CBD Drinkables Are the Fastest Growing Segment of the CBD Market

The market for CBD products has been growing rapidly over the past few years. Many hemp-based products have had restrictions and laws removed to allow anyone to grow hemp. In America, that process started with the 2014 Farm Bill and was completed with the 2018 Farm Bill. These made it fully legal to produce CBD or hemp-based products, or purchase and consume them recreationally as long as the product contained less than 0.3% THC. Ever since the full legalization of CBD, it has become one of the fastest growing industries in the world. 

According to one market report, the market size for CBD products is expected to grow by $29.91 billion from 2020 to 2025. That represents a compound annual growth rate of nearly 27%. These figures are echoed by other market reports over the past year, which all forecast aggressive growth thanks to new companies being launched and expanding. Since the CBD industry is still so new, there are no massive corporations that have widely recognizable brands. There are tons of small start ups, which will eventually lead to acquisitions and a survival of the fittest before a few emerge as the industry leaders.

Another reason for the expansion of the CBD market is the increased awareness and demand for new kinds of CBD products. For the longest time, there were a few basic staples you could find at a dispensary or retail shop like Joy Organics, such as CBD oil and tinctures, capsules and vapes, and edibles. To this day, those products still make up a large part of the CBD marketplace for consumers. 

One kind of product that hasn’t seen the same growth in the past is CBD drinkables. This is partly because the process of infusing CBD into liquids can be difficult. While CBD can be infused into food through any kind of oil or fat, the natural oiliness of CBD makes it separate from most liquids when you try to mix them together. However, now that manufacturers have found an effective way to accomplish this, the market for CBD drinkables has begun to take off. 

According to research done by the Brightfield Group in early 2021, drinkables only made up around 5% of the CBD product marketplace. However, the same research forecasted drinkables to be the fastest growing segment of the CBD market. It forecast year-over-year growth of 71%. That is a compound annual growth rate of 51% by 2026, almost double that of the market as a whole. 

Due to its versatility, CBD can be mixed with daily staples like coffee, tea, juice, soda and vitamin water, but it can also be added to premium and recreational drinks like cocktails, beer, seltzers, and more. It has the added benefit of being more inconspicuous than other CBD products, especially vapes and CBD oil. 

It will be interesting to follow the growth of the CBD drinkables market over the next few years. As companies improve the quality of their products, the awareness of and demand for them will likely continue to increase.