Ever wondered about the powdery stuff you find at the bottom of your cannabis grinder? It’s called “kief” (no, not that keef) and it’s one of the cannabis plant’s best “secret ingredients.” Consisting of dried trichomes—the tiny, cannabinoid-filled glands that give incredibly fresh cannabis flower its characteristic silver dusting—kief is what’s pressed into hash. And once you learn how to decarboxylate kief, you can use it to make incredible kief edibles, right from the comfort of your own home!
Hold on: What’s “decarboxylate”? And why learn how to make kief edibles when there are so many great store-bought options? Read on, and all your questions will be answered.
How to Decarboxylate Kief: Five Easy Steps
Why should you learn how to decarboxylate kief? One thing you may not know about cannabinoids is that heat and/or light that make THC—the cannabinoid most responsible for the “high” from cannabis—psychoactive.
When you smoke or vape cannabis, the process is instantaneous. But if you want to make kief edibles (or any kind of cannabis-infused edible), you’ll have to decarb the cannabis first. Fortunately, the process couldn’t be much simpler.
- Preheat the oven to 240° F.
- Using a digital scale, weigh out the desired amount of kief (typically in increments of a few grams), and then measure it directly into an oven-safe container. Note: If you plan on infusing the kief into butter or oil, you can use the same jar for the infusion process. But if you aren’t infusing it into an oil or butter, place a layer of parchment paper onto the bottom of your oven-safe container. Be sure the kief is in an even layer, you don’t want mounds or clumps!
- Carefully wrap the top of the container with aluminum foil, then place the dish in the preheated oven. For THC-dominant flower, you’ll bake for 30-35 minutes. For high-CBD flower, bake for 45 – 55 minutes. Why? CBD tends to become activated at a slightly higher temperature than THC. While you could simply crank the oven hotter, it’s a safer bet to simply cook it longer so as to avoid the risk of burning it.
- Once the time has elapsed, remove the dish from the oven and allow it to cool completely with the foil still on.
- Open it up and take a look: The kief will have darkened slightly, and it may have melted slightly into a resinous pool. But that’s why we used the parchment paper, so you won’t waste any of the precious kief. Your decarbed kief is ready to use. If you’re not using it straight away, store it in an airtight container in a cool, dark place.
How to Decarboxylate Kief for Edibles: Wrapping Up
And really, that’s all there is to learning how to decarboxylate kief for edibles! But whatever you make with it, remember this: The cannabis in infused edibles can take up to 90 minutes to take effect. We advise everyone to wait at least that long before to have more in order to properly assess how strong the first dose was. And on a related note: Always be sure to keep all cannabis-infused treats out of the hands of children (or anyone else who shouldn’t be ingesting cannabis).
Do you have other questions about cannabis or kief edibles (or any other topics in the world of cannabis)? Just ask! We’re always here to help.
