Another Tincture Thread - Try it, You'll like it

You can use GD, too.

 

That is a PSam original but not the idea.That came from @entman and I just adapted it to the Smarties and PEZ. Now I'm seeing it appear everywhere. It's really handy and works so well.

 

Got some "Ouzo Effect" research started this evening that looks rather interesting. I'll have something posted with pictures sometime this weekend.

 

Shattered Dragon Effect in Beverages
Strawberry Limeade


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As many of you know, I have been intrigued lately by spontaneous emulsification that occurs when alcohol, cannabis oil and water are combined. This is the same effect observed in some alcoholic beverages and other essential oils that are hydrophobic, non-water soluble oils and is commonly known as the "ouzo effect" after the cocktail it's famous for. This is the first step in my exploration.

I'm concentrating on beverages these days of various kinds. Syrups are a big thing and those will be part of our upcoming playbook thanks to @Tokintb12's research and contributions. I have a few things there to explore as well but looking from a different angle. That angle is going to explore the differences between infusing with full spectrum GD, waxed and dewaxed, and with concentrates the same, what I have taken to calling Shattered Dragon when tinctured with alcohol.

Let me show you what I've done:

1. I had decarbed a gram of shatter and dissolved it into 15ml of 190 alcohol and set it aside as I was doing other things. As I related in an earlier post, I noticed waxes on top when I went to bottle it so I decided to winterize it and use this as my first step. I placed it in the freezer for 48 hours then filtered it. After filtering the waxes I was left with 8.5ml from the original 15.

2. The shatter was 75%, 750mg, and my plan was to make 7 100mg drinks and 1 50mg from that but I'm only making 2 of them for now and the 50mg as the initial batch. Each 8oz of limeade will have the equivalent of 2ml of Shattered Dragon. I can do it all using the 8.5ml but I wanted to even it back out to 15ml for consistency of formulation.

3. I wanted to mix this in a clear vessel so that I can observe what happens although the limeade itself isn't transparent. I'm going to use a 1000ml beaker with my magnetic stirrer and no heat. We're starting with the infusion into cold beverages for now to see how they respond. The bottles are 8oz and ordered from Amazon and will be keeping the dosing and volumes consistent.

4. Since each bottle is 8oz I will need 16oz of limeade for the full bottles along with another 4oz for the half and a total of 20oz, 600ml. It's placed on the stirrer ready for the infusion.

5. For 20oz of limeade I needed 5ml of the Dragon for a total of 250mg. Each ml is 75mg.

6. Now is when it starts to get interesting. We are observing the spontaneous emulsification of the cannabis oil into nanomolecules. The first image is after the first dropper and you can see how it clouds up the limeade. That's 600ml of limeade and only 2ml of Dragon. The second image is after the full 5ml was added. No stirring yet because I wanted to see the reaction first.

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7. Now I started the magnetic stirrer to see how well it dispersed since it had been in the fridge for 3 days and was good and cold. The purpose is to see if the oil separates out either at the top or adhering to the bottle and I want to be sure there is good dispersal. The cloudiness has dissipated and it now just looks like normal limeade.

8. I measured the limeade into the bottles and sealed the caps. I was able to see though it and observe any oils that might separate. I wasn't expecting much, if any, because it had been winterized. After I capped them I did notice a very slight amber oil stuck to the bottle on the side and so I shook the bottle with no change. It was just a smidgen so I decided to leave it be and just observe and put them in the fridge.

And that's it for this round. I looked at the bottles in the refrigerator a short while ago and they look really good. There is just a small bit of clumping on the side of the bottle but nothing floating around and you wouldn't even notice it if you weren't looking for it. I'm going to try to get it out to be guinea pigged and still have enough limeade left for a few other projects.

I just drank the half bottle, 4oz, and it was delicious although it did have a slight aftertaste that was barely noticeable and may have been due to the strawberry flavoring or the bottled lime juice. No cannabis taste. It was 50mg and about 10 minutes ago. I already feel it...seriously.

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With a little practice your tincture making will get better and better. I'm glad it worked for you. The MCT shouldn't be any problem. You can do it easily with the Ardent Nova so I'd imagine that the FX would be the same. That's one of the things that they advertised. A few folks here have used it and I haven't heard any complaints. Give it a whirl.

 

Sounds like you're ready to start having fun.

 

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It had been 3 days since I initially bottled this up and it had been refrigerated the whole time and it was cold when I infused it. This phase is basically seeing what happens when you just squirt GD into a drink when you get ready to dose. No special preparations other than winterizing. I'm glad that I did winterize it because now I know for sure that any oil sticking to the sides isn't the plant waxes. This can act as our control base.

I gave these to my friend for sampling yesterday and noticed a little more golden oil stuck to the sides. I circled a couple of spots on the image above. With this limeade I won't be able to see when/if the louche effect loses it's stability because it's already opaque. That will be something for another phase. Until I can get lab funds we're going to be limited to visual and other empirical data.

With this I'm just trying to see if there's any difference in the speed of onset compared with sublingual GD. Of course, we've got to have some potency to determine that and we won't have that if it's stuck to the side of the glass. Hopefully there will be enough left in the drink to produce effects for my samplers.

I haven't decided yet about the next phase. There's some things I'm still researching for better information so I don't have too much wasted effort but it won't be limeade probably. I may want to use a heated beverage that's allowed to cool down. Who knows? This is just the start.