One of my personal favorite edibles of all time is cannabis soda. They are easy to drink, are potent, and taste great. I tend to not like sweet edibles but cannabis sodas make an exception due to their easy-going flower flavor and their sheer strength.

Cannabis beverages work to give a different high than your standard edible. Normally, an edible will get you high through a gastrointestinal method, meaning your body has to digest the food product you consumed before you will start to feel the high. That’s why most edibles take a while before they start to work, normally between a half hour and two hours. This method tends to leave you feeling couch-locked, tired, and zoned.

Some edibles get you high orally. These tend to be things like candies that aren’t initially made with cannabis, but just have a layer or coating of activated THC on the outside. Tinctures also use this oral uptake. This method of absorption tends to work almost instantaneously, normally feeling effects within five-ten minutes at the very most. This high tends to be a more uplifting and euphoric one.

Cannabis beverages get you high both ways. This means that after you consume a THC soda that we are going to make, you will get a high quickly, followed by a high that most people associate with an edible a while later after the first high wears down.

Now that the nerdy stuff is out of the way, it is time to show you how to create a basic cannabis syrup that we can turn into soda.

Cannabis Simple Syrup Ingredients:

Equal Parts Water and Sugar (For reference this recipe uses 2.5 cups each)

Vegetable Glycerin (2 tablespoons)

Ground Cannabis (7 grams/to your liking)

Now if you have read our other recipes, you will know we like our edibles strong, so we suggest possibly using less cannabis your first time, unless you are like us.

Instructions:

1. Combine water and sugar in saucepan, bring to low boil/high simmer
2. Once the liquid reaches this point, add your cannabis
3. Maintain heat with regular stirring for about 20 minutes till it reduces to a syrupy mixture (IMPORTANT: use a candy thermometer to make sure your mixture does not go above 250 degrees.)
4. Lower the temperature to medium low and add vegetable glycerin which helps the THC combine
5. Simmer 5 more minutes
6. Strain off plant material
7. Place in air tight jar and let cool
8. Make your soda!

This is a super basic simple syrup recipe you can use as a base for sodas. Other flavors can easily be made, the syrup just needs combined with seltzer (or you could use one of those fancy carbonators). For instance, if you wanted to make an orange soda, you would add the zest and juice from about 2-4 oranges to the first step. For a cola, you will need the zest and juice from 2 oranges, 1 lime, 1 lemon, 2 cinnamon sticks, a pinch of coriander seeds, a touch of ginger, vanilla, a little brown sugar, and browning sauce.