Infuse with cream chargers N2O

[A_town_trees]

I’m looking to document my “experiment” of using a whip-cream charger to quickly infuse alcohol for summertime drinks. I have two goals with this - 1. Help others who have heard about this but have not attempted the method. 2. Get advice or guidance from others who have had experience with this method. If this topic exists somewhere on the forum let me know as I have missed the it. I searched for multiple associated keywords but didn’t have any luck.

Why am I doing this? Simple answer is it seems like fun and it has a novelty to it. One friend says coming to my house is like visiting with Wayne Szalinsk (IYKYK). But the more realistic and complex reason is my wife and I have moved away from drinking alcohol as we have gotten older. Typically we relax with some cookies I make with infused coconut oil. However having a pool and an active social life enjoying a cold drink outside by the pool just feels right. As others are downing beers and seltzers we are looking to have some infused “cocktails”.

I know what you are asking -
But why not just eat your cookies?
Because it’s enjoyable to sit around and sip a cool drink on hot summer days.

Why not just smoke with those friends?
Because we need something discrete. As far as I know we are the only ones who partake in the jazz cabbage within our group. Who knows they may also partake but everyone must be good at keeping secrets if that is the case.

Didn’t you know you can make infused alcohol by soaking your plant material in alcohol?
Yes but we are looking at what seems to be a lengthly process and we want to switch up flavors and get to the finish line quickly.

From what I can find online it looks to be an approach not commonly used but it seems to have potential. Most of what I see tells me this is a bartenders trick to infuse drinks with various flavors from fruit, flowers, citrus peels, and various herbs.

A few links I’m using to help in the process.

How do cream chargers infuse things?

Why Every Canna-Chef Should Have A Cream Whipper & Nitrous Oxide Charger

Step 1.
Just like with the oil I took 1 oz of White Widow and did a decarb. I know much debate floats around on this topic alone so use what works for you. Our approach that works for us is to grind and then bake at 230f for 20 minutes, stir and back another 10 minutes.

Experimenting with fruit before step 2.
I wanted to get a feel for the process and see if I could tell any difference with infusing water with fruit as a test. So last night I took the whipped cream maker I got from Amazon and gave it a try. I cut up some strawberries and added the same amount into 2 cups with tap water. One cup I did nothing with and the second I poured into the charger and let it rip.
The process-
Once you connect the cartridge to the charger it fills the main container with the gas. N2O to be exact. This pressurizes the contents. I let the mix sit pressurized for about 30 seconds and then released the gas into the air but it seems you can do other things with N2O when releasing it. Just saying…When I poured the liquid from the container it resembled carbonated water, like from a sodastream. I did a taste test with my wife and I can definitely say the infused water tasted like strawberries. Not like a soda, the flavor was not that strong. But it was much more noticeable vs the water I did not infuse and just mixed. So I feel we are on a good path.

I know I wont be able to work on anything tonight but in the next day or two I am going to try actually infusing some Everclear. Currently I have 10 grams in my deep freezer in prep for the experiment. I read freezing helps to break off the trichomes when you make infusions. My hope is we will not need much alcohol infusion to deliver the THC thus keeping the consumption of alcohol low. That was the goal all along. Hopefully I have an update to post by the weekend.

[ShureGreen]

Cool. Sounds like an alright idea and fun thing to do. However, if you are wanting to abstain from the alcohol then why enter it into the equation at all?

[Lostgirl]

I love whipped cream. Straight out da bottle

[A_town_trees]

@ShureGreen
I totally understand how that question comes up. So here is the thought. While we have reduced our alcohol consumption drastically we have not sworn it off. I was a glass or 2 of whiskey a night guy, my wife liked a few vodka drinks. What we have learned over some trial and error is one or 2 drinks, usually a beer or seltzer is ok on a rare occasion. However having a mixed vodka drink, especially for my wife resulted in very unpleasant results the next day. Sad realization we are not 23 anymore. Here is the ultimate goal, much like tinctures we just need something to hold the infusion and hopefully we just need small amounts to do the job. 1 or 2 ml of the alcohol to deliver the THC. This is in contrast to the few shots in a mixed drink. So just reducing the total amount consumed. I’m also trying to avoid any crossfading - when you get drunk and high at the same time.

I looked at our traditional coconut oil and it is a solid at room temp so it was out. I then tried coconut oil that stays liquid at room temp. However it does not emulsify and I was looking at little oil drops in the beverage. We tried this before infusing the oil to see if it would work. It didn’t so I was glad I had not wasted the effort.

The other thought was if the rapid infusion works and we have leftovers we can still store it like a traditional tincture and it should stay the same or increase in potency as time goes on.

Overall this is an experiment and an opportunity to hopefully get some tips along the way. Keep the question coming as it helps me think about other options, address concerns, and come up with new ideas. I have been at this a short time so lots of room to expand knowledge.

[A_town_trees]

@Lostgirl How did you get my birthday photo?

[Lostgirl]

What’s sad is she really does apparently eat like that. It’s slightly obvious

[A_town_trees]

First run -
Last night while baking some cookies we gave the infused method a try. I took 10g of decarbed White Widow from the freezer and added it to 1 cup of Everclear. I started with 1/4 cup then another 1/4 but that amount, 1/2 cup did not cover the flower. So I added another 1/2 cup to bring it up to a full cup. Once everything was added to the creamer I charged it and let it sit under pressure for about 5 minutes. Occasionally my wife or I would agitate the bottle by gently shaking it.

After about 5 minutes I released the pressure from the creamer and emptied the mix into a glass. I used some cheese cloth secured by a rubber band to strain it as I poured. I wouldn’t say I lost much volume in the process. I know when I make infused oil I always sacrifice at least an ounce of oil as it gets soaked up in the dry flower.

With the strained infusion in a glass it looked a bit like a greens drink you get in a health-food store. I can also say it didn’t smell fantastic. At this point I wasn’t sure I would want to just have the infusion straight, like in a dropper under my tongue.

The mix and consumption
We took 1 mL and added it to 8 oz of strawberry lemonade and Ice in a drink shaker. Just like Bond we like our drink shaken not stirred. Shaking with ice got the drink nice and cold. Once in glasses we sipped the mix down over about 5 minutes.

The result-
I can’t say I am overwhelmed or underwhelmed. With the approximate .5mL per person the experience was calming but not a full high. My wife described it as a diet high. Enough to know something was there, the edge was off, but not what our typical experience. Like listening to a rock concert from the parking-lot. You know something is going on, you can hear faint music and feel the drum beat in the air but nothing like standing in the pit. Also, we didn’t notice any of the typical physical symptoms like red eyes, dry mouth, droopy eyelids, etc. However I was caught dancing a few times. A true tell that I have consumed some form of THC.

Next step-
I think our next try will be with a full 1 mL each. Based on previous “diet high” experiences this should get us close to a full experience. However I will say that this looks promising. A few .5mL drinks over the course of an afternoon should do the trick. Now to dial it in for the one cocktail sweet-spot.

Infused vs non-infused strawberry water. Infused on the right. Interesting it made all the fruit float seeds up.

Just the infusion after being in the creamer. You can see it has mild carbonation - I know it’s not true carbonation as it was done with N2O and not CO2.

Final drink- Strawberry lemonade infused with White Widow .5 mL.

[ShureGreen]

I just couldn’t resist…

[A_town_trees]

@ShureGreen So is the extraction the pit or the portal?

[A_town_trees]

Update-
So with the split 1mL serving not quite crossing us over the finish line we decided to go full tilt and bump it to 3mL split. Each one of us consuming about 1.5 mL each. This was much closer to the expected result. One drink sipped would do just the trick. For our use 2 drinks at 1.5mL would put us over a functional state and not be very discreet for use with others. But could be a fun afternoon.

Overall the trial worked out and for the small investment I think overall it worked out. Especially when you extrapolate the numbers.
One cream whipper - $30 only need 1
One case (24pack) of N20 $28, need 1 every time you make a batch. Per batch $1.16
One bottle of Everclear $20 need 1 every time you make a batch.
10 grams of decarb White Widow -Meh just had some laying around.
This all equaled a little less than a cup of extraction. 1 cup = 236 mL. Subtract 10% for lost liquid give you 212 mL. 212 mL with a 2 mL serving (more than enough in my opinion) puts you at 106 servings with a total cost of 74 cents with all first run and start up needs needs met. On a second, and all following runs you can reuse the creamer and are now using 1 of the N2O cartridge and 1/3 of the Everclear. So now the total per serving is much lower.
After initial investment per batch breakdown-
Everclear 1/3 of original bottle $6.67
1 N2O charger $1.16
10 grams decarb- variable we have some at our disposal thanks to some gardening.
106 total drinks, the total cost now shrinks to 7 cents a drink.

So 7 cents is a bit more per serving vs some papers or the initial cost of a pipe or bong stretched out over years of use (price per experience). However, it brings in a new connivence and discreetness that would not be achieved with clouds of smoke. In the consumption option list- smoking, gummies, baked goods and countless other options this will most-likely take second spot in the consumption mechanism options for us. Easy to add to any drink giving us options.

[ShureGreen]

Lol! Portal in the center of the pit. Of course, ‘biblically’ speaking I suppose the pit would be down the portal.