One company makes most of Michigan’s cannabis drinks. I tried 5 of them

Emerald Canning Partners produces more than half the cannabis-infused drinks being sold at Michigan dispensaries. I tried five—and not all of them are worth buying again.

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MICHIGAN—Michigan’s cannabis beverage scene has been growing fast.

New brands keep showing up in dispensary coolers, each one promising a different flavor and vibe. And last week, I picked up five of them from Ascend Cannabis for a routine taste test.

But it stopped being routine pretty quickly. Because when I got home and lined up the cans, I noticed something: every single one of them listed the same manufacturing facility on the label.

The company behind them is Emerald Canning Partners. It operates out of the historic Gibraltar Trade Center in Mt. Clemens. And according to company president Matt McAlpine, it produces more than 50% of the cannabis-infused beverages on the shelves at Michigan dispensaries.

That’s eight brands total—out of a facility capable of cranking out about 20,000 cans a day.

And that means what looks like a diverse statewide marketplace of cannabis beverage brands is, in most cases, just one company’s very long menu. McAlpine confirmed it all when I called him—and then offered a tour of the facility, which I’ll take him up on for a future feature story. 

But for now, here’s what five items off that menu actually tasted like:

Pleasantea — Peach Iced Tea (10 mg THC)

Pleasantea is one of Emerald’s house brands, and it’s probably the most visible cannabis beverage in Michigan right now. I have at least three friends who drink these with the same casual regularity that other folks drink Diet Coke. So, I was genuinely curious to finally try one.

The short version: It’s good. It’s not great, but it’s genuinely good—which, in the cannabis beverage category, sadly, puts it ahead of most of the competition.

The peach flavor here was clean, and it actually tasted like iced tea. I know that sounds like a low bar, but you’d be surprised how many cannabis-infused drinks taste like someone dissolved a gummy in a glass of water and called it a brand. This had no funky aftertaste or artificial sweeteners creeping up on the back end. It was just peach tea that happens to contain THC.

For me, the 10 mg THC dose in a 16-ounce can is the real limiting factor here. For a regular cannabis consumer, it barely registers. The upside, however, is that it’s easy to drink two of them without accidentally strapping yourself to the couch for the rest of the evening.

For newcomers or light users, this is probably the ideal entry point into infused beverages. For regular consumers, it’s a pleasant sipper that pairs better with a session than it replaces one.

The Best Dirty Lemonade — Strawberry Lemonade (50 mg THC)

I’ve reviewed Best Dirty Lemonade before in this column, so I’ll keep it brief. But tasting it back-to-back with four other Emerald Canning Partner products only reinforced what I already knew: This is still the best-tasting cannabis beverage on the shelves in Michigan.

The strawberry flavor is bright, fruity, and genuinely refreshing without veering into candy territory. It just tastes like real lemonade that happens to get you totally stoned.

At 50 mg of THC per 12-ounce can, Best Dirty Lemonade also hits a sweet spot on dosing. It’s enough to break through for folks with a tolerance, yet casual enough for an afternoon drink. I smoke every day, and one can was definitely still enough for me to feel moderately high.

Best Dirty Lemonade was founded by Omari Anderson in 2021 after he started making infused drinks at home for his mother, who was struggling with early-onset Alzheimer’s and reluctant to smoke. He told me the drinks helped her eat, sleep, and smile again. And judging by how quickly this brand has grown in recent years, it seems to be helping others in the same way.

Armada Cannabis Co. — Sparkling Sweet Apple Cider (20 mg THC)

Armada is another Emerald house brand. And this one surprised me.

I spent years living in Traverse City, where real apple cider is practically a seasonal religion. I even worked at a local winery. So, I had a higher bar than most for what “apple cider” is supposed to taste like. And this one, against all reasonable expectations, actually clears it.

The flavor is genuinely apple-forward, with a clean sweetness that doesn’t get syrupy. That’s because it’s made with real pressed apples—and you can taste the difference. It’s got the tartness you associate with actual cider, a carbonation level that feels appropriate rather than aggressive, and none of the artificial fruit flavoring that drags down most cannabis drinks.

Plus, at 20 mg of THC per can, it also sits at a reasonable middle ground. It’s not enough to floor you, but it’s enough to actually feel it—especially if you’re not a daily consumer.

It’s worth noting: Armada made headlines a couple years ago when Emerald accidentally forgot to add a key shelf-stability ingredient during production, resulting in cans exploding at dispensaries across the state. A recall followed. A fine was paid. And by all indications, the issue has since been resolved because the can I cracked open did not, in fact, explode.

Mary Jones — Green Apple Cannabis Infused Soda (100 mg THC)

The appeal with this one is obvious, especially for millennial stoners like me. 

Jones Soda has been a cult favorite since the 90s with bright colors, weird flavors, and their signature glass bottles. Mary Jones is the cannabis-infused spinoff that borrows the branding, the nostalgia, and the name recognition—plus packs in 100 mg of THC per 16-ounce can.

On paper, that sounds fun. In practice, it tasted like a green apple Jolly Rancher dissolved in flat soda water. It was aggressively sweet, artificially flavored, and had a funky aftertaste that lingered long past the last sip. If you want the classic Jones Soda experience, this is not it.

The 100 mg THC dose also makes this a tricky product to recommend. It’s technically resealable, which means you’re supposed to share it or pace yourself across multiple sessions. But a half-can of bad soda sitting in your fridge overnight will never get better with age.

My take: skip it. The branding is doing a lot of work here that the soda itself refuses to do.

Highly Casual — Cold Brew Coffee (10 mg THC)

Highly Casual is Emerald Canning Partners’ flagship house brand—the first beverage they ever launched, and by their own description, “the THC infused fruit of our labor.” I respect the origin story. But this cold brew is the worst thing I tasted all week.

The concept here isn’t crazy. Caffeine and a mild cannabis buzz in the same can, delivering something like an alert, functional high rather than the couch-lock that comes from a strong edible. I can imagine a version of this that works. But this isn’t that version.

This cold brew tasted watered down—weak on coffee flavor, strange in texture, and slightly carbonated in a way that nobody wants in their coffee. It made me gag. And at only 10 mg of THC, there simply wasn’t enough upside on the other end to justify finishing the can.

The bottom line

Cannabis-infused beverages are notoriously difficult to produce. Getting the flavor, shelf stability, dosing, and nano-emulsification right—all without making something that tastes gross—is genuinely difficult, especially if you’re trying to cultivate award-winning weed at the same time.

Emerald Canning Partners clearly knows how to manufacture at scale. And some of what they’re putting out is legitimately good. But knowing that most of what’s in the dispensary cooler comes from the same facility in Mt. Clemens changes how I think about the category.

Monopoly or not, the drinks from Emerald Canning Partners still have to stand on their own to survive. And based on what I tasted, some of them do that a lot better than others.

If I had to rank them: Best Dirty Lemonade is still the standard. Armada’s apple cider surprised me. Pleasantea is a solid, sessionable option for light consumers. Mary Jones is nostalgia bait that doesn’t deliver. And Highly Casual cold brew is best left where I left it—in the garbage.

READ MORE: Disposable vapes are everywhere in Michigan. Most of them kinda suck.

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