Brewing, Cideries & Spirits  September 20, 2021

Longmont hemp producer breaking into fizzy new market

LONGMONT — CFH Ltd., a Longmont hemp grower and CBD product maker, has added a new item to its offerings mix: James & James CBD seltzer. 

In development for about two years, the James & James brand was launched this year and seltzers are now available in retailers throughout Colorado and Wyoming. 

When founder Jim Ott launched CFH nearly a decade ago, “our whole mission was to create products that really help people with their health,” he said. “So from there we worked backward to create a really vertically integrated company.”

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Ott and his team “started to do a bunch of R&D on the genetics side and on crop production” and eventually built a farm and research facility near Denver International Airport. The company’s administration, manufacturing, packaging and warehousing functions are performed in Longmont where most members of the team of about 35 work. 

The company makes tinctures, topicals, softgels and gummies that are sold both as private label and CFH-branded products.

Ott decided to take a chance on seltzer because he started noticing a “less alcohol, less calories, less sugar trend” among consumers. 

Seltzer — and CBD beverages generally — can provide quicker onset and better utilization of compounds than softgels or gummies, he said. 

Unlike most of the other CBD beverages on the market, James & James is packaged in glass bottles rather than cans.

“We came to the conclusion that we were far better off putting it in glass because you don’t have that absorption issue,” Ott said. “A lot of the early entrants that went into cans have kind of come and gone.”

The next step for CFH is adding other functional ingredients, including other cannabinoid compounds, and new flavors to its seltzer line, and expanding distribution into new states. 

Ott said the company is not planning to break into the THC beverage business.

“That’s not for us” because of distribution and regulatory challenges, he said.

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LONGMONT — CFH Ltd., a Longmont hemp grower and CBD product maker, has added a new item to its offerings mix: James & James CBD seltzer. 

In development for about two years, the James & James brand was launched this year and seltzers are now available in retailers throughout Colorado and Wyoming. 

When founder Jim Ott launched CFH nearly a decade ago, “our whole mission was to create products that really help people with their health,” he said. “So from there we worked backward to create a really vertically integrated company.”

Ott and his team “started to do a bunch of R&D on…

Lucas High
A Maryland native, Lucas has worked at news agencies from Wyoming to South Carolina before putting roots down in Colorado.
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