For years, cannabutter has been the reigning champ of at-home cannabis infusions, but there’s a new kid in town — cannabis coconut oil.  Professional chefs and at-home cannachefs alike flock to cannabis-infused coconut oil for its light tropical flavor, versatility in the kitchen, and high-fat content. THC molecules absolutely love fat and bind to it easily with the help of a little heat and some time.  This recipe will show you step by step instructions on how to make your very own cannabis coconut oil

Keys to infusing at home

Before we head into the kitchen, there are a few important notes that will help you get the most out of your THC infused coconut oil. 

Temperature

Temperature is by far one of the most important factors that go into the success of your infusion. THC molecules must be activated so that our bodies can readily absorb the benefits. In order to wake up the THC, it must be heated, but not incinerated like it is during smoking.  When you are infusing anything with THC (or cooking with it) everything must be done at a low temperature or you risk degrading the THC, rendering it useless. Typically in cooking with cannabis, you want to keep the temperature below 350℉, but for our purposes, we will never exceed 235℉.  If you have a kitchen thermometer, use it, if you don’t, that is okay too! Just be sure to keep a close eye on your infusion and you will get great results every time. 

Dosing

The great thing about infusing coconut oil at home is that you get to choose a potency that works best for you. The hard thing is, doing the math to figure out what that means. Okay, it’s not that hard, but it can seem intimidating! Let’s tackle it one step at a time.  First, it is important to reliably source flower that has been tested so that you know exactly how much THC you are working with. After you have that piece of information, the math is fairly simple.  Let’s say you bought 5 grams of Blue Dream with 20% THC content. Each gram is equal to 1,000 milligrams which means you have a total of 5,000 milligrams. However, only 20% of that is THC, which means you are left with 1,000 total milligrams of THC (multiply 5,000 by .2). During the infusion process, you are inevitably going to lose some that of that potency so let’s assume you get about a 75% yield. That means your final product will have about 750 milligrams of THC (multiply 1,000 by .75). Not bad!  For the final step, you want to think about the recipe you are using. For example, if you decide to make 10 slices of banana bread with that same coconut oil, each slice will have roughly 75 milligrams of THC.  There you have it! Not so bad, right? Now for the fun part. 

Cannabis Coconut Oil Recipe

What You’ll Need:

• 2-5 grams of cannabis flower (use more or less depending on your desired strength)
• 4 oz coconut oil (use more or less or even experiment with olive or avocado oil) 
• Water
• Mason jar
• Cookie sheet with a lip
• Aluminum foil
• Grinder
• Pot
• Mesh strainer (cheesecloth if you have it)
• Airtight container
• A rubber spatula or spoon

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 235℉.
2. Line your cookie sheet with aluminum foil.
3. Grind up your flower. Make sure to not grid it up too finely! It just needs to be broken down into smaller pieces, we’re not rolling a blunt for Snoop. 
4. Place your ground-up flower onto the aluminum foil-lined cookie sheet in a single layer. Cover the cookie sheet with aluminum foil to prevent the weed from burning.
5. Place the cookie sheet in the preheated oven for 45 minutes. This step is called decarboxylation or decarbing. Toasting the cannabis at a low temperature activates the THC and maximizes your final THC yield. Do not skip this step! 
6. While the weed is decarbing in the oven, fill the mason jar with coconut oil and set it aside.
7. Fill the pot with water and put it onto the stovetop over medium heat. The goal is to get the water almost boiling, but not quite.
8. After 45 minutes have passed, take your decarbed flower out of the oven. Peel the aluminum foil off of the cookie sheet and gently dump the flower into the mason jar with the oil. Tightly seal the jar with the lid.
9. Place your tightly sealed jar, with the oil and cannabis inside, into the pot of nearly boiling water. When the temperature is right, you should see little bubbles on the side of the pot or a slight rolling on the surface. When you find that sweet spot between boiling and not, lower the heat and keep it at that middle ground for the remainder of the infusion process. If you happen to have a kitchen thermometer, ideally the temperature should be above 160℉ and below 200℉. Keep a close eye on your oil and adjust the water level and temperature as needed over the next few hours.
10. Let the coconut oil do its thing for the next 3-5 hours. Now is a good time to roll a joint. 
11. After 3-5 hours have passed, take the jar out of the pot. Place a strainer over an airtight container and pour your oil into it, straining out any leftover plant matter as you go. If you have cheesecloth, line your strainer with it for extra straining power. Press lightly on the flower with a rubber spatula or spoon to make sure all of the oil is squeezed out. It’s completely normal for the weed to look and feel crispy like it has been fried. Once all of the oil has been strained, seal your airtight container, and your coconut oil is now ready to use! 

Congratulations! You made your first cannabis coconut oil. With this recipe in hand, your kitchen will surely never be the same.