by Ed Rosenthal
Use a double boiler to heat the tincture with less worry. It heats more evenly and the temperature won’t exceed 212°F (100°C), the boiling temperature of water. To maintain a lower temperature, use a candy thermometer to check the water in the bottom of the double boiler, or the tincture in the top part. While reducing, stir the tincture frequently with a long spoon or metal kebob skewer.
You can tell when the alcohol has all boiled off because the small alcohol bubbles disappear, leaving the purified oil. The telltale alcohol smell will also disappear.
A basting syringe works well for pulling the oil out of the double boiler. If the oil has particulate matter in it, filter it again through a coffee or lab filter.
This method can also be used to increase the strength of an alcohol tincture without reducing it all the way to oil. Just pull the tincture once the volume has been reduced to the level desired. If you’ve reduced the volume by half, the resulting tincture will be more than twice as strong as what you started with.
DISTILLING
Wax, dabs, and honey oil are increasingly popular, value-added cannabis products. Each is merely purified extracts of the active cannabinoids and some terpenes found in the marijuana plant. Kief is a close cousin, as is full melt bubble hash. Cannabis oils are made by stripping out the last of the vegetative material, leaving the pure, natural active ingredients.
Many connoisseurs and professionals have turned to purpose-built distillation equipment that uses alcohol or other solvents to extract the essential oils of any herb. The equipment relies on the same basic principal alcohol distillers have used for centuries to produce liquor. Alcohol and other solvents boil at a different temperature from oils or water or other liquids, allowing them to be separated with a cooled condenser. A distilling process uses less alcohol, helps contain the potentially dangerous vapors, and recaptures the alcohol or other solvent for reuse.
Most distilling equipment used with herbs are glass Soxhlet extractors, named for a German agricultural chemist who invented the design in 1879 to separate lipids (such as cannabinoids) from a solid base substance (such as marijuana). Soxhlet extractors use a basket to hold the plant material as heated alcohol or other liquid solvent condenses and drips into it. The warm solvent pulls the oils from the plant material and empties into a siphon arm that returns the oil-laden solvent to the distillation flask, where it is reheated and the process of vaporizing and condensing repeats. This is the same principle that is used in percolator-type coffee pots.
Eden Labs offers modified versions of this design that allow them to operate at lower temperatures and separate out the solvent, leaving just the extracted essence behind. Eden Labs Coldfinger extraction method uses an inverted condenser inside an enclosed glass flask. The condenser is water-cooled and returns the solvent vapors to a liquid state so it can drip down through the plant material and back to the bottom of the flask, where it is reheated.
The resulting tincture can be easily and safely reduced by simply replacing the basket that held the herb with a recovery vessel. The vaporized solvent condenses and drips into the vessel instead of the herb-filled basket, leaving a purified extract in the bottom of the flask. All of this is done at temperatures that stay below 120°F (49°C), so there is little risk of converting the cannabinoids.
GLYCERIN TINCTURES
Alcohol is the standard for making tinctures and it has the advantage of being a great preservative, but for people who cannot tolerate even a drop of alcohol, glycerin tinctures offer an alternative. Some tincture makers use a combination of alcohol and glycerin in their products. Glycerin tinctures are available at many dispensaries, but making your own is not much more involved than making an alcohol tincture. It takes just a few extra steps.
If you have a pure cannabis oil extract, you can make a glycerin tincture by adding a judicious amount of the oil to a bottle of glycerin. Warming it gently (but not too much) and stirring or shaking helps it mix. Pure USP-grade glycerin is inexpensive and available at drug stores everywhere and online.
If making a glycerin tincture from scratch, start by making a carefully strained alcohol tincture. Once you have that, add the alcohol tincture to a comparable amount of glycerin, then evaporate the alcohol. The potency of the glycerin tincture can be adjusted by using either more or less glycerin than the volume of alcohol in the tincture.
One easy method of evaporating the alcohol from the glycerin is to heat it in a double boiler. Measure out the alcohol tincture. To maintain the same strength, add slightly less glycerin, because some of the tincture volume is the cannabis oil. Pour in the alcohol tincture. Using a spoon or spatula, blend them. The larger the surface area of the mixture relative to its depth, the faster alcohol evaporates, so keep the mix limited to a few inches of depth. You’ll know when the process is complete because the pan will no longer emit the telltale smell of alcohol. Glycerin tinctures spoil in a few weeks if not refrigerated.
Starting with an alcohol tincture may seem like an unnecessary step, as it is possible to make glycerin tinctures directly. But alcohol is much more efficient at extracting the cannabinoids and other essential oils from marijuana.
A CBD tincture from Pure.
Photo: Steep Hill Halent
You may encounter people who say you can use your oven to evaporate the alcohol from a tincture, either to make a glycerin tincture or to reduce it to oil. Don’t do it. The flash point of pure ethyl alcohol vapor is only about 80°F (27°C), and it only takes 3.3% alcohol vapor volume to produce an explosion. Electric ovens may let you get away with more, but even pot roasts braised in a few cups of wine have been known to end with a bang. Using a double boiler in a well-ventilated area or outdoors is a safe way to evaporate alcohol.
THE EFFECTS AND EFFECTIVENESS OF TINCTURE
Tinctures are administered by dropper under the tongue, or sublingually. The cannabinoids are absorbed by the mucous membranes under the tongue and elsewhere in the mouth and upper throat, releasing them into the bloodstream. Most do not pass through the digestive system, though some can, particularly larger doses, but go directly into the bloodstream. Inhaled cannabis vapor or smoke passes into the bloodstream in the lungs. Direct absorption is an advantage for several reasons: it takes much less time than digestion—it’s almost as fast as inhaling, it’s easy to titrate because the effects come on rapidly, and the effects are similar to inhaling rather than ingesting.
When substances pass through the digestive system, it takes a minimum of 25 minutes to start feeling their effects, and 45 minutes to an hour before they peak. When there is food in your stomach it takes longer. Swallowed cannabis products pass through the liver which filters what passes into the bloodstream, including some of the cannabinoids. Some of them never reach your bloodstream or your brain. Those cannabinoids that do make it through are subject to the digestive process, which alters THC, so its effects differ from cannabinoids going directly into the bloodstream.
Figuring out tincture dose is much easier than with edibles. The onset of effects is still not nearly as fast as inhalation—which is felt in a matter of seconds—but five minutes after taking the tincture, you can adjust titration. Full effects are felt about 20 minutes after dosage.
Historically, the variable potency of cannabis plants used to make tinctures hindered their use as a modern medicine and contributed to the removal of cannabis from the United States Pharmacopeia. Those two teaspoons that did the trick with one bottle might not in the next batch, making it hard for doctors to prescribe doses with confidence. No one knew what chemicals were in the plant. For the home or artisanal tincture maker, consistency is now less of a challenge. When prepared in one batch or in many small batches from the same plant material, the modern tincture maker has a much easier time creating consistent doses than turn-of-the-century pharmaceutical companies did. Further, tinctures can be tested for potency.
Some people say that tinctures don’t affect them much or don’t produce the full spectrum of desired effects. Odds
are, these people just haven’t run across a tincture made properly from cannabis worth extracting. A well-made extract is both a very pleasant and effective way to administer cannabinoids without smoking. It is an excellent choice in no smoking/no vaping situations. You can use cannabis unobtrusively almost anywhere, whether in a theater, traveling or in a park.
Affordable and effective cannabinoid therapy.
Photo: Making You Better Brands
Advantages
Cannabis tinctures deliver the effects of smoking with just a short delay. Since they are not burned, no tars or other pyrolytic compounds are inhaled.
Tinctures are very discreet. The bottle looks like a regular over-the-counter homeopathic medicine. There is no telltale smell to notice as you self-titrate. There is no need to sneak around.
The Proper Dose
Once you have used a particular batch a few times, you will figure out the right dose. Tinctures differ as a result of the cannabinoids and, just as importantly, the terpenes that are present. Plant profiles are part of the equation and processing is the other.
People’s tolerance to tinctures differs, just as their tolerance to smoked products varies. Start with small doses, adjusting upward as necessary after waiting at least 45 minutes to gauge effects. Tincture doses typically range between the contents of one dropper (approximately 30–40 drops) and six droppers, but some tinctures are much more potent. Since both tincture potency and people’s tolerances differ, there is no way to prescribe a definite dose without knowing the person and the particular tincture.
TINCTURE LIFE SPAN
Ask Ed
Ed:
A friend of mine has tincture that is three years old. She insists that since the tincture is made with alcohol, it is still good. Can tinctures stay good that long? Will they go bad or become weaker over time?
Tincture Curious
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Curious:
Tinctures made with alcohol, so long as they are stored properly, can keep indefinitely. The main dangers to tinctures are heat, light, and oxygen, which combine to degrade THC content. For this reason, the best way to store a tincture is in an opaque container in the freezer. Amber or blue glass is best.
Oxygen breaks THC down into nonpsychoactive components, so long exposure to the air will reduce the potency of a tincture. It is necessary to keep the tincture in a sealed container. This also prevents contamination of the material.
If the tincture was diluted with water, and the water was not distilled, the tincture can turn sour. This should be apparent. You won’t enjoy the smell or taste because it will be obviously sour, like vinegar.
Tinctures that have been properly stored and aged often take on a mellower flavor that many connoisseurs enjoy.
KIEF TINCTURE
Kief, the sifted glands of marijuana (see chapter 2), is easy to use to make a tincture. Because it is free of most of the vegetative material and is quite concentrated, it makes a very fine extract.
There are several grades of kief. The first sifting is the purest. Each subsequent sift yields a product with more vegetative debris. The first grades are usually used for vaporizing or smoking. The lower grades are best used for cooking and tinctures.
To make a kief tincture, use two grams of kief per ounce of vodka, rum, Everclear, or other alcohol. Place the kief in a jar that can be sealed, or in a blender, and then add the alcohol. Cover tightly and shake the jar or let the blender rip. Let stand at least overnight in a warm, dark place. The mixture can be left longer if desired. Strain the mixture through a paper coffee filter. Transfer the mixture to a clean dropper bottle.
Storage
Label bottles with the date and tincture information to differentiate batches. Tinctures stay potent indefinitely when kept in a cool dark environment, as compared with glycerine-based tinctures that spoil eventually if not kept refrigerated. The main dangers to a tincture’s integrity are heat, light, and oxygen. The best storage for a tincture is in a dark-colored glass container that is sealed and kept in a refrigerator or freezer.
Store tinctures in dark-colored glass.
Photo: 420 Jars
Getting Creative: Variations
While most tinctures use neutral grain spirits or over-proof alcohol, it is possible to use other liquors instead. The higher the proof, the better the cannabinoid-extracting capability. Brandy, bourbon, rum, and other liquors make a more flavorful tincture.
Brandy has a mellow flavor with less burn than pure ethanol, but it is not as effective a solvent because of its lower alcohol content, and its high percentage of water dissolves noncannabinoid, nonactive components such as chlorophyll and other pigments.
HONEY ELIXIR TIPS
•When warming the honey don’t let it get hot, just warm, or the color and chemical properties will change, and it will not mix properly with the tincture.
•When the honey cools, it thickens again. If too high a proportion of honey is mixed with the tincture, the mix will be too thick to use with a dropper once it cools.
A low-tech tincture can be made by just dropping some buds or hash chunks in a bottle of liquor. Within a few weeks most of the cannabinoids will dissolve.
Tinctures can be flavored with honey or other sweeteners. One recipe calls for mixing two parts honey with three parts tincture. Warming the honey thins its consistency, making it easier to mix. Flavor essences are sometimes added to pure alcohol or glycerin tinctures. They are available at specialty cooking shops and on the web.
MULTIHERBAL TINCTURE
If medicinal applications are your interest, then combining a cannabis tincture with other herbs or herbal extracts may be worth experimentation.
Many other herbs can be used with marijuana to create a synergistic effect. Valerian root, passion flower, lemon balm, and marjoram are calming, reduce anxiety, and aid in sleep. Clove extract can be combined with marijuana tincture for an herbal toothache remedy that is rubbed on the gums.
Additional research into herbal combinations is recommended. Consulting an herbalist may yield a multitude of interesting, personalized extracts.
COOKING WITH TINCTURE
Using tinctures is an easy way to cannabinize food. A dropperful in drinks, soups, sauces, or mashed potatoes may be just what the doctor ordered. Tinctures mix well with milk drinks such as shakes, Indian lassi, or hot chocolate. They blend well with sauces and gravies that contain fats and oils.
See chapter 11 for more ideas about how to use tinctures in cooking, or invent recipes of your own. Remember that eating tinctures uses a different process of assimilation, so dosage will have to be reconsidered.
Chapter 10.
Capsules—
Making and Using Canna Caps
We’ve all been in situations where it’s just not cool to smoke. Maybe you’ve wondered if it were possible to take a marijuana pill. Popping a pill in your mouth with a gulp of water to enjoy the therapeutic and mind-enhancing effects of cannabis would sure be easier and more discreet than firing up a spleef. Turns out you can. Marijuana capsules, also called “maripills” or “canna caps,” are very effective and quite easy to make. What’s more, they will produce a longer-lasting and somewhat different high than smoking or vaping.
Cannaleve Capsules.
Photo: Nadim Sabella Photography
A pill and a pipe won’t produce the same effects, even if they contain the same variety and amount of marijuana. The digestive process creates somewhat different metabolites from inhaled marijuana, and those have different effects than the smoked form.
One difference is time: how long it takes to be effective and how long the high will last. Take a puff, and the effects are felt within seconds, letting you easily judge how high you’re getting. Take a pill, and you won’t know for a while. Anything that gets into your system through your stomach takes much longer to be felt, and that can make knowing how much you have on board hard to manage. After 15 or 20 minutes of not feeling much effect, it’s easy to th
ink you should just go ahead and pop another canna cap or eat another brownie. Then it starts to really hit you just a few minutes later, but by then you’ve got a lot more coming. For best results, wait at least an hour before upping the dose.
Just as taking a canna cap or edible takes longer to be felt than inhalation, the effects are also extended. The high from smoking a bowl may have mostly worn off after a couple of hours, but the buzz from a brownie or canna cap will just be getting going. Since digestion takes longer than absorbing through your lungs, that hour or more it takes for your stomach to process what you put in it is like an extended-release for THC and the other cannabinoids. That means that the effects will last at least twice as long, depending somewhat on how much you take.
Those longer-lasting effects make oral ingestion just the ticket for many medical marijuana patients who have trouble sleeping without it or need to go longer between doses for other reasons. Some people prefer the high they get from oral marijuana preparations, and those who use it for chronic pain management often say it works better that way. More of a body high and relaxation is how many describe it, but as with all things marijuana, much of the effect has to do with who is using it and what space they are in.
Cannabinated foods are not always predictable. Canna caps are a more consistent and convenient alternative. Marijuana capsules begin to take effect 30–90 minutes after being eaten, depending on whether you take them with food or on an empty stomach. With capsules, it is easier to monitor the exact amount of cannabis that is being ingested. Psychoactive effects typically last 4 to 8 hours, but the herb’s medicinal effects infrequently continue for as long as 12 hours.