How To Make Cannabis Gummy Bears

Cannabis gummy bears are a classic among edibles and they are still hugely popular among stoners all over the world. The sweet little teddy bears make a great way to get your dose of weed and they are perfect for whether you’re a medical user or enjoy cannabis for recreational (aka: fun and chill) purposes. Here is how you can make them yourself!

SOME REASONS WHY CANNABIS GUMS ARE SO POPULAR

As compared to other edibles such as pot brownies and also when compared to smoking weed, cannabis gums have some advantages, which explains why they’re still a favourite treat for many cannabis enthusiasts.

THEY TASTE GREAT

First of all, and this is perhaps the most obvious thing, they simply taste awesome. Honestly, who doesn’t like gums? There is just something about their sweet and sometimes a little sour taste that makes them irresistible. For many, weed gums simply taste better. With other edibles, the weed in them can sometimes make for a somewhat “grassy” taste that may come across as off. Maybe it’s the sweetness of the gums covering up the weedy taste which makes them taste better.

CANNABIS GUMMY BEARS ARE EASIER (AND MORE ACCURATE) TO DOSE

Cannabis gummy bears are smaller than your average weed cookie, which can make them easier to dose. With brownies and cookies, you often don’t know how much cannabis you are getting, and this is why you normally break them into portions. But this isn’t exactly the most accurate way for dosing weed. Gummy bears make dosing a lot easier and more accurate. This can be important for medicinal cannabis users and also for anyone else, if they want to get just the right effect from their weed.

THEY DISSOLVE IN YOUR MOUTH, WHICH MAKES THEM MORE EFFICIENT

This is one of the biggest advantages of cannabis gums: You can just suck on them, so they dissolve slowly in your mouth. When the gums melt away slowly under your tongue, this is one of the most effective ways to get the goodness of cannabis into your body. The reason for this is that the mucosal membranes in the mouth are in particular dense so that cannabinoids can directly enter the bloodstream. Other types of cannabis edibles first need to be metabolised in the body when you eat them. Because of this they are normally taking much longer until their effect kicks in. Cannabis gummy bears are a lot more effective!

YOU CAN STORE CANNABIS GUMS EASIER AND THEY STAY FRESH LONGER

Just like your grandma’s Christmas cookies, weed cookies and other edibles can easily get stale when you store them. They can also crumble and break. Not good! Weed gums are much easier to store. The only thing that can happen to your gums when you store them is that they might stick together. But you can just toss them in icing sugar, so they won’t stick. You can then simply put your gums into a container and place them in the fridge. This way, they will keep fresh for some weeks until you’re ready to consume them.

YOU CAN EASILY MAKE CANNABIS GUMMY BEARS YOURSELF

And here is the best part of it: You can easily make cannabis gummy bears yourself! Unlike gums that you get from a store or the weed gums from your dispensary, they won’t contain artificial colouring, flavours, or other (potentially unhealthy) additives. You can make them with natural ingredients that you can get anywhere. In addition to that, you can also save some nice coin when you’re making your batch of tasty cannabis gummy bears. Here is how you can make your own cannabis-infused gummy bears!

PREPARATIONS FOR YOUR CANNABIS-INFUSED GUMMY BEARS

ACTIVATING (DECARBOXYLATING) YOUR WEED

For making your cannabis gums, you first need to “activate” your weed. This process is called decarbing or decarboxylation. It sounds complicated, but it really isn’t. The reason why you need to activate (decarb) your weed, is that fresh weed won’t get you high. The THCA in cannabis first needs to become THC, which is the compound in cannabis that gives you the high. And this happens when you apply heat to your weed. When you smoke weed, the heat from smoking activates the THC, so you don’t need to do this. But for things like making a cannabis tincture that we’ll be using to make our gums, we need to activate the weed first.

Here is how you do it: Take your buds and crumble them into large pieces. Wrap the weed pieces in tin foil. Place your wrapped weed pieces on a baking dish. Set your oven to 105°C (220°F) and bake your weed for about 45 minutes. This is the temperature at which cannabis begins to decarboxylate, converting the inactive THCA in it into THC!

MAKE A CANNABIS TINCTURE

After you have activated your weed so that it can give you an effect, you need to make it into a tincture. For this you put your decarbed weed into a jar with a lid and cover the weed in the jar with high-proof food-grade alcohol such as Everclear. The alcohol extracts the active compounds from your weed. If you want to make a potent cannabis tincture, you should keep the jar with the alcohol and the weed in a dark place for a week or so. Shake the jar every day for a more effective extraction. If you’re impatient, you can speed up the process; you just have to shake the jar vigorously so that the cannabinoids are better absorbed into the alcohol. But for a potent tincture, it is best if you allow at least a few days for the extraction.

You can also keep the lid open for some hours each day to allow some of the alcohol to evaporate. This way you can get a thicker and more potent cannabis tincture. When the extraction is done after some days, strain the tincture through a cheese cloth or a fine sieve to get rid of all the plant material. You can pour your cannabis tincture into a bottle and store it in the fridge to keep it fresh.

CANNABIS-INFUSED GUMS RECIPE

Now with your cannabis tincture ready, we can get to the fun part: How to make your cannabis-infused gums!

INGREDIENTS

⅔ cup fruit puree, thawed
⅓ cup water
3 tbsp. gelatine
1 tbsp. lemon juice
2–3 tsp. (10–15ml) cannabis tincture
Sugar

HARDWARE

Medium-sized saucepan
Dropper bottle
Baking dish or silicon baking moulds
Cooking spray
Whisk

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Take a medium-sized saucepan and add the fruit puree, water and lemon juice. Put your stove on medium heat. Cook and stir the mix for a few minutes until it is nice and smooth.

2. With a whisk, add 2–3 teaspoons of your cannabis tincture to the mix.

3. Slowly add the gelatine to the mix and continue whisking until you have a smooth mix.

4. Remove the saucepan from the stove. With the dropper of the bottle, transfer the mixture onto a baking dish or into silicon moulds.

5. Put the sheet or the moulds into your fridge and allow to cool for 15 minutes.

6. Remove the gums from the moulds and cut into small bite-sized pieces.

7. Toss your cannabis gums in icing sugar to keep them from sticking together. Tip: If you like your gums sour, you can also toss them in a mix of sugar and citric acid!

8. Place your gums in a container with a lid and store in a cool, dark location. You can keep them fresh for 2–3 weeks.

HOW TO DOSE YOUR CANNABIS GUMS

With most other edibles, the effect from cannabis will normally take longer until it kicks in—up to 30 minutes to an hour. When you’re slowly eating your cannabis gums and let them dissolve in your mouth under your tongue, they will be very potent and you will feel an effect much earlier.

Of course, everyone is different, and what works for one may not work for someone else. It can be recommended that you start with one gummy first and wait some time, so you see about the effect. You should also know that edibles are usually working for much longer as if when you’re smoking weed, which would be another thing that you may want to consider if you’re planning for some good time.

The best way to find your perfect dose is when you keep it safe. Always start with lower doses and listen to your body. If you have found the right dosage for your weed gums, it can help when you note down how much you had. This can also be useful if you had too much, so you can simply try a lower dose next time.

Enjoy your own yummy cannabis-infused gums!