As marijuana edges closer to the fray of legality and reinvents itself as a terroir-driven product, we predict more people will be pairing booze with bud. While we’re not in the business of giving out stringent health advice, both alcohol and weed are products that (in moderation) can provide some evening enjoyment after a long day (that is, where both pleasures are legal). The bottom line is when consuming both marijuana and booze, you want them to be in harmony rather than conflict with one another. So, what’s the best way to enjoy a little weed with your evening drink?
The answer to that depends on whether or not you want to “taste” your weed or your drink. The thing is, marijuana is a distinct herb, and when you smoke it, be it from a joint, blunt, pipe or bong, your mouth is filled with distinct pot flavors. If you’re both very knowledgeable about weed strains and wine selections, we suppose you could find a way to select varieties of both that would taste good together. This might be particularly pertinent if you were munching on edibles. In this case, you’re treating marijuana as a food, so you’d need to identify aspects of the plant – for example, how sweet it is – in order to find a complementing wine or beer.
However, if you just want to enjoy a weed high with a nice glass of wine or beer, you’re best off using a vaporizer. Vaping allows you to vaporize the chemical ingredients of marijuana and inhale them without assaulting your palate. In this sense, vaping while drinking could be likened to adjusting the temperature of the room rather than your palate. On a recent discussion on Beer Advocate, several commenters said that when it comes to mixing brews and pot, vaping was a better alternative to smoking, as it had less impact on the beer’s flavors than smoking might. Similarly, a Reddit user attested that smoking can mess up your wine palate. These are anecdotal examples, but they make sense. The combination of marijuana tang, smoke, and heat would naturally take a toll on your palate. Neutral vaping, on the other hand, simply provides less flavor impact than smoking.
However, no matter how you consume your marijuana, it will still have psychoactive properties, and will always pose a risk of tinkering with the flavors of your alcohol – for better, or for worse. As is the case with stoned sex, some people will praise boozing while high while others will bemoan it. The only way to find out what works for you is to experiment. In Washington or Colorado, that is.
