Food & Drink

Libations, Lifted

Mixing booze and bud can get ugly. As an experienced drinks writer, I’m a certified old hand when it comes to alcohol, but a pathetic lightweight in encounters with cannabis. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve stumbled into hangovers and blackouts and otherwise become a blathering, sleepwalking moron after accepting a passed joint while already into my cups. Thank goodness there was no TikTok when I was 22.

The crossfade—mixing alcohol and cannabis—may be dicey and unwise, but some of us will always prefer a drink in our hands over a joint or vaporizer. So I've been looking for ways to swap my G&Ts for THC and CBD—but in potable form, leaving out the alcohol altogether.

Warren Bobrow, in his useful book Cannabis Cocktails, Mocktails & Tonics, provides a few solid reasons to dabble in liquid cannabis: it’s smoke-free, it allows you to accurately measure your dosages (some arithmetic required) and it can taste pretty good.

The secret is to work in harmony with the terpenes—aromatic oils—that are naturally present in cannabis flower. They impart a herbaceous, tangy range of scents and flavours, as readers will know. When embarking on a test flight of homemade THC-infused non-alcoholic cocktails recently, I was careful to incorporate ingredients that would offer complementary bouquets of herbs, spices and citrus fruit. Above all, mint, grapefruit and lemon will be your best friends when you’re experimenting with DIY cannabis beverages.

But first things first: how to introduce the green to the glass? There are multiple ways, but to kick off this journey I started with simple syrup, because it seemed—well, simple. To the uninitiated, bartenders use simple syrup to introduce sugar to cocktails (because granular sugar does not dissolve readily in iced drinks). You can make it on your stove (see recipe, right).

Next, I incorporated the syrup into a trio of drinks representing some of the classic cocktail types: namely the fizzy, the stirred and the hot. The results? The drinks tasted great—the cannabis flavours, mild to begin with, integrated nicely. Even better: I hit that sought-after point of balance, and I felt great. Caution is the name of the game. As with edibles, you want to give your body plenty of time to adjust before re-upping. Depending on the THC content of your chosen flower, one or two ounces of cannabis simple syrup should be enough to appreciate some effects.

For me? One is definitely enough.

Cannabis-Infused Simple Syrup

2 cups ordinary white sugar

Instructions

Grind your cannabis, spread it onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper and cover with aluminum foil. Bake at 250F for 30 minutes. Let sit for 15 minutes before you store it in a sealed container in a dark, dry place. You’ll get 24 oz. or 3 cups from this recipe, enough to make 24–48 doses of syrup, depending on your preferences.

1

In a saucepan, combine the water and sugar and stir gently over medium heat.

2

Add cannabis, cover with a lid, lower heat to low and simmer for 25 minutes.

3

Stir in the glycerin, which acts as an emulsifier. Cool for 10 minutes.

4

Pour mixture into a storage container. Refrigerate and use within a few weeks.

Microdose Magic

3 mint sprigs

Instructions

This cocktail contains one-third as much syrup as the next two drinks, so it’s great for beginners, or for a mellow time, or for a lightweight like me.

1

Place two mint sprigs, cannabis syrup, sugar and a splash of cool water in the bottom of a tall, skinny glass. Press with the back of a long spoon.

2

Fill glass to the brim with ice and stir for 30 seconds. Squeeze the juice from the lime into the glass and stir again.

3

Fill glass with club soda. Garnish with the third sprig of mint.

Three-Leaf Toddy

1 oz. or 2 tbsp cannabis syrup

Instructions

Warm yourself down to the cockles of your heart on a winter’s night with this soothing hot drink. We’re blending three types of leaf here: regular black tea forms the backbone of the toddy, South American yerba mate adds an earthy low note and cannabis provides the, er, high.

1

Brew a strong cup of black tea and some yerba mate.

2

In a separate mug, combine syrup and lemon juice, stir and then add the hot tea, and finally the garnish.

3

Go sit by a fire and imbibe.

Secret Sidekick

1 ½ oz Seedlip Grove 42

Instructions

For this recipe, I adapted the golden afternoon, a non-alcoholic cocktail by Makina Labrecque, bar manager of Calgary’s Proof. The golden 4:20 is intended to evoke that romantic moment in a cocktail bar when the setting sun comes in sideways through the windows, illuminating the bottles and announcing the arrival of evening. It requires two different offerings from Seedlip, an England-based maker of non-alcoholic distilled spirits. (Check your local gourmet food shop).

1