High Rise THC Drink Review (2026): The Honest Look

The flagship High Rise experience is the 5 mg tier, and the blend is the point. The Blood Orange 5 mg seltzer is a 12 oz can carrying 5 mg of hemp-derived delta-9 THC plus 10 mg of CBD — a deliberate 1:2 ratio the brand says is designed to keep the lift light and the body relaxed. That tracks with how drinkers describe it: a sociable, easygoing buzz that behaves more like a craft beer evening than an edible, with the CBD taking the edge off rather than adding to it. It's the tier High Rise itself points newcomers and social drinkers toward, and we'd co-sign that.

On taste, here's the consensus, honestly relayed: drinkers describe High Rise as one of the rare THC seltzers that actually tastes like the fruit on the can — real fruit purée and organic cane sugar over candy syrup, with light carbonation and a sweet-tart citrus snap in the Blood Orange. At about 20 calories a can it sits closer to a flavored sparkling water than a soda, and nobody describes it as heavy or syrupy — the most common knock on this category. It's vegan, gluten-free, and made with no artificial colors or flavors, which is the Charleston farmers-market personality of the brand showing up in the can.

One practical note for first-timers, worth repeating: drink one can — or half of one — and wait. Seltzers come on faster than gummies, but 5 mg is still a real serving for most people, and the four-pack format makes round two feel very casual. The can is the dose; let it do its job.

Same can, twice the signal. The Blueberry 10 mg seltzer is the strong tier of the High Rise line: 10 mg of hemp-derived delta-9 THC and 5 mg of CBD in the same sleek 12 oz, real-fruit, organic-cane-sugar package. Note what flipped: the flagship tier is CBD-heavy to keep things gentle; this one inverts the ratio, and the brand's own copy is refreshingly direct that it's made for experienced cannabis-beverage consumers and higher-tolerance drinkers. Drinkers describe the flavor the same way as the rest of the line — ripe blueberry with a soft tart finish — but the evening it produces is a genuinely different one.

Where this tier genuinely earns its place: seasoned THC drinkers for whom 5 mg reads as background music, one-can-and-done evenings where you don't want to keep cracking seltzers, and the High Horizon variety 8-pack ($44.99) if you want to tour the strong tier's flavors before committing to a favorite. The brand's first-timer guidance applies double here — half a can, wait, decide. The can gives you a measured dose; the discipline is bring-your-own.

Not everyone wants to ride the hemp lane's legal weather — and that's the honest case for kava. Leilo Kava Tonic is the most established kava drink in American retail: a sparkling, lightly sweet canned tonic built on kava root, the traditional South Pacific social drink. There's no THC in it and no alcohol, so there's no high — drinkers describe the experience as a wave of physical calm and an unhurried head, the evening-wind-down feeling without the buzz. If a 5 mg High Rise is a craft-beer evening, a Leilo is the deep exhale after work.

Trade-offs, honestly: kava is its own acquired taste — earthy under the fruit, with a signature, totally normal tongue-tingle on the first sips that surprises newcomers. And it is not a THC substitute in feel: there's no euphoric lift, just calm. Treat it as a different tool for an adjacent job. At $49.99 for a 12-pack it's about $4.17 a can, the cheapest per-can price in this review, and our full field notes on the category live in our best kava drinks guide.