How Sinful built Montana’s top-selling cannabis beverage brand

When Sinful Brands launched into Montana’s adult-use cannabis market in 2022, it did so with a product most operators considered risky: a high-dose, flavor-forward THC beverage designed not for novelty, but for repeat consumption.

Within a short time, Sinful became the top-selling brand in its category statewide and began expanding beyond Montana, entering New Mexico and distributing through more than 350 dispensaries. The company’s rise was not driven by flashy branding or trend chasing, but by an obsessive focus on formulation, consistency, and consumer behavior.

For CEO James Stevens, that approach was shaped long before he entered cannabis.

From pharma and materials science to cannabis formulation

Stevens does not come from a traditional cannabis background. His career began in microbiology and chemical engineering, working in pharmaceutical materials design and technical research starting in the early 2000s. Over time, his work expanded into sustainability, fermentation, and ingredient innovation, including research for major corporations across food, cosmetics, fragrance, and consumer packaged goods.

“I’ve always been adjacent to cannabis, even before legalization,” Stevens said. “People would call me for technical advice on chemistry or biology, how extraction works, what solvents do. I wasn’t judging anyone. I just knew the science.”

That technical grounding eventually led Stevens into flavor and formulation work for mainstream consumer brands, including global food and beverage companies. The experience taught him a lesson that would later define Sinful’s approach: consumers value consistency over novelty.

“If someone likes a product, they don’t want it to change,” Stevens said. “Your Starbucks should taste the same in Montana, New York, or Shanghai. Once you understand that, you realize cannabis products need to work the same way.”

Solving cannabis’s hardest problem: consistency

In cannabis beverages, consistency is unusually difficult. Water chemistry varies by region. Manufacturing rules differ state to state. Transportation limitations prevent centralized production. Yet Sinful set out to produce beverages that tasted identical regardless of where they were made.

“New Mexico’s water is completely different from Montana’s,” Stevens said. “So how do you make a 100 milligram, two-ounce shot taste the same in both places? That’s a real technical challenge.”

Stevens argues that cannabis companies often underestimate how much of the solution already exists in other industries.

“The food and fragrance industries have been solving these problems forever,” he said. “Cannabis just didn’t have access to that knowledge because of legality and stigma.”

Sinful builds its beverages around proprietary emulsions, formulation controls, and blind testing methods modeled after food-industry protocols. Stevens said every significant formulation change goes through field trials before reaching consumers.

“We do blind triangulated tests, collect data, and make sure the flavor, consistency, and effect all align before we roll anything out,” he said.

It’s that same level of planning and insightful thought that saw Sinful lean heavily into high-dose offerings.

Sinful’s flagship product format is a 16-ounce beverage containing 100 milligrams of THC, alongside smaller high-dose “shooter” bottles. That decision runs counter to the low-dose trend seen in many cannabis beverage launches.

The company arrived there by watching consumer behavior rather than relying on assumptions.

“Our first idea was mocktails and small pours,” Stevens said. “Then we watched customers slam half a bottle before leaving the dispensary. That told us everything.”

Stevens said high-volume consumers, not occasional users, keep dispensaries operating.

“Someone who takes two milligrams at a time and makes a bottle last a month doesn’t drive the business,” he said. “It’s the people consuming larger doses consistently.”

That does not mean Sinful ignores responsibility or education. Stevens is explicit that high-dose beverages are not entry-level products.

“We train retailers to explain what this is,” he said. “A 100 milligram fast-acting drink isn’t for beginners.”

Sinful plans to introduce lower-dose formats, including a 20 milligram, 16-ounce beverage designed for full-can consumption. But Stevens remains skeptical that ultra-low-dose products alone can sustain cannabis beverage categories.

“Tolerance builds,” he said. “If someone replaces alcohol with cannabis drinks, two milligrams stops working pretty quickly.”

Flavor over cannabis identity

Perhaps Sinful’s most contrarian belief is that most consumers do not want cannabis products to taste like weed.

“There’s a vocal minority that wants everything to taste dank,” Stevens said. “But sales data shows the opposite.”

He points to top-performing SKUs across edibles and vapes, which skew fruit-forward and dessert-inspired rather than strain-forward.

“People say one thing online,” Stevens said. “Then they buy something completely different.”

Sinful’s flavors are designed to create what Stevens describes as an “emotional state,” borrowing from fragrance and food science. Mouthfeel, sweetness timing, and aroma all matter.

“We want the first sip to feel decadent,” he said. “Like a really good dessert or cocktail.”

Stevens argues that cannabinoids amplify flavor perception.

“If it already tastes good, cannabis makes it taste better,” he said.

The meaning behind the name

The Sinful name was not a branding brainstorm so much as an inside joke that became permanent.

   

“For almost 20 years, we’ve coded our projects after the seven deadly sins,” Stevens said. “Defense work was ‘Wrath.’ Fragrance might be ‘Envy.’”

When it came time to name a cannabis company, “Sinful” stuck.

“Cannabis is less harmful than alcohol by almost every metric,” Stevens said. “So why is it considered more sinful?”

The name polarizes by design.

“You can’t please everyone,” Stevens said. “If you try, you become a bland brand.”

That attitude has helped to make Sinful more than just another brand in a sea of competition.

Building Montana’s top-selling brand

Sinful’s rapid rise in Montana came from a strategy Stevens describes as deliberately non-transactional.

Instead of aggressive sales tactics, the company focused on relationship-building at the budtender level.

“I’d bring Red Bulls or snacks, no pitch, no explanation,” Stevens said. “Just appreciation.”

Only later would Stevens introduce himself or the brand.

“We flipped the script,” he said. “No quid pro quo.”

Sinful also hosted events without requiring dispensaries to carry its products and replaced entire cases for quality issues rather than individual units.

“That level of follow-through isn’t common in cannabis,” Stevens said. “But it builds trust.”

Stevens draws a sharp line between regulatory compliance and product excellence.

“Compliance is the minimum to stay open,” he said. “Excellence is everything else.”

Even in states with strict packaging rules, Stevens believes brands can differentiate through design, service, and operational rigor.

“You can still make something cool,” he said. “You just have to care.”

That mindset extends to sustainability decisions, even when they are imperfect. Sinful uses plastic bottles rather than glass to reduce risk during Montana’s outdoor recreation season.

“Glass doesn’t belong on rivers,” Stevens said. “That choice fits the community.”

Choosing where to expand next

Sinful’s expansion strategy prioritizes cultural fit over market size.

“We’d rather enter a smaller market with the right partners than a huge one with the wrong ones,” Stevens said.

The company looks for partners who value execution, consistency, and accountability.

“Do what you say you’re going to do,” Stevens said. “That’s it.”

Looking ahead to 2026, Stevens said Sinful aims to enter approximately five new states, with expansion structured around partnerships rather than centralized ownership.

Data driving the future

Stevens believes cannabis is still early in its understanding of consumer behavior.

“Not everyone wants cannabis,” he said. “The industry wastes a lot of energy pretending they do.”

As data tools improve, Stevens expects better product targeting and fewer assumptions.

“The brands that survive will be consumer-obsessed,” he said.

For Sinful, success is not about being the cheapest or the loudest.

“If you can be cost-effective and excellent,” Stevens said, “that’s how you dominate.”