Dana Thompson has spent much of the past decade thinking about food—be it advocating for food sovereignty or as cofounder of Minneapolis-based Owamni, which won the James Beard Award for best new restaurant in 2022. Now, she’s turned her attention to beverages, with a new line of low-dose THC/CBD cannabis seltzers called Heti.
As with her work in food, Thompson is embracing her Indigenous ancestry and incorporating ingredients native to North America. The seltzers come in four flavors infused with the likes of cranberry, sumac, dandelion, cedar, rose hip, wild mint, and black currant, and naturally sweetened with honey, maple, and agave.
With the recent launch of Heti, Thompson is also entering a fast-growing segment of the cannabis industry. While beverages only represent 1% of total legal cannabis sales across markets tracked by BDSA, it’s a segment with “big potential” and the market researcher forecasted this segment would reach $200 million last year.
As fast as the industry is growing, it’s also changing. Minnesota, where Thompson is based, legalized recreational marijuana in August 2023 and keeping up with changes across the country is challenging—as is navigating an “incredibly complex” industry, Thompson says. “Learning this new business has been literally like drinking from a fire hose,” she tells Fast Company.
Promoting health and community are core tenants of Heti, Thompson says. Although cannabis isn’t native to North America, she says the plant has Indigenous resiliency and the beverages are packed with electrolytes, antioxidants, vitamin C, and flavonoids. The drinks are currently priced at $27 for a four-pack, and Thompson is working to bring down that number down and make the product more broadly accessible. She’s also dreamed up some food pairings with her partner chef from another business, The Modern Indigenous.
With Heti, the experience of building the business as a solopreneur with carte blanche has been “the delight of a lifetime,” says Thompson, who is a descendant of the Sisseton-Wahpeton and Mdewakanton Dakota tribes. The company is also an opportunity to pay homage to and honor her ancestors. Heti means “home” in the Dakota language, which is fitting for its social mission: The company will donate a percentage of revenue to help develop sustainable housing for Indigenous communities using hempcrete, which is a bio-composite made from hemp.
Thompson chatted with Fast Company about the launch of Heti. (The transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.)
You stepped away from The Sioux Chef and Owamni and NATIFS last year. What are you up to these days?
When cannabis was legalized in the state of Minnesota, I started researching and figuring out what it would take to get a beverage brand launched.
I believe that there was a void in the marketplace. As I was seeing some of the THC beverages launch—which I am a fan of myself—I found them to be too sugar-heavy. If it was a flavor profile that I enjoyed, I wanted to be able to taste all of those flavors.
So I spent months working with a team and formulating these four gorgeous flavors and have created Heti. And each flavor is designed to transport you to a place in nature.
Is a goal to get Heti into restaurants eventually?
I think that is a possibility. So much of it depends on how this first year goes with Heti, how my distributor relationships go, and which states I decide to take on.
Read more
