via Drink Delta
Jack Sherrie never expected to be in the cannabis business, let alone pioneering one of the first THC beverages sold outside dispensaries. Growing up in a small town outside Charlotte, North Carolina, he pursued a computer science degree, checked the boxes of traditional career paths, and then promptly decided to throw it all away in pursuit of something bigger.
“If you were to ask my parents what I’d be doing for a living, I don’t think they would have picked this in a thousand years,” Jack, the founder of Drink Delta, laughs. “But when I found out in 2019 that the Hemp Farm Bill was passed, I was like, “You know what? I can get into the industry, and this is at its infancy. What other opportunity in my life am I going to be able to be a part of something as big as what I think the cannabis hemp industry is going to be?'”
From DIY Distillation to Beverage Disruption
Sherrie’s entry into the industry wasn’t through the typical dispensary route. He started small: buying a short-path distillation unit, refining crude CBD in a 2,000-square-foot facility, and quickly scaling up to processing 500 pounds of biomass a day. But he saw the writing on the wall: oversaturation.
“I started to notice there was too much product in the industry. Everybody and their mother was producing a ton of this stuff, and the prices were starting to collapse,” he says. “So I decided to make a pivot. I wanted to start a brand. I wanted to start one product. I wanted to go all in on it.”
That product? A 21+ cannabis-infused beverage called Drink Delta, engineered for maximizing your chill, with four-packs available for $16.99 on their website.
With his background in chemistry, Sherrie saw an opportunity to create a THC-infused drink that would act faster than gummies and offer a familiar, social alternative to smoking. “I understood that you could suspend oil in water. And I was like, ‘You know what? I think this is going to be really big because you can use a water-active transport system, and you can get this into your bloodstream super fast.’”
It was an idea that put him ahead of the curve. “We were the first people to launch a THC beverage outside of a marijuana dispensary.”
ORDER delta THC DRINKS HEre (starting at $16.99)
The Alcohol Alternative No One Saw Coming
What Sherrie didn’t expect was how much Drink Delta would appeal to people looking to cut back on alcohol.
“A lot of consumers are using this as an alcohol replacement. They’re not having bloating, they’re not having hangovers—all those different types of things,” he says. But something else surprised him: “People are saying that they’re losing a ton of weight with our products. We’re zero calories, zero sugar… I was just looking at someone’s comment, and they said they lost 25 pounds in months. And I was like, ‘I don’t… I really… I don’t know about you, but whenever I consume THC, I eat a ton.’”
via Drink Delta
He laughs, but acknowledges that cutting out alcohol could be a huge factor in unexpected weight loss. “If you’re putting back 1,500 calories in beer at night and suddenly you’re replacing it with basically a zero…” he trails off. “But hold on though, if you have a box of cookies with it, then, you know, do the math on that.”
Cracking the Code on Cannabis Flavor
Cannabis beverages have long had a reputation for tasting, well, off. But Drink Delta’s flavors stand out. The reason? They’re using a Japanese lab that spent 50 years perfecting fruit extraction methods.
“They had a group of 100 scientists working on this project for 50 years,” Sherrie says. “They’re trying to match the flavor profile of the fruit at its peak ripeness. That’s why, if you try the mango, it literally tastes like biting into a mango.”
Unlike most hard seltzers, which use ethanol-based flavors, Drink Delta’s are water-based, meaning they maintain a more natural taste. “Most flavors, like if you were to drink a White Claw or a Truly, they’re using ethanol-based flavors. We try to stay away from ethanol as best as we possibly can.”
His personal favorite? Blueberry Açaí. “I’m a huge health nut, and I actually love the taste of açaí. I try to substitute it for ice cream.”
A Cultural Shift From Taboo to Normalized
Just four years ago, Sherrie notes that walking around Charlotte with a backpack full of hemp-infused THC seltzers was a good conversation starter.
“I would purposely go around handing out THC drinks at different events, and everybody just thought it was the most wild thing in the entire world,” he recalls. “People were like, ‘How is this legal? What are you doing?’”
Now? “If you do that today, everyone’s just kinda like, ‘Oh yeah, cool.’ It’s a completely cultural, just huge change.”
The biggest surprise in customer demographics? “Most people consuming our products right now are between 35 and 65. If you’re younger, it’s cheaper to just go buy weed and smoke it. But if you’re older, you’re probably not smoking as much, and you’re more health-conscious.”
Gen Z and the Demise of Alcohol… Is Delta a Glimpse of the Future?
With Gen Z drinking far less than previous generations, Sherrie sees an inevitable future where cannabis drinks go mainstream.
“There was a study from one of the large alcohol companies that broke down revenue across generations. Most generations sit anywhere between 20 and 30 billion in alcohol revenue. In 2024, Gen Z was only 2.5 billion. It was a sharp change, like super dramatic.”
via Drink Delta
To win over the next generation, Drink Delta is focused on price point and fast onset times. “If we can get to a price that makes sense for Gen Z, and we can get the onset to, let’s say, five minutes… Why wouldn’t you just have a can in your hand instead of smoking?”
For Sherrie, it’s all about familiarity. “We’re already used to drinking things. You crack it open, you go. Cannabis is all about experience, about communicating with each other, about community. A drink just makes sense.”
With 45 employees, 58 distributors, and a rapidly growing footprint, Drink Delta is proving that the future of cannabis doesn’t have to be smoked.
It can be sipped, shared, and savored, laughing with friends, one refreshing can at a time.