Behind the bars of some of the nation's finest cocktail joints, there are secrets: secret recipes, secret bottles for friends only. One of these is the
Green Dragon, a liquor potently infused with marijuana.
But one prominent New York bartender (I'll call him Jon) has been responsible for bringing the infusion up to date with modern, artisanal cocktail culture. Jon is a serious, technologically minded craftsman of beverages; he works as a cocktail consultant, and has designed the cocktail programs of more than one Manhattan bar.
"Ten years ago, I had gotten my hands on this ungodly amount of hash. We couldn't smoke it all. So we started putting it into neutral grain spirit, and it dissolved in, but the thing was, we couldn't get as high. So we gave up and forgot about it for a week, and meanwhile it sat in the car in the 120° sun for a week. The next time, we took a couple of drops and it destroyed us."
"What happened? THC [the main active ingredient in cannabis] normally has a carboxyl group that's attached to it. In order for it to fit into the lock-and-key mechanism of our bodies' cannabinoid receptors, you have to break off the carboxyl group. That takes 30 years--or heat."
He's refined a method that's quick, gives precise, predictable results, and reportedly maximizes the delicious herbal flavor of the drug, to provide a civilized sippable for the beverage connoisseur.
Nitrous Green Dragon (http://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2013-04/mystery-nitrous-powered-pot-infused-liquor)
Here's how Jon does it:
Ingredients:
a one-liter whipped-cream whipper (http://www.popsci.com/technology/gallery/2012-12/gifts-technically-minded-cook?image=3)
two nitrous oxide chargers
a double boiler large enough to accommodate the whipper bottle
750 ml mezcal at room temperature (Jon uses Vida or Sombra)
3.5 grams (1/8 ounce) of cannabis (Jon uses "indoor high-grade sativa")
Roughly break up the cannabis.
Put the cannabis and the mezcal in the whipper bottle.
Close the canister and charge it with two charges of N2O according to the instructions.
Let it sit for 5 minutes.
Vent out the pressurized gas. NOTE: you are venting aerosolized ethanol with THC dissolved in it, as well as laughing gas. Jon says "Probably nobody would want to inhale this."
Stir the liquid and let it sit until the gas boils off.
Place the sealed canister in a double boiler and let it simmer for an hour.
Strain the solids out of the liquid and discard them or dry them for other uses. The liquid is nitrous green dragon.
The effect of the drug should remain steady for about four hours. One to one-and-a-half ounces is what Jon considers a single serving; six ounces is his maximum imaginable dose.
Full story: http://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2013-04/mystery-nitrous-powered-pot-infused-liquor (http://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2013-04/mystery-nitrous-powered-pot-infused-liquor)
