Blending the worlds of alcohol and cannabis has been attempted before, but has never been successfully done due to federal and regulatory complications. One brand, however, has found a way to weave the two markets together into one great tasting and legal product.
IV20 is not just another vodka brand. Made with a unique blend of botanical terpenes, the spirit tastes and smells like cannabis, but is 100% vodka. Adding to this liquor’s uniqueness is its bottle design, which is shaped exactly the way it smells: like a blunt.
“My business partner had come up with the bottle design, and while the bottle itself looks like a joint, we wanted the end of the bottle to be a translucent painted glass to be able to catch light from different angles to make it look like it’s lit up,” says co-founder and CEO Steven Mitts.
The Spirit of 4/20
A lot of preparation and market research went into making IV20 the vodka it is today. After four tedious years of finding the right terpene blend, creating a decent vodka, finding the right manufacturer to make the bottle design they wanted and building up a customer base, the brand finally made its debut on April 20, 2024.
“We were founded and launched on 4/20, our name means 4/20 and we’re trying to bridge the worlds of cannabis and spirits and bring something to the market that resonates with both of them,” notes Mitts. “We were able to launch earlier, but we pushed hard to make it 4/20.”
Currently, IV20 is available in Florida. According to Mitts, they are in the works of opening up to California markets next month, and the brand will continue to expand its reach from there.
Getting the Flavor and Aroma Just Right
It wasn’t all clear skies and smooth sailing in curating IV20. Mitts notes that he and his business partner encountered plenty of obstacles before the final product debut.
“The total amount of research and development was almost four years,” he says. “The best way to break it up is two years were spent creating the bottle and two years were spent on the liquid. And of course, all of this being done during Covid was challenging.”
According to Mitts, one year was mostly spent designing the bottle, sketching it out and figuring out who would be able to produce it. Between its unique design and the different kinds of glass they needed to make it, on top of the glass shortages during Covid, it was a busy year.
Then came figuring out the right blend of terpenes for the vodka, which was a whole other time consuming process.
“I tried probably thousands of different combinations with different terpenes over the course of two years,” says Mitts. “Between sourcing the terpenes and mixing them up in different batches in different amounts to try and get exactly what we wanted, it was a lot. Our end goal was to model the taste after a specific aroma that would resonate the most with our target audience.”
Combining elements such as alcohol and cannabis is extremely tricky, not to mention the federal regulations and overlook that come along with attempting to mix the two together for public consumption. Trying to get the flavor and aroma just right, while also keeping out the cannabis, was extremely time consuming for Mitts and his partner.
“The main hurdles we had to overcome were from a technical standpoint more so than a regulatory standpoint. We had to make sure we were following all of the rules, procedures and everything that comes with product development,” Mitts says. “We also had to get a ton of approvals and paperwork filed — it was certainly a lot of work, but we learned a lot going through that process.”
IV20 Brings Liquid to Lips
All of the hard work it took to bring IV20 to the market certainly paid off. Mitts and his partner did a soft launch at MJBizCon in late 2023, offering samples of the product to introduce it to both customers and potential collaborators.
“Before our official launch, we wanted to learn more about our target market and get real feedback,” mentions Mitts. “So we flew out to our distillery in Florida, handmade 200-to-300 bottles, rented a truck and drove all the way to Las Vegas just to make sure we had samples to give to our first customers.”
The feedback they received from the event was incredible. According to Mitts, him and his business partner handed out about 900 samples at MJBizCon, with over 90% of people saying they enjoyed the product.
“You could see the reaction in their eyes once they tried a taste, and the same question we got every time is, ‘How did you do that?’ We received really positive feedback and were completely blown away by it. At that point, we decided this is an idea we can officially move forward with,” says Mitts.
Due to the positive feedback, IV20 will continue its liquid to lips marketing to increase brand awareness.
“We take advantage of a lot of opportunities to get in front of people and offer tastings,” Mitts notes. “We do micro to mid-sized events, which Florida has a lot of. And now being open to the California market, which has a pretty heavy cannabis industry, there are events almost every weekend that we can attend.”
