5 Cannabis Tincture Recipes Anyone Can Make

You’ll agree that one of the best things about the cannabis industry is the availability of weed in many different, innovative, and healthy forms.

Tinctures are a prime example, as they are a healthy, smokeless way to medicate with cannabis.

And they aren’t just a temporary novelty — they’ve been around for centuries and their popularity is growing because of our awakened love for healthy things.

Cost-effective, potent, and easy to dose? Cannabis tinctures checks all 3 boxes.

To help you dive headfirst into this topic, I chose five wonderful tincture recipes that you may want to try making yourself at home. The recipes are further down, with information on how to dose them properly.

What Is a Cannabis Tincture?

Cannabis tincture is an alcohol-based concentrate, or simply put, it is weed infused with alcohol.

All of the cannabinoids and terpenes are removed from the rest of the plant and mixed in with the alcohol.

This solvent is frequently used for cannabis extraction, because it does a great job of separating the active substances from the rest of the plant material.

Tinctures are usually odorless, discreet and great for carrying around.

Cannabis tinctures have been used for centuries for medicinal purposes and were the most commonly used form of cannabis prior to the 1930’s US cannabis prohibition, which subsequently resulted in a worldwide illegalization of this plant.

It’s hard to imagine that less than a century ago cannabis tinctures were listed in the US Pharmacopeia, and were used throughout the country as a completely legitimate way for treating numerous conditions.

It seems that canna-tinctures are finally making a comeback…

Benefits of Using a Cannabis Tincture

Using a cannabis tincture has many advantages compared to consuming other forms of cannabis, and it’s no wonder many consumers choose this type of product for cannabis consumption.

• Practical and easy to use – Consuming cannabis tinctures doesn’t require any additional devices or preparation in advance (unlike smoking or vaporizing, where you need to prepare a vaping device or roll a joint). You can carry tinctures with you and take them whenever you remember, even if you are in a hurry. They come in a bottle with a dropper, so when you want to take your dose, you can simply place a couple of drops under your tongue. As simple as that. 

• Discrete consumption – Many cannabis users are not comfortable with smoking or vaping cannabis in public, especially because of the odor that comes as a result of this way of taking cannabis. On the other hand, cannabis tinctures are odorless, and besides sublingual use, you can consume them by adding a couple of drops into coffee or juice for more discrete consumption.

• The flexibility of use – Cannabis tinctures are an excellent ally in making other cannabis products because they’re often the basis for many food recipes and sweets, or added to juices, water, and even bath bombs.

• Fast onset time – As we mentioned earlier, tinctures are mostly used sublingually. When the tincture is applied under the tongue, cannabis quickly gets into the blood through numerous capillaries and vessels in the mouth, and you will feel the effects of it very soon. That’s why cannabis tinctures have a quicker onset time than cannabis edibles or capsules, which needs to go through the digestive tract before you can feel the effects of it. 

• Fine-tuning dosage – Cannabis tinctures allow consumers to better control their doses since tinctures are applied drop by drop. Consumers can try different dosages until they find the one the works best for them. This is not a case with some other cannabis-based products (e.g.edibles, capsules) that have predetermined dosages of cannabis that can’t be changed for every use. 

How to Use a Cannabis Tincture?

Cannabis tincture is usually consumed with a dropperful, commonly known as a dropper.

Placing a few drops under your tongue will get you high fast. Thanks to the veins underneath the tongue (part of the arterial system), cannabinoids rapidly enter the bloodstream, creating cerebral effects in a matter of minutes.

With tinctures, it’s also very easy to control your high (or the dose of medicinal cannabis). If you sense that you require a bit more, drip a few more drops.

Remember, it’s always better to start low and work your way up if needed.

How to Make a Cannabis Tincture?

Cannabis tinctures can be made either with alcohol, glycerin or coconut oil. There are some great recipes circling around the web.

Creating tinctures usually requires a few weeks, but I chose recipes that are fairly simple to make and don’t require that much time. If you own a botanical extractor such as the Magical Butter Machine, even better, because it can make your work much simpler.

First off, a few important tips:

• Depending on what you want to achieve, you can always add more cannabis for a more potent tincture.
• For alcohol extractions: the stronger the alcohol – the stronger the tincture.
• The high from THC-rich tinctures starts very quickly upon consumption, and lasts for about three hours.
• You can make your own CBD tincture by using high-CBD buds instead of high-THC buds.

Green Dragon Recipe (Slow Method)

The process itself is quite easy, but it does take a while, and requires some jar shaking every day.

This type of extraction demands a high-percentage alcohol, because it’s the best possible medium for cannabis infusion.

You will need:

• 30 g (about 1 oz) of weed of your choice
• 950 ml (1 qt) of high-proof alcohol (Everclean, or pure grain alcohol)
• Mason jar with a lid
• Grinder
• Glass dropper
• Coffee filters or cheesecloth

Directions:

1. The first thing you need to do is to grind and decarboxylate your buds.

2. Once that’s done, place the weed and the alcohol in the jar, close the lid tightly, and store it in a dark cabinet.

3. Shake the contents of the jar on a daily basis (or every other day), and repeat this for at least 2 weeks.

4. Remove the crumbles from the tincture by using a coffee filter (or cheesecloth), until there’s no plant material left in the liquid.

5. Pour the tincture in the dropper, and store it in the fridge.

Master Wu’s Green Dragon Recipe (Fast Method)

This method is actually an upgraded Green Dragon recipe, very similar to the original but much faster.

For this one you’ll need:

• 30 g (about 1 oz) of weed of your choice
• 950 ml (1 qt) of high-proof alcohol (Everclean, or pure grain alcohol)
• Mason jar with a lid
• Deep cooking pot
• Grinder
• Glass dropper
• Coffee filters or cheesecloth

Directions:

1. The start is exactly the same as with the original recipe. Finely grind your buds, decarb them, combine the weed and alcohol in a jar, and close the lid tightly.

This is where things get different:

2. “Cook” the cannabis/alcohol jar in a deep pot filled with water for 20 minutes, keeping the temperature at 170°C.

3. Filter out the plant material from the mixture, pour it into smaller glass containers or droppers, and your cannabis tincture is ready for use!

Weed Tincture (Cold Method)

For this one you will need very similar ingredients:

• 30 g (about 1 oz) of weed of your choice
• 950 ml (1 qt) of high-proof alcohol (Everclean, or pure grain alcohol)
• Mason jar with a lid
• Grinder
• Glass dropper
• Coffee filters or cheesecloth

Directions:

1. The first few steps are the same: Grind, decarboxylate, mix the weed with the alcohol in your mason jar, and close it tightly.

2. The following step differs. Place the jar in a freezer for five days, and shake the contents once a day.

3. You don’t need to worry about the jar breaking from the low-temperature liquid expansion, because alcohol has a much lower freezing point compared to water.

4. Purify the mixture with coffee filters or cheesecloths, and store it in a dropper or any other glass container.

Cannabis Tincture with Coconut Oil

Although tinctures can be made with other oils, coconut oil has enough fatty acids to perfectly bind with the cannabinoids. This recipe is somewhat complicated, but you don’t need to decarb the weed first.

You’ll require:

• Saucepan
• Coffee filters or cheesecloth
• Mason jar
• Grinder
• One cup of coconut oil
• 3.5 g (0,12 oz) of cannabis
• Glass container
• Grind your cannabis first, but skip the decarbing process.

Directions:

1. Pour the weed and coconut oil into a saucepan and place it on a pan. Set it to medium heat for the next 6 to 8 hours. You can also add a little bit of water if you determine that it’s needed.

2. After that, just pour the oil into a container, and keep your tincture in the fridge.

Cannabis Tincture with Glycerin

You might ask yourself, is glycerine safe for human consumption? Vegetable glycerine is most likely a part of your diet and you probably don’t even know about it, and it’s usually ingested through cooking oils.

For this recipe you’ll need:

• A mason jar
• 7 g (0,25 oz) or 14 g (0,5 oz) of weed
• 470 ml (2 cups) of organic glycerine
• Grinder
• Hand towels
• Pot
• Coffee filters or cheesecloth

Directions:

1. Grind the weed into small pieces, then perform the decarboxylation. Mix the weed and glycerine in a jar and close the lid. Make sure that all of the plant material is completely covered with glycerine.

2. Line the bottom of your pot with a small towel, and fill it halfway with warm water. The towel will prevent the bottom of the jar from getting overheated.

3. Place the jar in a pot and cook it on low heat for 24 hours. Keep a very close eye on the pot, and shake the jar occasionally.

4. Remove the jar from the pot, let it cool down for about an hour, before filtering the contents of the jar with a cheesecloth.

5. Pour the mixture into a smaller container, and you’re ready to enjoy your tincture!