivation. That's not a majority. That's not a trend. That is nearly universal across a sample of over 2,500 people.
Second: 32.6% of participants selected only wellness motivations. No "more social." No "feeling high." Nothing recreational whatsoever. About one in every three people came to THC beverages for purely functional reasons — stress, sleep, pain, mood.
The remaining 66.2% selected both wellness and social motivations, meaning they want the relaxation and the good time. But even in that group, the wellness motivation is present. It's the constant. The through-line. The thing that connects nearly every single consumer in the dataset.
Let that sink in. Ninety-nine out of every hundred participants reported a wellness motivation. Whether they also wanted to feel social or creative or high, the desire for relief was there underneath it all.
What This Means for the THC Beverage Category
We've spent a lot of time at 23rd State thinking about why people reach for our products. We've heard from customers directly — through emails, through conversations at events, through the kind of candid feedback you get when someone tells you your product helped them sleep for the first time in months or finally unwind after a brutal week.
But anecdotal feedback is one thing. Independent, structured data from 2,504 consumers is something else entirely.
This data validates something we've felt intuitively since we launched: the THC beverage consumer is not primarily a party consumer. They're a wellness consumer. They're someone looking for a better option than the glass of wine before bed, the over-the-counter sleep aid, the extra ibuprofen for the ache that won't quit.
And they're choosing THC beverages not because they want to get high — only 24.4% even listed that as a motivation — but because they want to feel better. Less stressed. More at ease. Ready for sleep. Free from pain.
That distinction matters enormously for how this category grows.
The Positioning Opportunity
Right now, a huge percentage of THC beverage marketing is aimed at the 5% use case — social occasions. The flashy launch party. The bar partnership. The "swap your cocktail" pitch.
There's nothing wrong with that positioning. Social use is real, and it's growing. But when the data says that 48.3% of consumption is happening at home at the end of the day, and 81.8% of consumers are seeking stress relief, you have to ask yourself: are we talking to our actual customer, or are we talking to the customer we imagined?
The opportunity here isn't to abandon social positioning. It's to recognize that wellness positioning is where the overwhelming demand actually lives. And for brands willing to lean into that, the whitespace is enormous.
Think about what this means practically. If you're a retailer deciding where to shelve THC beverages, this data says they belong near the functional beverages and the sleep aids as much as they belong near the craft beer. If you're a brand building your next campaign, this data says "unwind" might outperform "turn up" by a factor of ten. If you're a consumer trying to understand why you keep reaching for that can of FRESH PRESS after work instead of a beer, this data says you're not alone — you're the majority.
Why We Joined This Study
At 23rd State, we participated in the MoreBetter study as part of Cohort 2 because we believe the cannabis beverage industry needs more data and less guesswork. Too many brands — including, honestly, sometimes us — have been making positioning decisions based on assumptions rather than evidence.
When Leah founded 23rd State in 2023, the vision was always rooted in wellness. Our products were developed with intention — specific cannabinoid profiles designed for specific experiences. FRESH PRESS, for example, was formulated around a combination of THC and CBG that our customers consistently describe as calm, clear, and functional. That's not an accident. That's the product doing what it was designed to do.
But until now, we didn't have independent, large-scale consumer data to validate that approach. We had our own customer feedback, our own sales patterns, our own gut instincts. What we didn't have was a dataset of 2,504 independently recruited consumers telling us, without any brand influence, what they actually want from THC beverages.
Now we do. And the answer is wellness. Overwhelmingly, consistently, almost universally: wellness.
What This Doesn't Mean
Let's be clear about what we're not saying, because this is important.
We're not making health claims. We can't and we wouldn't. THC beverages are not medicine, and this study is an observational consumer research study — not a clinical trial. Individual results vary, and nothing in this data should be interpreted as a promise about what any specific product will do for any specific person.
What this data does is illuminate motivation. It tells us why people are choosing THC beverages. It doesn't tell us whether those beverages are delivering on those motivations in a clinically measurable way — that's a different kind of study entirely.
But motivation matters. Understanding why your consumer picks up your product is the foundation of everything: product development, marketing, retail strategy, pricing, brand voice. And this data gives the entire category a clearer picture of that motivation than anything we've seen before.
The Wind-Down Economy Is Real
There's a bigger story here that extends beyond THC beverages. Across consumer packaged goods, we're seeing a massive shift toward what you might call the wind-down economy. Functional mushroom drinks. Magnesium supplements rebranded as "calm in a can." Adaptogenic teas. CBD everything. Melatonin gummies that taste like candy.
Consumers are spending real money on products that promise to take the edge off, and they're doing it every single night. Not at parties. Not at bars. At home. On the couch. Before bed.
THC beverages sit right in the middle of that trend, and this data from MoreBetter proves it. The 81.8% seeking stress relief and the 66.2% seeking better sleep aren't outliers — they're the core market. They're the people driving the growth of this entire category, and they're making their purchase decisions based on function, not flash.
For 23rd State, this is a confirmation of the path we've been on. Our products were built for this consumer. FRESH PRESS, SHAKE, Blush Crush — these aren't party drinks pretending to be wellness products. They're wellness products that also happen to be enjoyable enough to bring to a party.
What Comes Next
As a Cohort 2 participant in the MoreBetter study, we'll have access to data specific to our own products in the coming months. We're looking forward to sharing what we learn — how our specific formulations perform against consumer expectations, what use patterns look like for our SKUs specifically, and how our customers' experiences compare to the broader dataset.
In the meantime, we think every brand, retailer, and operator in the THC beverage space should be paying attention to these Cohort 1 findings. The data is clear, the sample size is substantial, and the implications are significant.
The consumer has told us what they want. Stress relief. Better mood. Better sleep. Pain relief. The brands that listen — and position accordingly — are the ones that will lead this category forward.
We intend to be one of them.
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23rd State is a Minnesota-based cannabis beverage brand and a Cohort 2 participant in the MoreBetter Real-World Infused Beverage Study. Data cited in this post is from the Cohort 1 dataset (n=2,504). This is an observational study, not a clinical trial. Individual results may vary. 23rd State products contain THC and are intended for adults 21 and older. These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
