Aromatic and flavorful, cannabis tea is a lovely way to enjoy cannabis. Marijuana tea also has some attractive advantages over other consumption methods. Cannabis tea is an edible, so it doesn’t require smoking or vaping. And unlike your standard sugar-packed edible options, marijuana tea can be low-or-no calorie, making it a healthier edible choice.
There’s a lot to love about marijuana tea– but how do you make it? And what should you expect from the cannabis tea experience? Below, we’re answering these questions and more as we go over everything you need to know about how to make marijuana tea. Read on to learn your cannabis tea infusion options, how to make sure your marijuana tea is potent, the effects of cannabis tea, and how to make marijuana tea step-by-step using one of our cannabis tea recipes.
How to Make Marijuana Tea: Your Infusion Options
There’s more than one way to infuse tea with cannabis. The most common include:
- Steeping water or tea with raw or decarboxylated cannabis flower.
- Mixing water, tea leaves, and a cannabis-infused fat (like butter or oil) together.
- Adding a cannabis tincture to the tea of one’s choice.
The infusion option that’s right for you comes down to personal preference. You may like one option over the others depending on what you’re looking for in terms of ease, taste, and effects. But whichever you end up preferring, we have a recipe for you, since we’ll be sharing three cannatea recipes later in this post (each of which uses a different infusion method).
A Note on Cannabis Tea and Potency
If you want to feel the effects of THC, know that you need to use decarboxylated cannabis to make your tea. Raw cannabis plants actually contain little to no THC. Instead, cannabis plants contain lots of THCA, a non-psychoactive cannabinoid that gets converted into THC through decarboxylation. Some people want to consume THCA instead of THC, since THCA is thought to have powerful health benefits. For example, studies suggest that THCA may have anti-inflammatory properties and neuroprotective properties. But if you’re looking for psychoactive effects, THCA can’t help you. You’ll need to decarb your cannabis to turn its THCA into THC.
Decarboxylation happens when a certain amount of heat is applied to cannabis flower. When you smoke or vape flower, this process happens without you even needing to think about it. But when you make an edible, such as a cup of cannabis tea, you need to add an extra step to decarb your cannabis.
You can decarboxylate cannabis either before or during the edible cooking or baking process. Generally, we recommend decarbing first, since it tends to be much easier. And if you’re making cannabis tea, specifically, you should almost certainly decarb your cannabis in advance. Making tea involves steeping leaves in hot water, but even boiling water is not hot enough to decarb cannabis. Water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit, while decarboxylation happens within the range of 225 to 250 degrees Fahrenheit. You can’t simply boil loose cannabis in water to decarboxylate it; you’d need to incorporate various outside elements to get your temperature in the right range. Basically, trying to decarboxylate marijuana by boiling it in water is ineffective and, really, just not worth the effort. There are much easier and more effective options, like using the super simple oven decarb method, and then using your pre-decarboxylated flower to make your cannabis edible.
Additionally, if you don’t want to deal with decarboxylating on your own, you can also just use a recipe that infuses your tea using an ingredient that’s already been decarbed. Decarbing flower in your oven is very easy, but buying a cannabis tincture or a cannabis-infused coconut oil at your local dispensary is even easier.
The Effects of Marijuana Tea: What to Expect
Cannabis tea is technically an edible cannabis product. Like other edibles, marijuana tea is absorbed through your digestive system, which takes a while. Generally, it takes around 1 to 2 hours to feel the effects of a cannabis edible. Since cannabis tea is a liquid, however, it’s possible that you’ll also absorb some cannabinoids sublingually (through the blood vessels under your tongue) as you drink it, before then absorbing the rest through your digestive system. In this case, you may start feeling some initial effects of cannabis tea as soon as 30 minutes after consumption, then feel more effects around 30 to 90 minutes later.
The onset time of cannabis tea can vary, but our advice on dosing cannabis tea does not. With any edible, we recommend that you start low and go slow. Drink a bit less than you think you need, then wait at least 2 to 4 hours before consuming more. You can always drink a bit more later in the day or up your dosage the next time you want to imbibe. However, you can’t undo drinking too much. So, go low and slow, especially if you’re new to edibles.
Cannabis Tea Recipes
Now, onto our marijuana tea recipes. We have three cannabis tea recipes to share, each of which uses a different infusion method. All of these recipes can be adapted to your liking, so feel free to get creative and switch things up! Just make sure you don’t skip any of the essential steps in these recipes (which are pointed out in the recipe notes) if you want your tea to be potent and drinkable.
Cannabis Flower and Honey Tea
Method: Steeping With Flower
Method: Steeping With FlowerIngredients
2 Teaspoons Ground Cannabis Flower*
4 Teaspoons Dried Hibiscus Flowers
2 Cups of Water
2 Teaspoons Freshly Squeezed Lime Juice Honey
6 to 10 Fresh Mint Leaves, Roughly Chopped
*Use decarboxylated cannabis flower if you want to consume THC or raw cannabis flower if you want to consume THCA.
Instructions
- Mix your cannabis flower and dried hibiscus flower, then place in a tea infuser.
- Boil your water. Place your prepared tea infuser in a large mug, pour your hot water over your infuser, then allow to steep for 5 to 10 minutes.
- Remove your tea infuser. Add your freshly squeezed lime juice, then add honey to taste.
- This recipe can be served warm or it can be chilled for a couple of hours in the refrigerator to create iced cannabis tea. Add mint immediately before serving.
Recipe Notes
There are plenty of ways to adapt this recipe to change its flavor, its potency, or to make it more simple. If you’re looking for simplicity, try just steeping your cannabis flower with any tea bag of your choice, then add in a sweetener if desired. If you want to add potency, try using a cannabis-infused sweetener in place of regular honey. If you don’t want potency and want to drink cannabis tea for the health benefits of THCA, use raw cannabis flower instead of decarbed cannabis flower. Then, if you want to change the flavors here, the sky’s the limit in terms of substitutions. You can use any tea or add-ins you like. Just make sure you don’t forget to steep your cannabis flower along with your tea.
Bulletproof Green Tea Method:
Mixing in a Cannabis-Infused Fat
Ingredients
1 Bag Green Tea
1 Cup Water
1 Tablespoon Butter
1 Tablespoon Cannabis-Infused Coconut Oil*
Sweetener (If Desired)
* Use a mixture of cannabis-infused coconut oil and regular coconut oil if one tablespoon of your cannabis-infused coconut oil would be too high of a dosage for you.
Instructions
- Boil 1 cup of water and pour over your green tea bag to brew.
- Brew your tea for 3 minutes.
- Remove your tea bag, then transfer your hot green tea into a blender with your butter and cannabis-infused coconut oil. Add a small amount of sweetener if desired.
- Blend on high for 20 to 30 seconds or until frothy.
- Transfer to a mug and serve immediately.
Recipe Notes
This recipe can be adapted in several ways. You can use different type of teas (black tea also works very well here), you can use cannabutter instead of cannabis-infused coconut oil, you can use only cannabutter or cannabis-infused coconut oil (rather than both), and you can add any flavorings you like. If you don’t have a blender, you can also blend your tea using an immersion blender or a milk frother. But if you want your bulletproof tea to have a nice texture, make sure you don’t skip the blending step. Blending on a high speed is essential when incorporating butter or coconut oil, which will clump if not properly incorporated.
Elevated High Chai Tea
Method: Adding a Cannabis Tincture
Ingredients
1 Chai Tea Bag
1 Cup Water
½ Cup Milk of Your Choosing
½ Honey or Sugar
1 Serving Cannabis Tincture
Instructions
- Place your water and your tea bag in a small saucepan over high heat.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce your heat and bring your water to a simmer.
- Simmer for 10 minutes or slightly longer, until your water and tea mixture reduces by half. If your mixture reduces too much before 10 minutes pass, top off with water.
- Once your liquid has reduced by half, remove your tea bag. Then, add your milk, your honey or sugar, and your cannabis tincture. Stir to combine.
- Stirring occasionally, bring your mixture to just a boil, then immediately remove from heat.
- Pour your cannabis-infused chai tea into a mug, serve, and enjoy.
Recipe Notes
The tincture infusion method is the easiest way to make cannabis tea. It’s both easy to make and easy to adapt. Just make any tea or tea latte as usual, mix in a cannabis tincture, and voila: cannabis-infused tea! The recipe we shared here has some extra steps to improve flavor, but you can also simply steep your tea in any way you like, then incorporate your tincture. As long as you brew a tea and add a cannabis tincture, you’re in business.
We do have one note here, however, about the type of cannabis tincture you use. Alcohol-based cannabis tinctures, also often called cannabis drops, are water soluble, making them the better choice for making a tea infusion. Cannabis-infused oils and hemp CBD oils won’t blend easily with tea, since oil and water don’t like to mix. You can still use a cannabis oil if you like, but know that it may float on the top of your tea and/or be unevenly mixed into your beverage.
Final Thoughts on Making Marijuana Tea
There you have it: our guide to making marijuana tea! We hope these recipes and tips have been useful if you’re thinking of making your own marijuana tea. If you have any additional questions about cannabis or cannabis tea that aren’t answered in our guide, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re always happy to share our cannabis knowledge and provide our customers with personalized recommendations (like recommendations for flower strains that pair well with your favorite type of tea). You can get in touch with us by messaging us online here or by giving an Essence Dispensary location a call during our regular business hours.
