How to make green dragon without heat

Traditional method:

Seal the alcohol and cannabis mixture tightly and place it in a cool, dark place. Allow the mixture to sit for a few weeks, shaking once per day. After about a month, filter the plant matter using a coffee filter and strain the liquid into a storage container of your choice. You now should have one ounce of dark, brownish-green tincture that’s ready to use.

Master Wu’s method:

Pour the alcohol into the jar and place the lid on it. Lower the jar into a pot of shallow hot water. The water should just come part way up the side of the jar. Allow the water to simmer for 20 minutes. Use a thermometer to make sure the heat level stays at 170 degrees Fahrenheit.

After 20 minutes, remove the jar from the water bath and allow it to cool. Strain the cannabis mixture to remove the excess plant material and pour the tincture into a storage container of your choice, typically a dropper bottle. You now have one ounce of dark, brownish-green tincture that’s ready to use. A standard eyedropper transfers about 1 ml of liquid — with 29 ml per ounce, you should have about 30 ml of green dragon tincture. Tinctures can be taken sublingually, orally, or dropped into edibles of all types.

Why do people like green dragon tinctures?

Many people prefer green dragon tinctures over other cannabis consumption methods for a variety of reasons from effectiveness to personal preference. For some, tinctures are very simple to consume and require little else in the way of effort besides filling an eyedropper with liquid. 

Others appreciate green dragon tinctures’ speedy nature, as effects typically begin in around 15 minutes and last for up to five hours — much faster than an edible. Because the THC is absorbed directly into your bloodstream from tissue under your tongue (as opposed to being processed by the liver and transformed into the much more potent 11-hydroxy-THC), tinctures may have fewer of the unpleasant side-effects of consuming edibles. Green dragon tinctures also are a low-calorie option compared to edibles like cookies, pastries, and other sweet treats.

Compared to smoking cannabis, using a green dragon tincture also avoids the risk of inhaling toxins associated with combusting plant matter. It’s also much more discreet than smoking, as tinctures leave no odor and require zero cleanup.

Why do people hate green dragon tinctures?

While many appreciate their speedy effects and discretion, green dragon tinctures aren’t for every cannabis consumer. It’s sometimes uncomfortable to place any liquid under your tongue and try to avoid swallowing — some users do, and thus their bodies process the tincture through the liver, resulting in much longer and more potent effects.

Dosing also presents a challenge with green dragon tinctures. Homemade recipes can be difficult to measure, as potency varies based on the THC in the cannabis used, alcohol proof, variability in the cooking process, and how each person’s body reacts to the cannabis tincture. When self-dosing, common best practice is to start slow with 1 ml at a time and wait to see how your body reacts. Professionally made tinctures created by licensed cannabis businesses help to mitigate this problem. 

What if you’re too busy to nurse a crockpot, can’t find the plug to your Magical Butter MB2 (like me last weekend), and don’t feel like waiting several weeks to long steep a tincture?

The answer? The Green Dragon Tincture Recipe.

Today’s tincture post is written by Fiona (Corinne’s assistant) after getting my hands on a copy of Dazed + Infused from the Cannabis Coaching Institute training program. (Yes, I’m finally going for my cannabis coach certification this year because after two years at Wake + Bake, it’s about dayum time.)

As a single mom of two lively little boys, I love recipes that are

1. easy to make
2. quick to finish, and
3. don’t make me feel anxious about making something explode in my kitchen

The Green Dragon Tincture checks all of those boxes. All you need is…

1) A Mason Jar (I used a plastic lid, not the metal ones)
2) Decarbed cannabis (Did it right in my Nova)
3) Enough 40 ABV or 80 proof alcohol to cover the cannabis.
4) Room in the back of your freezer.

Always decarb tinctures before making them… At Wake + Bake, we always use the nova to get the most out of our plant material. (click on the photo to learn more about decarboxylation)

Why use the freezer method over the heat method to make a tincture

I originally started recommending the Green Dragon Tincture to people who have expressed feeling anxious or paranoid when smoking weed and too terrified of setting something on fire when heating alcohol.

As someone who is clinically diagnosed with schizoaffective bipolar disorder, paranoia is definitely something I’ve struggled to cope with.

When it comes to cannabis, it’s a double-edged sword. For me, a high-THC, low-CBD strain can send me spiraling to a place where I think I’m being chased by elephants, yet the right microdose can stabilize my moods so well I no longer use prescription medication (with my doctor’s approval!)

That being said, I get paranoia. It doesn’t matter how many experts or science journals say that low heat won’t cause alcohol to set on fire in your kitchen – if using heat with your tinctures makes you feel stressed, this method might be worth trying out.

Customizing your tincture for your personal goals

After my first three weeks of Cannabis Coaching Institute, I learned some interesting things about healing with cannabis (go easy on me, cannabis experts, I’m still learning!):

• If you dumped a bunch of weed into your alcohol and I dumped a bunch of weed into my alcohol, following the same exact recipe, you and I can still get wildly different results.
• It’s not even about sativa vs. indica vs. hybrids. The percentage of THC and CBD in the plant must be considered. The different terpenes (which give specific strains their “flavor” and helps shape the effect) will change the end result.

Knowing this can be so frustrating because tinctures aren’t predictable the way popping a Tylenol might be, but you can experiment with different strains, cannabinoids, and dosages to completely customize your experience.

Now that’s freakin’ dope.

I’d love to write more about the different compounds I learned in Cannabis Coaching Institute to help you shape your fully customized experience, but we’d be here for a while and we all know that food bloggers can get long-winded.

How to use the Green Dragon tincture

There are two primary ways you can use your tincture:

• Sublingually (under the tongue)
• In edibles (swallowed)

Sublingual application is definitely faster. You’ll feel the effects within 15-20 minutes and those effects will peak in 60-90 minutes. If you use strong proof alcohol, you can burn the tissue under your tongue so be aware of that.

Swallowing tinctures will take longer for you to feel the effects, at 30-60 minutes. It will peak in 2-3 hours. It’s not as the-room-is-spinning dramatic as fat-based edibles might be. These are perfect for putting in your coffee, ice cubes, and gummies.

The Green Dragon tincture recipe

You will need:

• Two mason jars with a plastic lids
• Decarboxylated cannabis (THC, CBD, CBG or whatever ratio you choose)
• Enough 80 proof+ alcohol to cover your cannabis*
• Room in the back of your freezer

* If you vape, you can also use your AVB (already vaped bud) in this recipe, too!

Instructions:

1. Head over to the THC/CBD calculator and enter your numbers. Keep a record of these numbers so you’re aware of how much you’re taking per dose.
2. Place the decarbed cannabis and alcohol in the freezer SEPERATELY. Allowing them to get really cold is said to help the trichomes (which produce the effects you’re looking for) break off without the chlorophyll seeping into your tincture (which can be hard on your palate).
3. Wait 60 minutes.
4. Place the frozen cannabis into your mason jar.
5. Pour in enough very cold alcohol to cover your plant material completely.
6. Put the lid on the mason jar and shake vigorously for several minutes.
7. Place in the coldest part of your freezer (usually the back).
8. Shake again every 3-5 hours and place back in the freezer.

The tincture will be ready to use in as soon as a day, though I found it to be more potent after several days. You can leave the tincture in the freezer for a couple of weeks, if you’d like. When the tincture has reached the desired potency, strain out the plant material and pour the tincture into dark glass dropper bottles. You can store this tincture in the fridge for up to 6 months.

Final notes on Green Dragon tincture

This is one of the, in my opinion, easier tinctures to make, especially when introducing other people to different methods of ingestion. It’s now my go-to whenever someone is trying to move away from smoking or wants to try cannabis for the first time. You can also infuse other herbs into this tincture if you’d like something more calming or energizing (yay terpenes). And for my fellow friends who deal with fire-based paranoia or fears, I hope this recipe is something that can give you an alternative to other methods of crafting tinctures.

Ice Dragon no heat cannabis tincture

 Print Recipe Serves: 30  Cooking Time: 30 min

INGREDIENTS

• Two mason jars with a plastic lids
• Decarboxylated cannabis (THC, CBD, CBG or whatever ratio you choose)
• Enough 80 proof+ alcohol to cover your cannabis*
• Room in the back of your freezer

INSTRUCTIONS

Head over to the THC/CBD calculator and enter your numbers. Keep a record of these numbers so you’re aware of how much you’re taking per dose.2Place the decarbed cannabis and alcohol in the freezer SEPERATELY. Allowing them to get really cold is said to help the trichomes (which produce the effects you’re looking for) break off without the chlorophyll seeping into your tincture (which can be hard on your palate).

Wait 60 minutes.

Place the frozen cannabis into your mason jar.

Pour in enough very cold alcohol to cover your plant material completely.

Put the lid on the mason jar and shake vigorously for several minutes.

Place in the coldest part of your freezer (usually the back).

Shake again every 3-5 hours and place back in the freezer.Thank you for supporting this site with purchases made through links in this article.

As always, standard disclosures apply

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