We are back at our potency testing competitions and this week we're going to find out just how much of a difference there is between a 2 hour infusion and a 6 hour infusion. 

TBH, I was kind of surprised by the results, even though my gut kind of had a feeling all along. 

I'm not going into too much detail here about the results (but if you would like a transcript, I'll happily provide it), because I want you to actually watch the video. And let's be real, nothing I write here will be different or better than what you can hear and watch in the video below. 

Enjoy and let me know what you think. And more importantly, let me know how long you infuse your butter for. 

Don't forget, you can get 10% off your tCheck Potency Testing Device using my link and code: justhilo (remember it must be in all lower case). 

I’m always on the hunt for the simplest way to incorporate cannabis into my meals. I like my medicated drinks and dishes to be quick and accessible. Because when you need it,  you usually need it immediately. It’s one of the reasons why I usually turn to cannabis-infused drinks. Alcohol tinctures are versatile and I can add a few mL’s to any drink already in my fridge with very little prep or fanfare. 

Infusing store bought condiments can be just as simple as infusing a homemade soda or one of those ready to drink bottled iced coffees. 

With store-bought condiments, you can even infuse with cannaoil or infused butter, instead of an alcohol tincture, depending on the base. And it’s pretty simple to figure out. 

First, you need to figure out if your condiment is fat-based or water/vinegar-based. Fat-based condiments (like creamy dressings, sour cream-based dips, hummus, etc) can handle oil or butter infusions and with greater tolerance. Water or vinegar-based condiments (think ketchup, bbq sauce, hot sauce, etc) work best with an alcohol-based tincture. 

Water/vinegar-based condiments may take oil but it will be more work and will likely change the condiment a bit too much (it may become too runny or separate). The other thing to keep in mind is that with the alcohol tincture, you have to limit the amount you add because it may affect the flavor too greatly (especially if the tincture has not been evaporated). Everclear based cannabis-tinctures are meant to be used in small amounts. Infusing water and vinegar-based condiments with an alcohol tincture is meant for smaller doses. Think 10-15mg/serving. It’s my recommendation to pair 15mL’s of alcohol tincture to 8-12 ounces of condiment. 

Fat-based condiments can take a slightly higher ratio, although you may make the condiment a bit too runny, without affecting the taste too much (outside of a little bit of green flavor). This means you can make slightly more powerful dose options when infusing these types of condiments. 

And there’s always the option to make your condiments from scratch and infuse from the jump. You could melt distillate down into some vinegar to make your own infused ketchup with a higher dose/serving. You could make your own infused mayonnaise as a base for a creamy ranch or bleu cheese dressing. Of course, this takes away some of the ease and quickness that infusing store-bought condiments brings. 

Learn more about infusing condiments on the latest episode of Pot Lunch.

One food love that has stuck with me since childhood is peanut butter. What’s not to love about peanut butter? It’s a little sweet, a little salty, and creamy. *Chef’s Kiss* It is perfect in my opinion, for a quick snack or to curb the munchies, IYKWIM. 

Of course, adding cannabis to peanut butter probably takes away some of its hunger-stomping powers, but that’s ok! Because I think peanut butter and cannabis may just go together better than peanut butter and jelly. I mean… maybe 

For this recipe, the infused ingredient is some distillate-infused olive oil. What makes working with distillate so great is that it is ready to use. It just needs to be warmed up and melted down into your recipe. With or without oil; baker’s choice. 

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of peanuts (24 ounces)
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tbsp infused canna oil
• 1 tbsp honey

Recipe:

1. Add peanuts to the bowl of a food processor or blender pitcher and begin to grind. Depending on the power of your blender or food processor, you may need to give the machine breaks every 30 seconds to 1 minute. 
2. Once the peanuts are all roughly chopped, add all of the remaining ingredients. 
3. Continue to blend and pulse until it reaches the desired consistency.
4. Store in an airtight container.

Watch me make this recipe by clicking here, or below

This recipe was adapted from here. 

You ever just wish you were on some tropical beachy island vacation sipping on something that tastes like your locale? I know I'm not alone. Unfortunately, as I creep closer and closer to middle age I have found that alcohol and I are not a great combination. If not for the shenanigans, then for the hangover the next day. No thank you. 

But I still want to taste something beachy and that might make me feel a little bit looser and more chill. So I got to researching. Turns out there are plenty of virgin piña colada recipes out there on the web and some of them are begging to be infused (actually, all of them are). 

For this recipe you can infuse in one of two ways, you can do it simply with an alcohol-based tincture (check out this method here). Or you can attempt to infuse the cream of coconut. Personally I think you'll get a better overall infusion result if you use tincture because alcohol is a better solvent than the lower fat cream of coconut BUT infusing the cream of coconut imparts a nice flavor that will complement the drink nicely. So if you're not super concerned about potency or dosage, this is a great option. 

To infuse the cream of coconut I treated it like infusing any other milk. 

Tools

• mason jar
• cocktail shaker
• baking sheet
• mesh strainer and cheesecloth 

Ingredients 

• Cannabis
• 1 can of cream of coconut 
• Pineapple juice
• Maraschino cherries

Method

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Roughly break up cannabis. Spread on baking sheet and cover with tinfoil. Bake for 15 minutes. For this recipe, I recommend about 3.5 grams. 
2. Add decarboxylated cannabis to a mason jar. Pour 1 can of cream of coconut (found in your grocery store in the aisle with the other alcohol mixers). Add lid. 
3. Place jar in a sauce pot, or crockpot, and fill basin/pot with water. Make sure there is a enough water to come up to the same level as the cream of  coconut and cannabis mixture in the mason jar. 
4. Bring water to boil and boil for 90 minutes up to 4 hours. If using a crockpot, set on high for a few hours and walk away. If using the stove top, make sure to keep an eye on the water level and add HOT WATER ONLY to bring the level up. 
5. Strain cannabis flower from the cream of coconut. Store in an airtight jar in fridge for up to two weeks. 
6. In your cocktail shaker, or blender, add 6 ounces of pineapple juice and 1.5 ounces of infused cream of coconut over 1 cup of ice and shake about 15 times. If using a blender, blend until smooth. 
7. Pour into a glass and top with 1 or 2 cherries and a slice of fresh pineapple. 
8. Enjoy. And cheers! 

Watch me make this in the video below and don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe while you're there too. 

Earlier this year I kept seeing ads for a potency testing device. I saw the ads enough that I was finally like, ok, I'll bite. Because who DOESN'T want to know how potent their homemade edibles are? That's probably the biggest downfall of making edibles at home: not knowing precisely how potent or not your final product is. 

I'll be posting a longer review about the actual device in a couple of weeks, but in the meantime, I want to show you the results of my decarb test. Most home edible makers recommend the standard 240 degrees Fahrenheit for 40 minutes for decarboxylation. But I've seen charts out there that actually show a range of temperatures and times that could potentially work for decarboxlation. 

For this video, I tested three different combinations of temperature and time to find out which one might work best for my oven. For each test, I used 1.5 grams of cannabis (an indica called Crescendo from Cannasseur in Pueblo that they labeled as 22% THC). I mixed each sample of decarboxlated cannabis with 2 ounces of Everclear, and shook for 10 minutes before testing the tincture in the Tcheck. 

I decarbed samples at 300* Fahrenheit for 15 minutes, 240* Fahrenheit for 40 minutes, and 245* Fahrenheit for 55 minutes. And the best one? Well it was kind of a surprise for me. 

Let's take a look at the best, worst, and average for each sample in the table below. 

Sample	Best Test	Worst Test	Average
300*F for 15 minutes	132.7 mg/tbs	63.4 mg/tbs	98.05 mg/tbs
240*F for 40 minutes	93.2 mg/tbs	72.1 mg/tbs	82.65 mg/tbs
245*F for 55 minutes	86.4 mg/tbs	23 mg/tbs	54.7 mg/tbs

That's right. 300 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes gave me the best overall infusion results. By a lot. 

Check out the video below to hear more about my thoughts on this decarboxylation revelation.