Learn | 07.14.2023

How To Make Edibles Using Cannabis Concentrate

Don't decarboxylate your weed. Use a concentrate instead.

So, you’re quite the edibles chef. Have you ever considered using a concentrate instead of dried flower?

There are a few perks to using a concentrate in edibles. Most notably, it’s a total time saver. It can also make your edibles far more potent than with decarboxylated dry herb. Lastly, it saves you from decarbing your weed and leaving your space smelling like kush. This might be enjoyable for some, but it’s not always ideal.

Lucky for you, making edibles with cannabis concentrates is incredibly easy and, albeit, fun! If this sounds like something of interest, read on to learn more about making edibles with cannabis concentrates, aka, making edibles the easy way.

What Is A Cannabis Concentrate?

If you ever wondered why weed is sticky, you can thank the frosty trichomes for that. Trichomes on buds are tiny little prongs that contain most of the plant’s terpenes and cannabinoids. When pressurized under intense heat, buds give off a thick and sticky resin.

There are a few ways to extract cannabis concentrate from buds, and one of them is heat and pressure (as noted above). There’s also CO2 extraction, other solvent extractions, and even ice water and agitation extraction.

I say this because the varying types of cannabis concentrates noted below all differ based on their extraction methods. They’re all concentrates, but they’re all obtained differently.

A cannabis concentrate contains far more cannabinoids and terpenes than your average flower. You can purchase cannabis concentrates in the form of:

  • Live Rosin
  • Live Resin
  • Distillate
  • Crumble
  • Hashish
  • Shatter
  • Wax
  • Oil

These concentrates are usually vaped or smoked. However, it’s common to find live resin or live rosin in edibles like gummies too. And yes, they can be used for making homemade edibles. Read on to learn more about that unique (and easy) process.

Can I Use Concentrates When Making Edibles?

Of course you can! Using a cannabis concentrate over regular dried flowers is not only less time-consuming, but it’s far easier. Making edibles with dried flowers calls for a lengthy and tedious process, which starts with decarboxylating your weed.

While many connoisseurs and enthusiasts enjoy this traditional process, there’s no harm in introducing a new way to make edibles that takes a fraction of the time it regularly would. Additionally, it doesn’t matter which kind of concentrate you choose to use. Now, here’s where it gets important and where knowledge is power.

In order to use cannabis concentrates to make edibles, you must know which concentrates are already active and which ones need to be decarboxylated.

The easiest concentrate to use for edibles is distillate. It can be smoked, vaped, eaten, drank, and consumed in any way possible. That’s because distillate is already active, meaning it doesn’t need to be decarboxylated. Furthermore, distillate is one of the strongest concentrates available, sometimes reaching purity levels of 99%+ THC.

When it comes to other concentrates, especially those labeled THCA, you’ll need to decarboxylate them. However, it’s much easier than decarboxylating dried flower. Instead of 40 minutes at moderate heat, you’ll only need 20 minutes at an even lower heat.

This way, you can ensure your concentrate is active and ready to produce effects once digested. See below for more information about how to make edibles with cannabis concentrates.

How To Make Edibles With Cannabis Concentrates

Making edibles with cannabis concentrates is simple. If you’re using distillate, go ahead and skip this process altogether, as your product is already activated and ready to be infused into any dish or beverage you could imagine.

On the other hand, if you’re using a concentrate other than distillate, you’ll need to take these steps. Learn how to decarboxylate your cannabis concentrates below:

Equipment

  • Oven
  • Baking Sheet
  • Parchment Paper
  • 1 Gram of Cannabis Concentrate

Steps

  • Preheat your oven to 200F.
  • Get a flat baking sheet and cover it with parchment paper.
  • Carefully and gently spread your 1 gram of cannabis concentrate over the parchment paper.
  • Bake for 20 minutes, keeping an eye on it to avoid smoking and burning.
  • There you have it! A decarboxylated cannabis concentrate that’s ready to be ingested. Feel free to add it to different recipes, whether baked in a dessert or mixed into a sauce.

TIP: If your concentrate hardens after decarbing it, don’t fret. Simply heat it up again once you’re ready to infuse it into a dish. Once it’s loose and runny again, you have the green light to infuse.

How To Dose Your Cannabis Concentrate Edibles

The above recipe uses only one gram of concentrate. However, when it comes to concentrates, a little goes a long way. Plus, concentrates can be pretty expensive, so feel free to use only one gram, as your edibles will still pack a punch.

Regardless of whether you’re making edibles with concentrates or flower, here is an equation to measure the potency of edibles:

Grams of concentrate or flower x THC percentage x 1000 ÷ # of servings = THC milligrams per serving

Here’s an example:

1 gram of concentrate x 0.88 x 1000 ÷ 12 = 73.3mg THC per serving

This equation makes the edibles process a lot easier, as you can easily calculate how much THC will be in each serving beforehand, letting you tailor the dose to fit your desired measurements.

Benefits Of Using Concentrates For Edibles

Edibles are notoriously difficult to make with dried flower. After some experience, the process becomes a lot easier and almost second nature. Until then, there are bumps, roadblocks, and hiccups to encounter along the way.

Avoids The Messy Cannabutter Process

One of the most challenging aspects of making edibles with dried flower is making cannabutter or canna oil, which is pretty messy and time-consuming. You must know how to decarb dried flower, let your house dank, and then take on the process of infusing that flower into butter or oil. From there, you have to strain it, double-strain it, and let it rest.

On the other hand, you can avoid most of this process when making edibles with concentrates. Distillate doesn’t even need to be decarbed, but other concentrates do. However, decarbing concentrates takes about half the time than flower.

Takes Less Time

As mentioned, decarboxylating cannabis concentrates is effortless. It uses a very low heat (200F) and only 20 minutes. Just be sure to keep an eye on the baking sheet, as the concentrates will start bubbling. Make sure they don’t smoke, or they could burn. That’s about all you have to worry about when making edibles with cannabis concentrates. With dried flower, it takes about 40 minutes to decarb.

More Recipe Options

With regular edibles, you need to use cannabutter or cannaoil to infuse dishes with THC. That means you’re limited to recipes that use butter or oil. Say you want to infuse a hamburger patty, something that contains no butter or oil. That’s where concentrates make the process a lot easier. You have the freedom to infuse practically anything you want simply by adding a bit of distillate or a decarboxylated concentrate to the recipe.

It’s Straight-Up Easier

Why put yourself through the lengthy cannabutter process when you can use concentrates, one of which (distillate) is ready to be ingested?

No Cooking Required: Hometown Hero's Live Rosin Gummies

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Hometown Hero’s Delta-9 Live Rosin Gummies are the perfect choice to have at hand when you don’t feel like cooking.

These gummies will give you the dose of Delta 9 THC you want to chill without spending much time cooking.

The gummies have ten pieces, each with 25 mg of hemp-derived Delta 9 THC. They contain Live Resin extract with the terpenes profile of the Grand Daddy Purple strain. This Indica promises dreams as sweet as the flavor of the gummies.

This product comes from hemp and contains less than 0.3% Delta 9 THC making them legal in all 50 states.

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