Hill Street Beverage Company has agreed to license Lexaria Bioscience’s drug delivery platform DehydraTECH on a semi-exclusive basis for a period of five years.

Lexaria has made adaptations to the CBD-infused beverage formulations to produce effects similar to alcohol quickly, without adding any taste or odour.

Under the new partnership, Hill Street Beverage Company will use DehydraTECH to produce alcohol-free, cannabis-infused beverages for the Canadian market.

“Hill Street’s award-winning and great-tasting wines and beers need an odourless and tasteless infusion process like our powerful DehydraTECH platform.”

Hill Street Beverage Company CEO Terry Donnelly said: “Our goal is to provide traditional beer and wine drinkers with great tasting products that use cannabis to mimic the onset and duration of effect that has historically come from alcohol, but without alcohol’s toxicity and added calories.

“While the early versions of our wines infused with Lexaria’s process have shown great promise, we are extremely excited about the progress Lexaria continues to make with their infusion technologies.

“Lexaria has already demonstrated its importance to our model as a key strategic partner in our business, and this agreement secures our future together.”

The company has already lab-tested Hill Street Beverage Company’s alcohol-free red and white wines to formulate cannabinoid-fortified wines, which demonstrated zero cannabis taste or odour.

Lexaria Bioscience CEO Chris Bunka said: “Hill Street’s award-winning and great-tasting wines and beers need an odourless and tasteless infusion process like our powerful DehydraTECH platform to ensure they will remain that way after the inclusion of cannabis.”