CANNA SUGAR

[VitaMan]

CANNA SUGAR
After seeing Canna Sugar at a dispensary @ $10 for 30mg, I rebelled and decided to make my own. Now this is a bit of a risk because I have never used canna sugar before but I am interested in its versatility and portability.

There are a number of recipes around, but I settled on this one, which yielded me about 24tsp of product.

INGREDIENTS

• 120ml of EverClear tincture. Oil and Glycerine will NOT work.
• 100g of table sugar.

Since it is summertime where I live, I did not use the oven or any other artificial heat source, but the instructions are to use a warm oven with the door open and lots of ventilation to evaporate the tincture off. Explosions are bad for my health, and since I am a medical user I think I will only make this during the warm months ;-)

If you already have your activated tincture, the process is really simple, albeit time consuming.

STEPS

• Measure out 120ml of tincture
• Weigh 100 grams of sugar.
• Mix the sugar and tincture together well enough that tincture is adhering to all of the sugar crystals- the sugar will not dissolve in 94% alcohol, you will have a sludge.
• Spread the mixture in a THIN LAYER on a large glass casserole dish or similar, and wait.
• Stir thoroughly every 15-30 minutes, break up any clumps, and re-spread the mixture evenly on the surface.
• Repeat until dry.

In mild summer weather, it took almost 3 days for the sugar crystals to "dry" enough for me to transfer to jars. If you could look closely, you would see that the sugar crystals are coated with a thin layer of resin.

I doubt that lower ABV booze will work for this, you may end up with more like a syrup because of the higher water content. But if you try with 151 rum, post your results!

POTENCY:

As always, unless you can afford lab tests, you have to work out a guesstimate.

I started with a strong tincture so that I can use less sugar per dose.

25grams of decarbed Gorilla Breath flowers at approx 18%+ THC, and 375ml (1.5 cup) of EverClear. Extraction was a simple cold soak for 4ish days.

I am assuming that I have extracted about 80% into alcohol, leaving me with approx 3600mg of THC.

Since I used 120ml of tincture, my recipe prepares a total of 1200mg of THC. Once the sugar was coated, I had 120ml of canna-sugar, or a little more than 24tsp.

1200 divided by 24 = about 50mg per teaspoon.


A few other notes:

I skipped my usual terpine step with my tincture because I really didn't like vaping this weed and wanted to get rid of it. Sous vide preserves some terps anyways.

When I added the liquid, it seemed that there was too much of it for the first few hours. I wondered if it would work faster with a bit less liquid, but now that its done I am happy with the product.

ideas for future consideration

Use a tabletop Still for part of the evaporation, to reclaim some ethyl and speed everything up?

Add a sprinkle of other botanicals like ground lavender for a pretty gift jar and/or additional medicinal effects?

 

[VitaMan]

I took my first teaspoon this morning, about 15 minutes before breakfast. Can definitely taste the weed, a built in safety feature.

I am about 2 hours in, and I think that my potency estimate is pretty good. I can tell that I am still climbing and haven't peaked yet, probably because of breakfast. I will update afterwards.

BTW, my yield was this full jar, plus 1/4 of a glass spice cylinder. Yes, there are still little clumps, but they are dry inside and crumble easily with a pinch.

People are saying the shelf-life if kept cool and dry is 3 months. Perhaps with a dry-pak and vacuum sealing it could be extended further but how much further I don't know. It would have to be absolutely bone-dry to begin with. But tincture lasts a long time and the sugar is easy to make in small batches so storage shouldn't be a concern.

 

[derek420colorado]

I took my first teaspoon this morning, about 15 minutes before breakfast. Can definitely taste the weed, a built in safety feature.

View attachment 1228595
Nice!!!
I am about 2 hours in, and I think that my potency estimate is pretty good. I can tell that I am still climbing and haven't peaked yet, probably because of breakfast. I will update afterwards.

BTW, my yield was this full jar, plus 1/4 of a glass spice cylinder. Yes, there are still little clumps, but they are dry inside and crumble easily with a pinch.

People are saying the shelf-life if kept cool and dry is 3 months. Perhaps with a dry-pak and vacuum sealing it could be extended further but how much further I don't know. It would have to be absolutely bone-dry to begin with. But tincture lasts a long time and the sugar is easy to make in small batches so storage shouldn't be a concern.

 

[McDee]

Lools good bud. It has a little brown sugar look to it, that would be a nice twist. I love me some brown sugar! I have been wondering if Splenda would work, but not thinking it would survive. Keep up the good work.

 

[derek420colorado]

Lools good bud. It has a little brown sugar look to it, that would be a nice twist. I love me some brown sugar! I have been wondering if Splenda would work, but not thinking it would survive. Keep up the good work.

Reminded me of your syzzurp for some reason lol

 

[McDee]

Reminded me of your syzzurp for some reason lol

Color is similar, not a lot of different in the end. I would think it may have an alcohol taste a little??? That's why I like using rosin, not a fan of alcohol taste unless I'm drinking alcohol lol.

 

[VitaMan]

Color is similar, not a lot of different in the end. I would think it may have an alcohol taste a little??? That's why I like using rosin, not a fan of alcohol taste unless I'm drinking alcohol lol.

The alcohol is gone gone gone, don't taste or smell anything. The cannabis taste is strong, and even with windows open the whole house reeked while it was evaporating!

If I had the cash (and the room) I would probably be pressing rosin for my edibles and shatter pen. Ever-Clear is hard to get here, and I am blessed by a friend from Quebec who brought this back for me last year.

I tabletop still would cost less than a low end rosin press, but has more uses...

 

[McDee]

The alcohol is gone gone gone, don't taste or smell anything. The cannabis taste is strong, and even with windows open the whole house reeked while it was evaporating!

If I had the cash (and the room) I would probably be pressing rosin for my edibles and shatter pen. Ever-Clear is hard to get here, and I am blessed by a friend from Quebec who brought this back for me last year.

I tabletop still would cost less than a low end rosin press, but has more uses...

I can only get 151 proof everclear here so not the real thing lol. I have a cheap tabletop still from Ebay $100.00 usd little less so not super expensive worth the money in reclaimed alcohol. 1.75L of everclear is $35.00 usd so math isnt hard lol. I would like to get 1 that isnt auto shutoff. It's so you dont burn but only way to use is at full temp. I would rather have 1 I can turn low that I have to watch. You burn less off, mines does best at 90-95°C so to hot in my opinion. If you turn lower its reaches temp and shuts off. If it didn't have auto off I could set to lower temp and fan would stay on. Just would be slow. If you got $100 not sure if your $ is higher or lower lol but they're close. You will save the money back in alcohol reclaim bud. I forgot to ask how the hip is doing? Cant remember last time if you had a surgery scheduled. Hope it's not to bad if still hurting. Hope that beautiful sugar helps! Stay lifted.

 

[VitaMan]

You will save the money back in alcohol reclaim bud. I forgot to ask how the hip is doing?

Price is almost always higher in Canadian dollars. The variable temp ones start at about $240 for the cheap Chinese ones and go up from there. I am curis, can you start with 151 and distill it to 196 proof?

Thanks for asking, McDee. No, the pandemic threw a wrench into elective surgeries. Just last week, the region talked about opening 1 surgery room, once per week with the limit to one joint replacement per week. That is for all surgeons and their patients! So, when I tossed the figure "2 years or so?" he said "we really don't know."

I think a polite way of saying he doubts it would be that soon...

I had a cortisone injection which gave me about 4 weeks of relief, but they wont do it a second time. Hyaluronic Acid injections are about $500 and not covered by insurance, and they have a 25% chance of working. If it does, the treatment lasts about 4 months so I would be looking at $1500 per year.

I decided that I would give it a try, I just spent 3 weeks vacation stuck at home while friends hiked and camped....

 

[McDee]

That's no good bud, sorry to hear it will be so long. I wondered the same thing lol. From what I have found you need a "real" setup for that. All show nice glass setups like if you were making distillate from bho. I would love to find a way to do it with this tho.