Cannabis Tincture: How to Make, Dose, and Use It (With Gummies Recipe)
Cannabis tincture is the most flexible way to make edibles. Once you have a bottle of it sitting in your kitchen, you can dose drinks, drop it under your tongue, fold it into gummies, or stir it into a finished recipe without having to bake anything from scratch. This guide walks through the whole process: decarboxylation, infusion, dosing, and the most common ways people actually use tincture once it's made.
What Is Cannabis Tincture?
A tincture is cannabis infused into a high-proof alcohol (or, for a non-alcoholic version, food-grade glycerin or MCT oil). Alcohol pulls THC and CBD out of decarbed flower the same way water pulls flavor from tea leaves. The result is a concentrated, shelf-stable liquid where every drop has a known potency.
The advantages over butter or oil:
- Faster onset. Sublingual tincture (under the tongue) starts working in 15–45 minutes vs. 60–120 minutes for fat-based edibles.
- No cooking required. You can add tincture to anything room-temperature — drinks, gummies, finished baked goods.
- Easier dosing. A dropper measures milliliters consistently, where cooking with butter introduces uneven distribution.
- Shelf life. A properly made high-proof tincture lasts years in a dark cabinet.
Step 1: Decarb the Flower
Tincture made from raw cannabis is mostly THCA — the non-psychoactive precursor. To get THC, you have to apply heat first. This is the same decarboxylation step you'd do for cannabutter.
The sweet spot for tincture: 240°F (115°C) for 40 minutes in a covered oven-safe dish. Lower temperatures preserve more terpenes but take longer; higher temperatures save time but burn off flavor.
| Method | Temp | Time | Efficiency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oven | 240°F | 40 min | ~90% |
| Sous vide | 203°F | 90 min | ~95% |
| Instant Pot | 240°F | 40 min | ~92% |
| Ardent FX | (auto) | ~90 min | ~98% |
For more detail on each method, see our decarboxylation guide.
Step 2: Choose Your Solvent
Three options, ranked by potency and ease:
- Everclear (190-proof) or 151-proof grain alcohol — strongest extractions, fastest, smallest dose volume needed. Note: most US states sell 151-proof; 190-proof is restricted in many states.
- High-proof vodka (100-proof / 50% ABV) — easier to find, gentler taste, slightly weaker extraction. Plan on using a higher dose volume.
- Food-grade vegetable glycerin or MCT oil — non-alcoholic options. Glycerin tincture is sweet and good for sublingual; MCT is good for adding to coffee or smoothies. Both extract less efficiently than alcohol, so potency is lower per ml.
Standard ratio: 1 oz (28g) of decarbed flower per 750ml bottle of alcohol. For smaller batches, scale linearly — 7g per 175ml works fine.
Step 3: Infuse
There are two well-established methods:
Quick method (Master Wash / "QWET")
- Put decarbed flower in a mason jar and freeze both the flower and the alcohol for at least 24 hours. (Cold extraction pulls out fewer chlorophyll and waxy compounds, so the final tincture tastes cleaner.)
- Pour the cold alcohol over the cold flower until it's just covered.
- Shake hard for 3 minutes.
- Strain through cheesecloth (and then again through a coffee filter) into a clean dark glass bottle.
Total active time: ~10 minutes. The tincture is ready immediately.
Long-soak method (folk tincture)
- Combine decarbed flower and alcohol in a mason jar.
- Store in a cool, dark place for 2–6 weeks. Shake daily.
- Strain through cheesecloth and then a coffee filter.
Longer soak = stronger extraction, but you also pull more chlorophyll, so the taste becomes more vegetal. Most home cooks find 1–2 weeks is the sweet spot.
Dosing Tincture
Tincture dose is measured in milliliters. Knowing exactly how many mg of THC are in each ml is the whole point. The math:
(grams of decarbed cannabis × THC% ÷ 100 × 1000 × decarb efficiency) ÷ total ml = mg THC per ml
Example: 7g of 20% THC flower, oven-decarbed (90%), into 175ml of Everclear → (7 × 0.20 × 1000 × 0.90) ÷ 175 = 7.2 mg THC per ml.
A standard glass dropper holds about 1 ml in 30 drops, so each drop is ~0.24mg in this example. Beginners typically start with 0.5–1 ml under the tongue and wait 45 minutes before redosing.
For exact numbers with your strain and ratio, use our dosage calculator — set Advanced Mode and pick the right volume unit.
Using Tincture in Gummies
This is one of the most common reasons people make tincture in the first place. Gummies made with alcohol tincture have a few quirks:
- The alcohol cooks off. You'll smell it during the simmer. The final gummy contains negligible alcohol but full THC potency.
- Use lecithin. Tincture is fat-incompatible at first contact; soy or sunflower lecithin emulsifies it into the gummy base so every gummy gets an even dose. (We have a dedicated guide on lecithin in gummies — note the ratio scales with batch size.)
- Add tincture late. Bring the gelatin/sugar/water mix to a simmer, kill the heat, then stir in tincture and lecithin. High heat for too long will degrade THC.
Quick recipe for 30 × 5mg gummies:
- 1 cup fruit juice (or 1 cup water + flavored Jell-O)
- 4 envelopes of unflavored gelatin (Knox), or one 3 oz pack of flavored gelatin + 1 envelope of unflavored
- 21 ml of tincture at 7.2 mg/ml (= 150mg THC total, 5mg per gummy)
- 1 tsp sunflower lecithin
- Sweetener to taste
Bloom gelatin in cold juice for 5 minutes. Heat gently until dissolved (do not boil). Off heat, whisk in lecithin until smooth, then whisk in tincture. Pour into silicone molds. Refrigerate 1 hour.
Storage
- Store tincture in dark glass bottles (amber or cobalt) in a cool, dark cabinet.
- Light and heat degrade THC. A clear bottle in the kitchen window loses 10–20% potency per month.
- Properly stored, alcohol tincture keeps for years.
- Glycerin and MCT tinctures keep 1–2 years (glycerin) or 6–12 months (MCT) before quality drops.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I make tincture without decarbing first?
You can make a "raw" tincture that contains THCA and CBDA instead of THC and CBD. Some people use this for non-psychoactive benefits, but it won't get you high. For standard psychoactive tincture, decarb first.
What's the difference between tincture and FECO/RSO?
Tincture is dilute (mg of THC per ml). FECO or RSO is concentrated — the alcohol is evaporated off, leaving a thick paste. Same starting process, different ending.
Can I substitute glycerin for alcohol if I don't drink?
Yes, but expect lower potency per ml (glycerin extracts less efficiently). Heat the glycerin/cannabis mixture in a slow cooker on low for 24+ hours to compensate, or use commercial sonic infusion if available.
Is sublingual or swallowed faster?
Sublingual. Holding tincture under the tongue for 60–90 seconds before swallowing lets cannabinoids absorb through the mucous membrane directly into the bloodstream, bypassing first-pass liver metabolism. Onset in 15–45 minutes vs. 60–120 if swallowed.
Related Guides
Cooking this? Dose it right.
Run your flower and batch size through the free Cannabutter Calculator to get exact mg per serving.
Prefer paper? Grab the free printable dosing cheat sheet.
Cook often? A free account keeps a log of every batch — inputs, potency, and notes — so you can repeat the good ones.
