Opinion – Cannabis Inc.: From Hops to Cannabis

Mustard, ketchup, barbecue sauce and dry seasonings with cannabis is the novelty Blue Hops, a Brazilian company, closed a partnership with the Canadian C.Brew, a producer of craft beer infused with the herb. But products will only be on sale in Canada, a country whose legislation allows recreational consumption of the plant and its derivatives. The new food line comes out under the Blue Hemp brand, which was born from the merger of the two companies.

“The seed of cannabis has a lot of protein”, explains CEO of the company Túlio Rodrigues, 51 years old, who has always been in the food industry at the forefront of innovative businesses with great marketing appeal. In Brazil, he develops foods with hops for Ambev. brewers, such as malt snacks for Brahma, hopped jalapena pepper sauce for Budweiser and beer and dog snacks for Colorado, Cãolorado.In Brazil, he has a patent registration for foods infused with hops.

While he waits for the licenses to start marketing the new cannabis line, he is already planning a wey protein with THC. Rodrigues has been in the food industry since 1995, when he started at Ambev, where he always worked in marketing and thus developed a good radar for business opportunities.

“Hops and Cannabis have some similarities,” says the businessman. “Both plants are part of the Cannabaceae family (known as cannabiaceae), with the genera Humulus (hops) and cannabis“, he explains. “Essential oils can be extracted from both plants, which retain their specific characteristics.” From hops comes the bitterness, from marijuana, medical properties, which are increasingly researched in the health area, and psychoactive.

According to Rodrigues, infusion processes are also similar. “With the hops we do a process known as dry hoppping, which brings different aromas and flavors to the beer”. He explains that both the hop aroma and the terpenes of the cannabis are placed at the end of the production process so that all the properties of the plants are preserved.

Rodrigues came to understand better the complexity of the market itself after he sent the business project to The Green Hub, a cannabis accelerator, which saw great potential in the company. From there, came the partnership with C.Brew, formed by partners with skills complementary to those of Rodrigues: Diogo Fortuna is a brewer, Beto Lucena, a researcher and Marcos Moraes, a lawyer.

“Several countries around the world have already understood the economic and social importance of this plant. It generates more jobs, new business fronts, taxes and better quality of life”, says Alex Lucena, partner and CIO of The Green Hub. The company will soon make a new call for accelerated potentials in the market here in Brazil. Keep an eye.