Easy Pumpkin Spice Creamer, Elevated

Margaret 00:00:04 Welcome friends to Bite Me, the podcast that lives right at the delicious intersection of food, culture and cannabis. I am your host and Certified Ganjier and TCI certified Cannabis educator, Margaret, and I'm here to help you take control of your high life. We're demystifying edibles from pantry to potency so you can create safe, effective, and incredibly tasty treats right in your own home kitchen. So whether you're a seasoned chef or just starting out, get ready to unlock the magic. I'm so glad you're here. Let's get cooking. So with that, friends, you may be wondering what today Margaret, will we be covering in Bite Me, the show about edibles, and I'm glad you asked. Which is, of course, why you're here. We are going to be doing a pumpkin spice creamer. Yes, it is spooky season. I'm recording this in October and it's fall where I am and Halloween is just around the corner and it's pumpkin everything. And I'm always looking for new and interesting ways to incorporate a little pumpkin into my life.

Margaret 00:01:08 Sadly, my kids have grown and I live in a rural area, so no trick or treaters. So alas, I have not carved a pumpkin this year. There is always something fun about carving pumpkins. I've had opportunities to do it in the last couple of years with other folks, but this year I just haven't gotten around to it. And I mean, it's not really what's the point when you know nobody's coming to your house? I can tell you, my 94 year old father does not give a shit about any of that stuff. But the one thing that I really miss about carving pumpkins is the roasted pumpkin seeds. Literally my favorite part. I would always carve a pumpkin with the fam, and then I would gather all the seeds and roast them, and we'd be enjoying them for the week leading up to Halloween, I have done an episode on infusing pumpkin seeds as well. If that's something that you'd like to do, it's pretty easy. Of course, another nice way to incorporate a little cannabis into your life without too much thought or effort.

Margaret 00:02:02 But no matter how you enjoy them, that's one of my favorite parts. Now I will be going out for Halloween because it's on a Friday night, and a friend asked me if I wanted to go out and maybe even dress up. And so while we will be responsible middle aged ladies and going home at a reasonable hour, I may be donning a costume after all this year, even though I won't be handing out any candy at the door. And to be honest, that's fine with me as well because I have done many a years. Like I'm sure many of you listening have bought candy to hand out for Halloween, only to have to resupply yourself closer to the date because you ate it all. Am I alone in this? Please tell me I'm not. We are going to get into this week's recipe in just a minute. Before we do, I had the opportunity recently to go to an event in Toronto at the Coffee Oyster Champagne Bar. It was an event hosted by Emerald Hour, which is a Canadian cannabis beverage company that has recently launched a new line of edibles rosin based edibles.

Margaret 00:03:07 Emerald hour is also rosin based, and I got this invite to the event. Not really sure what to expect. I don't get to go to these things too often. It's always a pleasure when I get invited and I got to say I was impressed. I had such a great time. I brought a friend who was not a typical cannabis consumer. We've talked about weed lots, but I'm actually I have a friend group right now, lovely human beings. I'm so blessed to have wonderful friends in my life, but they don't consume cannabis. I'm alone in this mission. However, for this night, she was going to be adventurous with me and she joined me as a plus one. They had cannabis cocktails on tap all evening. I shouldn't say on tap. They were made by the bartender. You got to choose your infusion level so you could have decide how what the potency was based on your preference, and then they would smoke the cocktails. The one I remember the most is the rosemary, which was the whole experience was just so beautiful and my friend did imbibe.

Margaret 00:04:04 She had a great time and now I'm thinking, hey, maybe she'll want to do this again and we can hang out again and enjoy some beverages or some edibles. Now that she's feeling comfortable enough to do that and in a public place. Because let's not forget, friends, that set and setting applies just as much to your cannabis usage as it does to say, psychedelic substances, because it gets talked a lot about in psychedelics, but it applies to cannabis as well. So she was comfortable enough to consume. I had some of the I had one of the new emerald. Our gummies was delicious. I was actually really impressed by it. As somebody who has eaten a lot of legal market gummies, these ones were really good. And I like the fact, of course, that they're using live rosin as the method of infusion, as opposed to a distillate, which you see so commonly. I think that edibles makers are really now starting to up their game. The entire evening I had the cocktails, they were handing out some of these gummies.

Margaret 00:04:57 They had a candy bar. They were playing the baseball game because at the time of this event, the Blue Jays were in the series. It was the last game of the series before going to the World Series. So for those of you who don't listen, don't really care about baseball. The Blue Jays are the only Canadian team in the Major League Baseball League. So I mean, who else do you root for? The vibes are amazing. There is no alcohol at all at this event. Live jazz. The whole thing was just so well done, and I really feel as though Canada needs these spaces that are dedicated to cannabis for those who want to be in that atmosphere again. It was a champagne bar, so obviously they typically serve alcohol, but all the beverages were non-alcoholic and it was such a good vibe. Well done Emerald. Our why don't we have these types of consumption spaces I don't know. It would be so easy. There was lots of people who were going outside to smoke cannabis as well.

Margaret 00:05:53 Not an issue. But if you weren't wanting to smoke or vape. You could stay inside and enjoy edibles and infused cocktails. The atmosphere. Why Canada doesn't have these yet I don't know. This was a private event, so this is how they were able to be able to serve the cannabis. We just marked seven years of legalization on October 17th. Still not cannabis spaces. I think there's a need for it more. The more I talk to folks, to, the more I realize that they are giving up drinking or drinking, just substantially less. Because every time you open the news, there's some article or some story or video about how alcohol is not healthy for you. I think the last one I saw was a link between alcohol and dementia, and having seen some people go through the ravages of dementia, I can tell you that I wouldn't wish that on anybody. That was a super fun event, and I'm really glad that I got the invite and was able to go. Now, I did want to ask.

Margaret 00:06:54 Speaking of being in downtown Toronto, because when we are taking the train back to our little town, there was a concert getting out. And I just wanted to ask you folks, as a fun segue way before we get into this week's episode, what musical artist do you hate to admit that you actually like? And I'll start with this one. I would almost say that there's many folks in Canada who may feel this way, but the answer is Nickelback. Nickelback is a Canadian band. It's the band that people love to hate, and yet they have a lot of catchy bangers, a lot of catchy tunes that many people know. So let's talk about this pumpkin spice creamer. I have had three cups of coffee with it, and today, so I'm flying pretty high without any cannabis at the moment, although it was infused with CBD because I figured if I'm going to be putting it in my morning coffee, I don't necessarily need to start with THC, right? First thing in the day. But I do like to start my morning with CBD.

Margaret 00:08:01 This also means that I could share it with my father, but I have enough ingredients to make another batch. I just wanted to make the batch as called for, just to see how it would turn out. And if you like pumpkin spice lattes or any of that kind of thing, I think you'll really enjoy this one. It's not as sweet, I would say not as artificial tasting. Obviously you're making it yourself, so all the ingredients are simple, and from your pantry you may have to go out and buy a couple of things. I'd say the the biggest thing that you need for this recipe is spices. And if you already have those, you're halfway there. You need heavy cream. So this is not for those watching calories I guess. Haha. You need some canned pumpkin maple syrup which was the infusion point. Ground cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice, and vanilla extract. If you don't have pumpkin pie spice, you can easily make that yourself. Which is what I did because I had all the ingredients to make pumpkin pie spice.

Margaret 00:09:04 I think you needed like more cinnamon, ginger, clove, a couple things like that. I'll add it into the show notes so you can make your own if you want. Because when I went to the store to get the cream, I did look to see if they had pumpkin pie spice. And perhaps because it was after Canadian Thanksgiving, there was none left. Or maybe they never had any to begin with because they went to the local grocery store that I can walk to near my house, and it's pretty small, so they just don't have like great selection. So this one's pretty easy to put together with warm spices, real pumpkin puree, and sweet maple syrup, this pumpkin spice creamer adds a taste of fall to your morning coffee. It's free of artificial ingredients, and it's ready in 15 minutes. I can confirm all of this and you don't have to consume it right away. I have put some. I bottled it up and put it in the fridge, so I've been enjoying it for the last couple of days.

Margaret 00:09:53 I don't typically put sweetener in my coffee, but again, it uses a quarter cup for the whole batch, so it's not a lot of sweetener. And this is again your infusion point. So I did infuse maple syrup before starting this whole process. And if you've been listening to my episodes for a while, you know that I did that in 30 minutes instead of two hours, which made it so much simpler, so much faster. So I was able to do that. And then I put together this recipe and basically you put it all in a saucepan. All the ingredients I mentioned a second ago, you heat the mixture until it comes to a boil, then you reduce the heat, let it simmer for a couple of minutes and that's it. You just want to blend it, stir it to make sure that everything is blended up smoothly into the cream. And then you take it off the stove. You can use it right away, which I did because I had to test it out. And then you can allow it to cool to room temperature and store it for later, which I've also done, And I am now finding reasons why I should be drinking more coffee.

Margaret 00:10:56 During my day I had four cups of coffee yesterday. You guys. For now, I will preface that I will. I will mention that that was two cups of coffee plus two cups of decaf. So I at least know that if I switch to decaf, I can still at least sleep in the evening. So I don't think that's really that bad, is it? Usually I just have two cups of coffee, but this stuff was so good I had to have more. So I'm up to three cups today. Two cups of my caffeinated one cup decaf. I had one just before I started this, this podcast episode so I could get in the mood, feel. Feeling festive, feeling fall. This would be a lovely thing to have if you're having people over to, and you're going to be serving coffee to people in the morning as an option for those Americans listening, Thanksgiving is coming up. You might be entertaining or be great for Christmas. A nice little thing to bring as a thank you to a host.

Margaret 00:11:54 I just think it's simple, easy to infuse. You're going to love it. Now, you could of course, infuse the milk if you wanted, but honestly, when you're infusing the syrup, there was no cannabis taste whatsoever in this recipe. If you do find as well that you're making it, and there isn't quite enough cannabis content for you in the maple syrup, you can probably always add a little extra maple syrup if you wanted. I did make a little extra because as a Canadian, maple syrup is often coursing through my veins. And I did the calculations. I did get out my dosing cheat sheet. I didn't even use my online calculator because I got to do this math. I got to make sure I've got it down. So I was calculating the potency of my maple syrup as well, and I wrote it down somewhere and I can't remember where I put it, but I used about four grams of CBD dominant flower, a Charlotte's Angel, which I had declared Previously and then infused into this maple syrup.

Margaret 00:12:55 It was four grams of CBD into half a cup of maple syrup. I estimated it that it was about 15g or, sorry, 15% CBD. I actually, I'm guessing at that. I don't really know, but I'm always a little less concerned about it when it's CBD because it's not intoxicating. So not to say that you shouldn't be careful, but I'm a little less I'm a little more comfortable with the estimations that you're making when it comes to CBD. I do have a t check kit, the expansion kit that allows you to test the potency of the flour, and I may actually do that soon, but I haven't done that yet, I have to admit, so that those are the ratios I used. I think it came out to. I did write it down somewhere, damn it. Anyway, I will link to the dosing sheet as well. It's like a handy cheat sheet that you can use to calculate. It also takes into account the infusion loss when you're infusing something, infusing anything, there's going to be a little bit of loss of potency, and it's just really handy to know the flour that I used.

Margaret 00:13:55 It was homegrown, so that's why I was guesstimate and I wasn't really sure how potent it would be, but. So I highly recommend you give this a try. It's so easy. It's so simple. And what's not to love about adding a little bit of cannabis to your morning coffee? Doesn't cannabis and coffee go perfectly together? Are the CBD just helps calm the nervous system before you start on a busy day? And who have I been working lately? Let me tell you, I've been flying high. I'm planning some projects for Bite Me coming up that I'm excited to share, but I'm not quite ready yet. I've also been working on a root ball infusion, something we've been talking about quite a bit in the Bateman Cannabis Club, which I invite you to. It's a beautiful space where we're talking about all kinds of fun things. But RuPaul infusions have been discussed quite a bit, so I tried my own because I recently harvested my cannabis plants. They were outdoor in soil, so the most difficult part about that RuPaul infusion was just having to get the dirt out of the root ball.

Margaret 00:14:50 That was the most difficult part. And then infusing them because I had a guest on my show a while ago. Now I will link to that in the show notes as well. And he was making soap with cannabis, but a lot of the folks in the Cannabis Club were also talking about how they found RuPaul. Infusions were really high in CBG, and they anecdotally found it very good for making topicals actually had better results with RuPaul infusions included in their pain salves. So I thought that was really interesting. And I used topicals every single day. As I've mentioned before, I'm a middle aged lady. I have the aches and pains of living a full and exciting life, so I use topicals every single day on my back. In fact, I found that more useful than almost anything else, and I've tried other modalities for reducing the back pain that I experience. Cannabis topicals. They're easy to make and effective, so why wouldn't I go that route? So I'll be experimenting with that. I'll share some of those.

Margaret 00:15:52 I'll be sharing that for sure in the Bite Me Cannabis Club. Again, if you want to join, check it out. Join me. I'd love to have you over there. If you're so inclined, please share this episode with somebody that you think will enjoy it. Somebody who needs a little pumpkin spice in their life. I appreciate you so much for being here and sharing your time with me, because that's really what you're doing. Anytime you listen to a podcast, you're sharing your time. And time is such a precious resource, isn't it? Because that's what these big tech giants are always trying to get from us. Our attention, which is our time. I thank you for freely giving it to me to share this little corner of the internet as we talk about cannabis and edibles and all the wonderful things that have to do with it. I don't know what else to say. I'm feeling very my heart's very full lately, and I'm very grateful for the wonderful people in my life, the people I've met through this podcast in my community.

Margaret 00:16:39 It's the little things that really make your life feel rich. Because God knows, going to the grocery store sure doesn't. I think that's it for this week, my friends. I'm your host, Margaret. Stay high.