Experiment: A New Way of Flavoring Cannabis
BY SIRIUS J · THU NOV 26, 2015
Trying out some of the 2015 Michigan Cannabis Cup entries gave us all a taste of how flavorful this wonderful plant can be on its very own. Strains like Strawberry Banana, Zkittlez, Tangie and Orange Cookies show just how versatile this plant can be for breeders who seek flavor, but if that wasn’t enough, recent developments have taught us a new way of flavoring cannabis in the most naturally unnatural way possible.
Though some olive oil producers in Italy may claim that their lemon-flavored olive oil comes about simply by throwing lemons down at the base of the trees, there’s no evidence that roots can actually absorb anything other than nutrients and water. Growers who have tried this with cannabis have also come to the same conclusion.
Buds and olives alike can simply absorb scents, good and bad, straight out of the air. Aside from pest control, this is one of the reasons it’s good to have a sealed growroom. Weed grown in someone’s living room will certainly smell like whatever the strain is supposed to smell like, but with some added mustiness and probably some hair.
David B. Allen M.D. from Cannabis Digest may have discovered a new method of impregnating cannabis flowers with a foreign flavor. While roots can’t uptake terpenoid flavor molecules, a freshly cut stem certainly may be able to do so.
If you want to try this experiment at home with a flowering plant, simply cut a side branch with a bud and a few leaves on it that’s ready for harvest, and put it in a dilute solution of vanilla extract in purified water. Even if the stem is cut, the process of transpiration still occurs. Water evaporates off the surface and underbelly of the leaves, which creates a back pressure, pulling xylem through the veins of the branch, then the stem, then the branch, and eventually pulls up your vanilla solution.
After about a week, the entire cutting should be saturated with this solution, so take it out and cure as you would a normal bud. Keep track of it among the rest of the buds, and smoke a bowl to see if you notice a difference.
While HIGH TIMES generally doesn’t recommend adulterating an already clean and flavorful plant like cannabis, a little experiment or two never hurt anyone; just make sure that you don’t lie and say it’s some new strain you developed. If anyone tries this, email us at [email protected] and tell us all about it, we love to hear from out readers.
http://www.hightimes.com/read/experiment-new-way-flavoring-cannabis
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