Food & Wine has named Vertosa cofounder Harold Han its 2026 Drinks Innovator in a profile published October 30, 2026. The magazine’s recognition centers on the science Han has used to help beverage makers create more consistent cannabis drinks, a category that has pushed new questions about what belongs in a can or glass.
Why Food & Wine singled out Harold Han
Food & Wine’s annual Drinks Visionaries program recognizes people the magazine says are changing the modern beverage industry, across fields that include winemaking, bartending, distilling, brewing, and social advocacy. In Han’s case, the profile focuses on a technical problem that has shaped the cannabis drinks business from the start. Cannabis oil does not naturally mix with water, which makes consistency a core challenge for any infused drink.
According to Food & Wine’s profile, Han built his career around emulsion chemistry long before he entered the cannabis world. The story says he studied how substances that naturally repel each other can be blended into stable mixtures, then carried that background from New York University to Bio-Rad Laboratories. Food & Wine reports that this work later became the basis for Vertosa, the infusion technology company Han cofounded in 2018.
The article frames that scientific background as more than lab work. It says Han’s goal has been to help remove stigma by building trust in a product that behaves predictably. Food & Wine quotes Han saying, “In the early phase of Vertosa, trust was built by good science and consistent product.” For home readers, that may be the clearest takeaway from the award, consistency has become one of the defining issues in emerging beverage categories.
The beverage problem Vertosa set out to solve
Food & Wine says Vertosa quickly focused on some of the category’s harder formulation issues. One of them was evenly blending THC into beverages so the experience would be more consistent from sip to sip. Another was a packaging problem, the profile says THC could stick to the lining of aluminum cans, which could reduce potency over time.
The magazine reports that Vertosa worked with packaging manufacturers to test formulas and can liners in an effort to make canned cannabis beverages more stable. It also says the company’s technology has been used in drinks tied to recognizable names including Pabst Blue Ribbon and Lagunitas. Earlier Vertosa company material tied the infusion platform to Pabst Blue Ribbon Cannabis Infused Seltzer and Lagunitas Hi-Fi Hops, reinforcing the brand connections highlighted in Food & Wine’s profile.
That kind of behind the scenes work rarely gets as much attention as a finished bottle or can, but it shapes how a drink performs once it reaches a cooler or table. Food & Wine presents Han’s work as part ingredient science, part product reliability. In practical terms, that means the award is really about beverage function, not just novelty, and about how formulation can influence whether a new kind of drink feels approachable to consumers.
What the recognition says about drinks right now
Food & Wine’s profile argues that Han’s influence reaches beyond one ingredient category. The story says he is now studying how cannabis beverages affect the body so their effects can become more measurable and predictable. That focus reflects a broader shift in drinks, where formulation, dose, and occasion increasingly matter alongside flavor.
The magazine also describes Han’s view that cannabis beverages are not meant simply to replace wine, beer, or cocktails. Instead, Food & Wine says he sees them as creating another kind of drinking occasion. The profile closes on his idea that drinkers may increasingly ask not just what they want to drink, but how they want to feel, a line that captures why the publication treated his work as category shaping.
For general food readers, the news matters because it shows where beverage innovation is moving, toward precision, consistency, and more clearly defined experiences in the glass. Even for people who never buy a cannabis drink, the recognition points to the kind of product development that is reshaping modern beverages across the industry.