Canni Hemp’s Infusion Bar and Café a Social Wellness Destination in Walker’s Point

The stars are aligning for local cannabis entrepreneurs such as Colin Plant of Canni Hemp Company (810 S. 5th St.) to broaden offerings like cannabis drinks.

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The cannabis beverages market size in the U.S. is projected to grow to an estimated value of USD 81.44 billion by 2032, reports Fortune Business Insights (fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/cannabis-beverages-marke). With cannabis-based products becoming readily available and normalized—even in Wisconsin where medicinal and recreational marijuana is still illegal—along with more people seeking healthier yet relaxing alternatives to alcohol, the stars are aligning for local cannabis entrepreneurs such as Colin Plant of Canni Hemp Company (810 S. 5th St.) to broaden offerings like cannabis drinks.

In 2022, Plant purchased the building that houses Canni Hemp’s retail shop, which he opened in 2018. He built out the property to add a grow space, and an infusion bar and café, which officially opened October 2023. 

The bar and café feature a menu of base drinks. Customers can “choose their own adventures” with a choice of infusions including Delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabidiol (CBD), or non-psychoactive mushrooms such as lion’s mane, chagga and rishi. There’s also a choice of plant-based infusions such as kava (also known as kava kava), a supplement made from the ground roots of the kava plant found in Hawaii; and kanna, a medicinal plant native to South Africa.

“When Canni was just a store, people would patronize the shop as an alternative to other forms of leisure. As the years have passed, surprisingly enough in a place like Milwaukee, there has been higher demographic of people practicing abstinence from alcohol consumption,” Plant observes. With that being said, Canni is a bar and café that also serves alcohol; they have a liquor license to offer alcoholic versions of their drinks. Plant believes Canni is the only bar and café in Wisconsin, and perhaps the country, that offers a choice of both cannabis and alcoholic beverages in the same space.

Curating a Wellness Destination

The drinks served at Canni’s infusion bar and café are made in-house. They source water soluble hemp extractions from long-time partner Wisconsin Hemp Scientific, who also formulates the Canni Hemp line of tinctures and topicals sold in the retail store. The mushroom infusions are in tincture form, which Plant says has a more neutral taste and doesn’t add an overpowering earthy flavor. They partner with a manufacturer in California for the kava and kanna.

The kava is grown in eastern Hawaii. The kava roots are dried and ground into a fine powder. Kava is used in cultural and social ceremonies throughout the Pacific for relaxation. Kanna, a succulent that’s native to South Africa, is dried and put into a powder supplement that can be used in drinks. Plant says that in low doses, kanna offers an uplifting, slightly euphoric feeling.

“We don’t mix and match infusions because we want people to really experience and understand their own body and its absorption,” Plant notes. “We focus on educating customers on what these infusions can do and what kind of experience they will have.”

The drink menu changes seasonally. The winter menu runs through mid-February, but popular drinks that have been offered for the better part of 2024 include the Desert Dream, a prickly pear lemonade; and the OJ Kush, with orange juice, vanilla, and seltzer. The café opens at 10 a.m. daily and customers can get coffee, lattes, matcha and tea. They do pour over coffee and offer options for uninfused beverages. Anodyne Coffee provides their special blend. Canni’s café manager has a barista background.

Plant affirms that cannabis drink market has grown exponentially since the first cannabis-infused seltzers and lemonades appeared a few years ago. “We’re now seeing craft brewers that have gotten into it, along with more thoughtful and creative recipes becoming available.”

Canni is launching their own line of canned cannabis drinks based on their in-house cocktails. They are also expanding their line of retail items to include more THC edibles and sugar-free gummies. They partner with American Extractions, in Janesville, Wis., to make gummies. They also carry hemp tinctures, balms, edibles and non-psychoactive fungi wellness products. Canni has an outdoor seating area and event space. An event calendar is listed on the website. “We hear from people that come in that they rely on us as a safe space and place of community,” Plant says. “People from out of state that stop in say there’s nothing like this, even in their coastal states.”

Wisconsin a Cannabis “Gray Landscape”

Many cannabis industry professionals and consumers are waiting with bated breath to see what hemp programs will be included in the federal Farm Bill renewal. Per the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the “Further Continuing Appropriations and Other Extensions Act 2024, which extended the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (the 2018 Farm Bill) expired September 30, 2024. The USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) continue to deliver many of their programs, either because the funding authority under the Farm Bill did not expire or because of other authorities.”

With no medicinal or recreational marijuana program, Wisconsin is in a gray landscape, Plant notes. Myriad retailers throughout the state sell cannabis derived products permissible under the 2018 Farm Bill, which includes beverages with Delta-9, with no influence from a competing marijuana industry.

“I think it’s anybody’s guess when farm bill does get rewritten. I anticipate restrictions and regulations that will be this space, but I don’t know to what capacity. Change is on the horizon, and we’re speculating to see what those will be.”

For more information, visit mycanni.com and canni-cafe.com.