How to make cannabis milk

Are you bored of cannabis oil and cannabis butter? If so, we’d like to suggest a new culinary option that will certainly captivate you if you appreciate the creamier side of life! Maybe cannabis milk is not a new thing, but it’s versatile, tasty, and incredibly easy to prepare. It can be used to make a wide variety of food, ranging from ice cream to wow your guests with in the summer; a bechamel sauce to make top-notch Spanish croquettes; or some cannabis cream to combine with your morning coffee. A warm cup of cannabis milk before bedtime can even work a treat against insomnia and help you sink into your mattress while you dream of cows grazing in greener pastures.

Why consider cannabis milk?

Smoking or vaping marijuana are simple consumption methods that don’t involve cooking, simmering, or decarboxylating your cannabis. With these methods, the effects are triggered almost instantaneously, and then disappear in a short time. Edibles, on the other hand, are so much fun, because they produce a sensation that you can feel all over your body for hours. Assuming that you’re not lactose intolerant, edibles made with cannabis milk will provide you with a safe, pleasurable, and long-lasting cannabis experience.

Cannabutter

Cannabutter is the main ingredient of cannabis desserts and sweets, it can be eaten alone on toast or as a base ingredient in biscuits, cakes or cannabis candies. Along with some tips on its consumption, in 5 easy steps we show you how to make cannabis butter, an easy recipe to make that will delight all cannabis users.

Typical mistakes when consuming marijuana edibles

Those who have already experimented with cannabis edibles know that they have a more potent and long-lasting effect than smoked or vaped marijuana. This can be explained physiologically: when you ingest a cannabis edible, THC is metabolysed through the liver, which transforms it into 11-hydroxy-THC (11-OH-THC). This is an active metabolite which is highly effective in crossing the blood-brain barrier, thus producing a more powerful effect.

Inhaled THC, either in smoke or vapour form, undergoes a different metabolisation process. Instead of first going through the stomach and then through the liver, which takes some time, THC gets transported directly to the brain through the blood. This is why the effects of smoked or vaped marijuana occur more quickly but don’t last as long.

Therefore, it is essential to be cautious with the dose when you’re eating cannabis edibles. The effects hit you between 30 minutes and 2 hours after ingestion, and can last up to several hours.

The most common error made with cannabis edibles is probably being impatient. This is what usually happens: someone’s made some marijuana brownies or a marijuana cake. You eat some but you don’t feel anything after an hour, so you assume you didn’t have enough. So you eat another piece, only to realise that the high from the first piece is just starting to kick in. Eventually, what could have been a nice cannabis experience takes a turn for the worse, and all you can do at that point is wait for the high to ease off.

So make sure you’re patient when you’re trying a new cannabis edible, especially if you still don’t know its potency level. In the worst case scenario, you can always have a bigger dose next time.

Another common mistake is forgetting to decarboxylate the cannabis, which is an essential process when making edibles.

What is decarboxylation?

For marijuana to produce its effects, it needs to be heated so it undergoes a process that transforms THCA (tetrahydrocannabinolic acid, i.e. the non psychoactive acid form of THC that can be found in the fresh plant) into THC (the active cannabinoid that produces the psychoactive effects). The same thing happens, for instance, with CBDA and CBD if you’re looking for its therapeutic effects. When you smoke cannabis, heat is applied to it through
vaporisation or combustion, and this makes THCA lose its carboxyl group (–COOH); hence the name of the process.

However, when you’re making a cannabis edible, this process needs to be done in advance, or otherwise you won’t get any psychoactive effects. Fortunately, this is easy to do. You simply need to crumble a bit of cannabis on an oven tray and put in in the oven at 105-120°C for 30-45 minutes. Check it from time to time to make sure it doesn’t burn. Et voilà! You’ll have your decarboxylated weed in no time.

Cannabis milk recipe

Making cannabis milk is easy and only requires utensils that you already have in your kitchen.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 grams cannabis (or 20-30 grams dry leaves with resin).
• 1 litre whole milk (use less if you prefer a more concentrated infusion).
• A strainer or filter with a fine mesh.

It’s important to know that if you use dry leaves with some resin content, the effect won’t be as strong as if you use cannabis flowers. In the case of the flowers, the quantities will vary depending on your level of tolerance. As a general rule, 0.5-1 grams for every 1/4 litre of milk should be enough.

Method:

1. Decarboxylate the cannabis in the oven.
2. Put the milk in a pan, add the decarboxylated cannabis, and simmer over a low heat for 30-45 minutes, stirring frequently with a spatula. Make sure that the milk doesn’t boil or stick to the bottom of the pan. The milk should thicken a little as it simmers.
3. Remove the pot from the heat and strain the milk through a sieve (or a thin muslin cloth to get rid of as much residue as possible).
4. And that’s it! It couldn’t be easier!

Technically speaking, you don’t need to use cow’s milk. You can easily infuse cannabis into almost any type of milk (almond, soy, rice, oat, goat’s, sheep’s, etc.). All recipes follow the same basic steps. However, you need to keep in mind that the higher the fat content of the milk, the more easily the THC will be absorbed.

Can you make cannabis milk without first decarboxylating the marijuana?

Marijuana is fat-soluble, which means that, in order to release its cannabinoids, it needs to be mixed with some fat through a heating process. That’s why the milk used for the cannabis infusion needs to be full fat. If you used skimmed milk you wouldn’t get the desired results due to its low fat content.

The potential of cannabis infused milk is really exciting: this is a cannabis base well worth its short preparation time.

Cannabis milk can also be made without previously decarboxylating the marijuana in the oven. You can pour the thoroughly crumbled weed directly into the milk. In this case, you need to warm up the milk over a medium heat. Without allowing it to boil, add the shredded marijuana and stir with a spatula from time to time.

This process takes around one hour. You need to stir the milk every few minutes, as it bubbles gently. After that time, remove it from the heat and let it cool. Once cold, strain it (through either a colander or a muslin cloth) into the container where you’ll be keeping it.

Whether the decarboxylation is done in the oven or directly in the warm milk, we recommend washing the marijuana thoroughly in advance to eliminate any dust or impurities that may be present.

Cannabinoids are damp-proof. This means that, when they come into contact with water, they don’t mix, so they keep their shape and don’t suffer any structural variation. This is the reason why cannabis can be washed with water in a pot before mixing it with the milk. You can bring the water to a boil and then lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Then you need to rinse the cannabis with cold water and strain it through a colander. After this process is done, it’s time to prepare the milk.

What dishes can you prepare with cannabis milk?

Cannabis milk can be used in practically any recipe that requires milk, as both one of the main ingredients or as an additive. It can be added to coffee to make a latte; it can be used for milkshakes; for incredible cannabis ice cream; or it can be simply added to breakfast cereal in the morning if you want to procrastinate like a pro. There’s nothing to stop you having a gulp of cannabis milk straight from the bottle as well!

How long does cannabis milk take to kick in?

Even though nanoemulsified cannabis drinks can have a really quick effect (only 15-20 minutes), homemade cannabis milk will take longer to kick in. The margin is normally at least an hour and a half for its powers to appear. Having said that, liquids can be metabolised faster than solid foods, and so some users claim that they can feel the magic in just half an hour.

The final result depends on several factors, but when you try cannabis milk for the first time it’s best that you follow this rule: don’t rush, and, like with most good things in life, don’t forget ‘to start with just a little and go slowly’.

How much cannabis milk can you drink?

There are lots of considerations to take into account when deciding how much milk to drink, so the decision is totally personal. A dose that can be overwhelming for some could in turn be almost unnoticeable for someone with a higher tolerance. It depends on genetics, physical build, or even on how full your stomach is at the time.

Besides, the recommended dose will also depend greatly on the milk’s fat content; on how much cannabis was used to prepare it; and on the potency level of the strain used.

If you’re trying a new cannabis milk recipe and you’re unsure about its potency, use less or even half of the cannabis suggested on the recipe. It’s definitely best to start with just a small amount the first time. Also keep in mind that, even if you have too much, the effect is only temporary and will disappear in a few hours, so don’t sweat it; and above all… Bon
appétit!