How to Make Cannabis Sugar

Author Enzo Schillaci

10 January 2023

Learn how to make cannabis-infused sugar and make deliciously potent drinks!

10 January 2023

13 min read

Contents:

1. How to make cannabis sugar step-by-step
2. How to calculate cannabis sugar dosage
2. a. Total thc in cannabis flower
2. b. Total thc in cannabis-infused sugar
3. How to use cannabis sugar
3. a. Cannabis-infused drinks
3. b. Cannabis-infused edibles
4. The best cannabis-infused sugar recipes
4. a. Whiskey old fashioned
4. b. Cannabis hot chocolate
4. c. Double chocolate cookies
5. In conclusion

Canna sugar is special because you can add it to any type of drink due to dissolving in liquids, unlike other types of infused products which only dissolve in fatty liquids. Cannabis sugar is really easy to make and you can make lots and lots of infused foods and beverages, so read along if you want to make your own cannabis-infused sugar! Cannabis sugar makes it easier than ever to medicate foods and drinks. Instead of going to the lengths of cooking, baking, or mixing a new edible every time you want to get high, you can simply sprinkle some canna sugar over your snack or beverage—talk about getting elevated on demand! For example, if you’re a fan of tea and coffee, all it takes is boiling the kettle, pouring a brew, and mixing in as much canna sugar as you see fit. Heck, you can even sprinkle some over your cereal if you fancy starting your day in a different way. Below, you’re going to learn all of the easy steps that it takes to create your own jar of cannabis sugar ready for action from any type of seed, including feminized seeds!

1. How To Make Cannabis Sugar Step-By-Step

Making cannabis sugar is quite simple, you don’t even need any special equipment or tools! So, in order to make canna sugar you’ll need:

95% proof alcohol ( if you can’t find 95%, get the strongest you can);
Two cups of sugar (any kind you prefer);
And 15 grams of cannabis flower.

Step 1

The first step to make your cannabis-infused sugar is to break up the cannabis, you don’t want a fine grind, so leave it as chunky as you can because you want to release as much of the cannabinoids as possible while releasing as little chlorophyll as possible. Now, this recipe uses 15 grams of cannabis for two cups of sugar but you can make your canna sugar weaker or stronger, this is up to you.

How to make cannabis sugar: ingredients

Ingredients needed to make cannabis sugar.

Once you have the cannabis flower ready, it’s time to decarboxylate it. So go ahead and set the oven at around 120°C, place the cannabis on a baking tray and let it decarboxylate for around 40 minutes. Have in mind that if you want to cover the cannabis to avoid smelling the whole house, you should let it decarboxylate for an extra 5 - 10 minutes. Decarboxylation is a critical step in any edible recipe. This seemingly complex word describes a very simple chemical reaction. You see, raw cannabis contains very little THC. Even the strongest of strains only contain minute levels of this psychoactive phytochemical. Instead, plants contain the precursor of THC—a cannabinoid acid known as THCA.

Unlike THC, THCA doesn’t have the correct molecular structure to bind to the CB1 receptor of the endocannabinoid system in the brain. Put simply, this means it can’t get you high. Hence, you’ll feel nothing if you decided to chow down on a bowl full of raw cannabis flowers. Why? Because THCA features an additional carboxylic acid group—an additional bunch of atoms that makes it incompatible with the receptor that THC targets. This is where the heat comes in handy. Exposure THCA to enough heat, over a long enough period of time, and you’ll eject that additional group of atoms. Because this process removes a carboxylic acid group, it’s known as decarboxylation, or “decarbing”.

Step 2

Once you have decarboxylated the cannabis, let it cool down to room temperature, put it in the freezer, and place the alcohol in the freezer overnight. If you can’t or don’t want to leave it overnight, leave it in the freezer for a minimum of two hours, but remember that the colder the better.

After everything is nice and frozen (obviously the alcohol won’t freeze solid because it’s almost pure alcohol), combine both the alcohol and cannabis together in a metal container and gently mix it. Keep in mind that you want to get a light-brown or golden color, you don’t want to get a dark green tincture so mix it very gently and once it has a nice golden color, go ahead and put it in the freezer for another 20 minutes.

The Complete Guide To Cannabis Tinctures

Step 3

After the extra 20 minutes have passed, you can take the tincture out of the freezer and strain it out with a fine metal mesh or a couple of layers of cheesecloth. The main thing during this step is to not squeeze the cannabis too much because it will release chlorophyll.

How to make cannabis sugar: step 3

Pressing the buds too strong will release chlorophyll so do it gently!

As mentioned you don’t want the tincture to turn green. So you can use something like a plastic spatula and gently press the cannabis without using a lot of force, you just want the alcohol in the cannabis to pass through.

Step 4

Now that you’ve separated the cannabis from the tincture, you can go ahead and measure out two cups of sugar and one cup of a tincture, then put the sugar in a metal bowl and pour the tincture over it. Make sure you have a large enough bowl because the tincture should cover the sugar completely and have a 2-3 cm layer of alcohol on top of the sugar. All you have to do now is stir the mixture until the sugar has dissolved and once you’ve done this, it’s time to go on to the next step.

Step 5

Once you’ve got everything mixed thoroughly, all you have to do is evaporate the alcohol. You can use a food dehydrator set at 35°C if you want to speed up the process. Most people don’t actually own a food dehydrator so, if you don’t have one available, just cover the alcohol and sugar mixture with a cheesecloth and set up a fan.

How to make cannabis sugar: step 4 and 5

Make sure all the alcohol has evaporated before consuming the cannabis sugar.

You should continue to stir periodically until the alcohol has evaporated and the sugar is completely dry, this process can take from 5 hours up to 48 hours, depending on the humidity and temperature, so it can take a lot of time but do not put it in the oven.

Anyways, continue to stir until the sugar is completely dry, make sure to check the bottom because that’s where moisture usually settles so continue the dehydration and use a metal spoon to check it, once the bottom is dry and the sugar has a crunchy layer on top, you’re good to go.

Step 6

Once the sugar is completely dry, you’ll notice it breaks down into big clumps, so you want to break them down with the metal spoon, your fingers, a food processor, or a coffee grinder, which makes the job much easier.

You don’t necessarily need to break down the big clumps but it will make it easier to dose your drinks or whatever you make with it. Once the sugar is refined, you can store it in a food-safe, airtight container and make your delicious cannabis-infused edibles and beverages.

How to Calculate THC Dosage for Cannabis Edibles

2. How To Calculate Cannabis Sugar Dosage

But before making your canna sugar-infused products, it’s important to know the strength of the canna sugar so you can dose properly and avoid bad trips. Luckily, determining the sugar’s strength is quite simple, all you need to know is the amount of cannabis flower, sugar and do some simple math.

Total THC In Cannabis Flower

So, first of all, we need to determine the amount of THC in the cannabis flower you’re using. In order to get this information, it’s just a matter of checking the label on the package but if you’re growing your own instead of buying from a legal dispensary, you will have to check the breeder’s strain description for you to get an approximate percentage. Remember that THC percentage is dictated by genetics but also by the growing conditions, this is why you won’t be able to get the exact THC percentage unless you’re testing your flowers in a lab.

How to make cannabis sugar: calculating THC content

How to determine total THC based on bud THC percentage.

In this example, we’ll use 25% THC for the example. So the recipe calls for 15 grams of cannabis flower and your flower has 25% THC, this means that to get an approximate THC amount, you have to multiply the weight of the flowers by the THC percentage.

Total THC In Cannabis Flowers

Cannabis flower weight x THC Percentage = THC amount in grams;

15 grams x 0.25 (25% THC) = 3.75 grams THC ≈ 3750 mg.

By multiplying the amount of flower you’ll be using by the THC percentage, you’ve reached 3750 milligrams of THC, but how does this help you know the amount of THC in your canna sugar?

Total THC In Cannabis-Infused Sugar

Well, now that you know the THC content in grams, it’s just a matter of dividing the value obtained previously (3750 milligrams) by the amount of sugar the recipe calls for. This canna sugar recipe uses 2 cups of sugar, which is around 400g, so what you need to do is the following:

Total THC In Canna Sugar

Total THC amount ÷ Sugar weight = Approximate THC content per gram of canna sugar;

3750 mg (≈ 3.75 g THC) ÷ 400.000 mg (≈ 400 g sugar) = 0.009 mg THC per miligram of canna sugar.

Now that you know the amount of THC per gram of canna sugar, you can go ahead and determine the amount of THC per teaspoon of canna sugar. A teaspoon usually has 4.2 grams (≈ 4200 mg) so, by multiplying 4200 grams by 0.009 you’ll get the amount of THC per teaspoon, which in this case is around 37.9 mg of THC per teaspoon of canna sugar.

Obviously, not all consumers have 25% THC flowers, so here’s a table in case your flowers contain less (or more) THC.

THC Content Per Teaspoon Of Canna Sugar

Flower Potency	Total THC mg In Recipe (15 g flower)	Total THC Per Tsp (for 400 g sugar)
10%	1500 mg	15.75 mg/tsp
15%	2250 mg	23.6 mg/tsp
20%	3000 mg	31.5 mg/tsp
25%	3750 mg	39.4 mg/tsp
30%	4500 mg	47.2 mg/tsp

Always keep in mind that each strain is different, you can tailor the potency of the cannasugar to your liking by adjusting the amount of flower or using more potent (or less potent) flower, so it's highly recommended that you use the following fromula "Cannabis flower weight x THC Percentage = THC amount in grams" in order to know exactly how strong your canna sugar will turn out to be.

3. How To Use Cannabis Sugar

If you don’t know how to use it, here are a couple of ideas on how to turn the canna sugar into cannabis infused-drinks of all sorts and boost the potency of your cannabis-infused edibles.

Cannabis-Infused Drinks

Canna sugar can be used in your morning coffee, afternoon tea, or even in the lemonade you prepare for Sunday brunch. It’s completely up to you, so there are hundreds of possibilities, just remember to prepare them right before consumption because the sugar can alter the drinks’ taste.

There are really no limits in place when it comes to adding cannabis sugar to drinks. If you’re on a health kick, you can even add a dose to a freshly blended smoothie or a green juice to bombard your cannabinoid receptors with THC. However, you need to be careful not to get too creative. As you might be aware, cannabis and alcohol are not the best mix. THC can elevate blood alcohol levels, which means it takes much less booze to get drunk. If you decide to mix the two (which we advise against) then you need to go as low and slow as possible to avoid getting into a mess.

Canna sugar-infused coffee

If you want to start your morning with the right foot, you can boost your coffee with one or two teaspoons of canna sugar. Also, it’s recommended to add a bit of coconut oil to replace cream, which is not only healthier but will boost your mood so you can start your day supercharged.

How to make cannabis sugar: cannabis sugar drinks

Cannabis sugar allows you to make several different types of drinks.

Canna sugar-infused tea

If you’re not a coffee person, you can start your day with a cannabis-infused tea. Just like the coffee mentioned above, making your cannabis-infused tea is super easy, just make the tea and add one or two (or three or four, depending on your tolerance) teaspoons of the canna sugar!

Canna sugar-infused lemonade

Now, for something more refreshing, you can try out making your own cannabis-infused lemonade. So, if you’re in the mood to try something new, grab a glass pitcher and add 60 ml of fresh lemon juice, 420 ml of water and 28 grams of canna sugar for every 60 ml of lemon juice. Have in mind that if you’re not an avid cannabis consumer, it’s recommended you only add 30 ml of the cannabis-infused sugar and also sweeten with regular sugar or honey, just to be safe.

If you want to go the extra mile, you can make a strawberry lemonade by adding sliced strawberries, but you can add whatever you want. Other good alternatives are blueberries, cherries, and peaches.

Cannabis-Infused Edibles

This cannabis-infused sugar may not be the best option to make edibles because it’s not recommended to heat it in the oven like you would to make brownies, for example, but you can boost the potency of your infused edibles, making them even more potent.

To do this, you can turn the granulated sugar into powdered sugar (or confectioners sugar) which allows you to make frosting or coat your edibles with. In order to make it, you just need a blender, coffee grinder, or food processor. This way you can grind it into a fine powder to boost your edible's potency. Once you have the powdered sugar ready, here are a couple of ideas for you to use it.

How to Make Weed Edibles for Beginners - Best Weed Edibles Recipes

Canna sugar-infused coated gummies

After you’ve finished refining the infused sugar, you can coat your infused gummies (or regular gummies) with powdered sugar. In order to do it, you will have to add powdered sugar into a ziplock bag, then add the gummies and shake it well. After shaking for 1 - 2 minutes the gummies should be completely coated and ready for consumption.

Canna sugar-infused frosting

If you prefer baked goods, you can use powdered sugar to make the cannabis-infused frosting. Just follow your preferred recipe but use the infused powdered sugar instead of regular sugar, and you can go ahead and use the frosting on whatever you like. Just remember that frosting requires a lot of sugar, so it may be good to add half and half. So, if the recipe requires 3 cups of powdered sugar, use one and a half cups of infused sugar and one and a half cups of regular sugar.

4. The Best Cannabis-Infused Sugar Recipes