The Tejas Tonic hemp farm in Fredericksburg. – Dave Creaney
From seed to can – A growing THC beverage company opts for good old-fashioned outdoor farming
Deep in the Hill Country, brimming with fi elds of wine grapes, another type of plant is deepening its roots there — hemp.
Down Luckenbach Road sits an old farmhouse with stretches of land that grow a variety of produce. Dogs run down the dirt road alongside incoming vehicles, and it’s several minutes of driving before a field of weeds appears. The earthy smell of hemp fills the air, and the dark green leaves of 30,000 hemp plants bask in the hot Texas sun.
These plants will eventually be transformed into hemp-derived THC beverages for Tejas Tonic, a company that’s seen booming growth, even during turbulent times for the industry.
Tejas Tonic LLC, founded by Aaron Owens, has taken on a seed-to-can business approach that allows it to control its own supply chain and scale as the beverage market booms. It’s a more costly route, but Owens believes his outdoor farm and beverage line are the best way forward for the company, especially as more synthetic versions of THC cloud the market.
Aaron Owens checks on the hemp plants at the Tejas Tonic hemp farm. – Dave Creaney
Still, Tejas Tonic and other THC businesses faced an uphill battle this year. THC was under legislative heat for months, and the multibillion-dollar industry was on the verge of being wiped out. Instead of a total ban, Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the psychoactive drug to be regulated, mainly ensuring only adults at least 21 years old can purchase the products. Owens said regulation is a sign that THC is here for the long haul, and so is his business, which he prefers to grow at a slow and steady pace.
While Tejas Tonic is the biggest user of its hemp, several other businesses have placed orders, including a company based outside of the state and Jester King Brewery and Acopon Brewing Co., which are also using it to make hemp-derived beverages.
Tejas Tonic, founded in November 2022, became profitable in its first 18 months in business. It’s back in the red as Owens reinvests in growing the operation, and the founder said it will likely hit profitability again next summer.
Scale is the name of the game
Owens initially began growing hemp on two acres of his own property in Dripping Springs, then partnered with Craig Jenschke, whose family farm on Luckenbach Road stretches 70 growable acres. Tejas Tonic is currently using six acres, making it the largest outdoor hemp farm in Central Texas by far, according to data from the Texas Department of Agriculture.
The company germinates its hemp seeds in a barn near its fi eld. Three weeks later, Tejas Tonic plants the seeds, lets them grow several feet tall and eventually harvests the flowers that will be steam extracted for essential oils. The oils are then emulsified and prepped for Tejas Tonic beverages. The process takes about 90 days, Owens said, and carries more risk than indoor farming.
“This is all risk,” he said as he stood in the hemp fi eld. “All you see is risk. We could lose all this tomorrow. We could have a flood, we could have a tornado, we could have some weird bugs move in. … We lost everything two years ago because it was so hot.”
Recent flooding stunted the growth of some of the hemp plants, though they will mature.
The upside to farming outdoors? It’s scalable. One acre of hemp yields about 25,000 cases of Tejas Tonic — the current batch being grown can potentially make 150,000 24-count cases, Owens said.
“Beverage is big business,” Owens said. “If you can take Topo Chico, and you can put weed in Topo Chico, you’ll sell billions and billions of them…. So that was my thinking, scalability.”
There’s no doubt the beverage business is big. Just looking at it through the Austin business lens, the largest consumer packaged goods deal to happen in the city was an almost $2 billion purchase of Poppi by PepsiCo. And Nutrabolt, a multibillion-dollar company known for its C4 Energy drinks, is also betting on beverages with an approximately $210 million investment in Bloom Nutrition, which has been gearing up its beverage SKUs between energy drinks, better for you sodas and more.
Tejas Tonic also recently introduced THC gummies, though its beverages are its predominant product.
All about the terpenes
Owens is farming three strains of hemp to extract different essential oils, which contain terpenes — what gives plants their aroma and taste. This distinguishes Tejas Tonic’s product, he said.
The plants the company will soon harvest will be used for the new flavors it’s releasing at South by Southwest in 2026, according to Owens.
People are typically concerned with the level of THC found in a product, but terpenes are a big part of the process, he said.
“That’s like walking up to a bottle of whiskey and saying, how much alcohol do you have?” Owens said. “Most people drink alcohol and consume cannabis, not for the alcohol content or the THC, but for all the flavors and the smells. So terpenes are what drive the smell. They’re what create the flavor, and they’re also what create the effect of the experience.”
Tejas Tonic is heading in the direction of making THC drinks that can have different effects. Some can have a sleepy effect, and others can energize while providing different flavors — it’s all possible through terpenes, he said.
Growth despite threats of a total ban
Between August 2024 and August 2025, Tejas Tonic grew revenue by 30%, according to Hilary Fox, the company’s chief marketing officer.
Fox’s strategy included using different marketing channels, from hiring communications firm Cara Caulkins Communications to growing organic media content, paid media, adding a billboard in Austin, focusing on social media and revamping the company website.
This year, Tejas Tonic grew from 800 accounts to nearly 1,500, which includes retail and on-premises sales. The company’s products can be found in many local watering holes and restaurants, such as Odd Duck, Central Machine Works, Better Half and Deep Eddy Cabaret. Owens and Fox go in person to Austin haunts to strike up relationships with owners, and the pair have been in Austin for a long time with some well-established relationships in the hospitality industry.
The company is also seeing a new consumer evolving — the millennial female, Fox said. Tejas Tonic came out with an Orange Sunshine test flavor that comes in a slimmer can and at a lower dose. The product is a no-sugar, no-carb beverage, making it more attractive to health-conscious consumers.
“The biggest opportunity is that millennial woman. We’re the ones going shopping at the stores,” Fox said.
But this year was riddled with legislative challenges.
Politics suppressed some of the growth, and Tejas Tonic saw distribution plateau around the time THC was thought to be getting banned, according to Owens. Meanwhile, direct-to-consumer and wholesale grew enough to get the company into its 30% year-over-year revenue gain.
As the operators look at a field of growth, they also see a potential for a taproom several years into the future. But, the company is first focused on expansion, research and development and developing the business, Owens said.