What is a green dragon tincture?

Green dragon tincture, or golden dragon tincture, is a term referring to cannabis tinctures in general. Cannabis tinctures are liquid cannabis products made with high-proof alcohol. Tincture making is one of the most ancient cannabis processes still used today, and it’s particularly popular with medical cannabis users. Tinctures are made by soaking plant materials in alcohol to dissolve the cannabinoids and terpenes and infuse them in the liquid. 

Typically, cannabis tinctures are made with alcohol between 50-to-120 proof, or 25-to-60% alcohol content. The higher the proof, the better, as the higher alcohol content both more effectively dissolves the cannabinoids and terpenes from the plant material  and has a higher shelf life, up to 10 years. Other solvents such as vinegar or glycerin also can be used, but they’re typically less effective at removing the cannabinoids from cannabis plant matter.

While green dragon can refer generally to any type of cannabis tincture, many online sources point to Master Wu’s Green Dragon recipe — a specific tincture-making process that creates a final product in significantly less time than other methods. Many tincture recipes require weeks for the alcohol to extract cannabinoids from plant matter — Master Wu’s Green Dragon takes 20 minutes total.

Read on to learn how to make both traditional and Master Wu’s Green Dragon tincture.

What You Need: 

• One ounce of ground cannabis for every two cups of high-proof alcohol
• Mason Jar
• Cooking pan
• Parchment paper
• Cheesecloth
• Rubber band
• High-proof alcohol, preferably Everclear
• Bowl large enough to comfortably fit the quantity of liquid that would fill your mason jar
• Empty eyedropper bottle

Instructions: 

1.Start by decarboxylating your cannabis. To do this, preheat your oven to 220° Fahrenheit. While you’re waiting for it to heat up, line your cooking pan with a sheet of parchment paper.

2. Then, grind up your cannabis flower so that it’s in the same consistency you would want it in if you were going to roll a joint. Spread it evenly across the parchment paper on the cooking pan.

3. Once your oven is at 220° Fahrenheit, put your cooking pan of ground cannabis flower in the oven on the middle tray. Leave it there for 30 to 45 minutes.

4. Next, move your decarboxylated cannabis into your mason jar. Pour your high-proof alcohol into your mason jar until it reaches the rim of the jar. Put your cap on the mason jar and shake it.

5. Let the mixture inside the jar sit for a few weeks. Every day, shake the jar thoroughly.

6. After a week, it’s time to separate the cannabis flower from the infused alcohol. Remove the lid on your mason jar. Attach your cheesecloth to the top of your jar so that you have some cloth hanging down over the outside of the jar. Next, tightly secure the cheesecloth to the top of the jar using your rubber band. Once the cloth is secure, tilt the mason jar upside down over your bowl, allowing the liquid to pour out of the mason jar and into the bowl. Once all of the liquid from your jar has emptied into the bowl, take the cheesecloth off the mason jar and wring it out over the bowl, being careful that no pieces of ground cannabis fall into the bowl. This will allow you to collect any additional infused alcohol that may be stuck inside the cheesecloth.

7. Finally, you’re going to transfer the liquid in your bowl into your eyedropper. To accomplish this, squeeze the top of your eyedropper, and submerge the bottom of the shaft into your liquid. Then, release the top, so that liquid gets pulled into the eyedropper. Put the dropper into the bottle, and once again squeeze the top of the dropper, successfully transferring the liquid into the bottle. Repeat this cycle until all of the liquid has been transferred into the bottle (you may need multiple eyedropper bottles).

8. Congratulations, your Green Dragon is ready! To be safe, start with a dose of 1 ml, and day by day, increase your dosage by 1 ml until you’re happy with the effects.

IS IT FOR ME?

Green dragon is perfect for cannabis enthusiasts who are looking for ways to consume this plant without smoking it. So if you want to protect your lungs, green dragon is the way to go. 

Green dragon is also easy and affordable to make. While this concoction takes longer to make than cannabis-infused oil, it is less hand-on. You just forget it in a closet and come back to it later.  

Green dragon is also easy to dose and very discrete. Kept in a small dark-colored dropper bottle, it can follow you wherever you go.

HOW TO DOSE CANNABIS TINCTURES

Cannabis tinctures are often portioned by milliliters. This means on average, one mL of tincture is one “portion”. This is where a dropper bottle with a 1ml pipette comes in handy. The strength of the tincture will also depend on the strength of the cannabis used in the tincture and the ratio used. 

A typical dose of THC for ingestion is approximately 10mg of THC, but this varies from person to person. Take person A, per example, who is a 6 foot 5 football player who consume cannabis daily, and take person B, a 5 foot 2 spitfire of a woman who has never tried cannabis before. You can’t expect the same dose of green dragon to affect them in the same ways.

This is why I highly recommend starting low and slow.  Start with a dose of 2.5 mg of THC and then increase little by little until you find your sweet spot. 

I also recommend using a TCH calculator to estimate the amount of THC in a tincture. They are only good as an estimate of the potency but it is still better than going in blind. Using such a tool means that you can also recreate a similar tincture in the future.

EFFECTS: WHAT TO EXPECT?

The effects of the tincture will depend on how you consume it. When taken sublingually, the THC will be absorbed rapidly through the blood vessels in your mouth. You should feel the first effects of the tincture between 15 to 45 minutes after ingestion. You should feel the peak of the high at around 90 minutes after dosing. 

If you decide to swallow the tincture, it will be absorbed through your liver. This takes longer before the first effects are felt but the high will last longer. You can expect the same effects and onset as with a typical consumption of edibles since it is the same process.