Co Founders Jackie McAskill and Matt Cherkas couldn’t be more excited.
Yesterday, at the industry important Grow Up Gala, in Victoria, British Columbia, the Ontario based entrepreneurs behind the incredible SHEESH SODA (as in the word “hashish,” with which it is infused), got some great news. They’d been waiting with bated breath to learn whether their Sheesh would beat out the 8 other nominees for the Best Beverage category, 2023. (Grow Up stats say over 13,000 votes from industry members across the country were collected.) When the votes were counted, Ontario’s Sheesh Soda was the clear winner.
Sheesh is Canada’s only cannabis beverage that uses quality strain specific rosin instead of the distillate or solvents used in every other brand.
“We are incredibly honored to be recognized as Canada’s best cannabis beverage! This recognition serves as a testament to not only the expertise and commitment of our team and partners but also the unparalleled product experience that our Sheesh Soda brings to the industry,” says co-founder Jackie McAskill.
No one can deny that McAskill knows the Canadian beverage marketplace. Before turning her entrepreneurial eye to the world of cannabis, she spent more than a decade working for the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, where she was integral to the launch of many iconic wine, spirits and RTD brands into the Canadian retail space.
“Once I joined the cannabis industry, I couldn’t believe how many synergies existed between wine and cannabis,” she told the media in a statement earlier this month. “Applying some key consumer wine practices to the development of our “Sheesh Soda” cannabis beverages is proving to be really successful. Increased cannabis use in former wine dominated generational segments such as Boomers and Millennials provided us with a historic benchmark. We know the cues they are looking for when shopping and consuming recreational substances.”
The recent win shows that the Canadian cannabis consumer – and the industry itself, is taking notice of what the company has been doing differently. It is no exaggeration to call them disruptors in the space. The fact that it’s only available on store shelves in Ontario (expected to be hitting Alberta dispensaries in October 2023) certainly hasn’t stopped the meteoric rise of the young company. Not only is their delicious flagship product so popular that it’s hard to keep it on store shelves for very long, but it is quickly developing a reputation among industry watchers – and cannabis consumers – as the best of the best.
McAskill pointed out that connoisseurs of both wine and cannabis value “provenance, transparency and quality.”
“At Sheesh, we pride ourselves on knowing where the cherries are grown for the cherry juice in our beverage, we can provide consumers with strain provenance and can tell you the location and grower of the cannabis that was used,” she says. “Sheesh is the first Canadian beverage to use strain specific rosin inputs resulting in a true expression of the plant like a single varietal wine. We honor our commitment to transparency and quality by publishing our Certificate of Analysis through our Social media to showcase the purity, potency and the profile of the cannabis we use.”
With over 180 cannabis beverages selling in the Canadian market in the month of August, 2023, finding itself among only 9 finalists truly is a testament to the hard work Sheesh founders have done. It is undeniable that this first product, a premium black cherry hash cola, is a favourite in the Canadian cannabis marketplace. It will be followed soon by two new delicious beverages early in 2024.
More about the Grow Up Gala and Awards : https://growupconference.
More about Sheesh Soda: https://sheeshsodas.com/
