CBD is fast becoming one of the most popular health and wellness supplements. By 2026, the value of the global CBD market is expected to reach around £80 billion. As more people add this simple botanical supplement to their daily routine, we’re also seeing more creative ways to enjoy it. CBD can be taken under the tongue, vaped, applied to the skin, chewed or swallowed. Companies are also cropping up with food and drink items like CBD coffee and CBD snacks. Individuals are also cooking with CBD and creating their own recipes. One of the most popular methods to take CBD outside of sublingual drops is by adding it to drinks. Choosing the right CBD product will allow you to add CBD to hot drinks like tea or coffee and cold drinks like smoothies. The most important thing to remember when adding CBD oil and tincture to a drink is that you are changing the way your body absorbs it. When you take sublingual drops, the majority of the CBD is absorbed through the small blood vessels in your mouth and the rest is absorbed through your digestive tract. When you add CBD to a drink, you reduce the bioavailability because the compound bypasses the small blood vessels under your tongue and is instead absorbed through the gut. A lot more of the CBD is filtered out by your liver, which makes it less effective. However, if you are looking for a mindful way to add CBD to your daily routine, this could be an excellent choice. So, what about putting CBD tincture in tea? Absolutely! You can add CBD tincture to your tea. Since heat can damage some of the cannabinoid compounds, it’s important to add CBD to your tea after you have allowed it to cool. If you add it to scalding hot tea, you risk breaking down the cannabinoid compounds before they can get to work. You should also think about the type of tea you pair with your CBD. Depending on the time of day, you will want to reach for different types of tea to help amplify the effects of your CBD. For example, an energising morning blend like green tea or echinacea would be an ideal way to start the day. If you’re looking for a way to wind down in the evening, teas containing lavender, chamomile and valerian will help to enhance the relaxing effects of the CBD. Why would you add CBD to tea and other drinks? The most common reason that individuals choose to add their CBD to drinks is that they don’t enjoy the taste. Unflavoured CBD can be quite unpleasant, and some people don’t enjoy flavoured CBD oil. The solution to this problem is to either switch to a CBD supplement or mask the flavour. Adding CBD tincture to tea, coffee or smoothies is an excellent way to mask the flavour. Adding CBD to your herbal tea is also an excellent way to incorporate CBD into your mindfulness practice. A routine of meditation, tea and CBD would be an excellent way to clear your mind at the start of the day or to help you to wind down before bed. How do you mix CBD oil in tea? To add CBD to your tea, start by making your tea according to the instructions. Some teas cannot be made with boiling water and should therefore be made with hot but not boiling water. Steep the tea for as long as required and then remove the tea bag or loose leaves. This will help to ensure that the CBD is fully mixed with the drink and not absorbed by the tea bag or loose leaves. Next, measure out your CBD. You will need CBD oil drops or a water-soluble CBD product. Water-soluble CBD is still an oil, but it has been broken down into nanoparticles that are small enough to be suspended in a liquid. Breaking down the CBD compound in this way allows it to mix with liquids more effectively and makes it easier to absorb in your digestive tract. You should add your usual CBD dose to your tea and then mix it. You might notice that the oil pools on the surface. This is to be expected as CBD is a lipid and will not mix with the water. CBD is also mixed with a carrier oil which will also sit on the surface. Can you put CBD tincture in other drinks? If you don’t like tea, there are plenty of other drinks you could choose to enhance with the addition of CBD drops. Popular choices include coffee, iced coffee, smoothies and even sports drinks. Adding CBD to your post-workout smoothie could help to ward off some of the delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), for example. Some bars are even adding CBD to alcoholic cocktails, so you can be confident that whatever drink you choose to put CBD in, someone has probably done it before. As long as the drink is not scalding hot, you shouldn’t have any trouble adding CBD tincture to your drink of choice. Is CBD in tea less effective? Drinking your CBD instead of enjoying the drops under your tongue will make your CBD less effective, but you will still enjoy some of the benefits. And some people find that the ritual nature of brewing tea and sipping it mindfully helps to enhance the benefits of their CBD, particularly when it comes to creating a relaxing bedtime routine. CBD taken under the tongue will offer bioavailability of around 13-19% with some stating it could be up to 35%. CBD that is ingested offers a bioavailability of around 4-20%. The CBD will also take longer to take effect. When taken sublingually, CBD takes around 15-30 minutes to take effect. When you ingest CBD that has been added to a drink, for example, you can expect it to take around 30 minutes to 2 hours to take effect. So, if you’re using this as part of your sleep routine, you should consider this when planning your schedule.
