One of the easiest ways to get the most out of any herb is to soak it in alcohol, let it extract (hello, vanilla!) and then use the alcohol as you wish. This can be straight up (like use it by the dropperfull) or incorporated into recipes. Just like you add vanilla extract to your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, you can use other herbal extracts, like those containing THC, CBD or both (!) to just about any recipe. A jar of THC or CBD tincture in your pantry is like having vanilla extract on hand, it is a great resource and it lasts forever.
THC or CBD Extract aka ‘Tincture’
Ingredients
- 50g of THC or CBD flower (decarboxylated if you want those effects, if not, raw is fine)
- 3 cups of Alcohol, the highest proof you can get (food grade; 120 proof or higher is best)
Supplies
- Glass mason jar or similar with tight fighting lid (ok I use Saran Wrap sometimes…)
- Strainer (like one you use for pasta, whatever you have on hand really)
- Glass jar or similar for final storage, able to hold 3 cups.
Directions
- Put flower in jar. Cover with the alcohol, put on the lid, and store in a dark cool place out of the way for 2-3 days or whenever you get back to it. You can make whatever you need (!) just use the calculator over at Emily Kyle Nutrition and of course you can always send me a note and I’ll help you out. Using the #’s in the recipe, there is a photo tutorial at the end of this post.
- Pour the alcohol, which is now a beautiful dark green/brown, into your glass jar for final storage. I can usually do this without toppling the flower out, but if you want, use a strainer. Be sure to toss the extracted flower out into the garbage if you have kids/pets that might get into it. The flower will soak up some alcohol etc, so you will get 3cups of tincture as a maximum.
- Enjoy!
Alcohol You Say, Tell Me More
I purchase liters of organic certified food grade 190 proof alcohol. However, you can go to any liquor store and buy the highest proof liquor you like (120 proof or above is best) and use that. Everclear is a fav of many. If you are taking the tincture every day as a tincture, some people like to use Rum or Gin. Whatever floats your flavor boat. The higher the proof the better the extraction, but like if you end up with a 5mg/ml extraction vs a 6mg/ml extraction, it’s not a big deal. Play with the dosage calculator by inputting different numbers and you’ll see it in black and white.
Help with Dosage
I am a big fan of the dosage calculator over at Emily Kyle Nutrition. A good rule of thumb is to start with 2mg/serving (like 1 cookie is 2mg, or 1 mint, or 1 piece of brownie etc) because you can always eat more. For much more insight, how-to, and lots of fab recipes, check out Christina of Fruit and Flower’s substack or IG.
Emily Kyle Nutrition’s Calculator, in Action for This Recipe
A 1L glass mason jar easily fits 50g of flower, which you can smash down if needed to be covered by 3 cups of alcohol. This is how I roll.
When you put this info into the calculator (I am using 20% THC flower, which is what you can assume if you are growing our plants or seeds) it looks like this:
If you were going to use 1tsp (which is usually the amount of vanilla extract in a recipe) in letss say a 12-serving recipe, the next part would look like this:
The end result is if you make (12) servings, that is about 5mg/serving. Wow. Also let’s remember you made an extract using 3 cups of alcohol. 3 cups of alcohol = 144 teaspoons. That is 144 recipes if you are using 1 tsp per recipe. So you just made a lifetime supply of THC extract to keep in your pantry! Wow!