Weed gummies are fun. They’re lighter, and easier edible than brownies or cookies. They’re easy to transport and they stay fresh for longer than baked goods. What’s not to love? The easiest way to enjoy weed gummies is to pick up a pack. They aren’t very expensive, and they’ll last you a long time.
If you’re interested in going the DIY route, you can make weed gummies in your kitchen. It’s a little tricky to get the ingredients to stick together, so if you’re a newbie to making gelatin candies at home, be patient. You might encounter a few bumps, and you might need a few ingredients that you can’t easily obtain at your local grocery store.
What are weed gummies?
Weed gummies are fruit-flavored candies that have been infused with THC. Gummies come in a wide variety of flavors in a large selection of doses. Low-dose THC gummies, particularly those that contain 5mg of THC or less per serving, are very popular. All you need to do is pick up a single gummy and chow down. In an hour or two, you’ll be riding a heavy wave of weed bliss.
Weed gummies are so popular because of their convenience and versatility. A package of weed cookies will go stale if you aren’t able to eat them up shortly after you open them. Weed gummies can last for months. If you’re only an occasional edible user, a package of gummies will last you a long time without generating any waste.
Establishing the proper dose
Weed gummies that you make at home aren’t as shelf-stable as weed gummies that you buy. This is something you’ll want to keep in mind when you’re working out your ratio of THC per gummy. It may not be wise to make a huge batch of cannabis-infused oil for a huge batch of gummies if you aren’t going to go through them all in a few days.
The oil won’t be the only ingredient in your gummies. It’s part of a larger recipe. The majority of the ingredients will be gelatin-based. In order to establish the proper amount of THC and oil you’ll need, you need to know the volume of ingredients in your recipe. A whole batch may call for 1/2 cup of oil, which is 8 tablespoons. If you want each gummy to contain 5 mg of THC, you’ll need to do some math.
In order to do this properly, you need to work out the amount of THC in your weed. Look at the packaging. If you’re using a strain that’s 20% THC, that means there are 200 mg of THC per gram of weed. Every gram equals 1,000 mg. That means that one gram of weed contains enough THC for 40 gummies.
Depending on the volume of mixture each cavity of your gummy mold holds, you might have to make them smaller than the mold can hold. If the cavities are larger, you might want to dilute your THC-infused coconut oil with regular coconut oil to help keep the THC levels where you want them to be.
Yes, the math is a little complicated. The good news is that you only need to work it out once. If you use weed that’s the same strength every time and make every batch the exact same way, you’ll never need to compute it all again.
If ever you’re unsure, it’s better to play it safe and use less cannabis. You can eat another gummy bear in two hours if you aren’t feeling anything, but you can’t un-eat a gummy bear if it’s too strong. If you’re hosting friends who are very experienced with edibles, they might eat three or four gummy bears to make up the difference. Always go low with gummies when you’re not sure.
Decarboxylating your weed and making cannabis coconut oil
The first step to making weed gummies is creating cannabis-infused coconut oil. This is the ingredient that will turn regular gummy bears into fun gummy bears.
You can’t use regular ground weed in your oil. The cannabinoids in your weed won’t convert into their active state until the heat has been applied to them. In order to infuse your oil with THC, the THC needs to be readily available. That’s where decarboxylating comes into play.
Grind your weed into small, but not fine pieces. Aim for a grind similar to the size of grains of rice. If your grind is too rough, your weed won’t decarboxylate properly. If it’s too fine, you’re going to scorch it to bits.
Crumple up a sheet of aluminum foil and stick it in the bottom of a glass casserole pan. Sprinkle the weed on top of the foil in a thin, even layer. Cover it with another sheet of aluminum foil. Put it in the oven on the center rack and bake it for about 45 minutes at 220 degrees.
The goal is to lightly toast the cannabis. You want the lighter greens to take on a golden hue. You don’t want to burn it to a dark brown shade. It’s normal for your whole kitchen to smell like weed while this is happening, but you should still be checking in on your pan every 10 minutes to assure the cannabis is toasting instead of cooking.
After 45 minutes, take your weed out of the oven and put it in a small metal tea infuser. Place your coconut oil in your slow cooker at the lowest possible temperature. Drop the tea infuser into the slow cooker with the weed, and set the timer for 3 to 4 hours. Every half an hour, stir the oil and move the tea infuser around to assure even distribution.
When the oil is finished, dispose of the weed from the infuser and transfer your weed-infused coconut oil into a refrigerator-safe container. You can allow the oil to cool if you’re not going to make your gummies right away and store the excess for future edibles.
It helps to label your container with the amount of THC per tablespoon of oil. You don’t want to come back to use up any leftovers and forget what you’re working with.
Making your gummies
To make your gummies, you’ll need a packet of flavored gelatin, a packet of unflavored gelatin, water, your cannabis-infused oil, and soy lecithin or sunflower lecithin. Lecithins aren’t ingredients you encounter a lot when you’re cooking, but they’re necessary to emulsify oil into water. You can’t mix the oil directly into the gelatin without the lecithin. It will separate and gather as goo on top, preventing the gelatin from properly forming.
Combine ½ cup of cannabis-infused coconut oil with ½ a cup of water and ½ teaspoon of lecithin in a pot. Turn the burner to its lowest heat setting and stir until everything reaches an even consistency. You want to be sure that every last bit of your coconut oil has dissolved if it entered the pot in its solidified form.
Once the liquids are blended, add in your packet of flavored gelatin and 2 tablespoons of unflavored gelatin. Continuously stir until the powder has completely dissolved while allowing the mixture to simmer for about 15 minutes. Don’t let the mixture boil.
You’ll need to use a dropper or a syringe to fill each cavity of your gummy mold individually. This is a slow process, and while it’s happening, the mixture may begin to separate in the pan. You may need to take breaks to turn the heat back on for a minute or two to re-incorporate all of the ingredients.
When the mold is full, you can put it in the refrigerator to cool and set. The freezer may help the gummies set faster without separating.
Check on your gummies in two hours. If they separated, you didn’t incorporate the ingredients thoroughly enough. They can’t be fixed, but you can still technically eat the contents out of each cavity to avoid wasting them. If they’re solid, pop them out of the mold and place them in a refrigerator safe container. They’ll store well for up to two weeks.
The takeaway
Eating weed gummies is very easy. Making them is hard. If you’re nervous about measuring the proper ratios or having your mixture separate, don’t stress yourself out. Weed is supposed to be fun, and it’s not fun if you’re not enjoying yourself.
If you want perfect gummies that you can enjoy right now, Emjay will deliver them to you. We have a whole host of edibles in different strengths and flavors to suit your taste and tolerance. Place your order now. We’ll be by with your edibles in about half an hour – no decarboxylating, oil infusing, or gelatin whisking required.
