How to customize your cannabis experience from home

We all know you can smoke hemp flower, but did you know that smokable hemp has many other uses? From baked goods to skincare products, here are some of the many ways to incorporate cannabis into your lifestyle.

How to infuse food with cannabis:

Cooking with hemp flower has become very popular over the past few years. It can seem overwhelming at first, but with practice and a little bit of trial and error, it can be a fun (and did we mention, relaxing!) experience for cooks of all levels of expertise. Cannabinoids are extremely sensitive to heating temperatures and times, so it is very important to be alert and to pay close attention during this process.

Most often, it’s best to infuse a fat, like butter or oil with the flower. This helps provide better bioavailability, as the fat acts as a binding agent which can be absorbed in the bloodstream. Once the fat is infused with cannabis, you can add the benefits of hemp flower to virtually any recipe that uses butter or oil. Coconut oil makes for an incredible carrier oil due to its high saturated fat content and superfood qualities. You can use it in many recipes, add it to your morning cup of coffee, or even try it as part of your skincare routine.

Another fun way to utilize the benefits of cannabis flower is to make infused honey. Not only does honey provide a host of health benefits, it’s just as easy to make as CBD oil. Add it to coffee or tea, spread on toast, drizzle on fruit parfaits, or use as an ingredient in your smoothies or baked goods to guarantee a relaxed morning routine.

How to make herbal tea blends with cannabis:

Cannabis flower is a simple and powerful addition to homemade teas. The terpenes naturally found in hemp compliment many supplemental herbs to encourage specific benefits.

Consider the following TenneCBD flower blends to provide targeted relief:

• White Grapefruit CBG + Peppermint tea to de-stress, settle an upset stomach, and release tension.
• Mountain Blizzard CBG + CBD Flower + Black or Green tea to improve mood while increasing focus and energy.
• Le Crème CBG Flower + Chamomile to promote mental and physical relaxation and help you relax into sleep.
• Apollo CBG Flower + Chai tea to gently uplift the spirit and aid in digestion.

For more subtle effects, simply allow your flower to dry out, toss it in a tea ball with your loose tea, and steep. For stronger results, be sure decarb (instructions below) your flower before making your tea. Or, if you already have cannabis-infused coconut oil or honey, just add a little bit into your cup!

How to infuse cannabis in your skincare routine:

Bath bombs and bath salts are a luxurious way to incorporate cannabis into your skincare routine, allowing you to wind down and release tension after a long day or workout. Homemade cannabis infused bath salts or bath bombs are a wonderful option to create personalized and targeted treatments, allowing you to add in all your favorite healing ingredients and avoid any allergens that may cause you sensitivity.

You can keep it as simple or get as creative as you’d like. Enhance your bath experience by tossing dried hemp flower into your bath with your favorite bath products, add your CBD-infused coconut oil, or you can even make bath bombs from the infused oil. Here’s a great (and easy!) recipe from Leafly.

What is decarboxylation?

In order to convert the CBDA (the raw form of CBD) to CBD, the cannabis plant must be exposed to either heat or sunlight, in a process called decarboxylating, or “decarbing”. There are many ways to decarb flower depending on your experience level and confidence in the kitchen. You can simply bake it, boil it at a high temperature, or invest in special equipment to simply set it and forget it.

How to decarb in an oven (from Leafly.com):

1. Preheat your oven to 225 degrees Fahrenheit and place the oven rack in the middle position.

2. Cut a piece of aluminium foil to the size of your baking sheet and lightly crumple it, then lay it across the baking sheet. (This will minimize the direct contact of the cannabis to the baking sheet, which conducts heat better than aluminium foil and will get hotter than the air in the oven.)

3. Lightly break up the cannabis until it is about the size of a grain of rice, too fine of a grind increases the risk of burning.

4. Spread the cannabis across the aluminium foil, then lightly lay another piece of aluminium foil on top. Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 45 minutes.

5. After 45 minutes, remove the baking sheet from the oven and let it cool for 30 minutes at room temperature. The cannabis should look lightly toasted and golden brown.

6. When it is cool enough to handle, carefully put your decarboxylated cannabis into a storage container to use for future cooking.

Slow cook decarb method (from herb.com):

1. Place the cannabis flower into a boilable cooking pouch and seal it completely.

2. Place in boiling water for 90 minutes, keeping an eye on the water to ensure it doesn’t boil dry.

3. Take the bag out of the water. Let it slowly cool before opening.

Easiest decarb method: Ardent’s Nova Lift

1. Plug in the base and loosely load the canister up with flower.

2. Press the power button

3. The cycle should last between an hour and 15 minutes to two hours

4. Voila! Decarbed and ready to use flower

How to determine your cannabis dosage:

Start your estimate with the cannabinoid percentage. We’ll use our TenneCBD White Grapefruit CBG for this example, which contains 14% CBG on average.

First, multiply your CBGA by 10 to get your mg/g of CBGA

• 14% CBGA x 10 = 140mg of CBGA per gram of cannabis
• The conversion rate of CBGA to CBG is 0.877
• 140mg CBGA x 0.877 = 122.78 milligrams of CBG per gram of flower

So, one gram of 14% cannabis contains 122.78 milligrams of CBG.

Next, divide the amount of CBG in your recipe by the number of servings it makes to get the per-serving dose. For example, suppose you make CBG-infused coconut oil with a cup of coconut oil and a cup of TenneCBD White Grapefruit CBG flower (about 7 grams). Multiply 7 by 122.78, and you have 859.46 milligrams of CBG in the oil. If you used half the cup of oil to make 24 muffins, the batch would contain 429.73 milligrams of CBG. Divide that by 24 (the number of servings), and you know each serving contains approximately 18 milligrams of CBG.

NOTE: Be sure to keep the oven temperature relatively low–at or below 350°F. Keep the temperature at or below 350°F to preserve the cannabinoids in your baked goods and ensure the most benefit.

Smoking hemp is a great way to relax and recharge, but for those who can’t smoke or prefer not to, hemp flower can be used in a variety of ways to help you support your endocannabinoid system each and every day! We are constantly in awe of the power, benefits, and uses of this incredible plant.