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Cannabis Hot Apple Cider: Why I Dose the Mug, Not the Pot · Bite Me The Show About Edibles

• 1:17
  Margaret: There's a moment every fall when the kitchen tells you the season has changed even before the calendar does.
• 1:24
  Margaret: And for me, it's been probably the last weekend in particular.
• 1:29
  Margaret: A pot of apple cider on the stove, cinnamon and orange peel bobbing around, and my whole family wandering into the kitchen one by one, asking, what's that smell?
• 1:41
  Margaret: That smell is today's episode.
• 1:43
  Margaret: Welcome, friends, to episode 373.
• 1:48
  Margaret: And bite me the show about edibles, where I help you take control of your high life.
• 1:53
  Margaret: I'm your host, Margaret, and today we're making spiced hot apple cider.
• 1:58
  Margaret: It's apple season where I am right now.
• 2:00
  Margaret: The orchards are full, the farmers markets are stacked with jugs of fresh pressed cider, and I could not think of a better drink to bring into the fall.
• 2:08
  Margaret: But this isn't a recipe episode.
• 2:11
  Margaret: I'm going to show you a different way to serve an infused drink to a group of people, one that's safer, easier, and way more flexible than anything I was doing a few years ago.
• 2:21
  Margaret: I call it dosing the mug, not the pot.
• 2:24
  Margaret: And once you try it, I think you'll use it for every infused drink that you make.
• 2:28
  Margaret: But first, a little confession.
• 2:30
  Margaret: Friends, I'm your host, Margaret, a certified gangier, a TCI certified cannabis educator, and I believe your kitchen is the best dispensary you'll ever have.
• 2:39
  Margaret: Welcome to Bite Me the Show About Edibles.
• 2:42
  Margaret: Grab a hot drink and let's dive in.
• 2:46
  Margaret: So here's the confession.
• 2:51
  Margaret: I've made hot apple cider on this show before, way back in episode 75, which came out on Christmas Eve 2020, if you're keeping track.
• 3:00
  Margaret: Back when I still went by Marge, back when we were all stuck at home, and let's be honest, a lot of us were making more edibles than ever.
• 3:10
  Margaret: And if you're thinking to myself, what was I doing in 2020?
• 3:12
  Margaret: Oh, yeah, the pandemic.
• 3:14
  Margaret: Yeah.
• 3:14
  Margaret: That's why we were all stuck at home.
• 3:17
  Margaret: Of course, being Christmas Eve, we were hopefully all home and enjoying time with people special to us.
• 3:24
  Margaret: That episode was a quick one.
• 3:26
  Margaret: I'd taken a hot apple cider workshop hosted by Simply Bear Organic, a craft grower out in British Columbia, with Chef Travis Peterson, the nomad cook.
• 3:35
  Margaret: He shared three cider recipes built to echo the terpenes in one of Simply Bear's cultivars, and I picked the honey apple cider to share with you because it was the easiest one to infuse.
• 3:46
  Margaret: You just swapped an infused honey.
• 3:48
  Margaret: It was a nice little holiday episode.
• 3:50
  Margaret: I still love that recipe, but when I went back and looked at it recently, a few things jumped out at me.
• 3:55
  Margaret: First, it wasn't my recipe.
• 3:57
  Margaret: It was Travis's, and full credit to him, it's delicious.
• 4:01
  Margaret: But I've been making edibles for a long time now, and I wanted something that was mine, tested in my kitchen with ingredients I actually had on hand.
• 4:08
  Margaret: And second, the way I talked about infusing it back then.
• 4:12
  Margaret: Sweeten the pot with infused honey, dose it for whoever's drinking it.
• 4:16
  Margaret: Sounds simple, but in practice, if you're sweetening a whole pot, every single mug carries the same dose, which works if everyone around the table wants the same experience.
• 4:26
  Margaret: It almost never works out that way, though.
• 4:29
  Margaret: You've got the friend who's a lightweight, the uncle who doesn't partake, the partner who wants a cozy little buzz, and the person who's been consuming edibles daily for a decade and has a tolerance that would just blow the socks off of most people.
• 4:41
  Margaret: One pot can't serve them all.
• 4:43
  Margaret: So today's episode is the version I'd make now.
• 4:47
  Margaret: Some 300 episodes later.
• 4:51
  Margaret: Same cozy drink, same house smells amazing magic, with six more years of experience behind it.
• 4:58
  Margaret: Practice makes perfect, am I right?
• 5:00
  Margaret: Or at least practice makes better.
• 5:02
  Margaret: This makes about six mugs.
• 5:04
  Margaret: Six normal-sized mugs, I should preface that, because usually I tell people I only drink two cups of coffee in the morning, but what I fail to tell them is that those two cups of coffee are in a very large mug.
• 5:18
  Margaret: The full recipe card with Imperial and Metric Measurements is in the show notes, and the members of the Bite Me Cannabis Club can grab the printable PDF in the community, so you don't need to scribble anything down.
• 5:29
  Margaret: Just listen.
• 5:30
  Margaret: So here's what you need for your cider base six cups or liter and a half of apple cider, two wide strips of orange peel, dried rosemary, I'd say up to a tablespoon.
• 5:42
  Margaret: I kind of grabbed a pretty healthy pinch from the jar.
• 5:47
  Margaret: I didn't really measure it out.
• 5:48
  Margaret: I used rosemary for my own garden that I dried this summer, and it was perfect.
• 5:52
  Margaret: Two cinnamon sticks, four whole cloves, two thin slices of fresh ginger, a quarter teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg, and regular uninfused honey to taste.
• 6:04
  Margaret: And I just want to make another little note about the ginger here because I say fresh ginger, but what I did the last time I bought a big knob of ginger is I used what I had purchased it for, and then I took the rest of it, I peeled it all, chopped it up into chunks, put it in a container, and put it in the freezer.
• 6:23
  Margaret: And then when you need those pieces of ginger, you just take a piece out, let it sit for a few minutes, and you'll easily be able to slice it.
• 6:33
  Margaret: And I'm telling you this because I have bought ginger many times where I have used it for what I bought it for, and then slowly watched it wither away in the basket in which it was resting.
• 6:47
  Margaret: I hate wasting food.
• 6:49
  Margaret: And this has been a game changer.
• 6:51
  Margaret: I just find that you just have to let it sit out for a minute or two.
• 6:54
  Margaret: You could probably even put it in the microwave if you needed it super fast.
• 6:58
  Margaret: I use it often to make a lemon ginger honey hot beverage, and I just grate the ginger with a zester or one of those fine microplanes right into the cup.
• 7:09
  Margaret: It works beautifully.
• 7:10
  Margaret: So if you don't have fresh ginger, I highly recommend you try this.
• 7:13
  Margaret: It keeps for a while.
• 7:16
  Margaret: Now, notice I also said regular honey.
• 7:19
  Margaret: Hang on to that thought.
• 7:20
  Margaret: We'll get into the infused part in a minute.
• 7:22
  Margaret: But a quick word on the cider itself.
• 7:24
  Margaret: If you can get fresh pressed cider from an orchard or farmer's market, do it.
• 7:28
  Margaret: It's cloudy, it's tart, it tastes like biting into a fresh apple.
• 7:33
  Margaret: But I know most of you are going to grab a jug at the grocery store, and that's totally fine.
• 7:37
  Margaret: I've done it both ways.
• 7:38
  Margaret: I've done it with the apple cider from the farmer's market, and I've also bought apple cider at the grocery store as well.
• 7:45
  Margaret: So taste it before you add any honey.
• 7:47
  Margaret: With sweetened cider, you might need very little honey or not at all.
• 7:51
  Margaret: With fresh pressed cider, you'll probably want more.
• 7:53
  Margaret: Your tongue is the boss here, not the recipe.
• 7:56
  Margaret: And here's my favorite trick for testing this.
• 7:59
  Margaret: I put all the aromatics in a tea bag.
• 8:01
  Margaret: In this case, I used a just a paper tea bag that you can compost.
• 8:06
  Margaret: I also have the little muslin bags.
• 8:08
  Margaret: I used to have those metal tea filters.
• 8:10
  Margaret: Any of those would work, whatever you happen to have on hand.
• 8:14
  Margaret: And this means you're not fishing around on hot cider with a slotted spoon.
• 8:17
  Margaret: There's no straining a whole pot through a sieve after you're while your guests are standing around waiting.
• 8:22
  Margaret: You just lift the bag out and you're done.
• 8:24
  Margaret: I gave the rosemary its own little bag, and here's why.
• 8:29
  Margaret: Rosemary is wonderful for about 10 minutes, and after that it starts to turn a little bit bitter and a little bit too piney, like you're drinking a Christmas tree.
• 8:36
  Margaret: So around the 10-minute mark, out comes the rosemary, and everything else stays in.
• 8:40
  Margaret: Of course, you can taste it first to see how you find it, but it makes it really easy to pull that particular aromatic out and have a lovely cider.
• 8:48
  Margaret: So here's the method.
• 8:50
  Margaret: Put your cider in a pot, along with the bags of aromatics, turn the heat to medium and bring it up to a simmer.
• 8:57
  Margaret: You'll see the little bubbles around the edges, and then turn it down to low and let it sit there for about 20 minutes.
• 9:03
  Margaret: Pull the rosemary around the 10-minute mark.
• 9:06
  Margaret: The one thing I want you to avoid is a hard-rolling boil because boiling fresh cider flattens the bright apple flavor and can make it taste kind of cooked.
• 9:14
  Margaret: And you're looking for apple cider, not applesauce.
• 9:16
  Margaret: Gentle heat is your friend.
• 9:18
  Margaret: After 20 minutes, lift the bags out, taste and sweeten with your regular honey.
• 9:22
  Margaret: Keep it on warm at the lowest setting on the stove or move it to a slow cooker on warm if you're serving over a few hours.
• 9:28
  Margaret: Garnish your mugs with a thin apple slice and a cinnamon stick if you want to get fancy.
• 9:34
  Margaret: And I have to tell you, I've served this to my family and it was a hit.
• 9:37
  Margaret: Everyone loved it.
• 9:38
  Margaret: The kitchen smelled incredible the whole afternoon.
• 9:41
  Margaret: Really, there's nothing more full than a pot of cider simmering on the stove.
• 9:46
  Margaret: And one by one, people are like, this is really good.
• 9:50
  Margaret: As if they were surprised.
• 9:51
  Margaret: I was also thinking, like, well, so here's the heart of the episode.
• 9:54
  Margaret: The pot of cider you just made has zero cannabis in it.
• 9:58
  Margaret: None.
• 9:58
  Margaret: It's a regular family-friendly drink that anyone can enjoy.
• 10:01
  Margaret: Kids, grandparents, the neighbor who popped by, your friend who's driving home.
• 10:05
  Margaret: Nobody has to wonder which pot is the special one.
• 10:09
  Margaret: The cannabis goes into each mug one at a time, measured for the person who's drinking it.
• 10:13
  Margaret: And here's how I did it.
• 10:15
  Margaret: Put your measured dose of infused honey in the bottom of an empty mug, add a little splash of hot cider, just a couple of tablespoons to stir it for about 15 seconds until the honey is completely dissolved, and then top it up with more cider and give it another stir.
• 10:30
  Margaret: That little splash step matters.
• 10:33
  Margaret: If you drop a spoonful of thick honey into a full mug, some of it sinks to the bottom and sits there.
• 10:38
  Margaret: Then someone gets most of their dose in the last sip or leaves it behind in the mug altogether.
• 10:44
  Margaret: Dissolving it first in a small amount of liquid means the dose is spread through the whole drink.
• 10:49
  Margaret: In my testing, the infused honey dissolved beautifully, no residue, no sludge at the bottom.
• 10:53
  Margaret: Now, how much honey?
• 10:54
  Margaret: That depends entirely on how potent your honey is and who's drinking.
• 10:58
  Margaret: This is where I'm going to send you to the Bite Me Dosage calendar, which is free on the website.
• 11:02
  Margaret: Plug in your numbers and it'll tell you how much is in a teaspoon of your honey.
• 11:06
  Margaret: Then you can measure out the right amount for each person.
• 11:08
  Margaret: If you're new or if your guest is new, repeat after me.
• 11:13
  Margaret: Start low, go slow.
• 11:15
  Margaret: You can always make a second mug later, and you may want a second mug later, but you can't take one back.
• 11:21
  Margaret: I only tested this with infused honey, but I want to give you another option too, and that's a tincture.
• 11:26
  Margaret: A tincture is great here because it's so easy to measure by the drop or the milliliter, and it mixes right into a hot drink.
• 11:32
  Margaret: An alcohol-based tincture will add a little boozy edge, which honestly isn't bad in a hot cider.
• 11:38
  Margaret: A glycerin tincture is sweeter and smoother, and either one works the same way.
• 11:44
  Margaret: Add it to the mug, splash, stir, top up.
• 11:47
  Margaret: Try it and let me know how it goes for you.
• 11:49
  Margaret: And what I'd steer you away from is infused butter or oil.
• 11:53
  Margaret: Cannabinoids live in fat, and fat doesn't mix with a watery drink like cider.
• 11:58
  Margaret: It'll float to the top at a little slick and cling to the side of the mug.
• 12:02
  Margaret: You'll lose part of the dose, and the texture isn't that great.
• 12:05
  Margaret: Save your can of butter for baking.
• 12:07
  Margaret: And here's the part that I love most.
• 12:09
  Margaret: Dosing the mug means everyone gets exactly the experience that they want.
• 12:13
  Margaret: Your lightweight friend gets the micro dose, your seasoned friend gets more, your uncle gets the plain cider and a hug.
• 12:21
  Margaret: That's what taking control of your high life looks like at a dinner table.
• 12:25
  Margaret: So let's talk about why the drink smells so good.
• 12:28
  Margaret: Because it connects to something we've been talking about a lot on the show lately.
• 12:32
  Margaret: Terpenes aren't just a cannabis thing, they're the aromatic compounds in all kinds of plants, and your spice drawer is full of them.
• 12:40
  Margaret: Turns out this cider is basically a terpene party.
• 12:44
  Margaret: That orange peel loaded with lemonine, the same bright citrus terpene you'll find in a lot of cannabis cultivars.
• 12:50
  Margaret: The rosemary brings pinene, that fresh, foresty smell.
• 12:54
  Margaret: The cloves are one of the richest sources of beta caryophylline, the peppery, spicy terpene that shows up in so many cannabis strains as well.
• 13:03
  Margaret: And even the apples themselves carry pharnacine in their skins, which is part of that green apple smell.
• 13:09
  Margaret: When you make your infused honey, a lot of the terpenes from your flower don't survive the process.
• 13:14
  Margaret: Heat and time take their toll.
• 13:16
  Margaret: And if you want to go deeper on that, I wrote a whole post and did an episode on whether terpenes survive edibles.
• 13:23
  Margaret: And I'll link it in the show notes.
• 13:24
  Margaret: What that means for this drink is your spices are doing the heavy lifting on aroma.
• 13:29
  Margaret: The cannabis brings the effect, the orange, rosemary, and clove bring the smell and flavor.
• 13:34
  Margaret: And if you're a kitchen nerd like me and wanted to take it a step further, try this.
• 13:39
  Margaret: Next time you're picking a flower for a batch of infused honey smelled alongside your spices.
• 13:45
  Margaret: If you've got a cultivar with a big citrus or peppery nose, it's going to feel right at home in this cider.
• 13:51
  Margaret: That's the whole idea behind the workshop that inspired the episode 75 matching what's in the mug to what's in the jar.
• 13:59
  Margaret: It's a fun way to train your nose, and as a certified ganger, I can tell you that smelling things side by side is how you get better at it.
• 14:05
  Margaret: And it's something that I am consistently trying to work on.
• 14:08
  Margaret: This is homework that smells fantastic, in my opinion.
• 14:11
  Margaret: So if you're serving this at a gathering this fall, a few things that will make your life easier and keep everyone comfortable.
• 14:17
  Margaret: Label your mugs.
• 14:18
  Margaret: This is a big one.
• 14:19
  Margaret: Once a few mugs are sitting on the counter, they all look the same.
• 14:22
  Margaret: Use a different mug for infused and plain, or put a little tag or a bit of tape on the handle.
• 14:27
  Margaret: Whatever you choose, make it obvious.
• 14:29
  Margaret: Ask before you pour.
• 14:31
  Margaret: Every guest gets to decide whether they want an infused mug and how strong.
• 14:35
  Margaret: No surprises.
• 14:36
  Margaret: I've told you before about my dad helping himself to a piece of infused cake from my freezer.
• 14:42
  Margaret: He got very, very high for the first time in his life, and we laugh about it now, but I don't want that to be anyone's holiday story.
• 14:51
  Margaret: Wait before a second mug.
• 14:54
  Margaret: Edibles take time to kick in, anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple of hours, and a warm drink on a full stomach can be slow.
• 15:01
  Margaret: Have the second mug be a plain one and wait at least two hours before going for another infused round.
• 15:08
  Margaret: Keep your infused honey out of reach.
• 15:10
  Margaret: The pot is safe for everyone, but the jar of infused honey isn't.
• 15:14
  Margaret: Don't leave it on the counter next to the regular honey where a kid or a well-meaning guest might grab it.
• 15:19
  Margaret: But of course, that wouldn't happen, right?
• 15:22
  Margaret: Because you labeled it.
• 15:23
  Margaret: Did you label it?
• 15:24
  Margaret: Is it labeled?
• 15:25
  Margaret: I hope it's labeled.
• 15:27
  Margaret: And I hope it's very clear.
• 15:29
  Margaret: And this is just another reminder because back to the story with my dad, when my dad ate that piece of cake, it was labeled.
• 15:36
  Margaret: But I realized afterwards, probably didn't understand my shorthand.
• 15:41
  Margaret: It had no meaning for him as somebody who wasn't a regular consumer.
• 15:44
  Margaret: Keep that in mind if you're going to be having guests in the house.
• 15:47
  Margaret: And write it down.
• 15:48
  Margaret: Note which honey you used, how much went into each mug, and how it felt.
• 15:52
  Margaret: That's exactly what the bite me dose diary is for.
• 15:55
  Margaret: So next time you'll know your sweet spot instead of guessing.
• 15:58
  Margaret: So that's my spiced hot apple cider version 2, a pot that's safe for everyone, a mug that's made for you, and a kitchen that smells like fall for the whole afternoon.
• 16:08
  Margaret: Your kitchen is the best dispensary you'll ever have.
• 16:11
  Margaret: And this one is one of the coziest things you can make in it.
• 16:15
  Margaret: The full recipe is in the show notes, along with the links to the dosage calendar.
• 16:19
  Margaret: Ha! I almost did it.
• 16:21
  Margaret: I love to say dosage calendar, dosage calculator, and the dose diary.
• 16:27
  Margaret: If you want the printable recipe card, it's waiting for you in the Bite Me Cannabis Club, along with a whole community of people who love making edibles as much as you do.
• 16:35
  Margaret: Come find your people.
• 16:37
  Margaret: The link is in the show notes.
• 16:39
  Margaret: And one more thing before I go.
• 16:40
  Margaret: I'm putting together an episode on how edibles have changed your relationship with cannabis, and I want to hear yours.
• 16:49
  Margaret: What's changed over time?
• 16:52
  Margaret: Did introducing edibles into your cannabis routine change the way you approached smoking?
• 16:58
  Margaret: I don't want to give you too many ideas because I want to hear your stories.
• 17:02
  Margaret: You can leave me a voice message through the link in the show notes, and you might hear yourself on the show.
• 17:06
  Margaret: Anonymous is fine.
• 17:08
  Margaret: And you can send me an email too if you'd rather write it down.
• 17:10
  Margaret: And if you make this cider, I want to hear about it.
• 17:13
  Margaret: Did you go with the infused honey or try a tincture?
• 17:16
  Margaret: Did your family fight over the last mug?
• 17:19
  Margaret: Tell me.
• 17:20
  Margaret: I'd love to hear it.
• 17:21
  Margaret: And whenever you send me messages, I read everyone.
• 17:24
  Margaret: So thank you for spending some of your time with me today, my friends.
• 17:28
  Margaret: I am your host, Margaret.
• 17:30
  Margaret: And until next time, stay curious and stay high.