People have been using hemp in numerous ways for thousands of years. As one of the oldest plants that have been domesticated by humans, after a few decades of keeping a low profile, hemp is once again finding its way back to the mainstream.
Nowadays, there are many hemp and hemp-derived products on the cannabis market that offer various and unique ways of obtaining this plant’s properties. One of them is brewing a hot and delicious hemp tea to get some of those beneficial cannabinoids. And as hemp is very rich in CBD, brewing hemp tea is a great way to obtain some of the health benefits of CBD. Whether for wellness or medical use, hemp tea is a great way to ingest some herbal goodness.
If CBD hemp tea sounds unusual to you and you wonder if it even makes sense, we’ll demystify it in this article. We’ll talk a little about hemp and its properties, as well as how you can use some parts of this plant to brew an effective and delicious tea.
Hemp, the Versatile Plant
Hemp has been getting on everyone’s good side lately, and with a good reason. This cannabis variety is not only rich in cannabinoids and fragrant terpenes, but it’s also highly nutritious. The green parts are abundant in vitamins and minerals, while hemp seeds are rich in iron, protein, and fatty acids such as omega-3. Its stalks have been used for millennia by humans to build various types of industrial materials and textiles.
The hemp plant is a major source of CBD (cannabidiol), which is why in today’s cannabis market, it’s primarily used for its CBD content. CBD is mainly extracted from hemp and it’s used to produce a variety of CBD products, like CBD oils, tinctures, edibles, etc.
For clarification, hemp is an industrial variety of cannabis that belongs to the Sativa species. This species naturally contains a high concentration of CBD and very low THC content. THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) is the psychoactive cannabinoid that gets you high. That said, hemp is non-psychoactive, but still therapeutic.
It communicates with the cannabinoid receptors in the body’s endocannabinoid system and indirectly influences their activity – it can increase the production of neurotransmitters responsible for mood regulation and it can influence the anti-inflammatory response in the body.
The hemp flowers have the highest concentration of cannabinoids, while the leaves don’t have as much, but both can be used to make a flavorful cup of hemp tea.
What Is Hemp Tea?
Simply put, hemp tea is a hot beverage prepared by steeping hemp leaves or buds in boiling water. When you brew hemp tea, the cannabinoids and terpenes present in the plant separate from the plant, making them easier to ingest.
Like we said, the buds are the most abundant in cannabinoids because the sticky resin they’re covered with is where most cannabinoids are, whereas the leaves still contain cannabinoids, but not as much. However, you can make tea from both, depending on how strong you want your tea to be.
How to Make Hemp Tea
The preparation of the tea itself is a piece of cake, but the pre-preparation may need a little more time. Check out the steps and the recipe below.
Decarboxylate First
One important thing to remember is that you can’t make hemp tea with raw hemp. That said, technically you can, but raw hemp only contains the inactive forms of the cannabinoids, so it won’t make much sense.
For the cannabinoids to “activate”, they need to go through a chemical process called decarboxylation. This is essentially exposing the raw plant to heat so that the cannabinoids could transform from their inactive forms to their active forms. This way, CBDA will get transformed into its active form, CBD.
To decarboxylate hemp, just turn on the oven at 240 degrees Fahrenheit, grind or break the hemp into smaller pieces, and lay it flat on a baking tray. Put it in the oven for about 30-40 minutes and stir every 10 minutes or so to allow it to decarb evenly. When the plant material looks golden brown, remove it from the oven and set aside to cool. When it’s cooled enough, grind it into smaller pieces.
After this process is done, you’re ready for the next step.
The Tea Recipe
The cannabinoids present in any species of the cannabis plant are not water-soluble, but they’re fat-soluble. This means that they naturally bind to fats which makes them easier to be successfully absorbed in the human body. Therefore, a fatty product, as a binding agent, will have to be included in our recipe. Otherwise, CBD won’t reach the bloodstream successfully.
As for the ingredients, you’ll need:
- Loose hemp leaves or hemp flowers, 1 teaspoon per cup
- Water
- A fatty product (e.g. coconut oil, coconut milk, butter, whole milk, half and half)
The CBD tea is actually very easy to make, though the process is slightly different than brewing traditional tea.
- Put the desired quantity of water in a pot and add the fatty product of your choice. If you’re using an oil or butter, you should add ½ teaspoon per cup, and if you’re using milk, you’ll need 2 ½ tablespoons per cup;
- Bring the mixture to a boil;
- Once it’s boiling, add the desired quantity of decarboxylated tea leaves or buds and stir. You can also use a tea infuser if you have one, to save you the trouble of straining later. You can leave the tea leaves/buds for 10 minutes, but we recommend you keep stirring gently during that time for a more flavorful beverage and an even extraction of the CBD;
- When 10 minutes is over, remove the pot from heat and strain the tea;
- Add a sweetener if you so desire, or even some lemon;
- If you want to mix it up and experiment with the flavor, you can add a teabag of your favorite tea (chamomile, mint, green tea, or any other herbal tea). Just add it to the strained hemp tea and steep for 5 minutes, then remove the bag or strain it if you’re using a loose leaf tea;
- Or, if you want to enhance the potency of your hemp tea, you can add a couple of drops of a full-spectrum CBD oil for an additional boost;
- Enjoy your cup of cannabis tea!
Final Thoughts on Hemp Tea
If you had doubted whether CBD hemp tea is even a thing, now you know that it’s a great way to ingest some CBD through an enjoyable hot beverage. The process is unlike brewing a traditional cup of tea because of all the science behind it, but once you get the hang of it, hemp tea may become one of your favorite ways to consume this variety of cannabis.
