Hey Lemmings! Need some advice on making weed tea. I’ve noticed some recipes call for decarbing the weed before infusing it into the tea, while others don’t mention it at all. Has anyone tried both methods? Any noticeable differences in potency or taste?
Update: I decarbed a small amount of flower, probaly less than 0.5g , at 115 c for 30 minutes. After that I boiled it with 300ml of water and 2 tbs of butter for 30 mins. As the water evaporated I kept refilling the water.
Can’t really say that it was very potent, maybe not enough flower, or not enough boiling? Wouldn’t recommend based on this experience. Next time I’ll just make cannabutter and put that in the tea.
I’ve made tea frequently with already vaped flower. You need to let it steep with coffee cream so there’s enough fat (maybe full fat milk but I always have coffee cream). I normally make it with a chai tea blend as it is a good flavor. I let it steep for a while in a teapot covered with a cosy or towel to keep it warm. No issue feeling the effects. It will smell like weed.
I am not a chemist but from what I understand about decarb, steeping it in tea is not sufficient.
Your vaping is like decarbing the weed, I’ll assume that it will be a nescessary step then. Even though many recipes skip this part.
This research paper seems to indicate that you could skip the decarb step if you will be steeping for ~60mins at a consistent boiling temperature. But it is likely much more effective to decarb for a few minutes prior to infusion. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5549281/#SD1
THC / actives are oil based. If you are making tea, add a bit of creamer or something for those oils to adhere to. Water won’t extract or carry them very well. You need something with the water to dissolve and carry the actives.
You could decarb by putting it into some coconut oil and then slow cook it for a few hours. Strain while hot. Use the oil as part of your tea concotion.
The weed needs to be decarbed if you are going to eat it. To do so its heated on relatively low temp for a while until it browns.
I assume that those who did not decarb herb in oven instead steeped the herb in tea while it was boiling to decarb it.
To be safe and sure you’ve activated herb evenly and fully bake in oven for 30 mins at 230F. I put herb in mason jars which helps keep smell down and recapture terpene vapor released. As a precaution I put jars in oven at start of preheat so glass warms up slowly with oven. wait a few mins after taking out of oven for jar to cool and internal pressure to lower before opening.
If you invest in a dry herb vaporizer you get decarbed flower as a useful byproduct of vaping instead of ashes, one bird getting stoned two times or something like that
Also you can eat decarbed flower raw like just throw it into a smoothie or pill capsules and eat it. Don’t have to make butter/bind to fat. Just drink plenty of water if you eat a lot of raw decarbed herb or the excess of plant fiber will dehydrate/constipate you
Sounds like the best way to consume flower. Eliminates the risks of smoking and a free edible batch as a byproduct? Amazing. Too bad vapes still are quite expensive.
Switching to vaping is one of the best things ive done for myself as a cannabis consumer both for health and finance. The cheapest dry herb vape i’ve seen is vaphit for ~35$ , if you can go a bit higher Dynavap B series is 50$ and if you keep an eye out the dynavap m+ goes on sale for 60-75$ occasionally. If you like the style of those kind of vapes a high end one I have my eyes on is the Anvil
I began the journey with the arizer air max which is an excellent electronic vape. The Air Max is a bit pricier than torch based vapes but it offers precice temp control with little to no chance of combustion. just turn it on and set the temp and you are done. Believe it or not its actually way cheaper than the highest end electronic vapes like mighty+. You can get it on sale around 150$ again just keep an eye out. Desktop vapes like the extremeq are also very good options but less portable requires an outlet or portable power bank. Managed to get my extremeq to work with usbc-PD through a special cable which is quite cool.
I recommend pairing a vape with a bong of some kind it doesn’t have to be filled with water just something to let vapor travel for a bit, the orb v2 is an awesome bong that lets you use two vapes at once with a whip!
