Cannasugar, or cannabis-infused sugar, is a great way to stay sweet on your favorite weed in a very sneaky way. This versatile infusion turns any recipe into a culinary cannabis edible with that spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down.

Making weed sugar is a more involved process than other infusions, but it’s still easy enough to make at home, mainly taking time. But, when done, cannasugar has an incredibly long shelf life, much longer than any animal product.

Weed-infused sugar looks and tastes innocent but can carry a wallop depending on how it’s made. It’s a multi-step process that’s easy but takes time. So read on and let 420DC walk you through best practices so you stay safe and create a powerful infusion.

What You Need to Make Cannasugar  |  Decarbing Weed  |  Making Cannabis Tincture
Making Cannasugar  |  420DC Cannasugar Recipe

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What You Need to Make Cannasugar

This process involves mixing granulated sugar with a cannabis tincture called Green Dragon. Tinctures are made with high proof alcohol, like Everclear, and activated cannabis.

If you already know how to prepare weed for tincture, you can skip to the Green Dragon recipe. If you know how to make Green Dragon, you can move right to the cannasugar recipe.

So, making cannasugar requires sugar and Green Dragon, plus a glass baking dish, a fork and an oven.

Green Dragon requires a canning jar, cheesecloth, activated weed and high proof alcohol like Everclear (you can use a lower proof liquor like vodka or rum but the extraction will be weaker).

Activated weed requires weed and an oven.

Decarbing Weed

Weed needs to be heated before it will get you high. There’s a chemical reaction heat causes where weed becomes ‘activated.’ That means it’s psychoactive after being decarboxylated, or “decarbed.”

Until weed is activated, very little of the cannabis flower is bioavailable because there’s no tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) yet. So, to make any edible, topical or tincture, you have to have to prep cannabis first with heat and time.

Of course, decarbing happens on the fly as you smoke herb, but this also destroys up to 60% of THC. Yikes, right? Well cannasugar keeps a lot more of that sweet stuff making this multi-step process worth the effort.

Vaping delivers more THC than smoking because it gently warms bud without combustion. The same principle is true for decarbing except the temps stay low enough not to vaporize THC. So, maximizing THC yield is best in the kitchen where time and heat deliver a fuller extraction.

Making Decarbed Weed

Decarbing happens at a temp too low to vaporize weed’s good stuff, but high enough to cause the reaction. Warming past 220º F is the key to powering your bud for liftoff.

Most decarbing recipes call for a temp of 240º F for 40 minutes for an ounce of weed. Anything over 250º will degrade the THC.

Decarb = 1 oz. MJ + 240º F + 40 mins

The most common measure for cannasugar is one cup of sugar per quarter ounce. So, a half ounce for two cups, etc. For a stronger constitution, feel free to use more herb with less sugar. Your mileage may vary, so ‘season to taste.’

Decarb Weed Recipe

Note on heat: Decarbing weed can be done in a regular oven but the process will produce a weed smell (not as bad as smoking but definitely noticeable although it dissipates quickly). If concerned about odor, a portable toaster oven may lend itself to more remote decarbing.

The 420DC cannasugar recipe calls for 1 ounce of decarbed weed.

What You Need to Decarb Weed

An oven, 1 oz. weed., cookie sheet, parchment paper

1. Heat oven to 240º F / 115º C.
2. Break weed down by hand to pebble size. Not too fine, not too fat.
3. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper (foil can also work).
4. Spread weed evenly in a single layer on the cookie sheet.
5. Heat for 40-60 minutes, stirring and rotating occasionally.
6. Let cool to room temperature.

Decarbed herb is considered “activated,” which means it is fully psychoactive. Going low and slow ensures you preserve as much of the cannabis plant’s cannabinoids like THC and CBD as possible.

Making Cannabis Tincture

Tinctures have been around for hundreds of years. All those cannabis potions from the early 1900s were tinctures. So, this is a great way to concentrate cannabis potency.

The 420DC cannasugar recipe calls for 1 Cup of Green Dragon. In the extraction process, some liquid will be absorbed and lost with plant material, so this recipe yields about 1 cup of cannabis-infused sugar. You can store any extra in an airtight glass jar.

Green Dragon Recipe (Cannabis Tincture)

Making Green Dragon is a personal choice as far as strength and method goes. This recipe is how I cook in my kitchen (or extract in this case), but every kitchen is different as is every cook.

There are all sorts of recipes for Green Dragon. I’ve seen versions that take 20 minutes and others take days. Once again, low and slow is what I find to be most effective, but that’s a personal choice. Use your discretion.

What You Need to Make Green Dragon

A 1 qt. Canning jar with lid, 1 oz. decarbed weed, 2 Cups Grain Alcohol, 12” sq. cheesecloth

1. Place 1 oz. decarbed weed in a mason jar.
2. Fill the jar with Grain Alcohol, add more as needed to cover the weed.
3. Seal jar with lid so that it’s airtight.
4. Shake the jar, gently agitating the mixture inside.
5. Get used to that feeling. You’re going to agitate the mixture at least once a day for the next 10 days.
6. Strain mixture through cheesecloth capturing the plant material.
7. Squeeze remaining liquid out of plant matter.
8. Store in a clean airtight jar.

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[READ ALSO: How To Dab: Your Ultimate Guide]

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Making Cannasugar

Note on heat: Making weed sugar uses tincture made from HIGHLY FLAMMABLE grain alcohol. That wasn’t too subtle was it? Do I really need to say it?

Sigh.

WARNING: NO OPEN FLAMES!

Making cannasugar requires evaporating the alcohol from the tincture once applied to the sugar which has certain risks. So, proper ventilation is required as are all other safety measures.

Cannabis-infused sugar also takes time for evaporation to occur. Some recipes call for air drying the sugar which takes days for the alcohol to evaporate. Our method speeds this up with heat warm enough to affect alcohol but not cannabinoids like THC and CBD.

What You Need to Make Cannasugar

Making cannasugar requires

• oven
• 2 Cups granulated sugar
• 1 Cup Green Dragon cannabis tincture
• a 3 qt. glass baking dish (9×13” is what we use)
• a rubber spatula
• a fork.

Cannasugar Recipe

1. Heat oven to 200º F / 93 C.
2. Add 3 Cups of Sugar to the baking dish in an even layer.
3. Pour 1 Cup Green Dragon evenly over the sugar.
4. Stir mixture with rubber spatula until there’s a consistent, wet sand texture.
5. Place the baking dish in the heated oven.
6. Bake 2 hours, stirring frequently with the fork, until mixture looks and feels like lightly colored grains of sugar again. Break down any existing clumps.
7. Store in a clean airtight container.

sugar has an indefinite shelf life if stored in an airtight container, out of direct light, at 50-70 º F. It’s probably a good idea to label it so that should someone else come across it, they won’t get a surprise.

Will Cannasugar Get Me High?

This is a trick question. There are too many variables for a simple yes or no answer. Potency, extraction, tolerance, physiology and more are all variables as to how high one will get when consuming this sugar.

Chances are, with the strength of our Green Dragon recipe, you will certainly feel it whether a single scoop in your coffee or a cookie, so be careful and start small to gauge your cannasugar’s effects.

Using Cannasugar

The sweet stuff obviously lends itself to food and delivers a host of beneficial aspects. When infused with cannabis, sugar lends itself to anything that needs sweetening.

Today, cannasugar is used by many medicinal patients who don’t want to smoke regularly. Cannasugar can be used to treat fatigue, insomnia, coughing, wasting syndrome, memory issues, acid reflux, hangovers, as well as soothing chronic pains and aches.

Roses are Red, Violets are Blue…

Adding cannabis-infused sugar to your diet will give you a little buzz of wellness. You can use it by the spoonful or by the batch. And when using it in kitchen concoctions, cannasugar can be combined with cannaoil and/or cannabutter for a cumulative effect.

It’s sweet nature lends itself to countless recipes, has an indefinite long shelf life and is a perfect medium for micro dosing of full spectrum of cannabinoids like THC and CBD and more!

Low and slow is a tried and true method for cannabis in general. From decarb to tincture, and from drying to using, capturing as much of the cannabis plant possible requires the patience of a low and slow monk.