For as relaxing and soothing as hemp’s effects can be, it can taste pretty ghastly. Leaving a thick bitterness on the tongue, smoking hemp flower isn’t for everyone. That’s why vendors have come up with an endless assortment of edibles to mask hemp’s true flavors.
Unfortunately, edibles come at a steep cost, making them difficult to maintain as a go-to. On the upside, you could always just turn your inexpensive hemp flower stash into a cup of tasty hemp flower tea. And here’s exactly how to do it.
Hemp flower tea isn’t anything new. Ideal for users who have a low tolerance for bitterness but don’t have a big budget for edibles, hemp flower tea delivers a strong dose of cannabinoids minus hemp’s signature bitterness.
Here’s what you’ll need to make a cup of this coveted herbal tea:
Once you have all of your materials and ingredients ready, you can get started on the process:
To execute the process of converting its phytocannabinoids into active cannabinoids (called decarboxylation), it’s important to first bake the raw flower.
Measure out your usual hemp flower dose, and grind the leaves to remove stems and seeds. Then scatter the coarsely ground flower all over the baking sheet.
Make sure you preheat your oven to 325°F before popping the hemp flower-laden sheet inside. Wait about 30 to 35 minutes before retrieving the activated hemp flower.
Heat up about a cup’s worth of water on your stove or oven in your microwave. Then steep the leaves for 3-5 minutes. You can put the leaves in a tea bag or strainer just to make it easier to retrieve them later on.
It’s important to wait just long enough so that the cannabinoids infuse into the water. Wait too long and you risk imbuing your cup with the bitterness of the leaves. Too short, and you might just end up with a flavorless cup.
Some people prefer their hemp flower as iced tea. If you feel the same way, then you can heat up some water just to draw out the cannabinoids. Once you’re done steeping, strain out the leaves and pop the container into the fridge. You can also add ice to speed up the process.
A teaspoon of honey can significantly improve the flavor of your brew. But you don’t really need to limit yourself to just that. Some people toss in lemon peel, milk, or even cream for a more indulgent cup.
Remember that once extracted from the flower, cannabinoids, and terpenes will start to degenerate. Drink your brew within an hour or two of preparation to make sure you get the best of its effects.
Hemp tea is naturally caffeine-free and is fat with all of the cannabinoids that make hemp an effective herbal remedy. But despite containing all of the cannabinoids and terpenes existing in hemp flower, you can’t really expect hemp tea to be quite as potent.
That’s mainly because of the method of use. Remember that smoking hemp flower delivers a higher bioavailability of the plant’s organic compounds. That means when you smoke hemp flower, more of its chemistry becomes available to your body for use.
You can’t really say the same thing for hemp flower tea. The problem with tea — or any edible hemp product, for that matter — is that it has to pass through your gut before your body can absorb or metabolize its cannabinoids and terpenes.
In the digestive system, hemp’s compounds are broken down, resulting in a lower bioavailability than you would get had you smoked the dose instead. The result is a weaker blend of effects, however still palpable.
The best way to make up for the potency loss would be to increase the amount of hemp flower you use when brewing your tea. There is no systematic mathematical equation you can use however to measure the right dose for tea.
Everyone’s body is different, so the specific amount of hemp flower necessary for you to feel the fullness of hemp’s effects still depends on your own system’s needs and response.
Strictly speaking, hemp is legal. The 2018 Farm Bill recognized hemp as a non-psychoactive herb. This basically means that it doesn’t contain enough tetrahydrocannabinol or THC to cause any mind-altering effects that would make it dangerous or risky.
But that’s not all there is to consider. If we’re being technical, hemp may be federally legal, but eating it still sits in a gray area. As of writing, the FDA has not reviewed or approved any claims that hemp flower is safe to be ingested.
So with that in mind, vendors that sell edible hemp products actually overtly disregard the FDA’s ruling. That’s also why vendors are strongly advised to avoid marketing their products in any way that would suggest they could be eaten or used as health supplements.
But then again, whatever you do in the comfort of your home doesn’t really involve the FDA. Again, these guidelines control the activities of businesses, brands, and companies that sell hemp products.
What people do to hemp flowers within the confines and privacy of their homes doesn’t concern the FDA or authorities. It only starts becoming a problem when you decide to sell or market your hemp flower tea.
Low tolerance users have found a worthy purpose in brewing hemp flower tea. Flavorful, pleasant, and easy on the palate, hemp flower tea proves to be an effective way to get your daily cannabinoids without offending your taste buds.
Just make sure to measure your dose, activate those cannabinoids, and don’t let your tea sit out for too long to make the most of every brew.
