As if we didn’t have enough exciting, invigorating, relaxing, stimulating and generally delicious ways to enjoy cannabis, now there’s one more to add to the mix: cannabis-infused tea!
Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. After all, it’s a safe bet that if something is edible, people have tried adding cannabis to it. And in one of those strange little twists of history, for many years “tea” was a codeword for marijuana, as reported by Time Magazine way back in 1943.
These days, things are different (for which we’re profoundly grateful). Though of course, we’re still waiting on full legalization on the national level, those of us fortunate enough to live in cannabis-legal states can enjoy these delicious psychoactive infusions. But that begs the question: Why sip cannabis tea at all?
Marijuana Teas: All the Benefits of Cannabis, but a Gentle Ride
All sorts of people choose cannabis for all sorts of reasons; some love smoking traditional flower, others the rush and intense flavors of concentrates. And some folks want the recreational and medicinal benefits of cannabis in a format that’s portable, soothing, and gentle on their stomachs: Enter cannabis teas.
One characteristic of cannabis beverages is that their onset time—the delay until the cannabis takes effect—is longer than that for smoking or vaporizing, sometimes up to 90 minutes. That said, ingested THC processed is processed differently by the body compared with smoking (through the liver, as opposed to the lungs). And it’s effect is usually quite a bit stronger. So if you’re trying cannabis tea for the first time, be prepared to wait a bit for it to take effect, and perhaps take less than you might imagine is the “right” dose, just to err on the safe side.
We’re excited to offer a range of cannabis beverages—including several varieties of tea—but if you’re more into homebrew, read on.
How to Make Marijuana Tea at Home
At its simplest level, making cannabis tea is as simple as brewing any other tea: Herbs or plants are infused in hot or cold water. But to get the maximum extraction of the cannabinoids—the “active ingredients” in cannabis—you’ll want to go a step further.
In raw marijuana, THC is considered to be inactive; the heat applied when smoking, vaporizing, or processing the plant converts the inactive THCA form to active THC.
So the simplest tea recipe would involve gently heating cannabis flower in water to activate the THC. However, as you may well know, THC is not water-soluble.
Instead, we recommend heating the cannabis flower in a fat, such as coconut oil or butter, to better extract the cannabinoids, and then blending it with prepared tea to make a sort of latte.
Alternately, you could add an alcohol—or glycerine-based cannabis tincture to a regular water-infused tea of your choice. This may lessen the thrill of brainstorming your own extraction, but it certainly makes for an easier time of it!
If you want to learn more about cooking with cannabis, may we recommend a time-honored recipe of our own? Go read a book. And if you’ve come up with an exciting cannabis infusion of your own, don’t keep it to yourself: Drop us a line!
