A nice cup of rich coffee and a cannabis treat completes a nice dinner or a social smoking circle. Still, there is some issue about using cannabis with your coffee. They both have chemical influences on brain and body, and some question the wisdom of mixing them. So, let’s start there.

Should you use cannabis with coffee?

Medical News Today reported a university study in Finland. It found increased coffee consumption raised the volume of metabolites in the bloodstream. The increase in metabolites reduced the functioning of the endocannabinoid system. That conflict requires more attention, but in fairness, we should point out their testing involved consumption of eight cups of coffee a day, not your normal day.

This study confirms the existence of an interaction between coffee and cannabis, an interaction worth keeping in balance. Cannabis may be used to increase psychoactivity, mental energy, or focused creativity. Or, it might calm and relax the body. People have consumed one or the other or both for ages, so you must wonder about the good or bad interaction and effects.

What’s the difference?

For those of us satisfied with two or three cups of coffee a day, the caffeine offers a mild stimulus to the brain. It’s enough to get us to work, to center the first work break, and to survive the afternoon crash. For most of us, this is more habit than addiction.

Nonetheless, that infusion of coffee’s caffeine offers a quick cognitive energizer. It helps to focus and improves short-term memory. Research has also found caffeine increases fat metabolism to resist sleepiness. Interestingly, these results conflict with those of cannabis’ THC because THC reduces short-term memory and fat metabolism.

Caffeine and THC are stimulants that work differently. Caffeine sparks the Sympathetic Nervous System responsible for the body’s “fight or flight” response. Threatened by stress, the sympathetic nervous system increases your heart rate, constricts the blood vessels to boost your blood pressure. However, THC counters that stimulation. It processes and accepts the threat, so to speak.

Now, dosage and frequency.

Finding and keeping the balance you find works partly depends on your physiology, age, gender, and more. But, for most, it means finding the right dosage and frequency of use.

Caffeine’s chemistry blocks the activity of the adenosine receptors linked to sleepiness. The restriction, in turn, affects the flow of blood as it regulates the constriction and dilation of blood vessels. When you increase your consumption of caffeine, it also reduces the production of Phosphodiesterase (PDE), an enzyme that breaks down the very chemical messages created by adenosine receptors and cannabinoids.

Without getting overwhelmed by the science of the mechanics of action, it’s enough to understand:

Caffeine and cannabis are not co-beneficial. They work in conflicting ways. This conflict is an acceptable balance for mind and body at modest dosing. Increased dosage by volume or frequency exacerbates the conflict.

At best, this conflict means a mild offset of the effects of either one of the stimulants. At worst, it can aggravate the stimulation proportionately and increase the negative side-effects.

5 easy ways to add a touch of cannabis to your coffee:

Add an edible. You can sweeten your cup by dropping in edible cannabis chocolate or dunking a piece of cannabis brownie. This works great for those who usually accompany their coffee with a cookie or pastry. Brew yours cold. With some preparation, you can make a cannabis-infused coffee. If you make it a little on the strong side, you then freeze the brew in ice cube trays. That creates a supply of cubes you can drop into your hot or cold-brewed plain coffee. Use non-dairy creamer. Starting with coconut or almond cream, you can prepare your own cannabis-infused non-dairy creamer. It will store in the refrigerator until you use the creamer as usual. Switch to honey. Using honey in your coffee is as common as Starbucks’s cafes. New trend or fad, many find it delicious. You can doctor your own honey with 0.25g of decarboxylated hash mixed into one cup of gently warmed hone. Grind your own. Using a blender or coffee grinder, you mix 0.24oz of choice buds with 8 tablespoons of fine coffee. The ground coffee should work well with coffeemakers, percolators, French presses, and Turkish coffee pots.

5 cannabis coffee options making the news:

Today’s customers want things done for them, and prepackaged goods promise quality, labeling, and dosing.

Green Roads offers a hemp-based CBD Coffee legally available in all states. It combines Columbian coffee with hemp-derived extract for 15.6mg of CBD per tablespoon of coffee grounds. This dose of CBD avoids the caffeine/THC conflict, but it is also likely to reduce that energy burst you expect from your morning drink. Ganja Grindz bottles its coffee or packs it into K-cups for modern coffeemakers. They won High Tomes Best Coffee in 2015 and 2016. Manufacturers use non-GMO, vegan, and free-trade Columbia Supremo and triple roast that for quality taste. Somatik sells a cannabis-infused cold-brewed coffee in convenient bottles. It’s a fast-acting containing CBD and THC dosed to produce a Sativa hybrid effect that works well for medical patients suffering chronic pain. House of Jane has K-cups with high THC content starting at 20mg in their smallest dose. Among their inventory of coffees and teas, you’ll also find CBD-strains. All products are sugar- and gluten-free. Willie’s Remedy is marijuana grandmaster Willie Nelson’s latest contribution. He offers bags of whole bean, small-batch coffee beans brew-infused with full-spectrum, American-sourced CBD oil. His process assures 5mg CBD in every 8-ounce cup. derived from American sourced and organically grown hemp. Each 8-ounce cup of coffee contains 5 mg of CBD.

The bottom of the cup

When you get to the bottom of your cup of cannabis/coffee, you should appreciate there’s value in your wake-and-bake beverage. It all relates to finding a balance. Too much coffee isn’t good for anyone. How much is too much depends on your makeup. Too much THC can hurt, too.

There’s enough science and experience to suggest mixing cannabis and coffee in the right amounts promises a brain/body balance that can make your day.