BevCanna plans to produce and bottle cannabis-infused drinks at a property on Sidley Mountain Road in Bridesville, formerly called Miller Springs. (Vanessa Broadbent / Osoyoos Times)

By Dale Boyd

Osoyoos Times

Sipping on a cannabis-infused drink is becoming a reality in Canada next year, and THC-enhanced beverages are going to be grown and bottled only 30 kilometers outside of Osoyoos.

Vancouver-based BevCanna Enterprises Inc. signed a letter of intent this week with Clearwater CannGrow in a venture which will see BevCanna take on the marketing, bottling and branding of cannabis-infused beverages, while Clearwater will supervise the operation, with co-founder and agricultural consultant Joey Bedard-Brunet heading up the agricultural practices.

Emma Andrews, Chief Commercialization Officer with BevCanna, expects a definitive agreement with Clearwater Canngrow to be announced in the upcoming weeks.

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“BevCanna is a bottling expert, we’re not growing experts, so we had to go out and find the right partner to make this a reality,” she said.   

The total 128-hectare location on Sidley Mountain Road in Bridesville, formerly called Miller Springs, is now where Naturo Group bottles Trace Beverages — with BevCanna operating as a division of Naturo. The cannabis beverage company was started two years ago with the intent of producing infused beverages at the bottling site, and part of the land is recently licensed by Health Canada to cultivate cannabis. About 52 hectares will be used for growing.

“We’re building a new industry from scratch essentially, the legal cannabis economy. So we have B.C.-based businesses that are focused on all parts of the equation. The bottling is the finished product, but also the cultivation of the biomass of one of the ingredients, the prime ingredients in this product,” Andrews said.

BevCanna plans to produce and bottle cannabis-infused drinks at a property on Sidley Mountain Road in Bridesville, formerly called Miller Springs. (Vanessa Broadbent / Osoyoos Times)

Outdoor cannabis cultivation sites are new in terms of Health Canada license approvals. The summer of 2019 was the first to see outdoor growing approved and BevCanna in the deal with Clearwater will start growing their first outdoor crop in spring of 2020 — expecting one crop produced per year.

BevCanna is one of “very few” contenders in the emerging outdoor cultivation market, Andrews said.

“As of next summer we should be one of the early market leaders in outdoor cultivation for B.C., and still in Canada because it is quite fledgling.”

The cultivation and bottling are predicted to be a big source of economic stimulation to the region and “also a sense of pride” for the province, Andrews said. “To have a B.C.-based business that’s able to produce the full scope of cannabis-infused beverages from start to finish.”

In October, regulations take effect for cannabis-infused products including drinks, extracts, edible cannabis and vaporizing products.

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“The industry is kind of calling it cannabis legalization 2.0,” Andrews said.

The drink-based cannabis market is expected to open the door to a new kind of consumer.

“These products are more approachable, more akin to a functional beverage you might drink. The product format is a lot more accessible to a wider variety of people,” Andrews said. “Not everyone is going to light up a joint, not everyone is going to consume combustable cannabis, so beverages are a huge opportunity to grow the category and grow the cannabis industry.”

The THC potency for beverages is low for an “avid consumer,” Andrews said, with a 10 milligram THC limit on cannabis-infused beverages.

B.C. is becoming well known in the cannabis cultivation industry, making it prime land for growing cannabis leading to interest from distributors and larger corporate ventures in the valley.

“There is a strong reputation for the province in general for cultivation,” Andrews said. “The amount of wineries in that region just speaks to the fertility of the soil, the type of growing environment that makes it ideal for agricultural development.”