It’s entirely likely you or someone you know has made the unfortunate and all-too-easy party blunder of imbibing too much alcohol and then adding cannabis to the mix. What seems like a natural social combination of a few drinks and a few joints can quickly turn into nauseous, seemingly unending awfulness. The effects of both cannabis and alcohol can creep up on you unexpectedly, as your body interacts with the intake of chemicals at different speeds. I’ve certainly questioned on many a dark morning the plausibility of ever combining the two reliably, under any circumstances. The jury’s still out.
In the meantime, I can report firsthand that enjoying the two individually is the best plan. To take it even further, you can replace an alcoholic beverage with cannabis-infused mocktails, which is beneficial to your body, as opposed to the known havoc wreaked by alcohol. Instead of drinking a numbing poison for kicks, there is now the option of enjoying a plant that has been used throughout recorded civilization as a holistic natural medicine.
The question is, however, how can you enjoy cannabis consumption as innocuously and acceptably as drinking an alcoholic beverage?
Welcome to the world of “mocktails”: cannabis-infused drinks that are a delicious, effective and subtle alternative to an alcoholic beverage. Take extra care when drinking cannabis, as liquids are processed more quickly by your body than edibles, so you may feel the effects in as little as 10-20 minutes. Let it ride for at least 45-90 minutes before drinking more, to be on the safe side.
Remember: you can always drink more, but you cannot go back in time and drink less.
Luckily, it’s impossible to overdose on cannabis, but the effects can be unpleasant and overwhelming if too much is consumed for your personal tolerance.
Here’s a cannabis-infused simple syrup recipe to use as a base ingredient for your own homemade cannabis mocktail creations. It does take some time and patience, but is well worth the effort:
Cannabis-Infused Lemon Simple Syrup Recipe
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup filtered water1 cup sugar12 drops cold-pressed essential lemon oil2 teaspoons corn syrup1/2 gram cannabis BHO concentrate1/2 gram (1 teaspoon) sunflower liquid lecithin (found in health food stores)
DIRECTIONS:
Bring the cup of filtered water to a simmer. Add one cup of sugar (tip: slightly dampening the sugar before adding it to the simmering water will help the crystals incorporate more smoothly), 2-3 drops of essential lemon oil and 1 tsp of corn syrup. Take care not to boil the mixture, as that will alter the ratio of water-to-sugar in the syrup through evaporation.
Loosely cover the saucepan with a lid, and bring the syrup mix to a simmer for 5 minutes. Do not stir, as the sugar may crystallize easily at this stage with the introduction of any foreign particulates. Set it aside to cool slightly during the next step.
Heat cannabis concentrate to a steady 250º F degrees in a glass or stainless steel
