Berry Punch

00:00 Thanks for In this episode we're talking about Berry Punch. Welcome to Bite Me, the show about edibles, where I help you take control of your high life.\

00:29 I am your host, Mark, and I just want to say thank you for being here. That's my little thank you for being here song.\

00:35 I hope you enjoyed it. And yeah, it's okay. Thank you, thank you. Thank you. Actually, I should joke about that because my husband makes fun of my singing all the time.\

00:45 It's definitely not a talent that I have, so. In any case, before we get into this week's episode, I just found an interesting article that I thought I would share with y'all because I would love to know what you think about it as well.\

00:59 MJ Biz Daily. Had an article entitled, Fruit Flavours Attract Consumers of THC-Infused Cannabis Edibles. And I thought that was pretty interesting because it's suggesting that fruit flavoured fruit flavours dominate sales of THC-infused cannabis.\

01:20 And I thought that was pretty interesting because it's suggesting that fruit flavoured the dominance of fruit-based products provides a tough hill to climb for manufacturers introducing non-fruit flavours.\

01:50 I thought that was pretty interesting because I feel like a lot of the edibles that I've tried on the legal market and of course the Canadian legal market is quite different from the legal markets that exist in the United States and of course the states that were just listed here are ones with that have\

02:06 had legalization for longer than most so it's going to be a little bit different but I found that a lot of those fruit flavours have that sort of artificial fruit flavour taste and it's not necessarily a preferred fruit flavour in any case and um I wonder if, I mean they got really drilled down into \

02:24 the data as to which consumers preferred which flavours in each of the states like for instance, which was interesting, in California the top flavour is berry, in Colorado the top flavour is sour, in Washington their top flavour is watermelon.\

02:42 So depending on where you're living, you had different preferences which really isn't all that surprising. But then sometimes I wonder, is it that consumers prefer fruit flavours and that's what they're going for or is it more that that's what's really available on the legal market?\

02:58 I mean I'm sure they're doing of course their due diligence in their REIT marketing. But honestly when you look, walk into at least when you walk into like a dispensary like I work at, the options for edibles basically exist into two basic categories, gummies and chocolates.\

03:16 And there are a few products that sort of rest outside of those like the powder, the the powders, tasteless dissolvable powders, um there's quick strips which are sort of like those um mouthwash strips, like they obviously don't taste like mouthwash but if you remember those ones that were, I don't even\

03:36 know whether they still sell those or not but they had like they're those thin strips that just melt on your tongue.\

03:41 Um we had some mints as well but I don't think we have those anymore but there are a few a couple items that fall outside of the gummies chocolate category but not too many it's basically one or the other and so is it that customers prefer fruit flavors or is that what's available because you want like\

04:02 you have so many gummies that are fruit flavored gummies like I said the flavor on some of them is decent but they still have that fake fruit flavor because there isn't really too much being made on the market with real fruit at the moment and so there's always that as well but I found that I found that\

04:18 pretty interesting just because as as people who are making their own edibles I feel like we have so many more options with what's out there because you can essentially take any recipe just about and infuse it in some way shape or form and that gives you a wealth of different edibles to try and enjoy\

04:39 and and modify to your preference which gives you way more taste profiles than just the basic berry flavors. So I thought that was an interesting article and I like I said I think I'll link to that in the show note if you want to drill down a little bit more into that but as as I said in the intro, like\

05:00 I said it sometimes I say it so quickly, it's almost by rote at this point and I forget, but taking control of your high life means doing things your own way, the way you want, the way you prefer and you have more choices when you're making your own.\

05:13 You just do. So perhaps the market will change in the next, you know, in the coming years. I can't really speak for the American markets too much because every every state seems to have its own jurisdiction with what they can do and what they can't do, but in Canada right now we're pretty limited to \

05:29 the 10 milligram potency uh per package and because of the way that they're sold you don't find savory gummies or anything like that, you don't find the things sort of beyond the cookie, the brownie, the chocolate and gummies.\

05:45 So we out here making our own stuff in our own kitchens doing it the way we want and that brings me to this week's recipe which also happens to be berry inspired, which is kind of funny and totally wasn't intentional.\

05:59 I kind of realized as I was reading this article that it would work well for this one but it was a pure coincidence for real.\

06:06 And this recipe is Berry Punch by Simply Bear Organic. Simply Bear is a licensed producer in Canada out of British Columbia.\

06:16 They make beautiful flour, it's organically grown, it's definitely a premium cannabis product. I love how they pack their cannabis in glass jars as opposed to plastic jars.\

06:31 I think that's really nice and speaks a lot to how they care for the weed that they're growing. They really like to put out recipes.\

06:39 Now this one was based on a new strain that they have out in the market called Platinum Punch, which I haven't tried yet, but I am looking forward to trying it because it looks really good and I've heard great feedback about it.\

06:50 But you may remember Travis Peterson, who has been on the podcast numerous times. He has worked with Simply Bare Organic uh lots of times conducting um virtual cooking classes and I attended a couple of those and they were really well done.\

07:04 So kudos to Simply Bare for giving a nod to us edibles lovers out there. And so when I saw this recipe, I knew I had to try it because of course, as I record this, it's about 30 degrees Celsius outside and it's been extremely muggy lately.\

07:19 Very hot, very humid, and uh I'm always looking for something quick and easy to make that is going to be seasonal and nothing says summertime like a fresh berry punch with the freshest berries that you can get.\

07:35 So unlike the edibles I was just talking about and these fruit flavors and the legal markets that taste like fake fruit, this is it contains real fruit so it's a little bit different.\

07:46 And essentially you're going to need for this recipe a cup of fresh blueberries, a cup of fresh raspberries, a cup of fresh strawberries, a liter and a half of raspberry and cranberry juice, you're going to need And a quarter teaspoon of salt.\

08:02 a can of honey, a lime and a liter and a quarter of lemonade and some ice. So this recipe does take a little longer to put together but only because what you're going to do is put all the berries in a bowl.\

08:18 You are going to hull and slice the strawberries, the blueberries and raspberries you can just going home. You add it, you put them in a bowl and then you add the raspberry cranberry juice and the infused honey if you're going to add that.\

08:29 And then you cover and refrigerate it for an hour to allow the flavors to develop. While that is chilling in the in the refrigerator, this is when you're going to thinly slice your lime and cut lime slices into the into small wedges.\

08:46 And then you're going to after the hour you're going to stir that into the punch, then you're going to add your lemonade and ice, and then it's ready to serve at that point.\

08:55 So really it's very simple to put together, you're just waiting for that hour to allow the flavors to develop. And you could of course probably go a head and skip that step if you wanted to, but it's going to be a lot nicer if you do.\

09:07 Now a couple of notes on this particular one. So it calls for very little honey, and I feel as though this is something depending on the the preferences of whoever's going to be enjoying this, but I feel as on the strength of the honey that you're working with, may or may not have much of an effect, \

09:36 or it might be more of a microdose. So of course, this is a recipe you can easily tweak to your preferences.\

09:41 So you could add the honey afterwards, you could do one of those dissolvable powders if you wanted to, but because it's calling for so little honey, this is one way to to deal with that.\

09:53 And of course, there's lots of people who feel like dosing precisely to each particular guest, because if I know lots of people who have like their tolerances range so far.\

10:03 so widely, that it's hard to just come out and say, you know, I'm going to infuse this punch and then pour a glass and hope that everybody enjoys themselves.\

10:13 That's when things can really get into trouble. So dosing per per glass is probably a better way to go anyway.\

10:23 Now, another thing to note is that when I made this particular recipe, I went out, I had all the ingredients listed that I needed and when I was there, I didn't see a raspberry cranberry juice combination and this recipe does specifically call for that.\

10:40 So what I ended up buying was is cranberry juice, and. Having made the punch, I can tell you that if you just do a cranberry juice only with the lemonade, even with the berries, it's going to turn out pretty damn tart.\

10:54 And so I added honey, uninfused honey, to this particular recipe to sort of balance it and bring tone down that tartness because it was noticeably tart.\

11:07 Not so bad that you're like you know screwing up your face due to the tartness, but the lemonade and the cranberry juice does add for a pretty tart flavor.\

11:17 So easily remedied if you happen to make that same mistake I did. If you are opting for one of the other three the raspberry or cranberry juice instead of a combination of the two it's probably in this case better to go with the raspberry juice instead of the cranberry juice like I did because it will\

11:33 complement the the lemonade very nicely and it won't be nearly as tart and then you probably don't necessarily have to add the honey to sweeten it.\

11:40 But again these things are always to your preference to do what you got to do. But the recipe does call for raspberry cranberry juice combination and I realize now there's a reason for that.\

11:50 So you have that extra step if you're just doing the cranberry juice you're going to have to sweeten it up a little bit because because of the tartness.\

11:56 Um next because I was serving this um at a birthday party and we had lots of drinks flowing there was other drinks being had and a wider range of people there was so pretty small group but not everybody that was um not everybody that was over for dinner was imbibing in the edibles in the uh in the punch\

12:27 so what I ended up doing is there was some left over and because I had you know drinks and a lot I have always so many edibles to consume at any one time and I love having the different options I put some of the gin juice into a glass jar I mean you can use whatever you have on hand but I always I like\

12:48 to save glass jars and use them for containers and I put some in a glass jar with a lot of space at the top and I just froze some I labeled it and froze it for another day so that if you feel like this makes a lot because it it calls for the leader in action.\

13:03 a half and for reference that's six cups of raspberry cranberry juice and at least and another you know four four just over four cups of of lemonade so that that's quite a bit of liquid so you know if you feel like you can't drink it all just free some of it don't feel like you have to drink it all.\

13:24 or consume it all sometimes it's really nice to have something like that tucked away in the freezer for another special occasion or another day or or you know it's going to be a hot one on friday so you can pull it out of the freezer in time for that and enjoy that and it this one would freeze very easily\

13:39 too so i would recommend doing that if you don't feel like doing you can consume it all but it was really it was a real hit and it was delicious and i think that simply bare organic really knocked out of the park with this one if you haven't checked out their website they do have quite a few recipes \

13:55 over on their website and they're you know they do post a lot of those on their instagram too so i'll link to their website and instagram so you can check them out even if you obviously don't live in canada and won't be buying their their cannabis uh they have great recipes so definitely worth having\

14:11 a look but i think that's it for this recipe this week oh that one question i did want to ask is when it comes to making edibles what are your favorite flavors so it appears that when it comes to buying them in the legal market i'm assuming i am making the assumption that these these polls that that \

14:32 article was linking to at the top of this episode was for legal edibles but regardless um what are your favorite flavors do you like fruit flavors do you like the edibles that they find on the legal market when you're making your own edibles are you going for traditional edibles do you tend to make the\

14:50 same ones over and over again because they're easy or do you like to experiment with different ones if you have a go-to recipe what is it and why do you like making that particular recipe i would love to hear any and all of your thoughts on edibles and how you the flavors you like and what you like to\

15:07 make and you can always hit me up at bitemeatpodcast at fastmail.com or you can leave me a voice message and i'd love to hear from you guys and i want to know what you think because we're all out here making edibles and we're obviously enjoying them enjoy the process otherwise you wouldn't be listening\

15:26 to this show and i want to be able to bring you recipes and edibles that you're going to enjoy making as well so you can just imagine me uh you know dancing around in my kitchen and making this punch or anything else i did actually recently win a wireless speaker from my work recently and i've been meaning\

15:47 to tell my manager how much i've been enjoying it because our wireless speaker that we had before kind of conked out and i didn't really have anything it's so weird because i know i'm going to date myself here but when i was in my twenties i had so many cds like i grew up with listening to cds and cd\

16:06 players and stereos that took up all the space and now i literally have all my music on my phone and it's just very how times have changed but let me know what you're making what you're up to what you prefer and until next week my friends enjoy this punch and stay high uh don't a flute actually i probably\

16:35 shouldn't say it like that because there's no way sponsoring related to or sponsoring this show but}