Read enough beverage labels and you'll start seeing letters beyond the familiar two. CBD you know. THC you definitely know. But then come CBN, CBG, sometimes CBC or THCV — a small alphabet of "minor cannabinoids" that brands like to list because they sound sophisticated. So what actually are they? Here's a plain-English tour of the minor cannabinoids, where they come from, and a straight answer about what's in our cans and what isn't.
First, Where All of This Comes From
The hemp plant produces more than a hundred compounds called cannabinoids. Two of them dominate the conversation because they're the most abundant and the most studied: THC (the one that's mildly intoxicating) and CBD (the one that isn't). Everything else — CBN, CBG, CBC, THCV and the rest — gets lumped together as "minor cannabinoids," not because they're unimportant but because they show up in much smaller amounts.
If the THC-versus-CBD distinction is still fuzzy, our breakdown of CBD vs THC drinks is the right place to start, because the minor cannabinoids are best understood as cousins of those two. Here's what each of the common ones actually is, without the marketing gloss.
The Minor Cannabinoids, One at a Time
CBG — cannabigerol
Often called the "mother cannabinoid" because the plant produces it first, then converts most of it into THC and CBD as it matures. That's why mature hemp contains so little CBG by the time it's harvested — most of it has already become something else. It's non-intoxicating.
CBN — cannabinol
Forms when THC ages and breaks down — exposure to air, light, and time slowly converts THC into CBN. It's only very mildly intoxicating, far less than THC. You'll see a lot of marketing attached to CBN; the actual human research on it is still limited and early, so we're not going to make claims about what it does.
CBC — cannabichromene
Another non-intoxicating minor cannabinoid that's present in small amounts. It's among the least-studied of the group, and you'll rarely see it isolated in a beverage.
THCV — tetrahydrocannabivarin
A structural relative of THC that appears in trace amounts in most hemp. It behaves differently from THC depending on the dose, and like the others, the research base is still thin. It's uncommon in drinks because so little of it exists in the plant.
The honest theme across all four: they're real compounds, they occur naturally in tiny quantities, and the science on most of them is genuinely early. Anyone telling you exactly what a few milligrams of CBN or CBG will "do" is getting ahead of the evidence.
Why Brands Put Them on Labels
If these compounds are present in such small amounts, why do they show up on so many beverage labels? A few honest reasons. Some brands isolate and add them deliberately, formulating a drink with, say, a few milligrams of added CBN or CBG alongside the THC. Others use a "full-spectrum" or "broad-spectrum" hemp extract that naturally carries trace amounts of several minor cannabinoids, and they list what the lab detected. And some, frankly, list them because the alphabet looks impressive on a can.
This is the idea behind the so-called entourage effect — the theory that cannabinoids and other plant compounds may work together in some combined way rather than in isolation. It's a real and interesting hypothesis, and it's also still a hypothesis: the human research is ongoing and far from settled. We mention it so you understand the reasoning behind multi-cannabinoid blends, not as a promise that any particular blend delivers a particular result.
How to Actually Know What's in a Drink
The only thing that tells you what's genuinely in a beverage — minor cannabinoids included — is the lab report, not the marketing on the front of the can. A Certificate of Analysis (COA) breaks down exactly which cannabinoids a batch contains and at what levels. If a brand claims a meaningful dose of CBN or CBG, the COA is where that claim either holds up or quietly doesn't. Our guide to how to read a COA walks through exactly which numbers to look at, and our explainer on what's in a THC seltzer covers the rest of the ingredient list beyond the cannabinoids.
The short rule: a cannabinoid that matters will appear on the COA at a real, measurable amount. A cannabinoid that's only there as a trace — or only there in the marketing copy — will show as a fraction of a milligram or not at all.
What's Actually in Floral (The Straight Answer)
Because this is the question we'd want answered if we were reading someone else's blog, here it is plainly: Floral's drinks are built on Delta-9 THC, not on minor cannabinoids. We don't formulate with added CBN, CBG, CBC, or THCV, and we're not going to slap them on a label to sound more impressive than we are.
Our seltzers
Key Lime, Harvest Apple, Strawberry Mango, and Tropical are each 2.5mg Delta-9 THC, with no CBD and no added minor cannabinoids. Clean, simple, single-cannabinoid drinks.
Our cocktails
The cane-sugar cocktails come in 2.5mg, 5mg, and 10mg Delta-9. The one place CBD enters the picture: our 2.5mg cocktail also includes 5mg of CBD. That's the extent of it — Delta-9 THC, plus CBD in that single product, and nothing we'd dress up as a minor-cannabinoid blend.
We'd rather be the brand that tells you straight what's in the can than the one that lists six letters to imply a benefit we can't stand behind. If a multi-cannabinoid drink is what you're after, plenty of brands make one — just read the COA before you trust the front label. And if a clean, lab-tested Delta-9 drink is more your speed, that's exactly what we make. You can see the whole range across our full collection.
Minor cannabinoids are a genuinely interesting frontier, and the science will get clearer over the next few years. Until it does, the smartest move is the same one that's always worked: know what's actually in your drink, judge claims against the lab report, and treat the alphabet on the can with healthy curiosity rather than blind faith.
Know Exactly What You're Drinking
Floral makes clean, single-source Delta-9 THC drinks with published lab results — no mystery blends, no alphabet soup. Grown and produced on our family farm in Indiana.
Explore the Full RangeFloral beverages are made with hemp-derived Delta-9 THC and are legal under the 2018 Farm Bill. This article is for general educational purposes only and is not medical advice; Floral Beverages, LLC makes no claims that any cannabinoid treats, cures, or prevents any condition. Must be 21 or older to purchase. Do not use during pregnancy or while nursing, and never drive under the influence of THC. Keep out of reach of children. Please consume responsibly.
