Refreshingly Sunny: Peach Mint Tea Seltzer

Marge (00:00:06) - Welcome back, my friends. In this week's episode, we are doing another fabulous beverage to keep you cool this summer. That's right. A peach mint tea, seltzer. Welcome to Bite Me the show about edibles, where I help you take control of your life. I'm your host and certified Gonger Marge and I love helping cooks make safe and effective edibles at home. I'm so glad you're here, and thank you for joining me today. Whether you're new to the show or a long time listener, you know that I often use olive oil in my cooking and my infusions. When I discovered McEvoy Ranch Olive Oil, I knew I needed to give them a try. And I love everything about these oils and the company. The oils come from a family owned farm that is both female, founded and led. They produce these organic olive oil sustainably at their Northern Californian ranch. They've just released an innovative and delicious signature olive oil collection that includes organic blood, orange and award winning Chai spice and ginger turmeric. The collection brings together flavors from multiple cultures to create new ways to enjoy olive oil.

Marge (00:01:10) - With this in mind, cards are included with the samples, the detail, the tasting profiles, and ways to use the oils so you can try them with any meal. McEvoy Ranch is committed to creating the highest quality, healthy, bright and fresh olive oils that will enhance your cooking and delightful ways. Enjoy the unique flavors and well known health benefits of olive oil by heading over to McEvoy ranch.com and enter promo code Bite Me 15 at checkout to receive 15% off your order. Welcome back, friends. Thank you so much for joining me today. If this is your first time, we have a fun episode for you. We're going to be doing a review and we've got more things you can make from hemp and a fun recipe this week. And if you've been a long time listener joining me each and every week, I appreciate you because without you I would be talking to myself. I would not have a real reason for doing this show. I don't have any pets. So talking to myself is not it doesn't come across as very sane.

Marge (00:02:13) - So I thank you for being here and I hope you enjoyed today's show. I'm excited about it, as always. I'm always excited about every show. You can probably hear it from my voice, but I look forward to recording these each and every week. Now, before we get into the recipe, we're going to start with an awesome review that I got. And I use the word awesome because the review is entitled Awesome podcast Ohio In Here, Keep it up. I love what you're doing and love learning what I can from you and your guests. And that came from Nathan and via Apple podcasts of the US of A and thank you Nathan for sending that along. Those reviews really help people discover the show. And with a growing number of podcasts out there, little niche podcasts like this one need all the word of mouth that we can get. So tell your friends and tell your family and if you feel so inclined, friends, leave a rating or review for me because it really does help. Next, we're going to be looking at another cannabis fact.

Marge (00:03:22) - And I've been really focusing lately on things you can make with hemp. And that's mainly because I think it's fascinating. We have this plant and it is. I mean, we obviously all are here because we enjoy the use of it. We're making edibles. We're probably also vaporizing it, combusting it, rubbing it on our bodies. We're making use of it in any way that we can. But I feel like camp is super underutilized, especially considering the climate crisis that we happen to be experiencing. I don't know about you, but it seems like every time I open up the news there is some kind of wild fire, tornado, flood, all kinds of crazy shit happening out there. And it does make you wonder, like it does make you wonder. I mean, we have been pretty abusive to this beautiful earth that we have. So why aren't we making more use of hemp? Because it is so abundantly useful and we've been using it for so long too. So this this sort of series I've been doing on things you can make with hemp was covered quite a few things.

Marge (00:04:24) - And I did see one article that suggested you could make hemp, could be used to make up to 25,000 different products. And I have barely scratched the surface, although a lot of those products would happen to have a lot of overlap, like when you look at clothing, for instance. But even hemp clothing doesn't seem to be readily available. You don't see it a lot in stores, and I'm not really sure why except perhaps fast fashion, which is a whole thing in and of itself and causes a lot of environmental damage, probably doesn't have interest in using sustainable fabrics like hemp. But I digress. So this week, what can we make with hemp? It's not really what you can make with hemp in this particular instance. It's what you can do with it, and it is bioremediation. So I found this article that talked about oil spill cleanup or bioremediation, and it suggested that hemp core has been found to be a carrier of microorganisms for bioremediation. So this process I'm going to say it again, bioremediation.

Marge (00:05:28) - Every time I say that word, you have to take a puff or a nibble of your edible. But remediation describes a process in which certain microorganisms, such as those found in hemp breakdown oil by feeding off of it once metabolized, the resulting substances can be released back into the water or soil without the toxins. Now, I had heard of a process similar to this using fungus, mushrooms and with great success and how effective it was. But I have yet to hear about bioremediation with hemp. And I did happen to find I found it actually in two places, an article in Rolling Stone from 2018 that suggests can help clean up the earth. So as if hemp wasn't effective enough as to help us with our mental health and our physical pain and making clothing and all kinds of things. I mean, I guess we're talking about hemp and cannabis, but it can also clean up our soil. And I think that's amazing and super interesting because, I mean, unfortunately, this is something that is often necessary and these oil spills can be devastating to the environment that they're affecting and finding ways to clean it up naturally without causing more damage is always a concern.

Marge (00:06:41) - So, I mean, it would be better if we didn't have to have oil spills in the first place and we're able to avoid that. But unfortunately, that is not the case. Why not? Hemp to the rescue. So nothing says summer like fresh peaches and mint. And when you combine the two, you've got a wonderfully refreshing beverage to enjoy. And you may have noticed I've been into the drinks lately. If you haven't tried the mosquito drink from last week, you might as well because you need mint for both of these and that gives you a solid reason for using up your mint. Because if I had a buck for every time I had to throw out wilted, unloved herbs for my fridge, I would not be rich, but I would be able to take myself out for a nice dinner. And it's a crime, really. I hate it when that happens. It's a waste. Not want not philosophy that I typically have, but sometimes you buy something and then it gets forgotten about in the back of the fridge and you pull it out and it's just all nasty and gross.

Marge (00:07:34) - And I hate that because it's like a waste on so many different levels. But I've got you guys because this recipe, this peach mint tea seltzer uses mint, as does the Milo from last week's recipe. So you can be making all kinds of tasty drinks to keep you cool this summer. And unless you're growing your own mint, of course. And if you are good for you, you're not having to go out and buy it. I did pick some up at the grocery store the other day and was pleasantly surprised to find the mint not in a plastic clamshell package. I don't know why they always want to put mints in those stupid plastic clamps. All clamshell packages because I really don't want the plastic and it seems it seems overly unnecessary. So it's kind of obnoxious, I think, anyway, but just. I haven't been to the farmer's market lately either. I've been missing it. It seems like every Saturday, which is when I typically go. I have the last few weeks I've had something going on.

Marge (00:08:28) - I recently had a baseball tournament I played in, hadn't played in like ten years, man, that was like riding a bike. It felt so good. And but of course that meant we started early and I couldn't make it to the market. And then the weekend before that was Chris's birthday. So we were up late and I was not going anywhere very quickly. The next morning I was just hanging around drinking coffee. So that was maybe my own fault. But do they ever have nice bunches of mint at the market? So wherever you pick it up, you can use your man for two different recipes. Anyway, I got this recipe from Chef Carson and he is an upcoming podcast guest that you'll get to hear from first hand next week and next week's show or the following episode. If you're listening to this sort of at a later timeline. And I met Chef Carson at Lift Expo earlier this year and he was doing an infused beverage demonstration. And of course I had to introduce myself afterwards because I was very impressed by his presentation.

Marge (00:09:24) - And he's definitely a young up and coming chef, working with culinary cannabis, and he has a real flair for drinks and I want to talk to him about that and. A whole bunch of other things as well. It's a great episode, but I know I've talked about this before, but I feel like drinks are really becoming more popular and there's an increasing interest in choosing a social beverage that won't leave you hungover. And some of you youngins that are listening may not know what I'm talking about. Lucky you. But for those of you and if you're if you're one of the youngins out there, there will come a time when you hit a certain age that, you know, a hangover can not only last far too long, but can also show up with what seems like the smallest amount of alcohol. And I have had sometimes one beer and woken up with a headache the next morning and you're like, What the hell? That doesn't seem fair because, you know, it's summertime. And sometimes I do enjoy a beer on a patio this time of year.

Marge (00:10:19) - I barely drink any in in the wintertime. But there's something about a cold beer on a patio in the summer. And maybe in particular for those of us who live in colder climates when the summers seem so short and precious. But I think people are interested in options other than alcohol for a whole lot of reasons. And cannabis beverages can offer that alternative to alcohol. And even though I think they still hold a pretty small share of the overall cannabis market, at least here in Canada, there are new offerings coming out all the time, some pretty interesting offerings, some exciting stuff, and there's plenty of to choose from your local dispensary. So something worth checking out. But what if you don't live near a dispensary or you're still in a prohibited area or you like making your cocktails at home, or you'd prefer to go without the sugar content that comes in a lot of those tasty commercially available bevs Because let me tell you, some of them have a shocking amount of sugar, like way more than a regular Coca Cola.

Marge (00:11:14) - Well, I shouldn't say way more. I'm not even sure how much a regular Coca Cola has. I should know because fun fact my mother in law drinks nothing but Coca Cola. How She's not diabetic? I'm not really sure, but she's been doing this for decades. Literally. I can hear that. That crack of the can at 7 a.m. and she loves it. Warm like room temp. She doesn't drink water very rarely. She's been living with me for over a year now, and I've probably seen her drink water a couple of times. Bless her heart. I don't know how she does it, but I digress. Coke. I should know how much sugar. The reason I think is like 30g I've had I've had cannabis beverages that I've had upwards of 45g for a can. And do they taste great? Yes, they do. But I usually try and opt for the sugar free or low sugar varieties because that's a whopping amount of sugar. And I can't say that I'll be as lucky to not get the diabetes as my mother in law because I think there could possibly be some kind of family history.

Marge (00:12:07) - I don't really know. I did that 23 me a little while ago and I think I had a slightly higher propensity to diabetes compared to the average person. So you got to be careful. And that's why, you know, I'm all about taking control of your high life and doing your own thing. So let's make this drink and we'll get high our way. And I made this drink a couple of times and I probably strayed from the recipe a little bit. Chef Carson didn't really include instructions when I got the recipe, it was sort of just the list of ingredients, so I kind of had to wing it and I pretty much pretty much just made it the way same ways I made the mosquito at least the second time, and that was with the muddling technique. And I don't really have any fancy cocktail making kind of equipment, if you will, like to own like one of those shakers or anything like that. So I'm just kind of, like I said, winging it. But I put the peaches and the mint in the tumbler and muddled it with the wooden spoon.

Marge (00:13:03) - Don't tear up the mint small because you'll be spitting it out in bits if you drink this later. So that's my little pro tip and you can refer to attempt number one with that because I did kind of tear it up pretty small. And then it was kind of and then I had to strain it. It was a whole became a whole thing. But then I added the other ingredients. And this recipe is has pretty simple ingredients it calls for besides the the peach and the fresh mint. It calls for lime juice, maple simple syrup, sparkling water, mint green tea. So there are a couple of things you do need to pick up for this particular recipe. But so once I muddled the peach and the mint, I added the lime juice, the maple syrup and the mint green tea. So a couple of things about that. The maple simple syrup. I didn't make a maple simple syrup. I used infused syrup instead because I was kind of lazy and I was just looking for a touch of sweetness.

Marge (00:14:04) - Now I'm assuming the maple simple syrup would have been sort of thinning it out a little bit, but I found that it seemed to work just fine. And maybe if Chef Carson is listening to this later, he might be yelling into his cell phone being like, you idiot. But that's what I did. So hopefully. Well, it worked out for me anyway. Also, the mint green tea. I bought some of that because I do love green tea and I do love mint as well. So it kind of is a nice combination, but I made it ahead of time and then I just put it in the fridge to cool off so that it was there when I needed it and I made a decent sized mug so that I could make more than one of these if I so choose. I did end up making making, I think, three of them in the end. So when I put everything together, I gave it a good stir and then I added ice, topped it off with the sparkling water, gave it another stir, and that was it.

Marge (00:14:56) - Cold and refreshing. It was delicious. Now, when I got the recipe with from Chef Carson, he wrote the recipe using a dispensary purchased tincture. And you could also use a dissolvable powder as well, I think quite nicely for this one. But once again, if you're making you're making this in the glass. So it's when you're making these by the glass, you can infuse them to your preference. You can experiment with THC, with CBD, a ratio of the two, and you can share it with somebody who's not imbibing at all because you are making it by the glass. The choice is yours. It's a choose your own adventure. And that's what summer is all about too. So if you are sharing this with somebody, you can always add regular maple syrup or just leave out the tincture or the dissolvable powder, whichever way you're choosing to infuse this. And you can simply enjoy it with someone you love without having to dose them as well. And again, if you are dosing it. And giving it to somebody else.

Marge (00:15:52) - Please be sure you know what you're doing. If you're uncertain of how potent your infused maple syrup is. Uh, don't give it to somebody else. It's okay. If you're your own guinea pig, that's fine. I've been my own guinea pig for years now, and most of the time it works out. But those small handful of times where it hasn't worked out by God, do I wish that I had thought twice before I did that? And it's almost gone to the point now where I don't I don't consume anything if I don't know, at least a solid ballpark as to where the potency lies. That's I guess just over the years I've become a lot more cautious because I have now, now that I've been doing it for longer, I have accidentally overdose myself or take it too much or miscalculate or whatever the case might be. And that's not fun. So if you are doing this for someone else, be kind. Know how much you're giving them so that they can make an informed decision. And if they're on certain of their own tolerance, then perhaps.

Marge (00:16:49) - Not dosing. It is also the way to go. Try out this recipe. Let me know what you think. And tried the mojito two and let me know. Did you prefer the mojito or the peach mint tea seltzer. You can't go wrong with either one in my opinion, but let me know which one you preferred and be sure to check out the interview with Chef Carson on the next episode. We do spend some time talking about beverages and you don't want to miss it. And it is feels like the season for for cold beverages, doesn't it? Because the sun is shining. Summertime right now is I'm recording this. But finally, friends I've also started something called the Bite Me Cannabis Club and you'll find a link to that. I do believe in the in your podcast app, but it's something that I've put together that people who have any kind of interest in cannabis can come and enjoy and learn and grow no matter where they are in their journey. And I'm going to be doing monthly workshops starting in a couple of months and live Q&A and there's all kinds of fun things in there.

Marge (00:17:51) - And I'm really hoping to make this an inclusive, welcoming space where people can learn and grow together. So I hope to see you there. And that's it for this week. My friends, as always, share the episode with someone that you think would enjoy it because sharing is caring. You can always talk to me, email me, send me a message via the podcast hotline. You can find me on Instagram. That's the social platform that I'm most active on. You can stay up to date with the newsletter if you want to sign up for that, and that helps keep these episodes timeless and of course consider using the products and services on the market recommends. Page There's deals and discounts there that you can take advantage of and you can just see the products that I'm using in my own everyday life when I'm making edibles too. So I'm your host march and until next week, my friends stay high.