There’s a new botanical making the rounds in the functional beverage world, and it’s not CBD, not adaptogens, not mushrooms — though you’ll often find it alongside all of those. It’s kanna, a South African succulent with a surprisingly long history and a suddenly very bright future in the canned drink market.
If you’re a beverage brand thinking about where the category is heading, kanna is worth understanding. And if you’re already shipping canned products direct to consumers, there’s a packaging angle here you’ll want to think about too.
What Is Kanna, Exactly?
Kanna is the common name for Sceletium tortuosum, a medicinal plant native to South Africa that has been used for centuries by the indigenous San and Khoikhoi peoples.  Traditionally, it was chewed, brewed into tea, or used in ritual settings to ease stress and encourage social connection.
The active compounds in kanna include mesembrine, mesembrenone, and mesembrenol, which are thought to be responsible for its effects on mood and anxiety.  In modern beverage formulations, those compounds translate to something genuinely distinct in the functional drink landscape: unlike most adaptogens that work subtly over time, kanna creates an immediate shift — without being intoxicating. It promotes clarity over fog, openness over sedation.
When consumed in liquid form, absorption often happens faster, which can lead to noticeable changes in mood and cognitive function within a shorter time.  For a ready-to-drink product, that’s a meaningful differentiator.
Why It’s Showing Up in Cans
The functional beverage market has been chasing a very specific consumer promise for the last several years: the social ritual of drinking, minus the downsides of alcohol. Kanna fits that promise unusually well.
As non-alcoholic culture rises, consumers still want that sense of connection.  Kanna delivers on that in a way that many other functional ingredients don’t — it’s not just about calm or focus in isolation, it’s specifically linked to sociability and emotional openness.
That’s why brands are leaning into it hard. You’re seeing kanna combined with L-theanine and magnesium for mood elevation, alongside rhodiola and 5-HTP for comprehensive mood support, and even blended with cacao and damiana for social confidence and mood elevation — specifically positioned as a cocktail replacement at social events.
Iconic Tonics, co-founded by Snoop Dogg and Evan Eneman, entered the market at what they describe as a pivotal moment for functional beverages, championing drinks that support mood, focus, and balance without alcohol or cannabis.  When a brand with that kind of visibility plants a flag in a category, it signals something real about where consumer attention is going.
The Legal Landscape (For Now)
One thing beverage producers need to keep a close eye on: kanna drinks are legal in the United States, with one exception — Louisiana, where consumption is not allowed. Sceletium tortuosum has not been scheduled or banned under federal law, making it accessible to interested consumers nationwide. That said, product availability can vary by state or retailer, so brands operating in this space should stay current on local regulations.
This is a familiar situation for anyone who’s been watching the hemp and THC beverage space — federal legality with a patchwork of state-level rules. Producers who already navigate that complexity will find kanna’s regulatory picture relatively straightforward by comparison.
A Growing Category Needs Serious Shipping Infrastructure
Here’s where this gets directly relevant to DTC beverage brands: kanna drinks are almost entirely a direct-to-consumer and specialty retail story right now. These formulations are delicate — kanna, like many plant-based compounds, is sensitive, and that sensitivity shows up quickly during processing and handling. The same is true of shipping. Product that arrives damaged or warm isn’t just a financial loss — it’s a brand experience problem for an audience that’s already paying a premium.
Most kanna brands are working in canned formats. That means can trays and shipping boxes designed specifically for canned beverages aren’t a nice-to-have — they’re essential to protecting the product through a direct-to-consumer journey.
At Whale Pod Shipper, we build corrugated shipping boxes and can trays specifically for beverage brands doing DTC. Whether you’re a kanna startup running your first subscription drop or an established craft brand adding functional SKUs to your lineup, the packaging that gets your cans from your facility to your customer’s door matters more than most brands realize until something goes wrong.
Brands that ship kanna drinks prefer the 12oz Sleek Can Shipping Boxes from Whale Pod, and the ones that are not shipping but still need ways to carry the cans prefer the 12 Pack Sleek Can Carry Trays, or the 24 Pack Sleek Can Carry Trays.
What to Watch
The functional beverage category as a whole is moving fast. The global functional beverage market sits around $170–180 billion in 2025 and is projected to exceed $230 billion by 2029, growing at 7–8% annually. Kanna is one of the younger ingredients in that space, which means early-mover brands still have room to establish themselves before the category gets crowded.
For beverage producers already active in craft beer, cider, or non-alcoholic spaces — this is a category worth watching closely. The consumer appetite is there, the ingredients are becoming more available, and the DTC infrastructure to reach them is already built.
The question is whether your packaging can keep up.
Whale Pod Shipper makes purpose-built corrugated shipping solutions for beverage brands. If you’re shipping cans direct to consumers, we’d love to talk.
Further reading:
• Kanna Drinks Guide – Cheef Botanicals
• Best Kanna Drinks in 2026 – BestNonAlcoholicDrinks.org
• Why Kanna Might Be the Future of Functional Beverages – Bodhi Bubbles