How To Make Cannabis Sugar 

Cannabis sugar is the perfect way to liven up your favourite sweet treats. Here’s how to make it at home.

Cannabis has earned itself a special place in the kitchen. Whether you prefer to add it to sweet classics like brownies or savoury delicacies like butter chicken, there are countless ways to infuse your favourite dishes with a healthy dose of bud.

Until now, one of the most common ways to use weed in the kitchen was to incorporate infused butter or oil. But now, cannabis chefs have come up with a new way to cook with weed; cannabis sugar.

Here’s how to make it.

COOKING WITH WEED: SOME BASICS

Before we show you how to make cannabis sugar, it’s important to cover some basics on cooking with cannabis.

One of the most important steps to cooking with weed is decarboxylation. It basically involves baking weed at a low heat for roughly 35-40 minutes. This helps convert some of the THCA(basically an acidic, non-psychoactive compound found in live cannabis plant material) to THC, the active psychoactive compound that gets you stoned. After all, that’s why you’re here, right?

The most important factor for proper decarboxylation is heat. The heat essentially breaks down precursor THCA to THC. Whenever decarboxylating cannabis, make sure to keep your oven temperature at 120°C/250°F max. Any higher and you risk degrading THC and losing potency.

HOW TO MAKE WEED SUGAR

Weed sugar is the perfect way to liven up any of your favourite sweet recipes. Here’s how to make cannabis sugar at home.

INGREDIENTS

• 3 grams cannabis
• 120ml high-proof alcohol, such as Everclear
• 100g granulated sugar

METHOD

1. Roughly grind/chop your weed to a coarse consistency. Spread it out on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake at 120°C/250°F for 35-40 minutes. Make sure your temperature never exceeds this limit.
2. Reduce the oven heat to 93°C/200°F. Transfer your decarboxylated weed to a jar and cover with alcohol. Screw the lid on the jar, making sure it is tight and secure.
3. Shake the jar every 5 minutes for 20 minutes total. Strain the liquid through some cheesecloth into a clean bowl. Discard the solid plant matter.
4. Mix sugar into the strained alcohol solution. Spread evenly into a glass baking dish. Bake at 93°C/200°F, stirring regularly until the alcohol has evaporated and the sugar has a golden colour.

USING MARIJUANA SUGAR

You can use weed sugar like you would regular sugar. Here are some ideas on how to use cannabis sugar in your kitchen:

• Stir into coffee or your favourite tea 
• Sweeten your morning porridge
• Make cannabis-infused syrup for cocktails and drinks 
• Mix it with cinnamon and sprinkle on donuts or churros 
• Use it to replace sugar in your favourite dessert recipes

Steps: 

1. Pour sugar into a casserole dish

2. Stir in tincture

3. Set dish aside, open, in a space with good airflow to allow the liquid to evaporate
Step 5: Scrape sugar into a large bowl

4.Stir twice/day to bring any moisture sitting on the button, up to the top of the mixture

5. When sugar is dry, use a rubber or silicone spatula and scrape in the large mixing bowl. A large bowl is a necessity since the sugar will be crisp still and try to fly all over the place. 

6. Transfer sugar into a food processor and PULSE until it’s granular again.

6. Transfer sugar into a food processor and PULSE until it’s granular again.

Dosing your sugar

Without lab testing, it’s difficult to know the exact potency of your tincture. This in turn affects the known potency of your sugar. As a quick reference point, I used a strain of flower that was 22% THC to create my golden dragon tincture which was 1200mg THC per cup. In this recipe, I added 1/4 cup of the tincture which is 300 mg of THC to 1 cup of sugar.

Since there are 48 teaspoons in a cup, each teaspoon of infused sugar has approximately 6.25 mg of THC. Knowing this, you can easily dose your edibles. Enjoy!

Fun uses for Infused Sugar:

Now that you have your infuse sugar the world of infusions has opened up! There are so many uses for infused sugar from simply adding it to your coffee or substituting some or all of the sugar in many of your favorite recipes!

• Sugar Cookies
• Gummies
• Add to your coffee
• Cake
• Sauces
• Syrups
• And more…

Ingredients

• 3 grams of marijuana
• 1/2 cup of high proof alcohol like Everclear
• 1/2 cup of granulated sugar

Directions

1. Heat your oven to 250° F (120° C).
2. Spread your marijuana into an even layer across your baking sheet.
3. Once the oven is preheated, place your baking sheet of marijuana in the oven and bake it for about 35 to 40 minutes. Be sure the oven doesn’t go over 250° F, or it may burn, which results in the batch losing its potency.
4. Once baked, remove the baking sheet from the oven to let it cool.
5. Turn your oven temperature down to 200° F (93° C).
6. Grind the heated marijuana into a coarse powder. This is decarboxylated weed and can be stored in an airtight container in a cool, dark place for two months if you want to make it in batches.
7. Transfer the decarboxylated weed you want to use into a jar. Add enough alcohol to the jar to cover the weed and screw the lid on tight.
8. Shake the jar every five minutes over the course of 20 minutes, letting it sit between sessions.
9. Take your cheesecloth and bowl and strain the mixture through the cheesecloth. Once completely strained, discard the solids.
10. In the bowl, add the sugar and mix until uniform.
11. Spread the sugar mixture in an even layer over a nine-inch by 13-inch baking sheet.
12. Place the baking sheet in the oven, maing sure the oven has cooled to 200° F.
13. Bake the sugar mixture, stirring occasionally, until the alcohol has completely evaporated and the sugar has taken on a light-gold color.

Directions

Take one cup of granulated sugar and place it in a mixing bowl. Take half a cup of Green dragon made with ‘Everclear’ and pour it into the mixing bowl along with the sugar. Mix up the ingredients thoroughly. When they are mixed place the mixture in a baking bowl. The sugar may be a bit grainy. Spread the mixture evenly in the baking pan and smoothen it with a spoon.

Switch on your oven and turn the heat. Since ovens are alldifferent make sure the heat is at the lowest. You can keep the heat anywhere between 100° to below 200°.

Place the baking bowl with the mixture in it inside the oven. Every 10 minutes remove the bowl from the oven and stir the mixture. Do this for one hour and after one hour you will have weed sugar that has a dry consistency. Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Pack it in an airtight container when cooled completely.

Important:

For this recipe you have to use only Green dragon with Everclear. If you use alcohol with lower alcohol content it will water down the sugar or you will need extra time to ensure that the alcohol has evaporated completely to get weed sugar with a dry consistency.

If you have followed instructions exactly, you will have a round layer of smooth weed sugar. In case the sugar is dry but clumpy place the sugar in a sieve and press it through with a metal spoon. This will give you sugar that has the right consistency. Store the sugar in an airtight sealed container. Use it as and when you feel the need to enjoy a bit of weed sugar!

You can also place spoonfuls of it in zip pouches to carry with you when you go out. Use the pouched serving sized Green dragon sugar to sweeten your tea and coffee at the office or when out with a friend. You could also keep a container on your desk for convenience of use.

This is a simple recipe but will give you the sugar that has the flavour you so desire to begin your morning in the right mood. Use it like ordinary sugar whenever you feel you’d like to have a taste of Green dragon sugar.