When it comes to enjoying edibles, you have plenty of choices from the best dispensaries in Denver. However, after a while, eating the same goodies can start to get boring, even if you try to switch it up week after week. There’s no better way to satisfy your craving for high-quality THC-packed treats like making some yourself and the key to making great-tasting goodies is using cannabutter. Whether you make it yourself or buy a premade cannabis-infused butter, use it to create these wonderful recipes that will satisfy your munchies without the sugar-rush of many commercially available edibles.

Mac and Cheese

There’s something wonderfully satisfying about chowing down on a large bowl of mac and cheese when you’re high, but making pot mac and cheese will let you enjoy the taste of America’s favorite pasta dish and the high without smoking. Grab a box of your favorite shells and cheese. Boil the pasta until the noodles are al dente—the added chew is fantastic and makes the bowl last just a bit longer. Once the pasta is done, drain the noodles and set them off to the side. Mix the cheese sauce according to the directions, pour the noodles back into the pot with the cheese sauce and stir. Keep the stove on low heat to ensure the dish stays warm. Once everything is up to temperature, add a dollop of your cannabutter to the pasta and stir well. Top your mac and cheese with a bit of shredded cheese or grated parmesan and, voila!

Popcorn

Popcorn is an absolute must for late-night munchies, but when your high starts to wear off, you may not always want to reach for the pipe or bong. Instead, kill two birds with one stone: satisfy your munchies and reestablish your high by eating cannabutter popcorn! Make your popcorn using your preferred method. We prefer stovetop, but if you’re looking for convenience, use the microwave. Then, melt your cannabis butter in a microwave-safe dish for about 30 seconds. Once the butter has melted, pour it over your popcorn and stir the kernels to spread the butter over the entire bowl.

Baked Potatoes

If you’re looking for a dish that will fill you up without loading on the calories, a baked potato is your best bet. These puppies can be baked well in advance and stored in the fridge for a few days until you’re ready to chow down. All you need to do is heat them up—a minute or two in the microwave is usually enough—and top them with the ingredients of your choice. Just make sure to add a liberal amount of cannabutter both for flavor and effect to the dish.

Edibles are a great alternative to smoking, but you’ll still need high-quality bud to make your own goodies in the comfort of your kitchen. At Altitude Dispensary, our experienced budtenders will help you find the perfect  strain for your tastes and your dish. Stop by one of our three locations today!

With Memorial Day around the corner, summer feels like it’s almost here and that means it’s time to hit the trails and camp out under the stars. While taking weed from your favorite Colorado dispensaries may seem like a no-brainer, doing so will require a bit of caution. Remember, marijuana is not legal to use outside of your private home or in a designated and licensed smoking facility. That means you could get in trouble at the campground. Here are a few things to keep in mind when you’re wanting to light up around the campfire.

Be Aware of Fire Hazards

Hiking in the woods exposes you to nature, but it also puts nature at risk. When the grass is dry, it can catch fire easily. Before you light up, make sure you’re aware of any burn restrictions in the area. Even a single spark from a joint or a pipe can start a grass fire, putting you and others in the area at risk. As a general rule, don’t smoke if there’s a burn ban. Stick to vape pens or edibles and leave your pipe at home.

Stay Mindful of Others

Unfortunately, not everyone likes cannabis—and that’s completely okay. But that does mean when you’re out in public, even deep in the woods, you need to respect others’ opinions. If you’re camping out in the middle of the woods, you’re probably fine to enjoy your favorite strain. However, if you’re camping in a large campground shared with multiple tents, it’s best to stay discrete. You can still get high, but you’ll want to do so without smoke. Edibles are the perfect solution for minimizing the smell of pot and ensuring that families sharing the great outdoors with you will not be offended by your cannabis use.

Pack Enough Water

Whether you’re hiking during the day or simply lounging around the tent, you’ll likely need more water than you would if you were at home. Make sure you pack enough water with you to stay hydrated. Most adults need at least half a gallon of water each day and when you’re spending the night under the stars, that amount will likely be higher. Besides, drinking plenty of water will help reduce the risk of cottonmouth and throat irritation when you’re also battling allergies and exposure to dirt and dust.

Avoid Smoking Before You Camp

If you’re hiking to a campsite, it’s best to do it sober. This will allow you to pick the best campsite in the woods with a clear head so you can better enjoy getting high under the stars. Nothing is more frustrating than struggling to pitch a tent when you’re stoned. Wait until you’re set up and settled in before enjoying your weed.

Camping and getting high are two of Colorado’s major past times. Before you head out on the trail, stop by Altitude Dispensary and pick up the supplies you need to make your high as great as possible. Not sure what goes best with your s’mores and hot dogs? Our budtenders are happy to make a few recommendations.  

You’re relaxing on the weekend and decide to smoke a nice bowl to set the tone for the rest of the day only to discover that you’ve misplaced your pipe and are completely out of rolling papers. We’ve all been there, but being without your regular equipment doesn’t mean you have to put off enjoying your new strain from your favorite weed shops in Denver. It just means you might have to get a little creative. Here are a few tips to help you make your own bong or pipe out of things you probably have on hand.

Stick with Produce

Believe it or not, fruits and veggies make great pipes and can be made quickly with minimal effort and a bit of creativity. Try to use hard fruits and vegetables like carrots and apples. These are easy to carve into pipes and create a relatively airtight seal when smoking. Take care to avoid using wet or soft fruits like bananas and oranges as they won’t create as tight a seal and may make a mess of your living room as you smoke. Once you’re done smoking, you can even eat the evidence or toss the remains into a compost pile if you want to be eco-friendly.

Don’t Drill Too Deep

When you’re creating your DIY produce pipe, you’ll want to avoid creating too deep of a chamber in the piece. With apples, use a pen or cleaned screwdriver to poke a hole through the top of the apple and about halfway down into the core. Take care not to make the chamber too large or deep as it will make creating an airtight seal harder. If you’re using a carrot, make sure the bowl size is appropriate for the circumference of the carrot. Carve the bowl large enough to accommodate your weed, but avoid going any deeper than halfway into the carrot. Once you have the chamber or bowl finished, use a screwdriver to poke a hole into the chamber.

Avoid Using Metal or Plastic

Metal and plastic may be convenient, but they’re not the best things to incorporate into your produce bong. When heated up, these products can leach harmful chemicals into the smoke, leading to some major discomfort in your lungs from the very first hit. Instead, play to the strengths of the vegetables and keep things simple. The simpler the pipe, the easier it is to make.

Patch Cracks and Air Holes With Food

Though it’s tempting to reach for duct tape, it’s best to keep things edible when you’re making repairs to your food-based smoking apparatus. Use sticky substances like peanut butter to coat the cracks and impart a delicious flavor to your toke. If you’re allergic to nuts, grab a stick or two of chewing gum and chew it until there’s no sugar left. Then, use the gum to patch your pipe and get back to smoking in style.

If you still can’t find your pipe, stop by Altitude Dispensary and pick up a brand new piece of glass to replace your lost friend. Browse our collection online and contact us for more information on our current specials.

Colorado residents have the wonderful ability to enjoy marijuana without worrying about legal ramifications. For many people, this means an influx of out-of-town guests looking to experience the joys of a legal high. While letting your visiting friends and family smoke a bowl in your home is a great way to start, why not take them out on the town and give them a taste of a weed-cation they’ll never forget? Here are a few tips to help ensure that your guests have a great time, whether they’re visiting your favorite Denver dispensary or hitting up other legal establishments.

Make Sure They Understand The Regulations

We get it—when out-of-state visitors think of Colorado, they often picture themselves walking down the street smoking a joint without worry. While weed is welcome in private homes and 420-friendly lodging, it’s still not allowed on the street out in the open. Though your guests won’t get arrested, they may be fined if an officer decides to enforce the regulations. Before taking them to a dispensary, make sure they understand that discretion is still best.

Watch Them Around Edibles

Edibles are delicious and great for people who want to change up their high. Unfortunately, some visitors make the mistake of overdoing their edible experience. Rather than eating a small portion of their treat of choice, they down the entire thing, resulting in a less-than-pleasant few hours. If you plan on serving edibles to your guests, make sure they start out slow. Explain to them that the high can take a while to kick in. If they’re still not feeling anything in half an hour, they can take another bite.

Avoid Mixing Booze and Weed

Colorado’s Front Range is well known as a haven for craft breweries. While your guests may seem keen on drinking and smoking, try to avoid it. While you may have a tolerance for the altitude, many out-of-town guests do not. This means that a single drink may make them feel drunk and when that’s compounded with marijuana, it might just make the afternoon a bit less enjoyable. By all means, take them on a brewery tour—just encourage them to save the pot for when they’re back home.

Schedule Weed-Based Activities

Smoking is all well and good, but if you really want to show your guests a great time, help them explore the broader world of cannabis. Schedule a pot tour that takes them behind the scenes at grow rooms or take a cannabis cooking class where you can all learn how to make delicious edibles on your own. These events are a fantastic way to bond with your friends and possibly even learn something about the Denver marijuana industry that you didn’t already know!

Whether you’re entertaining friends or hosting your family members that are interested in trying marijuana for the first time, Altitude Dispensary is here to help. Our budtenders will help your visitors find the perfect products to delight their senses and their taste buds. Check out our current specials online and stop by one of our three locations today!

Shatter, dab, wax, whatever you call it, concentrated cannabis is rapidly becoming one of the most popular ways of consuming marijuana. Both experienced and new users are discovering the joys of getting high without solely relying on bud or waiting an hour for the edibles to kick in. While concentrates are still relatively new in most weed shops in Denver, they’re something every smoker should look into at least once. Before you pick up your first couple grams of shatter, here are a few things you need to know.

What Exactly is Shatter?

Shatter is a type of marijuana concentrate that in its finished state resembles a sheet of hardened and cooled caramel. As the name implies, the substance is hard enough to shatter, allowing dispensaries and users alike to more accurately control how much of the concentrate is consumed in each use. Like all concentrates, shatter is incredibly potent and delivers plenty of THC in tiny doses.

What makes this type of cannabis stand out is the level of purity in each strain. Unlike other concentrates, shatter goes through an additional filtration process, removing many of the contaminants standard waxes and dabs contain. This gets rid of the natural fats found in pot budder, wax, and many pre-made vape cartridges. None of these byproducts add to the cannabinoid content of the product and removing them actually leaves you with a higher potency of THC per dose.

How to Use Shatter

As with most marijuana products, there are multiple ways to consume shatter to fit almost any budget. On the higher end, dedicated “rigs” for concentrates allow you to get the biggest high from the shatter. These rigs feature a glass nail that heats to incredibly high temperatures with help from a butane torch. The shatter is then placed on the nail where it immediately combusts. The smoke from the combustion gets sent into a chamber where you can inhale like you would a normal bong. The result is an incredibly strong and fast-acting high.

For users on a tighter budget, shatter can be enjoyed with your bud, though you won’t see the same levels of potency. Simply break up a few small pieces and roll them in a joint with your favorite bud. This will increase the potency of the flower but won’t be as overwhelming as the high you’d receive from a rig. Shatter does work in older desktop vaporizers, giving you the freedom to use your existing equipment to try out a new concentrate. However, if you’re a fan of shatter, you may want to invest in a proper rig—this will allow you to get the most out of each use without sacrificing the quality of your high.   

Trying something new doesn’t have to be intimidating. At Altitude Dispensaries, our budtenders will walk you through the best ways to use shatter, whether you’re looking at buying a new rig or simply want to use it in the vaporizer you already own. Check out our current specials and stop by one of our three locations today.