Buzzed: Connecticut Distillery SoNo 1420 + Local Breweries Get in the THC Seltzer Game

Photo by Park City Studios

If you ask Ted Dumbauld, the owner of the Norwalk-based distillery SoNo 1420, about pivots he’s had to make as a result of alcohol consumption being in a major decline, he has a lot to say.

“They used to tell you, if you have a beer or a wine, that it’s healthy for you, but studies have shifted showing that alcohol use is linked to causing cancer,” he says. “If you’re prediabetic or you’re older, you’re probably told to stop drinking, and younger generations aren’t consuming as much alcohol.”

And he’s not just saying that. A Gallup Poll from August 2025, a survey that has tracked our drinking behavior since 1939, says that only 54% of Americans reported drinking alcohol, a record-low.  

But for Dumbauld, a former CEO of Curaleaf, one of Connecticut’s medical-to-recreational marijuana growers, a pivot to expanding upon his line of award-winning spirts and tasty canned cocktails with non-alcoholic THC seltzers, seems like a natural progression to appeal to those who are either cutting back on or those you aren’t imbibing on alcohol.

SoNo 1420’s HZE, Dumbauld says, is something for those folks who still want to mellow out.

“It’s three milligrams, less than a good hit of a joint that might be 5-10 milligrams of THC,” he explains. “You might get the feeling like you drank a light beer, but similar to a healthier version of a soda, but it’s low sugar, and prebiotic. It’s to chill, but without the morning after hangover or if you want to cut down on alcohol, HZE is for that. It won’t get you fucked up, unless you drink 10 cans, but good luck drinking 10 cans of anything. You’ll probably drink it over an hour or two. It’ll mellow you out and help you sleep a bit. There’s no added sugar, so it’s true to our brand where everything we do it natural. In our RTD cocktails, we use real coffee, and in our strawberry lemonade with vodka, it’s all real juice. Unlike seltzers that have flavor essence, ours is real.”

As for the whole prebiotic thing that Dumbauld mentioned, HZE contains agave inulin and organic apple cider vinegar, both prebiotics, aka, food for the beneficial bacteria (probiotics) that already exist in your gut. This “food” promotes their growth and activity to improve digestion, nutrient absorption, and immune and metabolic health by producing beneficial short-chain fatty acids.

HZE’s future is already growing. It debuted in the summer of ’25 with strawberry lemonade, but more flavors are on the way in root beer, dreamsicle, cola, cherry cola, blood orange, and Blazin’ Peach Lemonade that’s made in the spirit of the distillery’s successful canned cocktail.

But not so fast! Those looking to grab a four-pack at the distillery, bad news. You can’t.

To be able to make HZE, Dumbauld, and others who’ve gotten into the Connecticut THC beverage game, had a laundry list of tasks, requirements, permits, and legalities to get to first.

“Federal law defines hemp as cannabis sativa less than 0.3% THC and as a result of that law, hemp plant and any part or extract of the hemp plant is no longer a Schedule I drug,” Dumbauld explains. “If you take enough hemp and concentrate the THC, guess what? You have the exact same THC that’s in marijuana, but it’s 100% federally legal. It’s a loophole being exploited by entrepreneurs. At the federal level, hemp products are legal, but some states have taken proactive action to prohibit the production and sale of hemp-based THC products like Massachusetts, New York, and California. It’s legal at federal, illegal at the state level. Other states are silent, so there are no laws saying you can or can’t. Since it’s federally legal, it’s OK to sell it for the time being.”

So where can you buy it?

“Connecticut and others have passed proactive laws that explicitly permit the production and sale of hemp derived THC under certain conditions: THC has to be sold in drinkable form, in minimum 12-ounce containers, have no more than three milligrams of THC, only purchased at dispensaries and liquor stores, can’t be sold or served by bars or restaurants,” Dumbauld continues. “I can’t sell it here.  Liquor stores have to pay a $500 per year license and have to collect $1 per can tax.”

On the manufacturing side, Dumbauld said they had to go beyond the distillery’s alcoholic beverage license and obtain a food and beverage manufacturer’s license all because HZE is alcohol-free.

“While I don’t have to follow the same laws as a restaurant because alcohol production is a good antiseptic, so we don’t have to worry about salmonella or other infections, THC beverages have to be non-alcoholic, so they make you get a food and beverage license,” he says. “It’s a whole different inspection, separate hand wash stations, a whole list of things. It’s a precursor to getting a hemp beverage license ($5,000 fee and $5,000 annually) to be able to distribute your product. I had to label my containers with ‘21+ only, if you’re pregnant or a child you can’t consume.’ Once you meet requirement, you’re issued a license. But before you can sell, you send samples to a lab to test the contents for THC potency, heavy metals, pathogens, and other things. If it violates, you can’t sell. Pesticides? You can’t sell. It’s very strict.”

Photo by Jessica Guerrucci for Two Roads Brewing Company

Riding this wave of THC drinks in our state along with SoNo 1420 are a couple of breweries, one being Two Roads Brewing Company in Stratford.

No stranger to pivots and trying new things, Two Roads does a little of everything. First came beer, of course, then along the way they got into canned cocktails, H2Roads hard seltzers, a full lineup of spirits, N/A beers, and their own THC seltzer, New Roads.

“Beer has lost market share to alternative beverages, namely those with fewer calories,” says Two Roads’ brewmaster Phil Markowski. “There was a lot of deliberation. Several times we said we’d do it, then not do it. We finally did a hard seltzer and the same thing happened with us and the THC beverages. We thought post-pandemic that seltzers would fade, then vodka-based cocktails came into play, and we thought that maybe beer would rebound. It didn’t. From a business perspective, like how do you recapture lost volume?”

Markowski said they got off the fence and decided to do it, especially after trying the THC drinks that were already on the market and felt they could make something better, that wasn’t chemically tasting. Deciding to go with a sweetener of real fruit, he says, is more expensive to produce, plus, fruit has a shelf life, but the goal besides doing it strictly for business was doing it for customers.

“Some of the ones we tried were not really formulated with enjoyment in mind, like some were barely palatable, like you’re taking medicine,” he says. “Consumer expectations were about keeping the calories low, these are 50 (calories), and there’s some sugar, but it’s all natural from the fruit. New Roads is all about flavor. Actually, the law was five milligrams when we started developing it, but Connecticut changed it to three (milligrams per can).”

Two Roads debuted New Roads, aimed at the sans alcohol crowd in the middle of 2025 in a mixed berry flavor (blueberry, cranberry, elderberry) a three milligram THC beverage with three milligrams of cannabidiol or CBD—a natural from the cannabis plant with potential wellness benefits like anxiety, insomnia, and pain relief.

Photo by Jessica Guerucci for Two Roads Brewing Company

With an onset time of 15-30 minutes, New Roads promises “good vibes and feel-good flavor” that’s now available in Tropical (mango, guava, passionfruit, lime) and Razz Lime Rush.

Just like 1420’s HZE, you won’t find New Roads at the brewery, but their product finder lists it at a slew of dispensaries and liquor stores in Connecticut, and it can be shipped to you depending on the THC bev laws in your state.

Joining Two Roads as a local brewery to get in the THC game is Thomas Hooker Brewery in Bloomfield with their brand, Muze by Thomas Hooker, created by Chris and Shirley Weldon and Thomas Hooker’s president, Curt Cameron.

In Connecticut, Muze is available in a variety of real fruit pulp flavors (peach, black cherry, lemon, pure, raspberry-lime), and per state regulations, only with three milligrams of THC—in other states you can snag it in five, 10, and 50 mgs.

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Their product is agave sweetened, vitamin infused, and uses hemp from farms in Oregon. Unlike the other two local brands, Muze uses CBG, too, a minor cannabinoid that provides “a slight energy boost” and also helps with focus, mood, and inflammation.

Since Muze, Hooker has launched Chill AF, a line that’s CBD-only for those who don’t do THC, plus, it’s calorie and sugar-free.

Whether this is all a trend or not, maybe a little bit, and maybe not. Dumbauld kinda thinks it’s a bit of both.

“In the 60s, brown spirits were hot, then Tom Cruise is making Harvey Wallbangers in Cocktail, so then brown spirits weren’t consumed as much, then Mad Men comes out and scotch and whiskey went back up,” he says. “Research says that cannabis is much less damaging to the human body than alcohol is. Alcohol and heroin work on the primitive part of your brain, so if you overdose on those it makes you stop breathing. If you stop breathing, you die. THC and cannabis operate on your frontal lobe, so there’s never been a case of anyone overdosing on it. If you have a 100-milligram gummy and you aren’t used to that, you might freak out a little bit and think you’re going crazy, but you’re not gonna die. Wait 10-12 hours. You’ll come down.  Overconsume alcohol, you’ll feel like shit the next day, but with cannabis, you don’t wake up with a hangover.”