Tampa-based THC beverage designed for athletic recovery, alcohol fatigue

For Stephen Samson, alcohol had simply become a part of the job. 

A serial entrepreneur, the 46-year-old held top jobs at PwC and Accenture, leading large-scale tech implementations for Fortune 500 companies across multiple continents. That was before stepping into C-suite leadership himself, founding three companies and acquiring a fourth. 

Whether working in the healthcare, manufacturing, retail, energy, government, high-tech or even mining sector, Samson quickly learned all held a similarity: Business often gets done in bars. Grabbing drinks became a daily ritual and, as he got older, so did the daily hangovers. 

Whenever they were available, Samson found he could circumvent a morning headache and still get a good night’s sleep by reaching for THC-based beverages instead of alcohol when out with clients. But doing so came with its own challenges. 

Selling THC-based beverages is legal in dozens of states thanks to a 2018 federal legislation, but they’re still hard to find in many bars, he says, and it’s even harder to find options that provide the desired effects and still taste good. 

That’s why Samson and his friend-turned-partner Jason “Jay” Ashton decided to invent their own.

That move became Last Rep — a hemp-derived Delta 9 THC and CBG beverage that bills itself as the "world's first athletic recovery cocktail." 

The drink mixes cannabinoids with electrolytes and adaptogens to support post-workout recovery, hydration and relaxation, the duo says — the "clean alternative to alcohol" that Samson was seeking. In a few months on the market, Last Rep has been picked up by roughly a dozen local bars, liquor stores and even gyms and wellness institutions. The goal, Samson and Ashton say, is to get Last Rep in 50 to 100 stores across Florida by the end of the year before branching out to other states. 

“I just felt like we could do it better,” Samson says of the first push for Last Rep. “I told Jay I wanted something that was low in calories and had all the positive effects of alcohol but you could drink quite a few of them so you could still go out and be social, but also wake up fresh and ready the next morning. Then Jay came up with the idea behind Last Rep, of marketing it to the everyday athlete.”

But Last Rep goes far beyond just marketing to athletes. 

Its unique formula, created by Ph.Ds in a Tampa-based distillery, is a first-of-its-kind combination of fast-acting THC, its derivative CBG — referred to as the “mother of all cannabinoids,” adaptogens and electrolytes in a zero-sugar, six-calorie seltzer. That means Last Rep, its founders say, can ease anxiety, provide feelings of light euphoria and reduce stress while also hydrating the body and helping muscles recover post-workout, reducing pain and inflammation. 

“The name Last Rep just popped into my head because this drink is like the ‘last rep’ of the day,” Ashton says. “Whether I’m drinking one immediately post workout or I’m grabbing one to go hang out with friends and be social or I’m coming off a 12-hour work day and, instead of reaching for another glass of wine, bourbon or a beer, I grab one of these instead. That’s my last rep of the day.”

'A clean buzz'

Yes, drinking Last Rep will show up on a drug test, the company warns. But the hemp-derived Delta-9 THC variant offers a lot more than a traditional “high.”

“It's going to give you a little bit of euphoria,” Ashton says. “It's going to completely relax you because of not only the THC, but all the other functional ingredients. And when you start picking at those individual ingredients, holy shit, there's a lot more benefits to it than smoking weed.”

Consumers have the option of purchasing 5 mg or 10 mg cans of Delta-9THC per serving. The athletic recovery drink also has “more electrolytes than Gatorade,” Ashton says, as well as potassium, sodium and magnesium for optimal hydration, muscle relaxation, fluid balance and energy production. Other ingredients include L-Theanine, Ashwagandha and ginger extract for digestion, stress relief and enhanced recovery. 

Last Rep now comes in lime or orange flavors, though Ashton says he likes to mix the two together in a bubbly, citrusy cocktail.

Ashton and Samson soft-launched Last Rep in December after an initial production run of 14,000 cans, premiering the beverage at St. Petersburg’s High and Dry Festival. Within 90 days, Last Rep was being sold online and at roughly a dozen retailers, bars, and athletic facilities throughout Tampa Bay. Those include Lukens Wine & Spirits, Herban Flow, Southern Grounds, Pour House, Gaspar’s Liquor Shoppe and even Burg CrossFit in St. Petersburg. 

You can grab a Last Rep before or after your sauna at Embers and Ice in Tampa and the drink is even being sold at Be Bold physical therapy center in St. Petersburg. Last Rep has also popped up at local events, Samson says, like the Florida Shamrock Distance Classic and Raymond James Stadium’s FitFest. 

Samson and Ashton are both serial entrepreneurs. Samson had actually retired from AccuHealth, a patient monitoring company he founded and scaled in the medical device sector, and was traveling the world with his wife when he approached Ashton. 

Ashton, meanwhile, was working as the president and CEO of GPS tracking company CallPass, and had also launched a multi-platform sports show called Casual Chaos Live. Both men brought more than two decades of experience building brands when they teamed up to create Last Rep. And they found success by building off their self-funded idea the same way they built companies, they say: knowing the limits of their own expertise and hiring specialists to fill in the gaps. The pair declined to disclose how much money was invested in starting Last Rep.  

A co-packing partner handles manufacturing, sources ingredients for their expert-created formula and completes required testing before production runs. The THC itself, though, comes from Minnesota-based supplier Virtuosa, which produces nano-emulsified cannabinoids. That process disperses THC more evenly throughout the liquid, making for a more predictable experience for the drinker than traditional THC beverages or edibles. 

Photo by Mark Wemple

Harshing my mellow

Still, selling their hemp-derived THC product — while legal — comes with challenges. 

The 2018 Farm Bill, officially the Agriculture Improvement Act, made it legal to sell products containing THC so long as it’s derived from hemp — even in states like Florida where laws forbid the sale of recreational cannabis products. In November, though, Congress approved a spending bill that also set a one-year deadline to close the hemp loophole by adding new restrictions that have yet to be seen by the industry, Samson says.

The second big challenge facing Last Rep and other beverages like it is marketing, Samson says. Regardless of legal classification, social media sites like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Google and “all things meta and digital” consider THC a drug and place tight restrictions on the way it’s marketed online. Bots search the web, trolling for keywords that indicate a recreational drug is being sold and then “shadowban” products, Samson says. 

On top of that, the state of Florida places extra restrictions on how these products are marketed so they don’t appeal to children. 

“The scrutiny goes so far as you can’t use certain color palettes in your marketing, you can’t use people, you can’t use animals acting like people,” Samson says. “I think the perception is still, ‘Hey, this is a drug and we don’t know what to do with it,’ and that’s the biggest hindrance we’ve faced when it comes to selling product. Every state is a little bit different.”

For now, Samson and Ashton are focused on spreading Last Rep throughout Florida. After that, Texas is next, the partners say. 

“So far, everyone who has tried it — at least in front of me — says it’s delicious, and I think it's really starting to get a groundswell here locally,” Ashton says. “Whenever we’re at an event, most of the time people think it’s an energy drink, then they see it’s THC and they ask me: ‘Is this going to get me high?’ I’ll look at them and say, ‘Have you ever pointed to a can of alcohol and asked, ‘Is this going to get me drunk?’ Then you ask them if they would like a 5 milligram or 10 milligram can and that same person who asked you, ‘Am I going to get high?’ a moment earlier will smile and go, ‘I’ll take the 10.’”