If getting baked on milk tart sounds like a fun idea, then you might as well upgrade your skill level as far as edibles are concerned with these clever tips to infuse chocolate with cannabis. It’s not as tricky as one might think, but there are some tricks to the trade.
The Cannabis Business Times has released a four-part video series that spotlights the day-to-day operations of cannabis industry professionals through “how-to” demonstrations. In the first video, the team visits a vertically integrated medical cannabis operator in Ohio, who shows us how to infuse chocolate with cannabis to produce canna-chocolate edibles.
In the video series premiere, released on 23 January 2023, Buckeye Relief Executive Chef Marc London and Kitchen Production Manager Emily Rollo share a few secrets behind their chocolate infusion process. But before Buckeye Relief received an extraction license in 2019, and before the kitchen team dialed in that delicate process, London traveled the world in search of the best chocolate he could find.
That excursion led him to South America, specifically Ecuador, before London and his team eventually decided on a Belgian chocolate to bring back to Ohio’s medical cannabis patients.
“I like to tell people as they come through the kitchen that nobody is crazy enough in the cannabis business to take the best chocolate you can find on the planet, a really great 72% cacao chocolate, and try to infuse it with cannabis and add all that plant material to it,” London says, “except for me. We have successfully accomplished that.”
In addition to starting with a fine chocolate, London lauds Buckeye Relief’s extraction team for providing a clean distillate that’s “odorless and tasteless,” which he says allows the kitchen team to take a quality chocolate product, infuse it, and keep that same quality with the end result.
In addition to starting with quality ingredients, London and Rollo share these 8 key tips when infusing chocolates with cannabis at home.
8 Tips to infuse chocolate with cannabis
Below is a brief summary of the tips to use when infusing chocolate with your favourite cannabis strain.
- Use cocoa butter as a catalyst to encase the THC molecules
- Heat up the distillate and cocoa butter in short increments.
- Have a small-batch mentality to create consistency.
- Don’t run out of chocolate seed during the tempering process and use the correct potency.
- Invest in a reliable chocolate depositor and double-check your weight.
- Use a vibrating machine to help the chocolate settle into its molds properly.
- Provide yourself a timeline that allows for mistakes and corrections.
