The Joy of Waking & Baking

Even people who have never touched weed and who will likely never touch weed (pity) have heard of waking and baking. 

In case you’re part of the .0001% of the population that hasn’t, waking and baking is a time-honored stoner tradition of smoking weed in the AM. That’s it. 

So, in an effort to depict this time-honored tradition in as clear of a light as possible, I’ve packed my PAX, french-pressed a cup of coffee, and turned up Above & Beyond’s Group Therapy in my headphones, and I’m ready to dig deep into the mystical tradition of waking and then, as one does, baking. 

So You Want to Raise For The Haze?

Well, when cannabis is lumped in as a “recreational substance” along with other recreational substances like alcohol and other stimulants in general, it also gets saddled with the same “acceptable time of consumption”, which is mainly in the PM. 

Cocktail hours are 5-7 PM. Bars in cities open in the PM and usually close when the AM comes. 

Similarly, when many people think about smoking cannabis, this think of late-night White Castle runs and playing video games into the wee hours of the morning. 

This is, without a doubt, indeed how a majority of time blazed is spent, in my opinion, but probably just barely. 

The other 40%> of time high is spent at different hours, doing different things, and this is the kind of shit that I get most excited about as a stoner. 

Grocery shopping sober? Bleh. 

Grocery shopping high? Oooooooh!

Long-ass plane ride? Yuck. 

Long-ass plane ride after dropping 20mg beforehand? Yippie ki-yay, mofoer!

Deep cleaning your entire apartment? Dread.

Deep cleaning your entire apartment after smoking a dank half-gram? Delightful.

I could go on, but the point I’m trying to paint here is that stereotypes be damned. Society be damned. Do what you want when you want, including getting a bit elevated. 

If restaurant mimosas before 12 can be celebrated, then a freshly packed PAX full of Fox Hollow Flora’s Cookie Fruity with a cup of Portland Roasters at 10:10 AM can also be celebrated. 

So come along, let’s run from the night and SET FREE THE LIGHT!

Who Should Consider Waking & Baking?

Well, people who live in locations where it’s legal first of all, and then adults who are 21+ second of all. Then, of course, people with intense medical situations shouldn’t do anything without consulting their personal physicians first. 

But assuming you’re none of the above, then ALL OF YOU should consider waking and baking. It may sound a little scary like a big water slide look or the idea of putting a slice of cheese on your apple pie may sound, but if you are able to muster enough courage the reward is worth it, I promise. 

The awesomeness of waking and baking transcends class. It transcends even time. It’s dope, no matter when and where you are. From 90s Ford Taurus backseats to staring in apartment bathroom mirrors to cabin back decks to smoldering campsite fire pits, it’s always an exciting vibe. 

I’m sure there are even more dope applications for this simple yet time-honored tradition. 

To all you current or ex-tobacco fiends out there who have experienced the joy of a quality cigarette (talking SevenStars and Caster Symphonics here) paired with a hot coffee in the morning will understand how magical this type of union can be. 

So if you’re convinced, I’m glad. If not, or you’re convinced but want to feel extra prepared, I’ve compiled a little list of things to consider beforehand if planning a wake-and-bake session for a future morning. 

Wake & Bake 101

It’s just weed, so technically, you can harmonize with it, however, you damn well please, but in the spirit of goodwill and friendship I wanted to share a few things that I’ve found helpful in optimizing the amount of joy I’m able to maximally extract from my AM stoney sessions. 

Here are a few of those things you might want to consider if trying to plan the most perfect experience:

1. Set Intentions, Stereotypes Be Damned

While cannabis is an entirely different animal compared to psychedelics, although I do believe the argument that high doses of edibles are borderline psychedelic in nature, it’s still helpful to be intentional in your waking and baking.

Essentially, if you believe in having, in deserving, in appreciating a specially good time, then you will be able to manifest it. If you’re worried or anxious or feel guilty about lighting up in the AM, then you might want to hold off until your comfort level increases. 

Just like a mimosa or bloody-mary fuelled brunch with the boys or with the gals requires a special kind of mindset going in, so does waking and baking, in my opinion. 

Don’t worry, this step is not really that hard to get excited about a special treat, which leads me to my second tip…

2. Plan Ahead

Planning your session ahead of time serves multiple benefits. First and perhaps most importantly, the act of making a concerted effort to plan ahead helps ensure you don’t fuck anything up, like keeping a schedule or fulfilling any pre-existing obligations. 

If you’re dropping other important aspects of your life like friendships, relationships, careers, fitness, art, socializing, etc, to just get ripped AF every morning that’s probably not a great thing -you’re probably going to have a bad time mmkay. 

Planning ahead also increased your success rates in having a bitchin good time. Planning ahead means you’ll have the opportunity to stock your fridge, sleep in, and have a wide-open schedule, all so you can fully embrace this special type of experience. 

Planning ahead is just a simple matter of safety too. While I don’t think you can draw 1:1 correlations between driving under the influence of alcohol and driving under the influence, I DO think that if anything is influencing you enough to drive recklessly (could be booze, could be loud music, could be a cell phone) then that’s inherently a BAD thing. 

So, as the official Scout motto goes, BE PREPARED.

2. Keep It a Treat

I’m perfectly willing to accept debate around this one. I’ve experienced how consuming cannabis far more frequently than I would have once anticipated of myself can play a constructive role in leading a productive life and pursuing my dreams. 

Medical patients and socially anxious people can also credibly argue against keeping waking and baking a treat, and I respect and empathize with those perspectives. 

For casual smokers, though, particularly those who have careers/normal 9-5 jobs and don’t have richy rich parents to pay all their bills, I think it’s more important to closely self-monitor your consumption to ensure your relationship with cannabis doesn’t interfere with your relationship with life, those you care about, and those who care about you. 

So if the AM is the only time you go to the gym to get your exercise, for example, then habitually waking and baking would obviously have a net negative impact on your quality of life by making that health regimen more challenging to maintain. 

Saving wake and bake sessions for special occasions, kind of like ice cream and dry-aged steaks, they grow more luxurious the longer you lust for them. 

The frequency that’s been working great for me is essentially reserving wake and bakes for A) birthdays, B) holidays, and/or C) vacation trips to legal cities/states. This is what works for me and may not necessarily work for you, but I do think the “keep it a treat” mindset is a useful one in exercising self-restraint for a multitude of life’s indulgences. 

3. Budget a Nap

Things start off amazing, and depending on the type of strain you’re smoking on can vary in perceived and real energy levels, but ultimately, I’ve found that an afternoon intermission is almost always necessary when I waketh and baketh. 

Pairing your bud with a fresh cup of quality coffee or espresso or whatever your shite Starbucks drink of choice is (seriously, there is a better way to live) is one way to amplify your pleasure as well as stretch out your high due to the stimulating effects of caffeine. 

Even with a cuppa, eventually, The Sandman gets wind that someone’s been waking and baking and sees it as an opportunity to make an early appearance. 

Embrace that appearance. If you’ve planned ahead accordingly, you should have no problem greeting Mr. Sandman with open arms and drifting off to dreamland with him for an hour or two later in the day, with 2-3 PM being the real sweet spot, IMO. 

The nice thing about budgeting in a nap besides naps just kicking ass is that if you get it in early enough, it can serve as a kind of a gentle reset, and so when you wake up, you’ll still have a third of a day to do whatever you want.

4. Invest in a Decent Vape

Smoking in the AM is fine. It’s cool in its own way. But just like how sometimes I crave only a heap of buttery sweet pancakes for breakfast, I also crave a soft moist flavorful form of consuming my herb. This is where vapes come into the picture.

Loading up a vaporizer with some fresh herb kind of polishes the hard corners of what waking and baking with smoke would feel like in terms of intensity and is also just hell convenient. 

Vape pens work, and thanks to the growing number of live rosin options, you can actually have a decently flavorful experience, but there’s just something about vaping whole freshly ground plant material that is unparalleled in smoothness and flavor compared to combustion. 

I’m sorry that this may come off as a PAX commercial, but I’ve had my PAX 3 for over four years now, and it’s been bulletproof the whole time while I usually default to small joints/pins, having a PAX for city missions and woke and boke sessions is worth it alone. 

Life isn’t all rose petals and peaches, though, and as such, it’s important to take a measured approach to complex topics such as puffin with the muffin. Thus, if you intend to pack kron at the crack ‘o dawn, you should be aware of everything that could be considered a “pro” and, conversely, a “con.” 

5 Pros of Waking & Baking

3 Cons Turning Over & Burning Clover

-If you are a “Spontaneous Spencer” then the lack of foresight could present schedule conflicts and undesirably stressful moments of reconciliation of said conflicts. 

-If you lack self-restraint and just herb so much that you know your wake and bake would turn into an all-day and all-night bake which would then turn into an all-week and so forth, and so on, then you may want to proceed with caution. 

-Stereotypers will still stereotype, especially those resolute in their anti-cannabis positions. Telling someone something is not addictive or harmful and then using that same thing, even if it’s just a simple plant, in the AM is a megaphone to the prudes that someone’s got a pRoBLeM. 

The Moderation Equation of Success

As you can see above, with the 5:3 Pros-to-Cons ratio, I’m obviously a pretty big fan of alighting and delighting. 

Waking and baking is just fucking ultimate. It’s living la vida dolce. It’s a celebration of life. It’s greeting the sun (albeit a bit late) with a smile deserving of its life-giving rays. It can be a sedate experience, or it can fuel productivity; it’s a versatile tool or assistant if you will.

Everyone should try waking and baking at some point, if not just for the sake of mixing up your routine a bit, then for the simple sake of forcing your brain to function a little differently for a change, forcing yourself to interact with the world and start your day from a unique perspective. 

Like with anything else in the world of cannabis, alcohol, sugar, or water, life is about moderation, and so being self-aware of your consumption and exercising restraint are necessary to underwrite a modicum of stability that acts as the foundation for the occasional indulgence of cannabinoid-facilitated mental reprieve. 

“We rise up, towards the sun. We rise up up up up up. Towards the sun.” -TRILLS