Cannasugar: Sprinkle That On Everything!

Cannasugar is the perfect addition to your pantry!

Move over cannabutter – there’s a sweeter way to consume cannabis these days. Cannasugar is the combination of regular white sugar with cannabis tincture. Once you have a handle on the tincture process (which isn’t very difficult), you are only a few straightforward steps away from having a cup of beautiful green sugar on hand.

Sprinkled in your morning coffee, your afternoon tea, or made into a sweet treat, cannasugar is just another tool in your cannabis medicine cabinet. When battling chronic medical conditions and diseases, it’s nice to have a selection in your pantry. And as an added bonus, you can easily add cannasugar to your morning coffee or bedtime tea, or into your baking and cooking (even tomato sauce needs a bit of sugar!). 

The directions are easy to follow and have little room for error, even if you aren’t handy in the kitchen. Both the cannabis tincture and the cannasugar have a long shelf life, and should maintain potency for six months or more when properly stored.

How to Make Cannabis Tincture (for Cannasugar)

*recipe adapted from Magic Butter’s video. An alcohol-free tincture recipe is available here.

Ingredients:

• 14 – 28 grams of your favorite cannabis strain
• 3 cups grain alcohol (Everclear)

Method:

1. Roughly grind cannabis using a knife, scissors, or grinder. No need to grind it down to what you’d need to roll a nice joint – a rough chop is more than enough.
2. Pour into a Magic Butter machine or slow cooker. A Magic Butter machine is a device specifically made for making cannabis butter, extracts, and tinctures, but a slow cooker works just as well.
3. Add the alcohol and set the temperature to low for 4 hours. If you are using a slow cooker, make sure you set it up in an area of the house with proper ventilation to avoid issues with the vapors.
4. After 4 hours, turn the heat off. Allow the tincture and pot to cool completely before handling.
5. Strain out the plant material using a cheesecloth. The organic plant material no longer contains any medicinal value and can be composted.
6. Store tincture in a glass container until ready for use. It should keep for a few months in a cool dark pantry.

How to Make Cannasugar

Ingredients:

• 2 ½ cups white sugar
• 1 cup cannabis tincture

Method: 

1. Spread sugar over a baking sheet using a spatula.
2. Pour cannabis tincture over the sugar and mix until absorbed. Spread out into an even layer.
3. Bake in the oven, at the lowest possible temperature setting for roughly 1 hour.
4. Stir every 15 minutes. This will allow for even evaporation, and avoid hot spots.
5. After an hour, check to see if the sugar has completely dried out. If it is still a bit moist, continue to bake until it reaches normal sugar texture once again.
6. Once it is a dry, sandy texture, turn off the oven and allow to cool completely before handling.
7. Store in a glass container, in a cool, dry place until ready to use.

A Few Mistakes to Avoid

Making cannasugar isn’t a complicated process and doesn’t require any special skills. That said, you’ll want to avoid a few common mistakes. Nobody wants low potency or clumpy sugar, which can become moldy. Here are a few mistakes to avoid as you get started on your cannasugar making journey.

• Mistake #1: Leaving the tincture to simmer for too long. If you leave the tincture in the Magic Butter machine or a slow cooker too long, it will start to thicken. As the moisture evaporates, it will turn into Rick Simpson Oil (also known as Phoenix Tears). Although a valuable medicinal extraction, it’s far too thick for making cannasugar. Check your tincture every hour to ensure it maintains proper viscosity.
• Mistake #2: Burning the sugar during the baking process. If you bake the sugar at too high a temperature, you risk burning it. Sugar naturally burns very quickly, even at relatively low temperatures. Bake slowly at low temperatures to avoid this problem.
• Mistake #3: Wet or hardened sugar. If you rush the drying process, your sugar may clump together during storage. If you don’t mind carving out a spoonful of sugar at a time, this isn’t the worst mistake. However, too much moisture may lead to mold, especially if stored incorrectly. 
• Mistake #4: Storing the tincture or sugar in a plastic container. Plastic is a porous material. Given enough time, it will allow air into the inside of any container. It also may leach plastic chemicals into the sugar over time. For long-lasting cannasugar, always store in glass containers with an airtight lid.

How to Store Cannasugar

Cannasugar is incredibly shelf stable, but not quite as long-lasting as straight sugar. Plan to consume the cannasugar within six months to reap the most therapeutic value from your sweet stash. Preferably you’ll want to find a dark glass container with an airtight lid for long-term storage. Because the cannasugar may retain a bit of moisture, it is at a higher risk for mold than pure sugar. If you live in a humid environment, you may want to take extra precautions in storage.

Dark glass and cool temperatures are also important. If you don’t have an opaque container, a regular mason jar works well. Keep the jar in a dark cupboard or pantry when not in use. Sunlight degrades cannabinoids over time, and so does oxygen. The less oxygen and light exposure, the longer lasting the potency.

Even if you don’t have a lot of practice working in the kitchen, you can make cannasugar by following the few simple steps above. It requires no expensive equipment, yet produces impressive results. If you take cannabis for medicinal purposes, cannasugar is yet another way to incorporate into your daily routine. You may find it especially useful for early morning dosing in a cannasugar coffee right before work or school.