MoreBetter Study and 23rd State's Commitment to Evidence-Based THC Beverages
When a national financial publication like Yahoo Finance picks up a story about cannabis beverage research, it signals something the industry has been working toward for years: this category is no longer a niche experiment. It is a serious consumer market, attracting serious data, deserving of the same evidence-based scrutiny applied to any other functional beverage segment.
That is exactly the moment we found ourselves in when Yahoo Finance distributed MoreBetter's announcement of the expanded national study on THC and functional beverages as healthier alternatives to alcohol. The article featured 23rd State founder Leah Kollross alongside executives from other leading brands in the category, all committing to the same standard: independent, real-world evidence on performance, safety, and consumer experience.
Read the Coverage
- The Yahoo Finance article: MoreBetter Expands the Largest National Study of THC and Functional Beverages as Healthier Alternatives to Alcohol
For everyone at 23rd State, the recognition is meaningful on multiple levels. It validates the years of work we have put into building a brand on data rather than marketing claims. It confirms that the financial press is paying attention to the THC beverage category as a legitimate growth segment. And it amplifies an argument we believe is essential to this industry's long-term durability: that consumer trust in cannabis beverages will be earned through evidence, not assertions.
Thank you to Yahoo Finance for the platform, and to MoreBetter for building the study that made this conversation possible.
Why Yahoo Finance Coverage Matters for the THC Beverage Category
Yahoo Finance reaches an audience that the cannabis beverage category urgently needs to engage: institutional investors, retail buyers, financial analysts, beverage industry executives, and the broader business community. These are the audiences that will shape how this category gets capitalized, how it gets distributed, and how it gets regulated over the next decade.
For most of cannabis beverages' short history, coverage has been concentrated in cannabis trade publications and lifestyle media. Both are essential. Neither alone is sufficient to mainstream the category. When a publication with the reach and credibility of Yahoo Finance carries a story about real-world data on THC and CBD beverages reducing alcohol consumption, it places the conversation in front of decision-makers who would otherwise be relying on outdated assumptions about who buys these products and why.
The study being covered is not a marketing exercise. It is one of the largest real-world data investigations ever conducted on infused beverages, and the headline findings from its first cohort have already begun reshaping how operators, regulators, and retailers think about this category.
What the MoreBetter Study Has Shown So Far
The MoreBetter Real-World Infused Beverage Study is a longitudinal research project designed to capture how consumers actually use functional and cannabis-infused beverages in everyday life. Participants self-report daily on alcohol use, infused beverage consumption, mood, and sleep — generating a dataset that allows for product-level and population-level analysis at a scale this category has never had access to before.
Cohort 1, completed in 2025, enrolled more than 3,000 participants across the United States. The findings were significant enough on their own to justify the expansion announced in the Yahoo Finance article:
A substantial share of participants — roughly four in ten — reported that the study marked their first experience with a THC- or CBD-infused beverage, underscoring how rapidly the category is reaching new consumers.
Roughly seven in ten participants agreed they drank less alcohol while using infused beverages during the study period.
Nearly nine in ten participants reported that infused beverages felt safer or much safer than alcohol for their personal health.
The probability of daily alcohol use dropped meaningfully between the baseline period and the product-use phase of the study — a measurable, statistically significant shift in consumer behavior over a relatively short window.
These are not marketing-friendly soundbites. They are real-world outcomes captured under research-grade conditions. For a category that has spent years arguing it represents a meaningful alcohol alternative, this is the first dataset large enough to test that argument with rigor.
What Cohort 2 Will Add — And Why 23rd State Stayed In
The Yahoo Finance article announces the launch of the study's second cohort, which expands the research substantially. Ten additional beverage brands have joined. More than fifteen new product SKUs are now part of the dataset. Over two thousand new participants have been added, deepening the statistical foundation across new beverage formats, varying cannabinoid formulations, and a wider range of demographic profiles.
For 23rd State, staying in for Cohort 2 was never a question. We enrolled because we believe the cannabis beverage category cannot mature without operators willing to subject their products to independent scrutiny. That conviction does not change once the first round of data comes in. It deepens.
In the article, Leah was quoted on what 23rd State's continued participation represents — a commitment to providing data-driven insights on performance, safety, and consumer experience. That is the standard we want every operator in this category to be measured against, including ourselves.
What MoreBetter's leadership emphasized in the announcement aligns directly with how we think about this work. Cohort 2 is not a repeat of Cohort 1. It is an expansion from proof-of-concept into population-level insight, designed to surface the product differences, dosing patterns, and demographic nuances that determine which formulations actually deliver consistent experiences across diverse consumers.
That is exactly the kind of rigor the category needs more of, and exactly the kind of work that benefits from financial-press visibility.
Why Real-World Evidence Is the Foundation of a Durable Industry
The cannabis beverage category is approaching a series of consequential inflection points. Federal reclassification timelines are accelerating. State-level rulemaking on hemp-derived THC is becoming more sophisticated and more contentious. Retailers are making shelf decisions every week that will shape which brands have distribution six months from now. Investors are deciding which segments of the broader cannabis market deserve capital.
Every one of those decisions benefits from evidence. And every one of them suffers when evidence is absent.
That is why studies like MoreBetter's matter, and why financial-press coverage of those studies matters even more. When Yahoo Finance distributes a story about real-world data on THC beverages, regulators reading their morning news see it. When retail buyers see Cohort 1 results documenting reduced alcohol consumption among study participants, those data points enter the calculus on shelf allocation. When investors evaluating the category encounter the kind of population-level insight that Cohort 2 will produce, they have a basis for differentiating between operators that have invested in product validation and those that have relied on marketing alone.
This is how categories mature. Not through louder claims. Through better data, distributed to wider audiences.
What This Recognition Means for 23rd State
23rd State was founded in 2023, the year Minnesota became the 23rd state to legalize adult-use cannabis. From day one, our product development philosophy was anchored in a single conviction: cannabis beverages should be designed for predictable onset, sessionable duration, and consistent experience at scale — and we should be willing to prove it.
That conviction shaped our portfolio. SHAKE infused edible glitter drops were engineered for fast-acting microdosing in any beverage format. FRESH PRESS pear cider was formulated with a balanced 10mg THC and 10mg CBG profile for clarity and euphoria together. BLUSH CRUSH Infused Bubbly translated that same precision into a sparkling wine-format experience designed for celebrations and elevated occasions.
Every one of those products was built to be measured. Enrolling them in the MoreBetter study was the natural next step. Seeing that work amplified by Yahoo Finance — placing 23rd State alongside other category leaders genuinely committed to real-world evidence — is exactly the kind of validation that makes the investment in independent research worth it.
A Thank You and a Forward Look
To Yahoo Finance: thank you for surfacing this story to a national business audience. Coverage of cannabis beverages in financial press continues to be a meaningful signal that this category is being taken seriously at the level it deserves.
To MoreBetter: thank you for building the infrastructure that makes evidence-based conversations about THC beverages possible at all. Cohort 1 reshaped the conversation. Cohort 2 will deepen it.
To the other brands featured alongside 23rd State in the announcement: the cannabis beverage category gets stronger every time another operator chooses transparency over assertion. The willingness to be measured is what separates the brands that will define this category long-term from the ones that will not.
For 23rd State, the work continues. We will keep contributing to longitudinal research. We will keep publishing real-world performance data through MoreBetter as new cohorts complete. And we will keep advocating — through our work with the National Cannabis Industry Association, through our broader policy engagement, and through every product we put on a shelf — for an industry that earns its consumer trust through evidence.
Recognition from publications like Yahoo Finance is not the destination. It is a marker on a longer path toward an evidence-based cannabis beverage category. We are grateful to be part of that path, and grateful for every audience that helps the case for real-world data reach further than any one brand could carry it alone.
About 23rd State
23rd State is a woman-owned, Minnesota-based cannabis beverage brand founded in 2023 — the year Minnesota became the 23rd state to legalize adult-use cannabis. The portfolio includes SHAKE infused edible glitter drops in Emerald, Cosmo, and 24k Gold; FRESH PRESS THC + CBG pear cider; and BLUSH CRUSH Infused Bubbly in cans and 750mL bottles. 23rd State products are formulated for predictable onset, sessionable duration, and real-world performance — and have been independently validated through the MoreBetter Real-World Infused Beverage Study across multiple cohorts. Learn more at 23state.com.
About the MoreBetter Study
The MoreBetter Real-World Infused Beverage Study is one of the largest longitudinal real-world data investigations ever conducted on functional and cannabis-infused beverages. Participants self-report on alcohol use, infused beverage consumption, mood, and sleep, generating product-level and population-level insights for the industry. Learn more at morebetter.ltd.
You can read the full Yahoo Finance article here.
23rd State is a Minnesota-based cannabis beverage brand. Our products contain THC and are intended for adults 21 and older. Please consume responsibly.
