Buzz
Cannabis-infused edibles are becoming more accessible as adult-use retail sales continue to expand nationwide, albeit at a slow pace. In the past, you had no choice but to make them yourself, but now you can visit a trusted store or grab one of the many cannabis cookbooks hitting the shelves faster than your brownie will kick in.
Eating weed used to lead to a stronger but less predictable high, but thanks to basic science (and a scale), we can now more accurately measure the contents of a treat, down to each bite.
Aside from potency, as a veteran of weed-infused food for over a decade, there's nothing worse than taking a bite of a treat and being hit with an overpowering weed taste—an intense, bitter, herbal flavor that overpowers everything else. It reminds me of the “edibles” I tried making in high school: terrible pancake mix with weed sprinkled on top.
Mastering cannabis flavor in food isn’t just about masking it. Creative chefs and cooks embrace cannabis’ natural flavors, crafting mouthwatering dishes that highlight weed in the best possible way. I spoke to two renowned cannabis chefs to get more tips on balancing the taste of weed in food, either reducing or enhancing it.
How to Minimize the Weed Flavor in Edibles
In the past, if something had a strong cannabis taste, it usually meant it was also very potent, and vice versa. But that’s not necessarily the case today: modern cannabis companies are blending their products in a more subtle way, allowing for a much milder flavor of the “special ingredient.”
Monica Lo, a two-time author and cannabis culinary expert, known on Instagram as SousWeed, explains: “Professional edibles makers often use distillate, a cannabis extract that separates the cannabinoids from the plant material, including terpenes and the distinctive flavors of a specific strain. Most dispensary treats are made with distillate because it allows better control over both flavor and cannabinoid content for lab testing.”
Using distillate makes the overall flavor of cannabis much less pronounced, meaning it’s entirely possible to make edibles where the weed flavor is undetectable. However, this can also lead to overeating (or unintentionally eating more than intended) since the flavor isn’t as noticeable as it might be with other forms of cannabis.
Liv Vasquez, a plant-based canna-chef and winner of Cooked with Cannabis on Netflix, believes there’s a trade-off when you strip away the distinctive qualities of the cannabis flower to create extracts. “Extraction methods that remove all plant matter, leaving mostly cannabinoids, can be great for flavor, but it's important to understand that different methods produce different effects. Removing the plant material also takes away many of the phytonutrients and cannabinoids that contribute to the entourage effect,” she explains.
Using distillate concentrates at home can be tricky for beginner chefs: they tend to be thick and difficult to emulsify unless you're using oil or butter as part of the process. For those just starting out, traditional dry-sift hash or kief works well—its flavor can be adjusted, and it can be easily sprinkled into any dish and enjoyed immediately.
How to Enhance the Weed Flavor in Food
Some people enjoy the taste of cannabis but know it needs to be approached with care and respect for the dish at hand. Using cannabis as a flavor can be a special experience once you’ve mastered the basics of oil infusion and learned to use decarboxylated cannabis flower instead of concentrates, allowing you to preserve much of the strain’s original flavor profile—and, ideally, its unique psychoactive effects.
Monica Lo uses a sous vide setup to make infusions. “I often prepare five or six infusions at once, each with a different cannabis strain, all cooking simultaneously,” she shared via email. “All you have to do is set the temperature on your sous vide machine, seal your ingredients in ziplock bags or mason jars, and drop them into the water.”
The sous vide technique offers an opportunity to experiment with the flavors of various cannabis strains, says Lo. “Cooking with the gentle infusion temperatures of sous vide lets you maintain many of the delightful aromas,” she explained. “You can also pair certain strains with oils and animal fats. For instance, I love the bold, pungent flavor of Garlic Cookies strain when infused into lard. I use this infused lard in a range of Asian dishes, like my mom’s XO sauce or a simple bowl of noodle soup.”
Expert Tips for Edible Cooking
These chefs have more tips for both novice and seasoned cannabis cooks.
“If you're not fond of the herbal flavor in infused oils,” said Vasquez, “it could be because you're combining them with sugar. Try pairing these oils with vegetables, like making a salad dressing, and you’ll find the flavors blend beautifully.”
Lo's upcoming book, The Weed Gummies Cookbook, serves as a practical guide to creating your own weed-infused confections. However, she also recommends exploring savory options. “I adore using infused duck fat on fries and popcorn,” she shared. “You can also infuse sesame oil for a variety of Asian dishes or for making chili oils.”
If you want to elevate your cannabis-infused recipes, it's essential to understand the basics of weed tech. Regardless of the dish, mastering the art of infusion is the first step to success.
