The best thing about making edible cannabis is, you can infuse them into a variety of delicious food, and beverages, and enjoy the effects of its highest potency. Whether you’re in the mood for a savory meal, or a sweet treat you can make many types of tasty food, and beverages by learning how to make edible cannabis.

Regardless of whether you are using cannabis for recreational use, or medical purposes, you can seamlessly reap all the benefits of cannabis while indulging your tastebuds with some great cannabis delights.

So, if you’re ready to explore the art of cannabis culinary, and make some delicious edibles, you need to learn how to process and decarboxylate the weed, and then apply four different methods to make your own edible cannabis.

Preparing Your Weed

The first thing that you need to do is decarboxylate your weed, or in short decarbing the weed. This basically involves baking the weed at 240°F for 25 to 30 minutes to activate its most desirable chemical compounds; the THC and CBD. If you don’t decarb the cannabis, then you won’t get high as the raw flower barely has any potency.

So, start by preheating the oven at 240°F, and while that’s being done either chop your weed into small pieces, or grind it into a powdered mix. Put parchment paper on the oven’s tray and spread the chopped or grinded weed evenly over it.

Now put the tray inside the oven and bake it for up to 30 minutes. Once the oven beeps, take out the tray and wait for about 5 to 10 minutes for the decarbed weed to cool down to room temperature before proceeding with the next step.

How to Make Edible Cannabis?

When it comes to making edible cannabis there are a bunch of different methods. It mainly depends on the cannabis edible that you are going to make whether it’s baking cannabis brownie , pizza or gooey chocolate cookies, or a cup of refreshing tea, coffee or any other beverage.

Primarily, you will need to prepare the base ingredients to make edible cannabis which includes:

1. Cannabutter (Cannabis Infused Butter): A classic choice for baked goods like brownies, cookies, and muffins.

2. Cannaoil (Cannabis Infused Oil): Versatile for both baking and cooking and can be used in a variety of dishes.

3. Cannabis Tincture: A liquid solution that can be added to beverages or used sublingually for quick absorption.

4. Cannabis Distillate: A highly concentrated form of cannabis that can be used in various edibles and topical products.

So, first you need to learn how to make any of these base ingredients, and then explore delicious edible cannabis recipes based on your preference. Whether you're craving a sweet treat, a savory meal, or a refreshing beverage, there's an edible cannabis option to suit your taste.

Using Cannabis Infused Butter (Cannabutter)

Butter is one of the main ingredients when it comes to baking various types of recipes. Whether it’s sweet treats like brownies, cookies, or muffins, or tasty savories like baked potato, fish, and chicken, and many more.

The main reason cannabis is popularly infused with butter is, the THC easily dissolves with the fatty content of the butter. So, this makes cannabutter a highly potent base ingredient for any edible cannabis recipes. Not to mention butter adds an enhanced taste, and this makes any baked recipe delicious.

For starters, it’s recommended to use 1/4th teaspoon of cannabutter to infuse with the food, you can gradually increase that proportionately based on acquired experience. If you need to use more butter, you can use regular butter with the proportionate dose of the cannabutter. 

Before getting started, make sure you have everything you need to make cannabutter as its listed below:

1. 7 grams of decarbed weed
2. 2 sticks of butter (227 grams)
3. One cup of water (250ml)
4. Stock Pot or Double Boiler
5. Glass Bowl
6. Cheesecloth

Making cannabutter at home is quite easy, get started by heating 250ml of water on the stove in low heat. Once the water starts to heat up put 2 slices of butter into the stock pot along with 7 grams of decarbed weed.

In a few minutes, you will notice the butter is starting to melt. Use your spatula to stir the mixture ensuring that the butter, and decarbed weed are properly mixed. Keep the stove on low heat and close the lid. Stir the mixture every 30 minutes for up to 3 hours.

After 3 hours turn off the stove and wait for about half an hour for the butter to cool down to room temperature. Now it’s time to strain the mixture and get the plant materials filtered out as all the desirable compounds of the cannabis are now in the butter.

Take a glass bowl and cover its top part with a cheesecloth, you can use a rubber band to wrap the cheesecloth to the bowl to ensure that it firmly holds. Now pour in the butter on the bowl over the cheesecloth, as the butter is still in a liquid molten state it should flow into the bowl through the cheesecloth while the plant materials get filtered.

Once you have all the butter in the bowl, you can throw the cheesecloth with the weed in it. Every essential and desired compound of the weed is now infused in the butter in a highly concentrated form, which is the cannabutter.

You can store the cannabutter in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks and use it to make any cannabis edible that requires butter as a base ingredient.

Using Cannabis Infused Oil (Cannaoil)

Regardless of whatever you are cooking, oil is an essential ingredient for most savory dishes, and sweet treats. Also, using oil is relatively a healthier option than butter. It’s not only a key ingredient but also a better substitute for making many delicious edible cannabis recipes.

Cannaoil can be used in a variety of recipes, including salad dressings, sauces, and baked goods, and any other edible cannabis recipe that requires using cooking oil as a key ingredient.

Here’s what you will need to make cannaoil:

1. 7 grams of decarbed weed
2. 1 cup (250ml) of coconut or olive oil (or any cooking oil)
3. Saucepan or Double Boiler
4. Glass Bottle
5. Cheesecloth

So, start by getting your saucepan heated on the stove at a low temperature. You can also use a double boiler or a slow cooker, whichever you find more convenient. Now pour a cup of coconut or olive oil into the pan and wait for a few seconds for the oil to heat up.

Once it does add the decarbed weed into the oil and slowly stir it with the spatula to effectively mix the weed with the oil. Now simmer the oil for up to 3 hours, and occasionally stir the mixture every 30 minutes. After 3 hours turn off the stove and wait for about 10 to 15 minutes for the oil to cool down to room temperature.

Then get a glass bottle with the lid open and cover its top part wrapped with a cheesecloth using a rubber band. Now carefully pour the oil into the bottle over the cheesecloth to strain the plant materials. Close the lid of the bottle and keep the cannaoil stored in a cool dark place.

Unlike cannabutter, cannaoil has a long shelf life of more than 1 year. So, you can use it proportionally over time without worrying much about spoilage.

With Cannabis Tincture

When it comes to beverages like tea, coffee, and smoothies, or any of your favorite drinks, you can infuse it with cannabis tincture to enjoy it’s taste, and the effects of weed. Similarly, you can also add a few drops to infuse it with any solid food, or any dessert.

This makes cannabis tincture a versatile ingredient that you can use to infuse any food or drink. The best part is infusing cannabis tincture with any food item or beverage is almost effortless. You just put a few drops (4 to 6 drops), and within a few seconds it will automatically get infused.

Just so you know, you cannot cook using cannabis tincture, especially because heating it up, or boiling it can destroy the concentrated cannabis compounds in the tincture.

If you don’t have cannabis tincture, you can also make it at home like the other base ingredients. Cannabis tincture is made by soaking the decarbed weed in high proof alcohol for about 4 weeks until the desired compounds the cannabis get extracted into the alcohol.

Similarly, you can also use oil, vinegar or glycerin to make cannabis tincture instead of using alcohol. And the final step is to strain out the plant materials using a cheesecloth and storing the cannabis tincture in 1-ounce glass bottles.

Apparently, there are four different methods of making cannabis tincture which is explained in detail in this guide which includes both alcohol, and non-alcoholic methods.

Making cannabis tinctures can be time consuming, and it also requires a lot of effort. Plus, you also need to be careful with the dosage of weed and alcohol. For a convenient and high-quality option, you can consider purchasing pre-made cannabis tinctures from a reputable dispensary. Dispo offers a wide selection of tinctures to suit your preferences.

If you are using it for medical purposes, you can consider using CBD oil which you can purchase from any reputed weed dispensary.  

With Cannabis Distillate

Cannabis distillate is a great liquid concentrate that you can use to infuse with any food, or beverage especially because it’s tasteless and odorless. It is produced in labs and contains highly concentrated cannabinoid extracts such as THC, and CBD of up to 90% or more.

The best part of using cannabis distillate as a base ingredient is, you can maintain the original taste of the food or beverage while making high potency edibles. As it comes in a super concentrated form it’s best to go for the minimal dosage for starters which is 2-5mg.

Whether you’re using it for cooking or infusing it with a readymade food or beverage, it’s important to ensure that it’s evenly distributed in the edible. When it comes to mixing the distillate, you will need to heat it up a bit in low temperatures.

So, if you’re cooking then make sure to melt it with the oil, and evenly mix it. If you’re having soup or a hot beverage you can pour the distillate directly into the hot soup or beverage and stir it well to ensure its properly mixed.

Apart from that, you can even microwave it with a dish for about 2 minutes, and then use a spoon to properly mix it with the food. Plus, you can also infuse the cannabis distillate by mixing it in warm water, and then using that mixture to cook, or prepare any cannabis edible.

If you’re wondering if you can make cannabis distillates at home, then the short answer is no, as it requires complex lab equipment and procedures to make cannabis distillates. But you can always buy it from a trusted cannabis dispensary and use it to cook, and process edible cannabis food and beverages.

Bottomline: Prepare the Base Ingredient to Make Edible Cannabis

You can basically make any food, or beverage into a cannabis edible by mixing and infusing it with any of the base ingredient which includes the cannabutter, cannaoil, cannabis tincture, or cannabis distillate.

Whether you’re looking forward to exploring tasty dishes, delicious treats, or your favorite beverage, all you need is the base ingredient. This guide should help you understand how you can use these base ingredients to make a variety of cannabis edibles.

If you’re wondering what you can start with, you can try making edible cannabis such as cannabis brownies, cannabis cookies, cannabis popcorn, and weed pizza.

Also, if you want to enjoy refreshing beverages like tea, coffee, or smoothies with weed, you can mix it with cannabis tincture or distillate. While mixing these base ingredients make sure not to get carried away and do it proportionately. For starters, it’s best to stick to expert tips that have been suggested in this article.

FAQs

How to make cannabis edibles?

It depends how you are going to make the cannabis edible, if you are cooking or baking then you will need to mix it with base ingredients like cannabutter, cannaoil or cannabis distillate with the food. If you need to make cannabis edibles that are ready to consume like cooked food, chocolate bars, soup and any beverage, you can add cannabis tincture, or distillate to make cannabis edibles.

How to make cannabis infused oil for edibles?

To make cannabis infused oil for edibles, you will have to decarboxylate the cannabis, mix it with the oil in a saucepan or double boiler in low heat for 3 hours. While it’s simmering, you will need to occasionally stir the mixture. After 3 hours you will have to strain the plant materials using a cheesecloth and store it in a jar or glass container.

What is the best method of cannabis edibles?

The best method for cannabis edibles depends on what you are going to make. If you’re cooking or baking, then cannabutter is the best cannabis edible especially for its versatile use, and strong taste. For making beverages, or for instant infusion cannabis tincture is the best cannabis edible.

Can I make edibles with dry bud?

Dry bud which is basically the decarboxylated weed is the primary ingredient that you will need to prepare edible cannabis bases like cannabutter, cannaoil, cannabis tincture, and cannabis distillate.