I came across a mind-blowing idea in Elise McDonough’s Hightimes’ article for the best cannabutter recipes, developed by the brilliant Tamar Wise: she mists the baked and cooled cannabis flower with Everclear, “break(ing) down the cellulose in the plant material, helping cannabinoids to migrate into the lipids.” Absolute. F-ing. GENIUS.

The lipid, in this case, is liquid sunflower lecithin, as it’s worked perfectly in other recipes (including mixing RSO into drinks). It’s also a natural emulsifier- simply add a bit of heat and agitation and watch the magic happen: a stable suspension of oil in liquid. (I’ve definitely not had the same luck or consistency of results with powdered lecithin and have yet to try the glycerine method… I’ll report the results when I do).

The result is a simple syrup you can easily measure and mix into “mocktails”, or stir into your tea, or coffee, or add to fruit salad, or top oatmeal, or etc., etc., you get the idea!

(Update of my recipe originally published in January 2019 Issue 516 of Hightimes Magazine)

Cannabis Simple Syrup

Recipe by Jo O’Boyle, inspired by Tamar Wise Course: BasicsCuisine: VeganDifficulty: Medium

Servings

(about 2 Tbsp each)

Prep time

minutes

Active cooking time

hour

Total time

hours

minutes

Cannabis-infused Simple Syrup

Ingredients

2 g dried cannabis flower (adjust amount to suit your purposes and supply)
1 oz Everclear, in a small spray bottle
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup water
1 teaspoon liquid sunflower lecithin
1 tsp corn syrup

Directions

First, decarboxylate the cannabis:
Preheat the oven to a steady 245ºF. (Use an oven thermometer to monitor the temperature and adjust the heat as needed.)
Coarsely grind the cannabis flower, then spread it evenly over a parchment-lined baking pan.
Cover tightly with aluminum foil, crimping the edges shut. Bake for 40 minutes, shaking the tray lightly midway.
Let the pan cool to the touch before removing the foil, then lightly mist the baked cannabis with Everclear in a small spray bottle.
Bring 1 cup of water to a boil a small pot. Turn off the heat and add the sugar, lecithin, and corn syrup, stirring until fully incorporated (the addition of corn syrup helps to prevent the sugar from crystallizing).
Return the heat to a low simmer, using a candy thermometer to keep an eye on the heat range, ensuring it stays as close as possible to around 170ºF.
Mix the baked cannabis into the syrup* and continue to simmer on low for 20 minutes, covering the pot again after the first 5 minutes. Let cool and steep for an hour (or more).

*Here’s where you can get super creative and add other flavors to your syrup- ginger root and lemon are my personal favs. This basic recipe is really fun on its own, as it keeps the unique herbal taste of the weed you start with (which I love personally) and is a new flavor to play with when adding to foods and drinks.
Using cheesecloth and a mesh strainer, strain the solids out of the syrup. Store in an air-tight glass container and mark clearly as containing cannabis, the potency amount in mg’s per serving, and the serving amount. Keeps for up to a month in the fridge.
Basic Cannabis Syrup Cocktail:
Measure out 2 tbsp cannabis simple syrup into a collins glass. Add 8 oz. of sparkling water, stir. Top with ice and enjoy!

Notes

Potency: If starting with 20% THC cannabis flower, the recipe would contain around 400mg THC total. As there are (extremely loose estimations here!) about 21 tbsp in 1 1/3 cup, each resulting tablespoon would contain very approximately 19mg of THC. Adjust your dosage estimates by changing the THC percentage of starting material, amount of flower being used, and number of servings.