How To Make Weed Infused Honey

At Honest Marijuana, we love edibles. From chocolate, to weed tea, to salad dressing, to butter, to oil—we’ve literally tried them all. We’ve even popped a few CBD strips and THC strips (a quasi-food if there ever was one).

Throughout all that delicious experimentation, one edible has occupied the top of our list for a long time: cannabis infused honey.

Cannabis infused honey is super easy to make, super easy to use, and can be added to everything from cookies and tarts to coffee and tea.

In this article, the experts at Honest Marijuana reveal everything you need to know to create your own batch of this tasty treat. We’ve also included a simple recipe that even cooking noobs like us can’t mess up.

But before you break out the mixing bowls, it’s important to understand a few details about the chemistry of the cannabis plant. Specifically, terpenes, cannabinoids, and decarboxylation. Don’t worry, it won’t be as bad as it sounds.

Cannabis-infused Honey (or CannaHoney) can be a great addition to your Cannabis Edibles Recipes. While CannaButter can be great in baked goods and Canna Oil allows you to expand your menu to savory dishes, CannaHoney lets you add a little sweet cannabis to nearly any dish – like your morning oatmeal or afternoon cup of tea.

OVERVIEWFirstly, decarboxylate your cannabis to transform the THCA into THC. Preheat the oven to 240 F and place your herb on a baking sheet in a thin layer. Bake for at least 40 minutes. Be sure to stir the cannabis and rotate the sheet a few times. Once the weed is ready you can add it to your honey. It’s as easy as that

It is also becoming an increasingly popular accompaniment to marijuana as canna-chefs develop delicious cannabis honey recipes. It is likely that humanity has been creating weed honey for centuries, if not longer! There are sources which claim the ancient Egyptians used such a recipe during rituals.

So-called ‘artisanal’ cannabis honey is causing a massive stir in the industry. Therefore, in this article, we look at cannabis-infused honey, examine its benefits, and show you how to make some at home.

What Is Cannabis-Infused Honey?

As you can guess, it is honey that contains marijuana. What you may not be aware of is the relationship between bees and cannabis. A study by Colton O’Brien, published in Crossing Borders: Entomology in a Changing World in November 2018, wrote about how bees began visiting hemp fields in Colorado.

According to O’Brien, 23 species of bees living in the state were caught in traps set in hemp fields in a single month (August). He experimented because he noticed a constant buzzing sound as he walked through the fields. Hemp could be a ‘rescue’ crop for bees because it flowers between late July and early September, a period when other crops have finished their blooming periods.

Therefore, bees are in desperate need of nutritional sources and become stressed as they search for pollen. While hemp plants don’t produce nectar, they provide a significant amount of pollen.

O’Brien’s paper stated that hemp has a potentially strong ecological value.

According to Elizabeth Vernon, founder of Bird and the Bee, and also nicknamed ‘Queen Bee’, the best method of making cannabis honey is to create the marijuana tincture first before adding it to honey. While many herbs are easy to mix with honey, cannabis doesn’t have the necessary fats to bind with honey. As a result, Vernon advises the use of the MagicalButter machine if possible.

In theory, the combination of honey and marijuana should have an array of possible health benefits. Honey is primarily composed of carbohydrates and consists of compounds like vitamins, amino acids, organic acids, proteins, and minerals. Cannabinoids such as THC and CBD are linked with medical benefits such as a reduction in chronic pain, a decrease in seizures associated with epilepsy, and an improvement in conditions such as stress and anxiety.

Decarboxylation—It’s Important

Here’s something you may not know: raw weed is not psychoactive. That’s right. The ganja you get at your local dispensary will not get you high if you swallow it whole.

So if you just dump a baggie of bud into a jar of honey (or any food for that matter), at best, it will be just like eating spinach. At worst, you may experience vomiting, diarrhea, and other stomach distress. Don’t do it, man!

To make the marijuana useful as a recreational product or a medicine, you first need to activate the cannabinoids through a process called decarboxylation. Decarboxylation is just a fancy term for removing an acid molecule from the chemical makeup of the plant.

Pot plants in their raw form contain very little THC but tons of THCA (tetrahydrocannabinolic acid). Drying the weed after it’s harvested converts a small percentage of THCA into THC, but it’s still not enough to feel any results (except maybe stomach cramps).

To transform as much of the THCA into THC as possible, add more heat. Essentially, you need to bake before you get baked.

If you’re a long time Mary Jane smoker, you’re probably thinking, “Wait a minute! I’ve never decar-whatchacallit before and I still get plenty high.” To that, we say, “You’re right!”

Smoking or dabbing (or burning of any type), is, in fact, the simplest form of decarboxylation.

So in the process of lighting a big fat doobie or sparking up a bong, you’re instantaneously transforming the THCA in the raw bud into THC. The THC is floating around in the smoke you then inhale into your lungs. Cool, huh?

Unfortunately, flicking a Bic won’t work for decarboxylating the marijuana you need for your cannabis infused honey recipe. The temperatures are too high. The bud is destroyed because of the high heat. It literally goes up in smoke.

To decarboxylate your marijuana for inclusion in edibles, you need considerably less heat for a longer period of time.

Decarboxylation In Two Steps

1. Preheat your oven to 240 degrees Fahrenheit. While the oven’s heating up, spread your plant material in a single layer on the baking sheet. One with sides works best.

Note: We suggest a low temperature, like 240 degrees, because terpenes begin to vaporize at 320 degrees. It might take less time to decarboxylate at higher temperatures, but you lose the valuable terpenes in the process. Be patient.

2. Bake the cannabis for 40 minutes. Be sure to rotate the sheet and stir the cannabis a couple of times so that all the marijuana is cooked evenly.

Now that you’ve got your reefer ready for consumption, we can turn our attention to the main event: the recipe for cannabis infused honey.

The Set-It-And-Forget-It Recipe For Cannabis Infused Honey

Supplies:

• Slow cooker (Crockpot).
• 15 grams of your favorite marijuana (decarboxylated, of course).
• 2 cups of honey (local, if possible).
• Cheesecloth (10” x 10” or larger).
• String.
• Quart canning jar with lid.

If you want to make less or more cannabis infused honey, mix with a ratio of 7-7.5 grams of cannabis for every cup of honey.

Recipe:

1. Wrap the 15 grams of decarboxylated cannabis in cheesecloth and tie it closed with a small piece of string.
2. Place the cheesecloth in the quart jar.
3. Pour 2 cups of local honey into the quart jar.
4. Place the quart jar in your slow cooker.
5. Pour enough water into the slow cooker so that all the honey in the jar is surrounded.
6. Put the lid on the slow cooker.
7. Set the slow cooker to LOW and cook for 8 hours.
8. Check back every 2 or 3 hours to make sure the pressure in the jar isn’t building. Crack the lid slightly and then tighten it back down.
9. After 8 hours, turn the slow cooker off and let the honey cool. You can leave the jar in the slow cooker or take it out (watch out, it’s hot!).
10. When the honey is cool enough to touch, remove the cheesecloth from the jar and squeeze out as much of the golden goo as possible.
11. Don’t discard that cheesecloth! Use it to steep some tea.
12. Put the lid back on, and store the jar in your refrigerator or in a cool, dark place.

That’s it! See, we told you it would be easy.