Imagine a typical bar crawl—St. Patrick’s Day, a friend’s birthday, a bachelor or bachelorette party.
There’s a good chance someone has a little too much to drink and finds themselves slumped over a bar, or worse, a toilet.
Now, imagine a different kind of bar crawl. One in which you still get to try cocktails or fizzy refreshments at every stop, but you don’t feel sluggish or out of control. Instead, you feel kind of light, relaxed. At worst, you might feel a little sleepy.
That’s the kind of event Little Brother Brewing’s Josh Coe envisioned after their brewer, Mike Foderaro, jokingly came up with the idea for a “cannabis crawl.”
“He was halfway joking about doing an all-THC crawl and making it where there would be no ‘bars’ involved, kind of thing,” Coe said.
A few conversations later and soon a handful of downtown businesses, including Little Brother Brewing, will host the city’s first-ever Cannabis Crawl on Saturday—one day ahead of 4/20, the unofficial holiday for marijuana lovers.
The appeal of THC-based drinks and liquors has been growing in the last five years, Coe said. That’s why in late 2023, Little Brother launched its own THC liquor, Delta Spirits, which will be used at participating locations this weekend.
It’s part of a new trend, he said.
“Probably half the market is switching to seltzer or liquor or THC,” Coe said.
A Joint Effort
Take a sip of Little Brother’s Delta Spirits and you’ll find that it tastes…well, not like much. The milky liquid goes down smooth and finishes with a hint of an herby aftertaste, but that’s about it. And that’s the point.
“It’s very neutral,” said Coe, one of four co-owners at Little Brother Brewing, which opened its first location in downtown Greensboro in late 2017. “You basically can replace any white liquor. And once you add a little bit of sugar, you basically taste nothing.”
Since December 2023, the local beer company, which now has locations in Kernersville and Graham, has been brewing up a nonalcoholic THC “liquor” for those looking for an alternative to traditional drinking options.
The idea started in 2020, said Coe, who joined the company that year. Having formerly owned Beer Co., a downtown bottle shop just across the street from Little Brother, Coe said he had seen the craft beer boom firsthand in the mid-2010’s. But by the time the pandemic hit a few years ago, he and others in the industry noticed the appetite for alcohol had started to shift.
“People were looking for healthier lifestyles, getting away from high carbs and that kind of stuff,” Coe said.
According to the Brewers Association, an industry nonprofit, more breweries closed last year than opened.
With what Coe calls an “oversaturation” of breweries across the country, many are expanding their offerings to keep up with consumer tastes.
In Winston-Salem, Foothills Brewing has started canning its own THC seltzers, known as Little Trees. The Bodega, in downtown Greensboro, started selling THC-infused Bo Sodas last year.
Two years ago, Little Brother jumped on the bandwagon. To Coe’s knowledge, Delta Spirits is the only THC liquor produced in the state. While there are other popular THC spirits like Nowadays out of Los Angeles, and Levity out of Charleston, SC, Delta Spirits is different because of its lack of strong flavor.
In addition to making Delta Spirits, Little Brother also cans THC seltzers using Delta Spirits in flavors like blueberry lemonade and cherry limeade. They currently sell in multiple locations in the Triad and ship nationwide.
During this weekend’s Cannabis Crawl, participants will get to try Delta Spirits or the canned seltzers at local spots like Lawn Service in LeBauer Park, Natty Greene’s, Chandler’s, and Grey’s Tavern. It’s part of a new collaborative effort by businesses in downtown’s Hamburger Square, or just “The Downtown Square,” as the owners like to call it.
Shifting Tastes
Back in 2004, when Natty Greene’s first opened on the corner of South Elm and McGee Streets, downtown Greensboro was still kind of sleepy. There weren’t as many restaurants and foot traffic was relatively rare. More than 20 years later, it’s a different scene.
“As someone who grew up in Greensboro, downtown has changed immensely,” said Beverly Bowen, social media and marketing manager for Natty Greene’s. “It’s great seeing how many local businesses can thrive downtown.”
“There were lots of moms, dads, soccer coach kind of vibe coming in and whispering, ‘Do you have those weed drinks?’”
Alexis Chandler, owner of Chandler’s
Natty Greene’s spurred much of downtown’s revitalization, which coincided with the craft beer trend. As tastes have evolved, the company is working to keep up with demand by participating in things like the Cannabis Crawl.
“People love it,” Bowen said. “They like having an option that isn’t necessarily alcoholic.”
The rise of CBD and THC-based food and drinks began after the state passed its 2018 Farm Bill, which legalized industrial hemp—a part of the cannabis plant—for product use so long as the THC content is below 0.3%. THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, is the primary psychoactive compound found in the cannabis plant. Popular legal offerings on the market these days run the gamut of using CBD, CBN, Delta-8, and Delta-9. All come from the cannabis plant and have varying levels of psychoactive qualities.
While Natty Greene’s doesn’t produce THC or CBD products, it does carry Little Trees seltzers from Foothills and Delta Spirits from Little Brother. The business sees it as complementing its well-known offerings.
In addition to making THC cocktails for the crawl, Natty’s will also offer “cannabis-themed” food or “fun munchies,” as Bowen called it. It will also have live music in its new beer garden and a featured THC drink.
A few doors down at Chandler’s, owner Alexis Chandler said the offerings will be more of a “pick me up.” Building on its coffeehouse brand, it will serve THC-infused espresso “martinis,” matcha mocktails, and an alcohol-free carajillo, a Spanish, coffee-based cocktail.
While it’s the shop’s first time participating in a cannabis crawl, THC and CBD options aren’t new for Chandler’s, which opened last July.
“Since we opened, we’ve been doing these dosing drops of Delta-9 in our coffee,” Chandler said.
Chandler said the alternative options sold better than alcohol when it first opened.
“I was kind of mind blown from it,” she said.
As someone who came up running bars, Chandler said seeing the shift has been remarkable.
“It’s pretty fascinating,” she said. “It’s something people can have at all times during the day, not just in the afternoon or evening.”
She and Coe also pointed to the slew of recent medical studies on the negative effects of alcohol.
“I think a lot of people are transitioning over,” Chandler said.
Chandler said she’s been surprised at the interest she’s seen from middle-aged or older people who aren’t sure about the legality of the drinks but are curious nonetheless.
“There were lots of moms, dads, soccer coach kind of vibe coming in and whispering, ‘Do you have those weed drinks?’” Chandler said.
When Little Brother started offering the Delta Spirits products, Coe said he noticed an almost immediate shift within the brewery.
These days he said the THC products make up about 20 percent of their business.
“I expected it to be popular,” Coe said. “But not this popular.”
For those yet to try the trend, he encouraged them to show up to Saturday’s cannabis crawl.
“It’s for everyone,” Coe said. “People wanting to support downtown, people who want to try something new, people who like marijuana … We just want to give an alternative to people who don’t want to drink alcohol anymore.”
Sayaka Matsuoka is a Greensboro-based reporter for The Assembly. She was formerly the managing editor for Triad City Beat.
