Tuesday, November 5, 2024

This Marijuana-Infused Vermouth Will Make Your Next Martini Epic

Vermouth is an oft underused and rarely properly understood wine based product from Southern Europe. Vermouth is complex and inviting, great on their own or when used to make a wide variety of cocktails, both classic and new style.

With its infused nature, there is a spot for cannabis if you’re crafty. Since vermouth is often sweetened in some way as well as eventually strengthened with brandy or grain alcohol, you can involve some tincture of your choosing.

Cannabis vermouth is contextually perfect for today’s curious consumer, since rare and unique variations are becoming as commonplace as craft beer. Considering you can apply it to a cocktail or perhaps even use in a dish, it’s something that belongs in your liquor cabinet (preferably fridge) if you are into gourmet food, alcohol, or now by the grace of many a state legislature, cannabis.

Photos by Maria Penaloza

Weed Infused Vermouth

Danielle Guercio, 2018
Makes ½ liter with 10mg THC per 1oz serving estimated

  • Half liter dry white wine
  • 1 Tbsp alcohol or glycerin tincture*
  • ¼ cup sugar or sweetener of choice
  • ¼ cup brandy, vodka, or liqueur
  • Peel of 1 lemon
  • ¼ cup dried herbs including: mint, chamomile, rose, lavender, lemon balm, thyme, tea
  • 1 Tbsp crushed spices including: clove, star anise, allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon

Clean a jar that can hold both the liquid and all of the yummy things you’ll be adding to it. Crush all of the spices and herbs in a mortar and pestle, add to the jar. Fill with wine and allow to infuse for at least one week but up to three in the refrigerator.

Photos by Maria Penaloza

When it’s time to strain, you also need to sweeten and strengthen your baby vermouth so that it can be more than infused wine. You can use simple syrup, molasses, sugar, beets, honey, pretty much anything you’d like, but control the amount to reflect the tincture that you’ve selected. If you’re using glycerin, that will add sweetness, so dial it down. If you’re using alcohol tincture, you won’t have to add as much strength to the mixture.

In a larger container or bottle, stir sweetener and added alcohol into the strained wine. Now stir in the cannabis tincture that you’ve chosen. Stir well and keep in the fridge for up to three weeks. To keep the flavor optimal, countertop storage is not recommended.

*Cannabis Tincture

Decarboxylate 3.5g of finely ground cannabis at 225 degrees for 20 minutes in a tightly sealed, oven safe container. Put cannabis in lidded mason jar or vacuum sealed bag with cannabis and ½ cup vegetable glycerin or grain alcohol. Heat in water bath just under boiling for at least 1 hour. Strain and chill to use in recipes.

Photos by Maria Penaloza

Serve this tasty tipple over ice, neat in a tiny wine glass, or use it in cocktails like the Americano or Negroni, which are Italian and American classics. You can even make a sparkling Negroni and pretend you’re sitting in a square in Milan where they happened to legalize cannabis use. This is a dream that is seeming more likely as cannabis prohibition finally begins to wane.

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