If you want healthy gummies made from natural ingredients that are also infused with cannabis, then keep reading. We’re going to outline everything you’ll need, and the techniques you should employ to successfully create your own batch of cannabis-infused gummies.
Why cannabis gummies are popular
While all edibles are good, we often opt for the gummy variety when it’s time to get high. There are a couple reasons for this, starting with the fact that gummies offer a wide range of flavour options – from strawberry to cherry, to green tea, and everything in-between.
Another reason is that gummies are easier to store and keep fresh than edibles like brownies or cookies. Infused gummies are also inherently smaller than your average cookie, offering a more convenient dosing solution.
Lastly, gummies allow us to feel the effects faster and sometimes deliver a stronger punch, but this largely has to do with how you consume them and not the THC contained within. Slowly sucking on a gummy allows it to gradually melt away and absorb rapidly into the bloodstream via the dense population of mucosal membranes found in our mouths. This skips metabolization and allows the cannabinoids to begin taking effect within minutes.
Getting ready to make homemade cannabis gummies
As with all edibles, you’ll need to prepare your cannabis before you can ‘cook’ with it. You have to decarb your weed and extract the cannabinoids into some form of tincture or extract.
Our THC ingredient of choice for gummies is THC distillate, although other tinctures or concentrates like shatters, oils, waxes, and even some hashish work great too. For us, THC distillate is the best type of extract to use for cannabis edibles because it is the purest, most potent, and allows for accurate dosing. It’s also super easy to add to whatever edible we’re making.
What you’ll need to make cannabis gummies
We’ve listed only natural ingredients and vegan options where applicable.
Hardware
- Saucepan
- Mixing bowl
- Whisk
- Spatula
- Measuring cup and measuring spoons
- Food grade silicone molds in your choice of gummy shape (bears, worms, fruits, etc.)
- Food grade condiment bottle, turkey baster or syringe
- Access to a stove or hot plate
- Access to a refrigerator (or a cooler with ice)
Food ingredients
The ingredients and their proportions can be modified to any recipe, but you’ll generally require the items in the list below:
- Flavoured jelly cubes, homemade fruit puree or Jell-O packets
- Some sort of juice that complements your jelly cubes and puree – plain water will work as well
- Gelatin packets (if you’re making a vegan recipe you can substitute with vegetable gelatin, pectin or a vegan gelatine substitute called ‘agar agar’
- Granulated sugar or honey
- Pink salt
- THC distillate or other tincture/extract
Making THC gummies at home
This is where it can get a bit confusing. Looking online you’ll find a multitude of THC gummy recipes, some undoubtedly tastier (and more potent) than others.
For simplicity’s sake, we’re including the recipe we used most recently to make a nice batch of weed gummies. It took us about 45 minutes from start to finish and we ended up with about 50 gummy bears containing about 20 mg of THC each. They were quite strong so if you’re just beginning with edibles you should consider lowering the dose.
Ingredients we used
- 1 cup fine strawberry puree. You can also use a fruit juice of your choosing (puree makes a thicker gummy compared to a water-based fruit juice)
- ¼ cup of water (coconut water is often used instead)
- 1 ½ tablespoons of gelatin (you can also use a vegan-friendly gelatin substitute like agar agar)
- 4 tablespoons of granulated sugar – you can sweeten the mix to your personal taste (before adding any THC)
- 1/8 teaspoon of pink salt.
- 1-gram (1 ml) cannabis THC distillate (950mg). It’s up to you how much THC you want to add. You can divide the total milligrams of your THC by the number of gummies you’ll end up with to calculate the approximate dosage of an individual gummy.
Dosing help: To figure out the amount of THC extract you want to add, it’s easiest if you figure out how many gummies your mixture will end up making. This is best accomplished by making a non-THC practice batch first. Then add enough THC extract to achieve the correct number of milligrams per gummy.
Example – You can divide the total milligrams of THC by the number of gummies you’ll end up with to calculate the approximate dosage of an individual gummy. If your mix makes 16 gummies, then adding 160mg of THC extract will give you a 10mg per gummy dose.
The process:
Step 1 – Heat 1 cup of fruit puree in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
Step 2 – While the puree is heating, mix 1 ½ tablespoons of gelatin into a ¼ cup of water in a separate bowl and use a whisk to mix well until dissolved.
Step 3 – As the fruit puree reaches a low boil, add 4 tablespoons of granulated sugar and 1/8 teaspoon of pink salt, mixing until dissolved.
Step 4 – Begin slowly adding the water and gelatin mixture to the simmering fruit puree mix in your saucepan. Continue heating for about 3 minutes, mixing consistently and adding extra granulated sugar (or sweetener) to your preferred taste.
Step 5 – Ensure that the temperature of your mixture is below 180 degrees Celsius (to preserve all the terpenes) and begin to mix in your chosen dosage of THC distillate, stirring until the mixture is homogenous.
Step 6 – Carefully pour and scrape your gummy mix into a food grade condiment bottle or turkey baster syringe so you can neatly transfer it into the gummy bear mold. The liquid will be very hot, and you’ll need to work quickly.
Step 7 – Fill the gummy bear mold with your mixture and allow it to sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes.
Step 8 – After about 20 minutes, place the mixture filled molds in the fridge for another 15 minutes or until mixture is set.
Step 9 – Once the gummy mixture has set, remove the molds from the fridge and pop out the individual gummies.
Step 10 – Lightly toss the separated gummies in powdered sugar to stop them from sticking to each other. (You can add some lemon juice for a sour gummy flavour).
That’s it – your THC distillate gummy bears are ready to enjoy!
Storage tip: Your freshly made gummies will tend to sweat a bit. This is normal, but it will cause them to stick together if you end up packaging them for later straight away. It’s best to allow the gummies to sweat for about 12 – 24 hours before sugaring and packaging into an airtight container.
You can, of course, eat the freshly made gummies as soon as they’ve set and hardened but if you’re going to save them for later, let them sweat first.
Substitutes for making vegan-friendly weed gummies
Lots of cannabis lovers would rather make vegan-friendly gummies and that’s totally possible. The only ingredient that you’ll need to substitute is the gelatin powder as this is typically made from meat products.
There are vegetable gelatins available and a vegan gelatin substitute called agar agar. Vegan gummies tend to be denser and not as bouncy – think more fruit snack than gummy.
Be careful dosing when you eat THC gummy edibles
Gummies tend to be smaller in size and therefore less satisfying. This causes us to reach for another, even though in terms of THC dosage, one gummy was enough.
Homemade edibles can be difficult to dose correctly, especially if using a homemade tincture or extract. We recommend using a professionally made, store-bought tincture like a THC distillate so you can accurately add the required milligram dose to your gummy mixture.
Once you’re ready to consume, start slowly. Begin by eating only one gummy and waiting about an hour before having another. Consuming slowly will allow you to gauge how high you’re getting, so start low and go slow.