How Can You Create The Perfect Cannabis Infused Sweetener at Home?

Margaret 00:00:05 What happens when you take a love of food, a passion for culture, and a deep knowledge of cannabis and you toss them all into one bowl? You get Bite Me! The podcast that explores the intersection of food, culture, science and cannabis and helps cooks make great edibles at home for less money. I'm your host, Margaret, a certified Ganjier TCI Certified Cannabis educator, and I believe your kitchen is the best dispensary you'll ever have. Together, we'll explore the stories, the science, and the sheer joy of making safe, effective, and unforgettable edibles at home. So pre-heat your oven and get ready for a great episode. Let's dive in. Friends, welcome to the show. If you're joining us for the first time, I am so glad you're here. And if you've been listening for a while, thank you for your ongoing support. Bite me does not exist without listeners like you who are looking to expand their horizons when it comes to what's possible with cannabis and edibles. For today's episode, I'm a little distracted today, so let's get right into it.

Margaret 00:01:09 I just I just gotta I just gotta get it out because I'm a little bit distracted. There's been a lot going on this recording day today. We're going to be getting into something that many of you have probably been curious about, if you haven't already tried it out, maybe even a little frustrated by, and I have talked about it on this show in the past. But when you're getting into this is episode 340, when you're getting into that many episodes, that means when I last spoke about it, I think it was like a long time ago, and it did come up in the Bite Me Cannabis Club. Recently, we were having our weekly high table session, and somebody was talking about infusing either honey or syrup or agave, one of those three things. And, you know, it had been a little bit since I had done a honey infusion myself. And it is an infusion that I love to have on hand. And so we're going to be talking about infusing honey, syrups, agaves and other liquid sweeteners with cannabis.

Margaret 00:02:09 And I know what you're probably picturing. You're picturing this jar of a beautiful little, a beautiful little jar of golden, amber colored infused honey sitting on your kitchen counter, ready to stir into your morning tea or drizzle over drizzle over your cheese board or mix into a cocktail for your next dinner party. And if that sounds effortless, if it sounds elegant, the good news is that it can be. It can definitely be both effortless and elegant at the same time. But there is a few caveats that you have to adhere to when you're trying to infuse honeys and syrups. Because here's the thing. And this is a very common mistake that people make when they're first trying to do these types of infusions. And it results in a product that's either completely ineffective or inconsistent. And we're going to talk about exactly what that mistake is, why it happens at a molecular level. Don't worry, I'll keep it fun and how to do it right so that your infused sweeteners actually deliver the experience that you're hoping for. Because at the end of the day, that's what Bite Me is all about.

Margaret 00:03:14 Not just making edibles, but making edibles that work. Why would you even want infused sweeteners in your edibles pantry in the first place, if you haven't already done it before? And if you've been making edibles for any length of time, you probably have done this before. But if you're relatively new to making edibles, you might be like, why would I bother? And I guess the short answer is versatility. Most of the classic edible infusions that we talk about, like canna butter or coconut oil, are fats, and they are wonderful, but they have a specific flavor profile and a specific texture. And you wouldn't exactly stir a tablespoon of can of butter into a cold glass of lemonade. Nor would you drizzle cannabis coconut oil over a bowl of fresh fruit Without looking kind of strange, and adding a pretty distinctive flavor to that bowl of fruit infused sweeteners. Solve that problem. A well-made cannabis honey or infused syrup is a liquid water friendly flavor for an ingredient that can go almost anywhere, and you can stir it into hot tea iced coffee.

Margaret 00:04:19 You can use it as a base for cocktails and mocktails. I've been experimenting a lot with overnight oats recently, and I used the infused syrup. You could use infused syrup with that. You can drizzle it over your yogurt oatmeal ice cream. You can use it as a glaze for roasted vegetables or grilled salmon. You can swap it into baking recipes anywhere a liquid sweetener is called for. And here's another huge advantage. And that's the shelf life a properly made infused honey will keep up for will keep up to six months stored in a cool, dark place. And now you may know that honey never goes bad, but sometimes introducing things into the honey is what will make it more perishable. But that means you can make a pretty big batch and tuck it away and have it ready to use as an edible ingredient on hand for months. And that's the kind of efficiency that makes your pantry truly work for you. So you can probably see the appeal and the potential is enormous. But to unlock all of that, we need to understand the science.

Margaret 00:05:21 And that starts with one fundamental truth about cannabis. So here's the thing about cannabinoids, as I'm sure you are well aware, because you are an intelligent bunch and you've been listening to this podcast that THC, CBD and all their cannabinoid friends that changes everything when it comes to infusing them into food. And that's the fact that their fat soluble chemists call this being lipophilic, which comes from the Greek words for fat and loving. Cannabinoids are quite literally fat loving compounds. And I'm sure you have heard this many times before. That's why your butter infusion is so effective. That's why your infused coconut oil works so well. That's why you're infused. Olive oil can get you really high. But what does this mean in practice? It means that cannabinoids naturally bind to fat molecules. They dissolve in the fat. They're carried by the fat. And on the flip side, they're hydrophobic, so they actively resist bonding with water. Now think about what honey is or what syrup. Maple syrup is what agave is. What a simple syrup made from sugar and water is.

Margaret 00:06:28 They're all at their core, sugar dissolved in water, and they contain no meaningful fat content whatsoever. So when you try to stir your cannabis oil or decarboxylation flour directly into honey without any fat present, here is what happens at the molecular level. The cannabinoids have nothing to bind to. They float around in the mixture, unattached and absorbed. And when you consume that infusion, your body, which is roughly 60% water, cannot effectively absorb these free floating cannabinoids. They pass through your digestive system, Largely unused, and this is why so many people have tried making cannabis honey and thought, this doesn't really work. And it's not that the idea is wrong, it's that a critical ingredient is missing. I confirmed this with another creator and cookbook author, Vanessa Alvarado, and she found that when she was doing tests because she's done a ton of lab tests, another reason why her cookbook, How to Eat Weed and Have a Good Time is so great is that the lab test came back and the cannabinoid activation in sugar infusions or liquid sugar infusions.

Margaret 00:07:31 They weren't very impressive because this brings us to a concept of bioavailability, which is simply the measure of how much a substance your body can actually absorb and put to use for edibles. In general, the bioavailability of THC is already relatively modest, somewhere between 4 and 12% depending on the individual and what they've eaten. And when you consume cannabinoids without any fat present, that number drops even further, and research suggests that pairing cannabinoids with fat can increase their absorption, but by as much as two and a half times for THC and three times for CBD. That's a pretty significant difference. That's the difference between an edible that works and one that doesn't. The mechanism behind this is something called micelle formation. When your small intestine encounters fat, it produces these tiny microscopic transport vehicles called micelles. Their job is to package fat soluble compounds, vitamins, nutrients, and, yes, cannabinoids, and carry them across your intestinal wall and into the bloodstream. No fat, no micelles, no micelles, no effective absorption. It's really that simple.

Margaret 00:08:43 So now that we understand the problem, let's talk about the solution. And the solution is elegant, easy to find, and has almost no flavor on its own, which is what makes it possible for this application. And the solution is fat. Now, in the example I used before when I did this episode, probably five years ago, maybe longer. I should look up the date of the original post. I used MCT oil, and MCT oil is just a medium chain triglyceride. That's what MCT stands for, and it's an oil derived from coconuts, and it has a few properties that make it ideal. Make it an ideal carrier for sugar infusions. First, it stays liquid at room temperature, unlike regular coconut oil, which solidifies when it's cool. This means it will blend seamlessly into your honey or syrup without creating any weird texture issues or flavor issues. And second, it has an extremely neutral flavor, so it won't compete with the beautiful floral notes of a good honey or the rich caramel depth of a real maple syrup.

Margaret 00:09:41 And third, it's widely available at health food stores, grocery stores, and online. Now, do bear in mind that you don't have to use MCT oil. I did run out of MCT oil a little while ago, and I had it for quite some time, and it lasted quite a while. It wasn't my top pick for infusing cannabis into it. But I went when I went back to the store to get some more, I was pretty shocked at how much it had gone up in price, like everything these days. So of course you could use coconut oil as well. You can also use olive oil, and because you don't really need a whole lot of fat to go into your your sugar infusion, the flavor is going. I don't think the flavor is going to be affected that much, especially because maple syrup and honey both have pretty strong flavors all on their own. So the ratio that you're looking for is approximately two tablespoons of your infused fat for every three quarters of a cup for honey or syrup.

Margaret 00:10:38 And that's enough fat to give the cannabinoids a proper home without making your honey taste or feel oily. Now, before we even get to the honey, we need to talk about the single most important step in all of edible making. And I'm sure you can sing it along with me, my friends. Decarboxylation. Okay, that's that's enough singing for me for today. I know, I know, and you've probably heard me say this before, but it bears repeating, because skipping this step is the number one reason why homemade edibles often don't work the way we want them to. But raw cannabis contains the THC, and THC is not intoxicating. It only becomes the THC we know and love when it's exposed to heat. And this conversion is called decarboxylation. And it happens when you bake your cannabis around 230 240°F for approximately 30 minutes. Put it on a baking sheet, cover loosely to preserve terpenes, and let the oven do the work. And once it comes out, it will look toasted. It will smell also quite toasted.

Margaret 00:11:39 And there's a few things you can do to mitigate that smell. Of course you can put it in a jar. You can wrap it up in some parchment paper. Those are a couple of options as well. But anyway, you also discard your cannabis when you vaporize it, or when you smoke a joint or or hit a bong because you are discovering it by adding the heat from the lighter or whatever you're using to warm it up. It's the same thing, same principle. So for sugar infusion specifically, I you can also use kief or cannabis crystals rather than flour. Kief is the pon is the fine, powdery trickle material that collects in the bottom of your grinder. It's super concentrated and incorporates into the liquid sweeteners much more smoothly than plant material, and it gives you a much cleaner final product. You can also use a cannabis concentrate or distillate if you have access to one and you know its potency. So that's just another option that you can do if you happen to have if you save your kief.

Margaret 00:12:40 All right. So let's make some infused honey. This recipe comes straight from the Bite Me kitchen. And like I said, I did this quite a long time ago, but I think it was time for revisit because like I said, it came up in the Bite Me Cannabis Club High Table. And the beautiful thing about this is that it works equally well for any of your liquid sweeteners honey, maple syrup, agave, molasses, potentially even. I've never actually used it for molasses. So if anybody out there has done that, please let me know how that turned out. It's the same technique, same ratios, but different, very different flavor profiles. And here's what you'll need. And this is the way I like to do most of my infusions, because you don't need any fancy equipment. As much as I do like having some of the devices I have on hand because because my counter space is limited, I don't keep them out all the time. So sometimes I just don't want to get all the shit out.

Margaret 00:13:30 You don't need it. You don't. You don't have to have it there. Nice to haves, not must haves. So what you need is a clean glass jar with a lid. A pot big enough to hold the jar, a tea towel, silicone, or your oven mitts and tongs. maybe a blender as your sweetener of choice. Like whether you're using honey or or whatever your sweetener, you're going to be using about three quarters of a cup and two tablespoons of your infused fat. So maybe in this case you're using MCT oil. Maybe you're using olive oil. And if you have it, if you wish, you can also use sunflower lecithin. It's an optional ingredient. I do recommend it because lecithin is a natural phospholipid. It's a type of fat, and it's found in sunflower, soybeans, eggs, avocado. So you can get sunflower lecithin, also soybean lecithin. And it acts as an emulsifier, which means it bridges the gap between the oil and the water, keeping them bonded together so they don't separate over time.

Margaret 00:14:28 And so if you've ever made, like a vinaigrette and you watched the the oil and vinegar separate from each other, after a few minutes, you understand the problem the lecithin solves. I did a whole episode on this a little while ago, probably about a year ago. I can link to it in the show notes as well. If you're interested in learning more about lecithin and why, it can be a worthwhile, optional ingredient to have on hand. So you add about a teaspoon of sunflower lecithin per cup of liquid and your infusion will stay beautifully combined. Now of course I've done it with and without. It also does introduce another flavor into your infusion, so there may be times where you don't want to use it. It's pretty easy to find at health food stores and online. It comes in a liquid which is pretty thick liquid. It kind of reminds me of liquid honey. Actually, as far as like texture and consistency. And it's not very expensive unless prices have gone up a lot since I bought it last.

Margaret 00:15:24 It has been a little while because I do use it, but I don't use it like all the time. All right, so here's the method. You're going to start by combining your chosen sweetener with your chosen fat. And you're going to put them together in a glass jar. Give it a good stir and then close the lid. And then you're going to take your jar and put it in the pot. And then fill the pot so that the water comes up above the line of what's in the jar. And you're going to bring the water to a boil. And then once it gets to a boil, turn the heat down and let it do its thing. When I first did this episode, however long ago it was actually it was uploaded in 2020. It said to infuse it for two hours. But of course, I have learned since then that 30 minutes is all that's necessary. You don't need to do it for the two hours anymore. Especially in this particular case, you're already using an infused oil.

Margaret 00:16:17 You definitely don't need to do it for so long because you're not really infusing the honey the same way. I've seen people also where they just take some of the infused coconut oil or whatever fat that they're using and give it a really good stir into their syrup. But of course, when you do warm it up, it does make the honey much or much more liquid. It would be the same with maple syrup as well, even though maple syrup already is a liquid, but it makes it more viscous, which makes it easier to incorporate that fat. So after your 30 minutes, you're going to use your oven mitts to carefully remove the jar from the pot. You can set it on a tea towel or heat safe surface and let it cool until you can comfortably handle it. And then you're going to give it another really good stir. Now as it's in the pot, it's a good habit just to give it a little swirl every so often. Because I would do this if I was like just doing a regular infusion, just to give it a good mix while it's in there.

Margaret 00:17:10 And then because you've done it this way, you also don't need to. You also don't need to put it into another clean glass jar, but do make sure you label it. If you didn't listen to my episode last week, label, label, label and make it clear what's in that jar and label with the dates, your estimated potency and you can still store it in a cool, dark place and keep for up to six months. But honestly, I don't think it'll last that long. Now that you've made your infusion, we can talk about what you can actually do with this gorgeous little thing that you've made, because the possibilities are generally exciting. And the most obvious one, like we've already just been talking about, is stirring it into a hot tea or coffee, because a spoonful of infused honey in a camomile tea before bed is one of life's little pleasures. You can add it to iced drinks infused simple syrup, as it particularly is particularly wonderful here because it dissolves into cold liquids, making it perfect for cocktails and mocktails.

Margaret 00:18:09 You could add it to salad dressings, because sometimes those salad dressings will ask for a little bit of honey or maple syrup. Or you could use agave in a lot of these as well to give it a little bit of sweetness. And you can use these infused sweeteners and baking as a 1 to 1 substitute for their non infused counterparts. Infused maple syrup and your banana bread infused agave or granola. I mean, the applications are as broad as your imagination, so if you have a recipe that calls for a syrup or a honey, you could just swap that out for your infused version. So before we go, I want to leave you with an important few important reminders about dosing, because infused sweeteners are particularly easy to over consume, because they taste wonderful and they don't really taste like cannabis, and they go into the things that you already love eating and drinking. And that combination can lead to accidentally having more than you intended. And so, as always, start low and go slow. If you're brand new and you've never done edibles before, start with a couple of milligrams per serving.

Margaret 00:19:07 And if you're more experienced and you know your tolerance, then just be mindful of how much you're using in your recipe and how many servings that recipe produces. Which is why I always like to figure out the potency of whatever it is that I'm making, even if it's not 100% accurate, because you at least have a benchmark. And with that benchmark, you can make informed decisions. And if you need a refresher on that, I did do an episode on calculating the potency like a pro. I had a whole dosing cheat sheet. Of course, there's always the edibles calculator. And I did refresh the edibles calculator put up a new one that I thought was a little more user friendly. That's it for this episode today, my friend and I hope you feel excited and empowered to make something sweet and wonderful. And until next time my friends, I'm your host, Margaret. Take care of yourself. Take care of each other, stay curious and stay high.