"How is this made?" is a fair question to ask about anything you put in your body, and with THC drinks it's a question most brands would rather you didn't dig into too hard. We're the opposite. The way our seltzer is made is the whole reason we exist — so here's the honest, unglamorous, start-to-finish version, from a seed in an Indiana field to the cold can in your hand.
It Starts in a Field in Hartford City, Indiana
Most THC beverage companies are brands first and manufacturers never. They buy bulk hemp extract from a third party, hand a recipe to a co-packer, and put their logo on the can. There's nothing illegal about that, but it means the brand on the front often can't actually tell you where the THC came from or how it was made — because they didn't make it.
We grow ours. The hemp behind every Floral seltzer is cultivated on our family operation in Hartford City, Indiana. Starting in the field instead of a supplier's invoice means we control the plant from the ground up — the genetics, the growing conditions, the harvest timing. It's slower and harder than buying a barrel of extract, and it's the foundation of everything that makes our seltzer what it is. This is what "vertically integrated" actually means: one operation, one chain of custody, from seed to seltzer.
The Part That Matters Most: Natural Extraction, Not Conversion
Here's the distinction the whole industry would rather gloss over, and it's worth slowing down for.
Hemp naturally contains very little Delta-9 THC. So a lot of the market gets its Delta-9 a different way: they start with CBD (which hemp has in abundance) and run it through a chemical reaction — using acids and solvents — to convert it into THC. That's a synthetic conversion process. The result is technically THC, but it's made in a reactor, not drawn from the plant, and the process can leave behind reaction byproducts and unintended isomers that have to be cleaned up afterward.
We don't do that. Our Delta-9 is naturally extracted from the hemp plant itself, then separated and purified using chromatography — a physical separation method, the same family of techniques labs use to isolate compounds without chemically transforming them. Nothing is converted; the THC that ends up in your can is the THC the plant made. If you want the deeper breakdown of why this distinction matters, we wrote a whole piece on naturally extracted vs. converted THC.
Naturally extracted (our way)
THC is drawn from the hemp plant and separated by chromatography — a physical purification. No chemical conversion. The compound in the can is what the plant produced.
Converted (the common way)
CBD is chemically reacted with acids and solvents to synthesize Delta-9. It's a manufactured transformation that can leave byproducts requiring additional cleanup.
From Extract to a Precisely-Dosed Can
Once we have clean, naturally-separated Delta-9, the job becomes turning it into a beverage that tastes good and doses exactly the same every single time. That second part — consistency — is harder than it sounds, because THC is oil-based and water is, famously, not. Get this step wrong and you end up with a drink where the THC clumps, settles, or hits unevenly from sip to sip.
The fix is emulsification: the THC is broken down into tiny, uniform droplets so it disperses evenly throughout the liquid and stays that way. That's what lets us promise that a 2.5mg seltzer is 2.5mg in the first sip and the last, and why beverages tend to come on faster and more predictably than a gummy. If you're curious about the science of why drinks behave differently from edibles, our piece on THC particle size goes deeper, and what's actually in a THC seltzer breaks down the full ingredient list.
From there it's a beverage-making process you'd recognize from any quality canning line: the emulsion is blended with carbonated water and natural flavor, dosed, and canned. Our seltzers come in Key Lime, Harvest Apple, Strawberry Mango, and Tropical — each one a clean 2.5mg Delta-9 THC with no CBD.
Canned in Gas City — One Roof, Start to Finish
The growing happens in Hartford City. The extraction, separation, formulation, and canning all happen at our facility in Gas City, Indiana — a short drive away, and entirely under our control. The plant is never handed off to a stranger's facility and shipped back as a mystery barrel. We grow it, we extract it, we separate it, we can it, and we warehouse it.
That end-to-end ownership isn't a marketing flourish; it's quality control. When one operation controls every step, there's no finger-pointing if something's off, no gap in the chain of custody, and no "we'd have to ask our supplier" when a customer asks a hard question. It also means that when we tell you what's in the can, we're not relaying someone else's claim — we're telling you what we did.
Proof You Can Read Yourself: Published COAs
The last step is the one that keeps everyone honest. Every batch is lab-tested, and we publish the Certificate of Analysis — the COA — so you don't have to take our word for any of the above. A COA is a third-party lab's report on what's actually in the product: how much THC, whether the dose on the label matches the dose in the can, and screening for contaminants.
If you've never looked at one, it's worth five minutes. Our guide on how to read a COA walks through exactly what to look for — and, just as importantly, what to be suspicious of when a brand won't show you one. A published COA is the difference between "trust us" and "verify us," and we'd always rather be verified.
The short version of "how it's made"
Grown in Hartford City, IN → naturally extracted and chromatographically separated (no chemical conversion) → emulsified for an even, precise dose → canned and warehoused in Gas City, IN → batch-tested with a published COA you can read.
Why We Bother Doing It the Hard Way
Buying converted extract from a supplier is cheaper, faster, and easier. We do it the other way because we think where your THC comes from and how it's made should be a thing you can know, not a thing a brand hides behind a co-packer. Hemp-derived Delta-9 is legal under the 2018 Farm Bill, and you can read more about that category in our complete guide to hemp-derived THC. But "legal" is a low bar. We're after a higher one: a seltzer where every answer to "how is this made?" is one we're proud to give.
That's the whole pitch, and it's not really a pitch — it's just the process. Grown, extracted, separated, canned, and tested by one family operation in Indiana, with the receipts published. The next time you crack one open, you'll know exactly what went into it.
Taste the Difference Doing It Right Makes
Floral's 2.5mg seltzers are naturally extracted, never converted — grown, canned, and lab-tested on our family farm in Gas City, Indiana, with COAs you can read yourself.
Shop Our SeltzersFloral beverages are made with hemp-derived Delta-9 THC and are legal under the 2018 Farm Bill. Must be 21 or older to purchase. Do not use during pregnancy or while nursing. Never drive under the influence of THC. Keep out of reach of children and pets. Please consume responsibly.
