WHY DECARB YOUR BUDS
If you take a raw bud and eat it in it’s raw form, that’s THCA in its acid form. That’s why you can eat the plant and still not get that high. It’s when you light it up in a bowl or you cook with it, you need to decarb it. Decarbing is when you’re taking it from its acid form, so CBDA & THCA, and then the heat converts it over into its active psychoactive property of THC. So when you make your tincture or your gummie, you got to put the raw plant material in the oven. After you grind-up the material you will put it in the over for 45 minutes at 200 degrees.
HOW TO INFUSE YOUR BUDS
The next step is to get a crock pot and mix in your decarbed material in with MCT oil or butter which acts as a carrier–something to grab the cannabinoid rich oil. If you’re doing gummies then you should choose fractionated coconut oil; that’s coconut oil that won’t get hard in a room temperature environment. The oils in the crockpot will combine together and then you will take a cheesecloth and you’re going to strain all of the plant so that you’re left with nothing except infused coconut cannabis oil. PRO TIP – In the crock pot also put water; that water is going to clean up a lot of the chlorophyll. Because oil and water don’t mix, it acts as a filter. If you want to make your oil even stronger, what we suggest is straining the first batch of buds and replacing it with a new batch of buds with the same infused oil. Let your crockpot simmer for twenty-four hours and strain again.
HOW STRONG WILL YOUR FINISHED PRODUCT BE?
Everything that you’re purchasing from the dispensary you could do yourself. To know exactly the strength of your infused carrier (butter/oil) you will need to have either the plant material or the infused carrier tested. I would send off a sample of the oil and then you know your exact dose. Then you can decide whether you wish to make that oil stronger or not.
Therefore, if you’re testing just the raw plant material, and if your tests say you have 10% THC, compared to 20%, then I would tell you to put double of the bud in the crockpot to increase the carrier’s potency. But without an official test, it’s impossible to know exact numbers.
