If you like making edibles, you need to try cannabis coconut oil! This infused oil is a tasty, healthy, and vegan alternative to cannabutter. It’s easy to make and can really spice up your recipes. Read on for all the facts about cannabis coconut oil, followed by an easy recipe you can make at home!

Cannabis coconut oil is like a healthier version of cannabutter. You can use it to bake bread and cakes, add it to weed-infused shakes and smoothies, or simply plop a teaspoon into your coffee in the morning.

Unlike its dairy-based cousin, cannabis coconut oil is vegan (and gluten-free). The best part? Everything will have a nice (subtle) tropical touch to it when you use canna-coconut oil. Coconut oil works just as well in edibles as cannabutter due to its high fat content. As it happens, cannabinoids are lipophilic and dissolve very well in fats.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at using cannabis-infused coconut oil, followed by a super-simple recipe you can make at home!

What Is Cannabis Coconut Oil Used For?

Just like cannabis, coconut oil is a versatile substance. As such, you can use cannabis coconut oil in myriad ways. In fact, compared to cannabutter, it has even more uses—and they’re not just limited to the kitchen. That said, cannabis coconut oil makes a fantastic ingredient in all sorts of sweet and savoury edibles. Just like cooking oil, you can use it to prepare desserts or to craft Michelin-star worthy main courses.

What’s great is you can also quickly infuse your coffee, tea, or smoothie in the morning for a nice smokeless wake and bake. Or how about adding a tropical cannabis note to your favourite post-work snack? You see, the culinary possibilities are endless.

For more edibles inspiration, take a look at our Top 10 Best Cannabis Recipes. And if you have a sweet tooth, give our list of the Top 5 Cannabis Cookie Recipes a gander.

For health-conscious cannabis users, edibles offer a cleaner and more wholesome way to ingest cannabinoids. These benefits are maximised when using an ingredient as nutritious as coconut oil. No smelly smoke or toxic byproducts, just the wealth of nutrients contained in your oil, alongside precious cannabinoids and terpenes from the weed.

But cannabis coconut oil doesn’t just have a place in the kitchen. You can also use it as a topical formula. Applied as is, or mixed with aloe or beeswax, it makes a soothing moisturiser. If you’re careful, you can even use it as a personal lubricant in the bedroom (don’t use with condoms as coconut oil weakens them).

Best Cannabis Strains For Coconut Oil

Which cannabis strain to infuse into your coconut oil is entirely up to you! Maybe you enjoy an indica couch-lock stone, or perhaps you prefer a sativa headrush. Or maybe you like both, depending on the time of day. And then, of course, the taste of a strain plays a major role. Flavours range from fruity and spicy to skunky and dank. If you know you’re going to be making primarily sweet or savoury edibles, try to pick strains with flavours that suit the vibe.

To give you some ideas of cannabis strains to use in your edibles, check out our handy list.

Pro tip: Opt for the awesome Zamnesia Banana! This super-potent offspring of OG Kush and Banana OG goes perfectly with the tropical coconut flavour! Along with the mouth-watering taste, you can enjoy an uplifting, creative, and inspiring effect with a relaxing note!

How To Make Cannabis Coconut Oil: A Recipe

Although you want to pick a suitable strain for your edibles, you don’t need to use your prized nugs—save those for smoking! Shake, trim, etc. all make good options for raw material. Even fan leaves and stems can be rendered down for their cannabinoids.

Here’s how to make your own cannabis coconut oil.

Ingredients And Hardware

200g / 215ml coconut oil

50g cannabis (trim, shake, etc.)

Crock-Pot (alternatively: DIY double boiler made with large pot and heat-safe bowl)

Large bowl

Fine sieve or strainer

Grinder

Latex gloves

Instructions

This recipe uses 200g (approx. one cup) of coconut oil. If you want to make more or less, you can easily double, triple, or halve the amounts in the recipe.

Decarboxylate your weed (method further below). Using the grinder, grind up your weed as fine as you can without rendering it into a powder. You want to increase the surface area of your material as much as possible, but you don’t want it to be impossible to strain out. Pro tip: If you want to make a larger batch, use an electric blender or coffee grinder. Just make sure your weed is dry. Set the Crock-Pot to low heat. If you don't have a Crock-Pot, you can make a DIY double boiler by filling a large pot with water and placing a large heat-safe bowl on top. Add in the coconut oil to melt. Once the coconut oil has melted, add your weed. When using trim and leaves, stick with the 50g. If using bud or hash, you will need less (more about dosing further below). Add 1.5 litres of water to the mix. The water prevents cannabinoids from being “cooked away”, plus it filters out some of the chlorophyll for a better taste. Place the lid on the Crock-Pot/double boiler and turn up to medium heat for one hour. Stir every 30 minutes. This will help the cannabinoids bind with the oil. After the hour has elapsed, turn the temperature back down to low heat. Leave your coconut oil/cannabis mix to infuse on low for 2–4 hours. The longer you leave it, the more potent your coconut oil will turn out (to an extent). Stir every hour! Turn off the heat and allow the mix to cool down. Use a strainer or sieve to filter the mixture into a large bowl. A French press works especially well for this purpose! Cover the bowl, and place the water/oil mix into your fridge overnight. The mix will separate, with the oil solidifying on top. Put on the clean latex gloves, and carefully remove the solid oil on top. Put aside into another bowl or container. You can toss the water. Some plant material may be sticking to the bottom of your “oil cake”. To remove it, reheat the oil and filter through a sieve. Re-solidify your oil by putting it back into the fridge. Done! Put your cannabis-infused coconut oil in a suitable container with a lid. Pro tip: Your coconut oil won’t keep very long in the fridge. Depending on how much you’re planning to use, you may want to divide your infused coconut oil into smaller portions. Put these in ziplock bags and freeze. You can then simply take portions from the freezer and thaw them when you need them.

What To Consider When Making Cannabis Coconut Oil

Though the process is pretty straightforward, it’s important to understand a few key elements related to edibles before making and dosing your cannabis coconut oil. Here are the most crucial:

Decarboxylation

Decarboxylation (decarbing) is the process of “activating” your cannabis. It involves exposing your plant material to sufficient heat, ie. “baking” it in the oven at low heat (105–116°C) for 45 minutes. This process turns the cannabinoid acid THCA into the active THC. Without this process, your cannabis wouldn’t have much of an effect.

Dose

How you dose your cannabis coconut oil is a very important consideration, and depends on numerous factors. These include your tolerance level, body weight and metabolism, desired effect, strength of the edibles, and more. Cannabis consumption affects everyone differently, which is why there isn’t a “one-size-fits-all” dose for everyone. The old rule of starting “low and slow” certainly applies here.

All that said, we can make some calculations based on our measurements: Say you’re using 1g of bud with a THC content of 20% (200mg) to make 200g of oil. A tablespoon of coconut oil (13g) would then contain about 13mg of THC. Of course, if you're using trim or anything that isn’t prime bud, your oil will be less potent.

Pro tip: To achieve consistency when making and dosing edibles, it can be helpful to use equal amounts of ingredients, then divide the final product into equal servings. For example, use 1 cup of plant material with 1 cup of coconut oil to gain a general idea of the potency of each serving.

Will Cannabis Coconut Oil Get You High?

Yes, absolutely! Your cannabis coconut oil will get you high, as long as you decarboxylate your weed and follow the infusion instructions. But know that consuming edibles is quite a different story compared to smoking weed:

The onset of effects will take much longer with edibles. In fact, it may take 1–2 hours before you feel anything from your edibles. The exact time will vary based on your unique physiology, when you last ate, etc.

Once effects do kick in, they can last for quite some time. So prepare to be high for 4–5 hours, or even longer. As such, you might not want to take edibles before heading to work or meeting your future in-laws for the first time. Plan accordingly.

Want more details on all-things edibles? Here’s a guide on everything you need to know about edibles.

Cannabis Coconut Oil Vs Cannabutter

Cannabutter is still a tried and true favourite in many weed lovers’ kitchens, but overall, we think coconut cannabis oil has a clear edge:

It’s 100% plant-based, non-dairy and gluten-free. This makes it suitable for vegans and those with allergies.

A big plus is that coconut oil remains solid at room temperature. This makes it easier to store and more suitable for making cannabis topicals.

Coconut oil doesn’t go rancid like butter does.

Because it’s solid at room temp, you can fill it into capsules for precise dosing. With our capsule machine and gelatine capsules, you can easily make our own cannabis coconut oil softgels.