Monica Lo and Jessica Aragona contributed to these recipes.

Cannabis tea, like edibles, can be a great way to consume cannabis without smoking or vaping. You can make it in a variety of ways using all kinds of different ingredients depending on your personal preferences. A few methods for making weed tea are:

• Infusing water with dry cannabis flower (less intoxicating because THC is not water-soluble)
• Mixing cannabis infused with a fat (e.g., coconut oil, butter, etc.) with tea leaves and water to make a latte-type beverage
• Adding a cannabis tincture to tea

Does weed tea get you high?

Making a marijuana-infused tea that provides the medicinal and intoxicating effects that cannabis has to offer isn’t as simple as you might think. Accessing THC in the plant can be a little finicky thanks to decarboxylation and solubility factors, but fear not: Once you understand a few simple concepts, it’s all green fields from there!

During the process of decarboxylation, the non-intoxicating compound THCA is converted to the compound THC, activating different medicinal and intoxicating properties. The heat applied to cannabis when smoking or vaporizing provokes decarboxylation without any extra effort on our part. When making edibles, the process naturally occurs when cannabis is cooked with butter or oils, or when hash or kief are added to a favorite recipe and then heated on a stove.

If you choose to decarboxylate your cannabis using a heating method before adding it to the tea, remember that the optimal time and temperature for decarboxylation may vary depending on the following factors:

• The amount of moisture in your product
• How much product you use
• The type of oven you have access to (e.g., gas or electric)

How long does weed tea take to kick in?

Like edibles, weed tea has to pass through your stomach for digestion, and then metabolized in your liver. This takes a lot longer than smoking weed, which hits you in a couple minutes through your lungs. You may have to wait an hour or two to start to feel the effects.

When drinking weed tea, and consuming edibles in general, start low and go slow. Drink a cup and wait; you can always make another one if you don’t feel anything.

Weed tea recipes

We’ve got two cozy weed tea recipes to share. The recipe for cannabis tea with rose and chamomile recipe can be adapted a million and one ways—simply use your tea leaf or flower of choice along with ground cannabis and steep your worries away. The cannabis-infused golden milk with coconut oil is an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant rich—the most luxurious way to end the night.

Cannabis tea with rose and chamomile

(Monica Lo/@sousweed for Leafly)

Serves 1
Prep time: 5 minutes
Steep time: 5-10 minutes
Dosage: We recommend 2 tsp for this recipe, but it depends on the potency of your cannabis. You can always add more or less depending on your tolerance.

Ingredients:

• Cannabis infused honey (optional)
• 2 teaspoons ground cannabis trim, stems, or buds
• Coconut milk, optional
• 2 teaspoons dried chamomile
• 2 teaspoons dried rose buds
  

Directions:

1. You can choose to decarboxylate your dried herb beforehand or not. (Again, this depends on whether you’re looking for the benefits of THCA or THC.)
2. Add all dried flowers to a tea infuser and steep in hot water for 5-10 minutes.
3. Enjoy with additional cannabis-infused honey and/or coconut milk for added effects.

Cannabis golden milk with medicated coconut oil

(Monica Lo/@sousweed for Leafly)

Serves 1
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Dosage: This depends on the potency of your cannabis coconut oil. You can always add more or less depending on your tolerance.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 1” piece fresh turmeric, unpeeled, thinly sliced, or 1/2 teaspoon dried turmeric
• 1 ½” piece ginger, unpeeled, thinly sliced
• 1/4 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
• 1 Tbsp coconut oil (cannabis-infused or not)
• 1 Tbsp honey (cannabis-infused or not)
• Ground cinnamon, for serving

Directions:

1. Whisk almond milk, cinnamon, turmeric, ginger, honey, peppercorns, and 1 cup water in a small saucepan; bring to a low boil.
2. Reduce heat and add the cannabis coconut oil.
3. Simmer until flavors have melded, about 10 minutes.
4. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into mugs and top with a dash of cinnamon.

Source: Leafly (Leafly Staff)