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Since CBD became legal under certain circumstances in the United States when the 2018 Farm Bill was approved, CBD-infused food has been the latest must-try trend in gastronomy. Whether you’ve been a fan of CBD since the beginning or you’re only now jumping on the bandwagon, here’s what you need to know to organize a CBD-infused dinner party.
Incorporating CBD Into Food
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CBD is a tricky ingredient to work with if you don’t know what you’re doing, so plan your menu well in advance. The simplest way to incorporate CBD into your recipes is to add a bit of CBD oil. Companies like Plain Jane make this easy by offering flavored and natural oils for purchase online. Using pre-infused base ingredients is another good option.
You can also make your infusions with CBD hemp buds. Things get a little complicated if that’s the route you take since raw cannabis has to undergo a process called decarboxylation to activate the CBD. Essentially, that means exposing the raw cannabis to heat. Too much or too little will mean less effective CBD, so be careful.
Whatever you decide, there are plenty of recipes featuring CBD in various forms available online for you to choose from. You’re sure to find ideas you like and clear instructions for each specific recipe.
Ensuring a Safe and Enjoyable Experience
While CBD comes from cannabis plants, it isn’t psychoactive the way THC is. That means it doesn’t produce a high. However, it’s still a chemical compound that can affect your body, and certain people may want to avoid consuming it.
When you’re putting together the guestlist for your CBD-infused dinner party, either exclude or have an alternate menu for anyone under the age of 21 and women who are pregnant or breastfeeding as CBD may not be safe for them to take.
Potential drug interactions between CBD and other medications or supplements have not been studied in-depth. Alcohol, anxiety medications, or medications used to treat sleep disorders may increase the risk of drowsiness. Ensure your guests are aware of this fact, as well as what to expect if they’ve never used CBD before and common side effects such as nausea.
Don’t let the above information make you hesitant to have your dinner party. It’s important to know, but most people don’t experience adverse effects and find CBD fun and relaxing.
Menu Ideas
If you’re going all out for your CBD-infused dinner party, you should have multiple courses. That doesn’t mean serving a full 12-course meal, and it doesn’t have to be difficult, even when using CBD. We’ve put together some basic menu ideas along with suggestions for how to incorporate CBD into them.
Soup or Salad
No matter what dish you’re kicking your dinner party off with, first impressions matter. If you’re looking for an easy way to add CBD to the first dish you serve, salad dressing is the way to go. The natural, earthy taste of unflavored CBD oil works well with most salads, and adding the desired amount of CBD oil to an already oil-based mixture means the texture won’t be odd.
Soups are a bit more complicated. Because CBD oil shouldn’t be heated directly the way you would heat olive oil or butter, you should not use it to sautee vegetables. The oil itself will likely float unattractively on top of the soup rather than blending if it’s simply added, and it won’t contribute anything to the flavor. Instead, we recommend using CBD-infused coconut oil to add extra flavor to a soup after it’s done simmering.
Main Courses
The main course is the highlight of any meal, but it’s the most difficult to incorporate CBD into, particularly if you’re thinking of serving something traditional like meat and potatoes. Some creativity is necessary, but that’s what’s fun about cooking. Generally, gravies and sauces are great ways to add flavor and CBD to your main course.
Desserts
We’ve already mentioned that CBD loses effectiveness if exposed to too much heat. More research is needed to know if that extends to the CBD oil used in baked goods. Rather than risk a disappointing or underwhelming experience, however, we recommend incorporating the oil into frosting or a no-bake recipe. CBD-infused cheesecake, anyone?
Calculating Dosage
The essential part of anything involving CBD is the dosage. Jamie Evans, author of “The Ultimate Guide to CBD,” recommends a dose of between 15 and 30 milligrams if you’re new to using CBD, and the same rule applies if you don’t consume it often.
Nevertheless, you’re going to have to do a bit of math to figure out the total number of milligrams of CBD in the meal you prepare. That number, divided by the number of dinner guests you’re having, should provide you with the average dosage you’ll each be consuming.
Know Your Guests
Food is only half the battle when it comes to planning a dinner party. You also have to pull together a guest list of people who will enjoy each other’s company and create an environment in which they’ll have fun. That might mean curating a playlist, making sure you have a deck of cards or enough video game controllers on hand, and generally making sure there’s something to do while you’re hanging out.
Good food and good friends, and a bit of CBD. What’s not to love? We hope this guide has answered some of your questions about organizing a CBD-infused dinner party. Enjoy!
