I had planned to add one last candy recipe before the end of the year. Actually, it was a non-recipe recipe, in that there was no cooking involved. Then, it hit me! Not only is this a chance to talk about alcohol tincture, but a chance to talk about microdosing.
With the help of an alcohol tincture, appropriately called Green Dragon, I have been able to reduce my wine intake, which I had deemed to be too much!
So, what is a tincture?
Tincture is a cannabis-infused alcohol. Word is cannabis tinctures were the main form of medicine until its prohibition.
Honestly, I wasn’t sure where tinctures fit into cooking. In time, it became clear that tinctures had a place in my kitchen but would also have a major role in me cutting down on my drinking!
There are a couple of ways to make a cannabis tincture and a lot of ideas of what type of alcohol is best, vodka, brandy or Everclear? They are all appropriate for infusion with cannabis based on what you plan on doing with it and your personal taste.
Before I made my first tincture, I read a lot of user feedback on various threads and websites. I wanted to know which method alcohol people, like me, a tincture newbie, thought was best and how successful they were. It wasn’t terribly scientific but I finally chose a method and alcohol I wanted to try.
Everclear, grain alcohol, at 190 proof seemed to be the solvent of choice in most of my reading. And since I am totally like a kid at Christmas, I wanted to get this done as fast and as effectively as possible. Opting for Master Wu’s tincture technique would give me a fully loaded product in 20 minutes! Yaaaasss!
People, typically, take the tincture sublingually (under the tongue) where the arterial blood supply will quickly absorb the THC. Alternately, you can swallow the tincture in a beverage or on food to be absorbed slowly by the liver like any other edibIe.
I make a canna-cocktail using ½ teaspoon of Green Dragon, diet cranberry juice and club soda. If I’m feeling fancy I will spritz in a bit of fresh lemon juice.
But, …
Listen! Listen! Listen, Linda! This shit burns! I am not even playin’.
It will dry out your oral mucosa.
It is not tasty.
But, you will love the high!
The high proof alcohol is an excellent vehicle for absorption into the blood stream, you’re not inhaling smoke, and a little goes a loooong way.
Clearly, a cannabis tincture in the home can’t be all bad, right? Consider using a CBD tincture for overall pain relief without the high! As I mentioned earlier, utilizing a tincture has helped me reduce the amount of wine I drank. All of the sugar and empty calories were not doing me any favors in my quest for better health.
Well, I’m excited to show you. Let’s get to it!
First, let’s cover the tools and ingredients you will need:
- Cannabis
- High proof alcohol
- Medium sauce pan
- Cooking thermometer (mine attaches to the pot)
- Quart size Mason/Bell jar with lid
Master Wu’s recipe is different from other methods that take weeks to complete. It uses heat to speed up the extraction and concentration process. This recipe can be completed in an afternoon. Win!
I had 4 grams of Gorilla Glue #4 already decarbed and the hubster dashed out for a pint of Everclear.
Master Wu’s Tincture recipe:
- Decarboxylate your flower. Grind it into a fine consistency
- Mix the flower in a mason jar with the high-proof alcohol
- Place the mason jar in the sauce pan and fill the pan with water cover the jar halfway
- Simmer the jar in the water bath for 20 minutes at 170 degrees F
- Strain the mixture through a paper coffee filter (you can do this twice to filter out any particulate) and store.
It is not necessary to refrigerate your tincture. Even after I took the jar out of the water bath, it continued to boil. And, I did not open it until it stopped!
Now, for the “non-recipe”:
As cannabis legal as Colorado is, public consumption is very limited. Also, even if I take a hit from my vape pen before going out, it may not be convenient to vape. That’s why I love edibles so much. For me it’s the right edible for the job!
Where is the last place you would find cannabis? Okay, I’ll answer for you—GUM!
Yep, gum.
I call this a “non recipe” because there are no measurements I can give you. I just winged it but I will share all of that with you.
The hubs got a mega pack of peppermint flavored Extra gum so we’d have plenty to screw up!
Using a dropper that holds approximately 1/3 teaspoon. I dosed 2 pieces of the gum with one, two and three drops and let the alcohol evaporate overnight. To test it, I refrained from using any other cannabis. We didn’t notice anything until we chewed the three drop dose. I experienced a very light buzz that works well to maintain my glow!
Now, I use the 1/3 teaspoon dose to dose my gum twice. I can dose 4 stick once with that 1/3 teaspoon. That seems to be what we need to maintain.
The other cool part was that all I tasted was the minty freshness of the gum. No one would ever guess that you are microdosing.
With the second batch I dosed each piece 3x. That started a breakdown of the gum I noticed when I was chewing it. It came back together soon, though. Now, if I feel like I need more, I just pop another piece in my mouth. No need to try and over dose that poor little piece of gum!
If I want to be even more incognegro, I re-wrap a stick or two in the foil wrapper and put them in with some virgin gum. If someone asks for a stick, no problem! Their happy, I’m happier!
