We already do C02 extractions and create concentrates from compression. We already consume cannabis as a smokable product, as edibles, topicals, and inserts. What’s the one thing missing? Juicing it! That’s right, just like with your vegetables, raw cannabis juice provides one of the best ways of getting all the good stuff that cannabis has to offer.
Honey? Shatter? BHO? Resin? Dabbing? Vapes? Edibles? There are so many ways to consume cannabis that it’s hard to figure out the best one. If you haven’t tried them all, you might not know which is right for you. Just like if you’ve been smoking regular delta-9 THC, you might not know there’s an alternate form – delta-8 THC – which won’t cause anxiety, has a clear-headed high, and less psychoactive effect. Sometimes it’s just about knowing what’s out there. Take a look at our collection of Delta-8 THC deals, and figure out the best product for you.
What is juicing?
First of all, we all know what juice is. Whether its from a peach dripping down your face when you bite it, or the carton in the drinks section of the super market, we fully understand that juice comes from fruit. And vegetables. Really, from any plant. Juicing simply means squeezing the liquid out of the plant. It really is that simple. It’s not using a more complicated extraction method, or trying to make a concentrate. It’s just squeezing out the life blood, and all the nutrients therein. Think of an orange press and how it takes all the juice out of the orange. That’s juicing. Plain and simple.
This isn’t to say all juices are created equally, they are not. Much of the juice you see in the supermarket barely contains plant products, instead relying on sugar, chemicals, and food dye, without all the good stuff. Savvy shoppers will know to make sure their juice is not pasteurized, as that process tends to ruin plant constituents, and that its not from concentrate either.
Savvy shoppers will know to look at the expiry date since real juice doesn’t last forever, and should spoil relatively fast. They will look for ‘cold-pressed’ on the labeling, which means it wasn’t processed in a high-speed and high-temperature centrifuge. A savvy consumer also knows to stay away from anything that boasts ‘fruit-flavored’, ‘natural-flavoring’, or ‘contains real fruit juice’, as these tend to be indicators that what is being purchased isn’t juice at all.
It is often said now, that drinking fruit juice is akin to drinking a glass of soda, though this often simply reflects the poor options for fruit juice out there. All fruit juice is sugary, but it still has benefits, and those benefits can be reaped through direct juicing. This can be done for vegetables as well.
Is it healthy?
Juicing doesn’t add a special super power to anything, so it’s not going to be healthier than eating a raw vegetable or fruit. However, one big difference is that the plant fiber doesn’t get juiced out, meaning fruit juice doesn’t contain the fiber from the plant. Some say that the loss of fiber in the juicing process makes it inferior to eating the whole food. Others say that the lack of fiber makes absorption of the nutrients easier on the body. Regardless of whether its technically healthier than eating a whole vegetable or not, is a silly thing to think too hard on. They’re both super good for you.
One of the benefits of juicing is that if a person doesn’t like fruits and/or vegetables, this gives an alternate way to gain their nutrients. When something is juiced there is less of it to consume, making it go down easier, and it can be added to other foods or liquids if the desire is to mask or alter the taste. Fruits, and especially vegetables, are incredibly important to good health, so if juicing makes a person more willing and able to obtain vegetable nutrients, then it becomes a necessary tool for staying healthy.
Benefits of raw cannabis juice
When cannabis is decarboxylated or dried out, several of the natural compounds in the fresh plant, are chemically converted, or evaporated out. These four cannabinoid acids are found in fresh plants, but are lost to drying and heat: CBD-A, THC-A, CBC-A, and CGB-A. THC-A is the precursor to THC, which it becomes when it is heated and decarboxylates (loses a carboxyl ring – COOH). None of the listed compounds are psychoactive, and all are still in their original form when a cannabis plant is juiced. The ‘a’ is for ‘acid’, as all of these molecules are precursor acids to the cannabinoids we often talk about. They are all also associated with similar benefits to delta-9 THC.
Mendocino County-based physician Dr. William Courtney, MD explained to Alternet, “The main psychoactive compound in dried, aged cannabis is delta-9 THC, is absent in the raw, fresh leaf. In general, patients do not experience a ‘high’ from consuming the raw product.” In this way, drinking a cannabis juice smoothie in the morning is in no way like waking and baking. He also explained how juicing cannabis isn’t meant for acute treatment in the same way that smoking and edibles are.
According to Courtney, juicing can “…take three days to be appreciated. Others build for weeks. The full clinical benefit may take four to eight weeks to take effect. It takes that long for plant (phyto) cannabinoids to fully saturate the body’s adipose (fat) tissue. Phytocannabinoids are stored in the adipose tissue, as are the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E & K.”
DIY raw cannabis juice
Like with any other juice product, this can be done at home. One of the first things to know about juicing cannabis, is that standard juicers aren’t made for leafy greens. Standard juicers use centrifugal force to essentially pull the juice out of the plant. For this reason, there are a few things to consider when juicing. The first, is which juicer to use.
The options are these: 1) A centrifugal juicer which works by way of a fast-spinning metal blade that spins inside a mesh filter, using centrifugal force to separate the juice from the meat of the plant. This creates a lot of heat which destroys enzymes, and oxidizes nutrients. 2) Cold-pressed, which works by crushing and then pressing the material using a hydraulic press. This takes more time, is more labor intensive, and costs more than a centrifugal juicer. These juicers don’t produce heat in the same way, though, and therefore allow more nutrients to stay intact.
Generally, centrifugal juicers are best to use if the juice is being used for cooking or baking where there is already an expectation of heat, or for when optimal nutrient content isn’t that important. Cold-pressed juicers are better for fresh juices, green juices, nut milks, and anything else with full nutrient content. Either can be used to juice cannabis. Here are a few tips.
- If using a centrifugal juicer, before being stuck into a juicer, the leaves should be rolled tightly into a cylinder. This makes the cannabis bulkier, which allows the centrifugal force to take hold of the plant material, which is otherwise rather light for it. These juicers are not made to handle light weight plants like leafy greens.
- Another option is to cut the leaves into medium sized pieces, and feed the pieces into the juicer along with other more substantial fruits or vegetables that the juicer can better get ahold of.
- The last – and best – option for optimal raw cannabis juice, is to use a cold-pressed juicer instead. These juicers work on cannabis leaves just as well as other fruits and vegetables, and extract the juices to the same degree without damaging nutrient content. The cannabis can be put directly in without worrying about the juicer being able to get it.
Best raw cannabis juice products
Not all of us like to DIY it. Some of us like to buy the best product out there that someone else already formulated to perfection. If you’re one of these people, take a look at some of the best options for raw cannabis juice products on the market.
JadeNectar offers a cannabis raw juice product, just not in a typical form. Raw juice, it should be remembered, can’t last very long without spoiling, so in answer to this, JadeNectar formulated a cannabis juice made by pureeing and freezing whole leaves and flowers from the cannabis plant. The matter is frozen into cubes which can then be added to a smoothie, or other drink. The freezing locks in the nutrients of the juice, and allows it not to spoil or degrade. JadeNectar’s process for making this juice is patent protected.
Another option, particularly for the European market, is Sana’s raw hemp juice line. Touted as the only commercially available raw hemp juice on the European market, Sana offers a full spectrum juice from hemp, complete with all nutrients. Sana freezes its pesticide and herbicide-free hemp juice within minutes to ensure no degradation of nutrients and enzymes, with no additives involved. Sana uses this raw juice to make different products like the following:
100% Raw Hemp Juice Powder – Made from Dutch industrial hemp, this powder mix is unpasteurized and flash frozen, before being freeze-dried. It is full spectrum and water soluble. A container of 30 grams costs €49.95 ($60.90).
Sana offers the same raw juice powder in capsules, with its Raw Sana Hemp Juice Powder 30 vcaps, with each vcap containing 6.9mg of CBD-A. The 30 pack of these omega-3 & 6 rich capsules costs €24.95 ($30.42), and the 90 pack, costs €59.95 ($73.09).
Sana didn’t stop there. The company also produces Sana Hemp Juice Melting Tablets as yet another way of getting your dose of raw cannabis juice. Each tablet contains 2mg of CBD-A along with vitamin C. The tablets melt right in your mouth and are absorbed by way of oral mucosa. Each box of 40 tablets costs €14.95 ($18.23).
Sana also provides Sana Hemp Boosters CBD-A, which are capsules containing lyophilized raw hemp juice – which means the water was removed in a specific process. These capsules are acid resistant so that the contents have more chance of making it to the intestines for better absorption. Each capsule comes with 5mg of CBD-A. A box of 30 capsules costs €19.95 ($24.32).
Another European option is Kama Hemp, and its Cold Pressed Organic Hemp Juice Powder as part of its raw cannabis juice line. This not-from-concentrate powder comes from organic hemp sourced from Ireland and contains 1715mg of CBD-A per 110 gram bag, with 55 servings altogether. One bag costs €64.99 ($79.24). This company does deliver outside the UK and Ireland. Interested wholesalers should contact the company for more information.
Conclusion
The raw food revolution is under way, and cannabis is a part of it. Not only can cannabis be fresh frozen, and pressed to make rosin, it can be incorporated into honey, have its sap collected, and juiced as well. You can buy all kinds of extracts and concentrates, and you can also buy raw cannabis juice to get the true essence of the plant. Don’t want to buy it? Make it yourself! However you do it, juicing gets you all the plant nutrients including the precursor acids, which don’t usually make it to a final product.
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Resources
Fresh Frozen Cannabis – Using Cold to Boost Flowers and Concentrates
Cannabis Live Rosin: The Solventless Concentrate & the Best Products The Delta 8 Weekly Newsletter (All you need to know about Delta 8 thc), the Best Delta 8 THC Deals and the Best Delta-10 THC deals Cannabis Honey – The Benefit of Bees
Cannabinoid Acids – What are they and what are the health benefits of using them? Drink Your Cannabis: The Best Products for Coffee, Tea, Soda & More…
Cannabis Xylem Sap: A New Kind of Cannabis Product
Disclaimer: Hi, I’m a researcher and writer. I’m not a doctor, lawyer, or businessperson. All information in my articles is sourced and referenced, and all opinions stated are mine. I am not giving anyone advise, and though I am more than happy to discuss topics, should someone have a further question or concern, they should seek guidance from a relevant professional.
