Take care of your lungs. You’ve only got two of them.
Recognition of that fact may be what’s driving the ever-surging demand for marijuana-infused edibles of late. But why stop at pot brownies or chicken pot-cciatore?
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In our latest episode of Bong Appetit, we followed host Matt Zimbric to a cocktail party in Los Angeles, where mixologist Daniel K. Nelson of The Black Cat whipped up a trio of cannabis-fueled cocktails.
As with anything, you need your basics. Nelson shows us how you can make Green Dragon—that is, liquor infused with marijuana—that doesn’t taste like bong water. All you need is a little bit of modernist technique, but not a lot of stress.
When you’ve regained consciousness from your most recent Whip-It bender, just empty out your standard-size whipped cream canister and fill it with vodka (or another spirit) and your preferred strain of bud. Pressurizing it with CO2 helps to flash-infuse the liquor, while a short bath in a double-boiler decarboxylates the goodies in your weed—transforming it from the not-so-fun THCA to the much more party-friendly THC.
At that point the world is your weed oyster. Nelson uses his Green Dragon in an herbal take on the French 75, a citrus-forward champagne cocktail that also gets you high. He also does a classic stirred martini with cannabis-infused gin.
If that’s not enough to get your buzz on, well, it might be time to take a little vacation from good ol’ cannabis. But if you’re less into cocktails that James Bond would drink if he were stationed in Kingston, turn to the advice of master mixologist Don Lee.
The Weed Eater—aka David Bienenstock—spoke to the former PDT and Momofuku bartender, who offered up three strain-specific cocktail recipes, which brings out the distinct nuances of aromas of each type of cannabis.
First up for cocktail nerds is the Prohibition-era Last Word, this time with pine-y OG Kush. Follow that with some skunky Sour Diesel, which pairs perfectly with peaty scotch in a Rob Roy. On the sweeter side of things, Lee serves up an old-school Pineapple Daiquiri with the lesser-known Skywalker strain, which lends its fruity flavors to this tropical cocktail.
From there, you’ve got a whole new universe of new and classic cocktails to crank up with a bit of THC TLC. But you should probably stop short of making your own weed-infused scorpion moonshine—at least, for now.
