As the enthusiastic founder and president of Craft Elixirs, Jamie Hoffman frequently hears the question,“What do I do with this?”
“I’ll usually rattle off my favorite things to do with the syrup… add it to sparkling soda, use it to top pancakes or ice cream, or drizzle it on fruit!”
She and her dedicated crew of 11 to 12 team members work day and night out of a cozy-but-airy manufacturing facility in Seattle. They’re committed to making their small-batch, cannabis-infused syrups, dried fruits, and concentrate cartridges exclusively with locally-sourced, seasonal ingredients.
Jamie takes me on a tour, and introduces me to the quietly industrious crew, who are suited head-to-toe in bright white laboratory jackets and commercial sanitary gear. The space gleams with the sterile, surgical-level of cleanliness required of the heavily monitored process.
Jaime gestures to an organized shelf of ingredients in the back of the kitchen, explaining “Here’s the kosher salt… All our ethanol is blessed by a rabbi. It’s vegan, gluten-free… We support that devotion to the organic, the local berries, all that. I can only make certain syrups at certain times, because the strawberries are seasonal here. Sure, I could get strawberries imported from California, but I don’t want to. I want to make syrups when we can, even once a year, and if we sell out we have other flavors to make. We keep it green as much as we can… it’s a no-brainer to make an apple-chip here with locally grown weed and local apples.”
When it comes down to developing unique flavors, kitchen manager Lori explains that her process involves a lot of trial and error. “We tried all kinds of crazy different flavors! Grape, raspberry, vanilla… we tried fruity things…” Referring to the Pioneer Squares, a new product that’s a beautiful, translucent lemon gummy, with a dehydrated mandarin orange suspended in its center, Jaime says “It’s just very adult. It felt very much like ‘us’. When we create something, we all talk about what the Craft Elixirs brand feels like.”
Proudly organic, kosher, and gluten free, Jaime feels these ideals define Craft Elixirs. “It’s really important what goes into our edibles. We think for a long, long time, about what goes into every single product. When I create a product, I don’t want to make something that you could just go to the market and find.”
“Just look at that, that’s like the perfect pack”, she says, turning a package of Fremont Freaks in the light as the sugar sparkles heavily, as if to illustrate her point. “I want it to be like a beautiful bottle of wine you’re having with your friends. It’s meant to be shared, you know? It’s meant to be a social product.”
Share the magic of Craft Elixirs with your friends this Danksgiving season by integrating these sophisticated medicated syrups into delicious side dishes like this Spicy Ginger Grass Carrot Coconut Soup and Citrus Apple Cranberry Sauce.
Craft Elixir Recipes for the Holidays
Spicy Ginger Grass Carrot Coconut Soup
Ingredients:
- 1 1/4 pounds heirloom carrots
- 1/2 pound parsnips
- 1 cup diced onion
- 3/4 cup diced celery
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 (1 1/2 inch) piece of fresh ginger, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 1 1/2 teaspoons mild curry powder
- 1 can of coconut milk, setting some aside for swirling in each serving
- ½ teaspoon apple cider vinegar, or fresh squeezed lime
- ½ teaspoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons of cayenne (to taste- this much is spicy! Adjust to taste.)
- 1/2 cup Craft Elixirs Gingergrass Syrup CBD (about 60mg in recipe before garnish)
- Seasalt to taste
Wash and chop the carrots and parsnips. Peel and chop the onion, celery, ginger and garlic.
Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, turmeric, and ginger to the pot, then sauté until the onion is tender and translucent, about 8 minutes.
Add garlic and continue cooking, stirring about 2 minutes.
Stir in the broth, carrots, parsnips, and curry powder. Bring to a boil, then decrease the heat to maintain a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the carrots are tender (about 25 minutes).
Wait until soup is cool. Using an immersion blender (or using a regular blender, and working in batches), blend until smooth.
Return the soup to the pot over low heat. Add coconut milk and curry, vinegar, and soy. Simmer and stir until coconut milk is combined and soup is heated to serving temperature. Pour the portioned Ginger Grass Elixirs into the pot of soup, and stir to thoroughly incorporate. Adjust salt and cayenne to taste.
Serve the soup hot. Finish by topping with roasted carrots, roasted red chili flakes, and swirls of coconut cream. garnish with more of the Ginger Grass Elixir, Serve soup hot. Serves 6 1-cup bowls, about 10mg CBD in per serving, and 60mg CBD in total recipe, before additional Ginger Grass is added to each serving, as desired for effect and taste.
Citrus-Apple Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients:
- 1 orange
- 3 cups water
- 2 tart apples
- 6 cups fresh cranberries
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 2 bags of Craft Elixirs Fremont Freaks
Squeeze the juice from the orange and set the juice aside. Remove and discard the membrane from inside the orange rind, and cut the rind into small dice.
In a large saucepan over high heat, combine the rind and the water and bring to a boil. Cook for 10 minutes.
Peel, core and quarter the apple. Cut into 1/2-inch dice and place in a saucepan. Sort the cranberries, discarding any soft ones. Add to the apples along with the sugar, cinnamon and cloves. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to low, and cover.
Simmer gently, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens, the apple is tender and the cranberries have burst, about 10 to 15 minutes.
Transfer the cranberry sauce to a heatproof bowl and let cool for 1 hour. Dice the Fremont Freaks and stir them into the sauce before serving. Can be covered and refrigerated if made in advance. Bring to room temperature before serving.
