How do I make a cannabis tincture?

1. 01

   Decarb the flower. Break it up coarsely by hand or with a grinder, spread it in a single even layer on a parchment-lined sheet, and bake at 240 °F for 30–45 minutes.

   This converts THCA into THC — without it, most of what you have stays inactive. 240 °F converts 85–95% of what is available. Longer is not safer: past the peak, THC starts turning into CBN and the loss does not come back. Set a timer.

2. 02

   Freeze the decarbed flower and the alcohol separately for a few hours before you start.

   Cold is the whole trick. Chlorophyll and plant waxes come across readily at room temperature and barely at all when everything is near freezing — the difference between a clean tincture and a bitter green one.

3. 03

   Combine them in a sealed jar at roughly 28 g of flower per cup of alcohol, and return it to the freezer.

   1 oz flower per cup of fat is the usual starting ratio. Less flower gives you a weaker tincture, not a worse one.

4. 04

   Leave it 12–24 hours, shaking it whenever you think of it.

   Longer extracts more, and past a day or so it also starts extracting things you do not want. There is no benefit to leaving it for a week.

5. 05

   Strain through cheesecloth into a clean jar. Let it drip; do not squeeze.

   Wringing the cloth forces fine particulate through and makes the result harsher without adding meaningful potency.

6. 06

   Store somewhere cool and dark, in glass, with a dropper. Label it with the date and your estimated strength.

   Alcohol is flammable — keep the whole process away from any open flame, and never try to evaporate it on a stovetop.

• Use the highest proof you can get. 190-proof grain alcohol works best; 100-proof vodka works acceptably; anything weaker is mostly water and will not extract well.
• Freezing the alcohol and the decarbed flower separately before combining, and keeping the jar in the freezer while it steeps, keeps chlorophyll out. That is the whole trick behind a clean tincture.
• Heat drives the alcohol off and takes your infusion with it. There is no hot step here.
• Alcohol is flammable. Nowhere near an open flame, and no evaporating it on a stovetop.

That depends entirely on your flower, and this page cannot tell you. What it can tell you is the shape of the answer: of the cannabinoid you start with, decarb activates most of it and this method transfers roughly 65–85% of that into the high-proof alcohol.

Put your own numbers in and you get a range in milligrams per tablespoon, with the assumptions printed beside it — then every recipe here rescales itself to match.

How strong is a dropper?

Depends entirely on your flower and your volume — run it through the infusion calculator, which handles alcohol as a carrier. A standard dropper holds about 1 ml, so a tincture at 5 mg/ml puts roughly 5 mg in a full dropper.

Can I put tincture in a drink?

Yes, and it is the main reason to make one. It disperses in liquid far better than oil, which separates. Every infused drink on this site works with tincture in place of the fat.

Does it work faster than an edible?

Held under the tongue, some absorbs through the mouth and arrives sooner than something digested. Swallowed, it behaves like any other edible. Either way, the two-hour rule still applies.