by Marco Torres
Talk to anybody about Marijuana Coffee and they may refer to long existing establishments in Netherlands where licensed coffee shops have been serving it to customers for decades. However, the idea has firmly caught on in the United States, where pot-infused coffee is taking the market by storm as more consumers are finally becoming informed on the medicinal properties of this amazing plant.
The marijuana connoisseur’s term for smoking pot in the morning has a fresh new connotation: A new wave of cannabis-infused coffees is bringing customers a hemp-flavored edge to their morning joe.
Los Angeles-based coffee company Compelling & Rich markets its Ethiopian Yirgacheffe beans as “herb conditioned.” They use a process called green coffee conditioning that exposes unroasted coffee beans to vaporized ingredients at a low combustion point, and then infuses the coffee with that flavor. To date, the company has used the process to create coffees infused with marijuana, oolong tea, and chai tea.
Coming out of Washington state, Fairwinds Manufacturing is now producing pot-laced coffee at its plant just across the Columbia River from Oregon. The company’s Catapult Cannabis Coffee ain’t cheap, going for $10 for pods that fit cartridge-based coffeemakers. Fairwinds’ conventionally packaged cannabis coffees are a bit more reasonable.
While pot-infused coffee is supposed to get you high, it still has to taste good. Fairwinds’ James Hull told Fast Company how he does it—and it’s a bit tricky because the addition of oils (of any kind) can wreak havoc with the brewing process.
