What Is POTKA and How Do You Make It?

POTKA: The Drink of the Gods

Here’s my recipe for an alcoholic beverage I call “POTKA.” This FAQ describes a process that may seem long and complicated, but I can say with absolute confidence that all the effort is worth it. If you enjoy absorbing THC through your digestive tract and appreciate refined, epicurean pleasures, read on. This is the result of sixteen years of work as a professional chef and thorough research.

How I Make It

The best way to make Potka is to take fresh (same-day) grade “A” trimmings, preferably from indoor-grown plants. Loosely fill a jar with a screw-on lid three-quarters full with the moist trimmings. Try to handle them as little as possible, since the resin will stick to your hands. Pour enough 94% drinking alcohol into the jar to fill it up to 1/4–1/3 full.

Seal the jar and shake it like a martini for 5–10 minutes, until the alcohol turns a light straw color or a very pale green. While shaking, pause every 90 seconds or so to check the color by holding the jar up to the light. As soon as you notice a greenish tint, pour everything through a coffee filter into a second jar and seal it tightly.

You can drink the infusion as is, or dilute it with water (half and half) to lower the alcohol content to a more drinkable level. BUT BE CAREFUL! The undiluted infusion is very, very strong and can make you extremely sleepy. The first time I tried it, I drank 2.5 ounces (70 grams) and smoked 0.3 ounces of oil. It took me TWO HOURS after my movie ended to get off the couch and make it to bed! So I modified the recipe to prevent a coma or brain fog.

How to Avoid Couch-Lock and Coma?

To counteract the brain-numbing effects of the pure infusion, I use a blend of herbal stimulants. For 8 ounces (225 grams) of 94% alcohol, take:

• 2 chopped dried red ginseng roots
• 2–4 cinnamon sticks
• 3 cloves
• Half a gotu kola (optional)
• Half an ounce of sarsaparilla (optional)
• 1/8–1/6 cup ground black coffee or yerba mate

Put all the above into a jar with a lid, add 8 ounces of alcohol, and 3 ounces (85 grams) of water. Place the jar with a loosely screwed lid into a pot of water on the stove and heat it. The mixture will boil before the water does. Let it simmer for 20–30 minutes, then strain through a coffee filter and cool without opening the jar.

Mix the herbal extract half and half with the cannabis infusion, sweeten with honey or maple syrup, and store it this way. Only dilute it with water (half and half) right before drinking, because if the alcohol content drops below 80%, the oil separates. So keep it at 94% for storage, dilute as needed, and shake well before use. Drink it in one gulp and chase it with something sweet. Ideally, your stomach should be empty for 3–4 hours before drinking.

Cinnamon dilates blood vessels and speeds up the absorption of everything else, including sugar, giving your metabolism a jump start and making your stomach literally attack the alcohol. The THC is dissolved, so it quickly passes through the stomach and into the bloodstream with the alcohol. As a result, you feel the THC in FIVE—just imagine, FIVE—minutes. The only time I saw someone not feel it for nine minutes. Ginseng, gotu kola, and caffeine keep you on your feet, so you’ll be able to do more than just lie on the couch drooling. Not to mention cinnamon, which dilates your capillaries and super-oxygenates your blood (even more energy!).

What If I Don’t Have Fresh Trimmings?

If you don’t have fresh trimmings, take dried grade “A” trimmings and chop them moderately. Use 2 grams per ounce of 94% alcohol. Put everything in a jar with a lid, add 2 ounces of water, and follow the same steps as with the additional herbs. Simmer on low heat for 20–30 minutes, strain through a coffee filter, and cool. It will work, but you won’t get the floral, fresh bud flavor you get from fresh trimmings. The infusion will be greener and have a swampy aftertaste.

You can also use buds; I recommend 1–1.5 grams per ounce of alcohol instead of two.

Will Letting the Trimmings Soak Longer in Alcohol Make It Better, or Just Ruin the Taste?

It depends on whether you use fresh or dried trimmings. The goal is to extract the THC-containing substances with alcohol without letting chlorophyll or resins get into the mix. This is easier with fresh trimmings or buds, since the trichomes are still moist and not encapsulated. A 5–10 minute rinse in 85–94% alcohol is enough. For dried product, the hot method is best, but be warned: the drink will taste swampy.

Do I Have to Make a Whole Bottle?

No, if you want to make a small batch, do this:

• Take a small (airplane-sized) bottle of vodka (50 ml), drink a little to make some space.
• Add 2 grams of chopped grade “A” trimmings (or 1 gram of buds), half a cinnamon stick, 1 clove, 1 gram of ginseng, and 1 teaspoon of ground coffee.
• Loosely screw on the cap and place the bottle in a pot of water on the stove. Heat for 25 minutes after steam appears above the water.
• Cool to room temperature, strain through a coffee filter, sweeten to taste, and drink in one gulp on an empty stomach. Chase with something sweet and enjoy. This is a way to try it without spending much money.

Will All the Alcohol Evaporate During Boiling?

Boiling is done in a sealed jar, so the alcohol recirculates and you don’t lose any. I recommend cooling the jar before opening and filtering for the same reason, to keep the alcohol from evaporating. Drinking ethanol is expensive here in Canada ($48 per liter!), so until I can distill my own, I treat it like gold. It’s more valuable to me than the weed itself!

Heating the alcohol makes it a more aggressive solvent and helps dissolve the THC.

Does Alcohol Extract THC from Plant Tissue, or Just Remove Trichomes from the Surface Like Bubble Hash?

There’s very little THC inside the plant tissue. Almost all of it is on the surface in resin glands. When they’re moist (fresh), they dissolve very quickly in 94% alcohol, so heating isn’t needed. When trichomes dry and encapsulate, heating helps the process.

You can just let them soak for a day or two, but this lets the alcohol attack the plant material directly, resulting in a green, swampy drink. It’s just as potent, but not as floral in taste.

Are the Other Herbs Just for Flavor?

The extra herbs I use aren’t just for flavor. In fact, none of them are chosen for taste, but for their stimulating qualities. It just so happens that one of the best natural vasodilators is cinnamon. We all know about ginseng, and gotu kola and sarsaparilla are also good. Mate is a South American tea containing mateine, which is as strong as caffeine but gentler on the body and stomach. This is important because if there’s nothing stimulating in the drink, you can fall into a THC coma and pass out.

I also had the idea to add yohimbe extract to Potka for nights with a sexual twist. The aphrodisiac qualities of ginseng and cinnamon are well known, but combined with yohimbe extract and THC, you get quite a drink.

Should I Rinse the Trimmings with Water Like with Cannabutter to Improve the Taste?

I wouldn’t bother rinsing with water; you’ll just lose a lot of active compounds. If you have a lot of trimmings, you can do the same process with collected trichomes instead of whole leaves. I use a hand-cranked trichome separator with a horizontal axis and a 125 stainless steel mesh that I built myself. With this box, you can collect a lot of trichomes. I wouldn’t bother rinsing; if you heat gently and watch the color, you can avoid the swampy taste. Cinnamon and the other herbs also do a good job masking it if you slip up. And honestly, you don’t have to worry too much about the taste.

Handling Trimmings

I recommend handling trimmings, buds, and weed as little as possible, whether dry or wet. The loss from handling is greater than you think.

I once did a test with butane. I made an extract from an ounce of trimmed, dried White Rhino (really high quality, well-manicured). I got 3.7 grams of crystallized oil (see my post on butane extraction and crystallization method). Then I took an ounce of the same buds from the same plant, but only trimmed the leaves, holding the stem. Anything with visible white crystals was left untouched. From this ounce, I got 5.4 grams of extract, the same quality as before. So if you’re growing for resin, don’t handle your weed more than absolutely necessary.

WARNING

The effect lasts a LONG time. If you drink it at 7–8 pm, you’ll wake up the next day feeling completely wiped out.