What 954 People Told Us About What's Broken
The MoreBetter study showed that demand for THC beverages is nearly universal. So why did 48% of consumers walk away unconvinced? The open-text responses paint a clear picture — and the fixes aren't mysterious.
Last week, we wrote about one of the most striking findings from the MoreBetter Real-World Infused Beverage Study: 98.8% of Cohort 1 participants said they were seeking at least one wellness or symptom-relief outcome from their THC beverage. Stress relief. Better sleep. Pain management. Improved mood. The demand signal was almost universal.
That post told a hopeful story — one about a category with massive consumer alignment around wellness, and a positioning opportunity that most brands haven't fully seized yet.
This week, we need to talk about the other side of that story. Because demand alone doesn't build a business. Conversion does. And the conversion data from MoreBetter's Cohort 1 tells a much more complicated tale.
The Headline Number
Of the 1,975 Cohort 1 participants who completed the final survey after actually trying a THC beverage product, here's how purchase intent broke down:
51.7% said they would buy it — either already purchased or said they would definitely purchase. 35.4% were undecided. 12.9% said they would not purchase.
Let those numbers sit for a moment. Nearly half the sample — 48.3% — either said no or couldn't commit to a yes. These are people who were interested enough in THC beverages to join a study about them, who already showed up to the category with wellness motivations, and who actually tried a product. And after all of that, roughly one in two walked away without a clear intent to buy.
That's not a failure of demand. The demand was already proven. That's a failure of delivery.
Undecided Is Not the Same as Lost
Before we go further, it's worth drawing an important distinction. The 35.4% who said they were undecided are not the same as the 12.9% who said no. Undecided means the product almost worked. It means something about the experience was close enough to keep them from rejecting it outright, but not quite close enough to earn their money.
In traditional consumer research, the undecided segment is where the opportunity lives. These are people who need one or two things to change — a better flavor, a stronger effect, a lower price point, a different format — and they'd convert. They're not opposed to THC beverages. They're waiting for the right one.
Combined with the hard "no" group, that gives us 954 participants who tried a THC beverage and weren't sold. MoreBetter went through every open-text response these participants left across the exit survey — purchase intent follow-ups, alcohol replacement reasoning, negative effects commentary, and product reviews — and themed the responses.
Four patterns emerged. And for anyone making or selling THC beverages, these four patterns should be taped to the wall of every product development lab, every marketing meeting, and every investor pitch in the category.
Problem One: Dose to Effect — The Number One Actionable Complaint
The single most common reason participants gave for not committing to a purchase was that the product didn't produce a noticeable effect. And the specific complaint was remarkably consistent: 5mg wasn't enough.
Participants described drinking two, three, sometimes four cans trying to reach an effect that felt meaningful. For the undecided and "would not purchase" groups, this dose-to-effect gap was the primary reason the product failed them. Not taste. Not price. Not branding. The product simply didn't do what they were hoping it would do at the dose they were served.
Think about what that means in practical terms. A consumer who heard about THC beverages, was motivated enough to try one, and showed up looking for stress relief or better sleep — that consumer drank three or four cans and felt little to nothing. What happens next? They don't blame themselves for being a non-responder. They don't research cannabinoid pharmacology. They conclude that THC beverages don't work and move on.
That's a category-level problem, not just a brand-level one. Every consumer who bounces off a 5mg product and decides the whole category isn't for them is a consumer that every other THC beverage brand now has to win back from a position of skepticism instead of curiosity.
The participant quotes on this point are blunt. People described wanting to replace alcohol but finding that the math didn't work — to reach the level of effect they were looking for, they'd need to consume three or four cans, which introduced its own set of problems around volume, sugar, cost, and the simple inconvenience of drinking that much liquid in a sitting.
This is the finding that should concern every operator in the space who has built their product line around the 5mg standard. The market chose 5mg for understandable reasons — regulatory caution, fear of overconsumption, a desire to make the product approachable. But the data is saying clearly that for a significant portion of consumers, 5mg doesn't clear the bar. And if it doesn't clear the bar, all the branding and flavor innovation in the world won't matter.
Problem Two: Taste — The Entry Gate
Taste was the most frequently mentioned topic overall across the open-text responses, but the feedback was more nuanced than a simple thumbs up or thumbs down. Some participants gave taste comments that were decisive and final — products they found genuinely unpleasant and would never try again. Others gave qualified feedback, expressing that they wanted to like the product but found specific flavor elements off-putting.
The most common taste complaints centered on a few recurring themes: cannabis flavor that was too prominent, artificial or medicinal notes, poor balance between sweetness and bitterness, and aftertastes that lingered in ways that felt unfinished or unpleasant.
Here's why taste matters in a way that's different from the dose problem. Taste is the entry gate. It's the first thing a consumer evaluates, and it determines whether they even get far enough to assess the effect. A product with a perfect cannabinoid profile and an ideal dose means nothing if the consumer takes one sip and puts it down.
But taste is also, in many ways, the most solvable problem on this list. Beverage formulation is a mature science. The craft beer industry, the cocktail mixer industry, the functional beverage industry — all of these categories have spent decades solving the problem of making complex, sometimes challenging ingredients taste great. Cannabis beverage brands have access to all of that expertise. The question is whether they're investing in it at the level the consumer expects.
At 23rd State, this is something we've thought about from day one. Leah spent two years in R&D before we ever brought a product to market, and a significant portion of that time was spent on flavor development. FRESH PRESS was designed to taste like what it is — a THC and CBG-infused pear cider — not like a cannabis product masquerading as a beverage. SHAKE was built around the experience of edible glitter drops that enhance a drink you already enjoy rather than asking you to acquire a new taste. And BLUSH CRUSH was formulated to deliver a sparkling wine experience that stands on its own as a beverage, not just as a delivery mechanism for cannabinoids.
We didn't make those choices because we anticipated this specific data. We made them because we believed that if you want someone to replace their evening glass of wine or their end-of-day beer, the replacement has to be genuinely enjoyable to drink. This data confirms that belief at scale.
Problem Three: Format — The Volume Problem
The third pattern in the open-text responses is one that doesn't get enough attention in cannabis beverage conversations: format. Specifically, participants raised concerns about sugar content, excessive carbonation, and a fundamental mismatch between serving size and dose.
This complaint is closely linked to the dose-to-effect problem but operates on a different axis. Even if a consumer is willing to accept that they need three cans to feel an effect, the physical experience of drinking three cans of a carbonated, sweetened beverage is its own barrier. Participants described feeling bloated, overly full, or put off by the sheer sugar load required to reach an effective dose. One participant noted that a product was packed with sugar but barely tasted sweet — the worst of both worlds.
The format problem reveals a tension at the heart of current THC beverage design. Most products on the market are built around a single-serve can format borrowed from the craft beer and seltzer categories. That format works beautifully for a product that delivers its intended effect in one serving. It works poorly for a product that requires two to four servings to do anything meaningful.
This is where alternative formats have a genuine advantage. A concentrated product like SHAKE — where you're adding drops to an existing drink rather than consuming an entire additional beverage — sidesteps the volume problem entirely. You control the dose without being forced to consume a corresponding volume of liquid. A higher-dose product in a smaller format, like a 750mL bottle of Blush Crush designed to be poured and sipped rather than chugged from a can, offers a different solution to the same problem.
The takeaway for the category is that the standard 12-ounce, 5mg, single-serve can may be a format that the industry chose for itself rather than one the consumer actually wants. And the data suggests the consumer is pushing back.
Problem Four: Price — Rare but Decisive
Price was the least frequently mentioned complaint in the open-text responses, but when it did come up, it was definitive. Participants who raised price concerns weren't quibbling about a dollar or two. They were doing direct cost-per-effect math against alcohol and concluding that THC beverages lose that comparison badly.
The logic is straightforward. If a consumer needs three or four 5mg cans to reach an effect comparable to a couple of glasses of wine, and each can costs three to five dollars, the per-session cost of a THC beverage exceeds alcohol by a wide margin. For a product category that frequently positions itself as an alcohol alternative, that price gap is a problem.
But here's the important nuance: price is downstream of the other three problems. If the dose is right — if one serving delivers a meaningful effect — then the cost-per-effect math changes dramatically. If the taste is good enough that the experience feels premium, consumers are more willing to pay a premium price. If the format is efficient, consumers aren't paying for sugar water and carbonation just to reach their dose.
Price, in other words, is not an independent variable. It's a symptom. Solve dose, taste, and format, and the price objection largely resolves itself.
What This Data Means for 23rd State
We're sharing this data for the same reason we shared last week's wellness motivation findings — because we believe transparency and evidence make the whole category stronger. But we'd be dishonest if we didn't acknowledge that this data also validates specific choices we've made as a brand.
When we formulated FRESH PRESS at 10mg THC plus 10mg CBG per serving, we were deliberately positioning above the 5mg standard because we believed — based on customer feedback and our own R&D — that 5mg wasn't enough for most adults seeking a genuine effect. This data confirms that belief across 954 independent consumers.
When we developed SHAKE as a concentrated drop format rather than another canned beverage, we were responding to the format problem before we had data to name it. Consumers who don't want to drink three cans of seltzer to feel something can add SHAKE to whatever they're already drinking and control their own dose. At 30mg THC and 90mg CBG per bottle, the math works differently.
When we spent two years in R&D before launching, with a significant focus on flavor development, we were investing in the entry gate. Because we knew that if the first sip isn't good, nothing else matters.
None of this is to say we've solved every problem. We haven't. There are consumers who will find our products too strong or not strong enough, too sweet or not sweet enough, too expensive or not. Every brand has gaps, and we're participating in the MoreBetter study as a Cohort 2 brand precisely because we want to know where ours are.
But the macro pattern in this data is clear, and it aligns with decisions we made before the data existed: dose matters more than anything, taste is the non-negotiable entry point, format should serve the consumer rather than the category convention, and price takes care of itself when the other three are solved.
The Opportunity in the Gap
Here's the optimistic read on this data, and it's the one we think is most accurate: the 48% who didn't convert aren't telling us that THC beverages are a bad idea. They're telling us that the specific products they tried didn't meet their expectations. The demand is still there — 98.8% of the full cohort showed up with wellness motivations. The intent is still there. What's missing is execution.
For the brands willing to listen to this feedback and act on it — reformulate doses, invest in flavor, rethink format assumptions, and let the pricing follow the value — the reward is a massive pool of interested consumers who have already self-selected into the category and are waiting for a product that actually works for them.
That's not a crisis. That's a blueprint.
Recommended
- Why People Really Drink THC Beverages
- How People Actually Use Infused Beverages Data Study
- Why How Fast You Feel It Changes Everything
- Here's What the Sleep Data from the Study Showed.
- What Happens to Your Smoking Habit When You Switch to a Cannabis Beverage?
- THC Beverages, Onset Time, Duration & No Hangover Data
- What Infused Beverage Shoppers Tell Us About Purchases
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 total participants; n=1,975 completed final survey). 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.
