Three Cannabis Infusions to Beat the Summer Heat

cannabis summertime drinks

If you’re living in the northern hemisphere, you’re about to enter into the hottest months of the year. Where I live, it can get up to 110 ºF, and in some instances even more!

I don’t know about you…but too much heat simply isn’t enjoyable.

Fortunately, there are ways we can beat the heat this summer while getting blazed out of our minds. Think of it as a way to cool off and distract yourself from the excruciating heat!

In this article we’ll be taking a closer look at cold infusions and different ways you can make thirst quenching goodies that will get you high this summer.

Ice Dragon Tincture

In order to do most of these infusions, we’ll be using an alcohol based tincture. While you may have heard about the Green Dragon Tincture – the Ice Dragon follows the same principle, except you’re not going to be storing it at room temperature.

Rather you’ll be using the cold to separate the trichomes with minimal chlorophyll seepage. This means that you get a smoother tincture than with the Green Dragon. Less “grassy” some say.

In order to make your own Ice Dragon at home you will need the following things;

Decarboxylated cannabis
Mason Jars with sealable lids
80 proof+ alcohol to cover the cannabis entirely
Freezer

Before mixing the weed and the alcohol, you’ll want to store both the cannabis and the alcohol in separate jars in the back of the fridge for approximately one hour.

You pre-freeze the cannabis to facilitate trichome separation from the plant matter. After approximately one hour, you’ll then take out both the 80-proof+ alcohol and the frozen cannabis and mix them together.

You’ll first place the cannabis inside of the mason jar, and very gently pour over the alcohol until all of the cannabis is covered. Once this has been done, seal the jar and begin to shake the bottle for a few minutes.

Once you’ve done shaking it to a satisfactory degree of “shaking” – you’ll place the solution in the back of the fridge and check back after 3-5 hours. You’ll want to give the solution a shake upon each checkup.

It will take roughly 1-day for this infusion to take place. However, if you wait for a few days, you’ll make it more potent.

Nonetheless, the moment you’re ready to complete the infusion, simply strain the fluid twice through a thin mesh strainer. You can also use cheesecloth.

Once you’ve removed the plant matter, simply transfer the liquid into a dropper of your choice!

With this tincture on hand, there’s an infinite amount of foods and beverages you can infuse – a few of them I’ll explain below!

Cannabis Honey

Another crucial main ingredient for cold infusions is honey. Cannabis infused honey allows you to sweeten drinks like coffees and lemonades while removing the alcoholic content from your typical tincture.

To make the honey – the easiest way – is to simply get some wax or shatter and some organic honey.

You can use flower but it makes it slightly more complicated. It’s not impossible, it’s just more tedious. If you can’t find concentrates, then the flower method would be the only way to go.

As with most infusions, you’ll start by decarboxylating the cannabis/concentrate. With concentrates, you simply want to use a double-boiler and cook it for about 20-30 minutes, making sure it doesn’t boil or bubble.

In other words – on low heat.

If you’re using flower, you’ll decarb the flower first, and once again mix the cannabis with the honey in a double boiler.

After 30-40 minutes on LOW heat, you’ll wait for the honey to cool enough to handle – but still very runny. You’ll filter out the plant matter with a cheesecloth. Don’t try to force the honey through the cheesecloth otherwise you may get some undesirables in your honey.

Once the honey has been strained of all plant matter (you’ll want to strain at least twice) – then you can place it in a jar to be used as desired.

The potency of the infusion I’d leave to you – but to be on the safe side try 1 gram of concentrate to 1 cup of honey.

In terms of flower, try a good 5 grams of flower to one cup of honey, and then figure out the potency you prefer.

Now, let’s get to the recipes

Stone-Cold-Brew-Awesome!

If you like cannabis and you like coffee – this one is for you. Simply take some good coffee beans and some water.

Grind up the coffee beans but not too much. It still has to be somewhat coarse. You’ll take roughly one cup of coffee to four cups of water (1:4) to make the infusion.

Simply place the coffee beans into a jar, pour over the water – stir it a bit, and then let it sit for about 6-8 hours for a good infusion.

At that time, you’ll strain it twice with a regular cheesecloth or fine mesh filter – and then once more through a coffee filter.

Finally, either add in 3-5 drops of Ice Dragon into your cup, sweeten to your liking – put that shit on ice and you’ve got yourself a nice summer cold brew!

If you have cannabis honey, you can make it extra potent by sweetening it with the honey. Just be careful – even though the taste might seem innocent enough – drinking too much can definitely send you down the spiral of a major green out.

Lazy Lemonade

Another very easy to make summer thirst quencher is a “Lazy Lemonade”.

For a single glass – you’ll take 1 lemon, 2-spoons of infused honey, ice, some mineral water or regular water. Cannabis-infused iced tea is always on the menu after lemonade.

That’s it!

It takes you about five minutes to mix up if you’ve got all the ingredients and it will most certainly get you in the right headspace.

But wait! If you have the Ice Dragon tincture – you can virtually turn every single one of your favorite fruit juice or iced water into a cannabis infused delight!

The Feel Good - Frozen Cannabis Smoothie

The last infusion on the list is the “Feel Good”.

To make this, you’ll want to use frozen mangoes, a bit of milk or whatever milk substitute you wish to use, a blender, and about 3-spoons of THC infused honey (12 drops of Iced Dragon).

Mix it all together, in the blender and throw a few cubes of ice in it for good measure.

Once it’s all been properly mixed, take a bit of cinnamon and sprinkle it over the top.

You can also add a splash of vanilla extract to give it a different flavor profile.

If you want to take this to the next level – take a scoop or two of your favorite ice cream, mix it all together and enjoy!

The Sticky Bottom Line

At the end of the day, with the cannabis honey and the Ice Dragon, you can infuse an infinite amount of cold-beverages, dishes and so forth – turning them into treats not only for the pallet, but also the soul.