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Making your own Cannabis Balm is an easy process. Cannabalm has great medicinal benefits due to its amazing pain relieving properties, and it is fun to make! This balm also goes a long way, and will last years if stored in the freezer.
Note: If you’ve read Indulgently Green’s Guide to Cannabis Coconut Oil Part 1 or Part 2 on ISMOKE Magazine and already have cannabis-infused coconut oil at hand, you can skip ahead to step 4 (and this is going to be really easy for you).
What you’ll need:
- Slow cooker
- metal spoon
- sieve
- glass bowl (big enough to hold a litre)
- tin foil
- baking tray
- container(s) to store cream/balm in.
Ingredients:
- 300g coconut oil (hemp oil can also be used)
- 30g sugarleaf/popcorn buds – if you are a vaper who doesn’t vape over 195 degrees, save up 60 grams of AVB (already been vaped) & this can be used instead. It will be weaker of course but with the cbd/cbn/cba still left in the under195 vaped material it will still make a very good cream/balm.
- 500ml water (optional but does help keep the temp down & will be drained off later)
- 30g beeswax.
Step 1 – Decarboxylation:
Turn oven on and heat up (no hotter than 116 degrees)
Break up/Finely grind and spread trim evenly over foil then wrap up into a loose parcel with sealed edges.
Put the bud onto the baking tray and put in the oven for 1 hour at 116 degrees celcius.
30-45 mins in, turn slow cooker onto to low and add coconut oil into slow cooker to melt (add 100-200 ml of water).
Step 2 – Infusion:
After 1 hour in oven remove foil trim parcel. We’re done with the oven now, so you can turn it off.
Open and tip the weed straight into the melted coconut oil (if stinking your kitchen out is an issue open the parcel and tip very quickly into the mixture, can be pretty stinky.
Give it a good stir and put the lid on.
Every 30mins(ish) give it another good stir and also add 50ml of water each time you do this – do this for 6 hours until it looks like this:
Turn slow cooker off and let the mixture sit for 20 mins before pouring the mixture through a sieve (please be very careful with hot oil).
Once the plant matter is in the sieve, press out with back of spoon press flat then fold into a pile and press flat again. Do this until no drops are coming through the sieve (you can then ball it up and squeeze by hand for those last few drops remember hot oil)
Bin the mushy plant matter that is left.
Step 3 – Cooling:
You should now be left with a bowl of cannabis-infused coconut oil. Allow this to cool for 30mins then place in fridge or freezer and allow to settle.
Wash out your slow cooker & get ready to use it again!
Once it has hardened you should end up with something like this:
Drain water off to be left with your own cannabis-infused coconut oil
At this point, it’s your choice how you use it (eat it straight up, put it in any recipe that uses oil or butter, remelt it, let it cool to room temp then put it in caps – you could probably just rub it on your skin too..)
But we’re making Cannabis Balm so onwards we go!
Step 4 – Making the Cannabis Balm:
Remelt the coconut oil in your slow cooker, then add 30g beeswax (buy local where you can).
Cut the beeswax into small pieces otherwise it will take a while – you can use a knife run under a hot tap then dried to cut it up more easily.
Allow everything to melt together:
Optional Step – Masking The Smell
The Cannabis Balm should now smell pretty strong :-) if this is not a problem for you then please ignore this step carry on.
Now is the time to add any masking extracts that you may want to.
I usually use lavender:
*******CAUTION******* lavender can be very bad for those that suffer epilepsy. If you are adding a masking extract it is very important that you do your own research as to how it will affect you.
Add your masking agent 10 drops at a time, stir, leave for 30 seconds and then check smell – you can add more if needed .
Final Step – Cooling (again):
Once you are happy with the smell, turn off the slow cooker and allow balm to cool for 5-10 mins.
Pour into containers for storage. Allow to cool then put the balm into the fridge to set.
And there you go – Cannabis Balm! This can be stored in the fridge or long term in the freezer – if frozen, just let it sit at room temp for 30-60 mins before you use it.longest I’ve had some stored in the freezer with no loss of effects is 3yrs so far.
The longest I’ve had some stored in the freezer with no loss of effects is 3 years so far.
“GrowYourOwn MakeYourOwn” :-)
This recipe was written by ftcReam in association with TTCC (Tottenham Cannabis Club).
ftcReam will be attending the HampshireCC, HemelCC & ScunthorpeCC events over the next month and will be happy to answer any questions you may have about the balm or it’s preparation.
