Sixty dollars for a teeny tiny bottle of CBD? Hard pass. For as convenient as CBD tinctures might be, they can be darn expensive. So, for economic reasons, people tend to stick to hemp flowers despite the obvious ease and effortlessness that CBD tinctures provide.
But what if there was a way to turn your cost-effective hemp flower stash into your own homemade tincture? In this guide, we’re teaching you how to make your own CBD tincture at home so you can enjoy the convenience minus the hefty cost.
CBD tinctures aren’t actually as new and trendy as they might seem. Popularized in the 1800s, ‘tinctures’ contained constituents from plant materials that were drawn out using high-proof alcohol.
Back then, hemp wasn’t illegal. So, tincture manufacturers tossed parts of the cannabis plant into their tinctures to enhance the effects. They waned in popularity however sometime in the early 1900s when Mexicans fleeing the revolution brought rolled cannabis leaves they smoked like cigars into US territory.
But today, CBD tinctures are making a strong comeback. With lots of hemp users complaining of the unpleasant taste and mouth feel of smoking hemp flower, manufacturers explored other ways to deliver a CBD dose without the strong taste and scratchy throat.
Needless to say, CBD tinctures became a major hit. Containing all of the wonderful organic compounds found in the hemp plant, CBD tinctures offer impressive convenience ideal for unceremonious, on-the-go CBD doses.
For the record, the process of making your own CBD tincture from hemp flowers might take a while. The waiting period for extraction could take months, especially if you want to develop a truly high-quality product.
But even then, a lot of the materials and ingredients necessary for this CBD tincture recipe from flowers should be readily available in any standard kitchen.
Some people like to add flavors to their CBD tinctures to improve taste, especially for direct use. All-natural flavors like peppermint oil can help make your end product easier on the palate.
The process of making your own CBD tincture isn’t actually as complicated as it might seem. Just make sure though that you’re willing to wait for the end product since it could take several weeks or months before you can actually use your CBD tincture.
With the hemp flower neatly laid out on the baking sheet, begin the activation process. Pop the tray into your preheated oven for 40 to 60 minutes, or until the greenish plant material turns a light brown color.
At this point, you’re also going to want to add in your alcohol. There’s no perfect ratio, but most experts recommend that you add enough alcohol so that all of the flowers are submerged.
Shut the jar tightly and then give it a shake to completely submerge any plant material that could be bobbing over the surface. Then store the jar in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight.
Check up on your solution and give it a shake once a week to encourage the hemp’s compounds to infuse into the alcohol.
Carefully pour the mixture out and over the cheesecloth-lined strainer to separate the fluid from the hemp plant material. You can repeat this step with a new cheesecloth once or twice until the solution is completely clear.
Your tincture should last for years, given that alcohol is a powerful preservative. But just for safekeeping, it would be wise to label your jars and bottles with the date you made the solution so you can keep track.
This process creates a full-spectrum CBD tincture. That simply means that the end result contains all of the cannabinoids and terpenes found in hemp without any exclusions.
While it is possible to produce broad-spectrum (without THC) and CBD isolate (CBD only) tinctures, these require high-tech equipment and procedures that you probably won’t have access to at home.
Dosing your CBD tincture depends on your own tolerance. Starting off with one or two drops under the tongue should be more than enough to give you a baseline. You can proceed to add drops to succeeding doses to match your threshold.
Tinctures can be taken directly under the tongue, but the taste of the alcohol might be a little aggressive for low tolerance users. Adding a few drops to your drinks or food can help make the solution more palatable.
Although it might entail some waiting, homemade CBD tinctures cost far less than their store-bought counterparts. And because you probably have most of the necessary materials at home, you could probably make a tincture without too much of a fuss.
Turn your hemp flower into a convenient, easy-access tincture for on-the-go use and enjoy your daily CBD dose in new ways with this simple, at-home recipe.
