Tinctures are an increasingly popular way to take THC and CBD products. The high concentration of cannabis in tinctures means that you can have an entire dose in a single drop, taking away all the hassle and time of other forms of medicating. Tinctures also take away most of the flavor of cannabis, helping them stay more palatable for those who don’t enjoy the taste of other methods of ingesting it.
Because tinctures are so highly concentrated, it’s important to know what strength of tincture you’ll be consuming. Making sure you use the right amount of tincture will ensure you take the right dose every time.
But it can be hard to tell what percentage of THC and CBD your tincture contains. As mentioned before, tinctures have highly concentrated amounts of cannabis in them. These can range from no THC to over 20 mg of THC in a single ml of tincture.
So in order to make sure you’re getting the right dose, you’ll need to be able to calculate how strong it is.
Luckily, there are some easy methods to calculate the strength of a tincture. This handy guide will show you how to tell the strength of your tincture, as well as how to measure out the perfect ratio of concentrate to the distilling alcohol.
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Why Strength Matters
Knowing the strength of your tincture is important for helping you get the right dose. Strengths of different tinctures can greatly vary, and if you don’t know how much to take you may end up using too much. Determining the amount of THC and CBD in a concentrate will let you calculate how much you need to distill for the appropriate strength, and make sure you are getting the right dose every time.
Alternatively, you may distill the tincture too much and end up with an ineffective tincture. Making sure you know the strength of your tincture will make sure you get the most out of it, with perfect doses suited for you.
How To Calculate a Tincture’s Strength
There are a few different ways to calculate the strength of the tincture. Not only are you able to tell how strong a pre-mixed tincture is provided you have some other information, but you can also make your own tincture or distill an existing one to get the right concentration for you.
Finding the Strength of a Pre-Mixed Tincture
Finding the strength of an existing tincture requires you to know a few things about it. Typically, a tincture will tell you how strong it is on the label or the bottle itself. If this information is missing, then you’ll need to do some calculations.
To calculate the tincture’s strength, you’ll need to know:
- how much cannabis by weight it contains
- the THC content of the cannabis (usually by which strain was used)
- the ratio of concentrate to alcohol. You can typically find this information on the bottle or an online listing. This is also important knowledge to keep in mind if you’re making your own tincture, as monitoring your measurements will make dosing more simple.
The weight of cannabis used in a tincture comes down to the manufacturer and the strength you bought. Tinctures can have anywhere from 1 to 6 grams of cannabis per 35ml of alcohol. Depending on the strain, this can greatly impact the amount of THC and CBD in a single drop of the tincture.
Finding the THC content of the cannabis used is much easier, granted you know which strain was used. You are able to find the percentage of THC and CBD in pretty much any strain online, so checking the usual strength of the strain is simple. However, you should bear in mind that these measurements aren’t always 100% accurate, as there are several factors that can impact the cannabis’ strength and how much was incorporated into the concentrate.
Always remember that these are only approximations, so if you’re worried about dosing too high then try to stay on the safe side.
Once you know the volume and strength of the cannabis, all you need now is how much alcohol it was distilled in. This is important to know because stronger concentrations will require less tincture per dose.
Now you know all the numbers you need, it’s time to get to calculating the strength of your tincture. For the sake of simplicity, let’s imagine that the tincture used a full ounce (28 grams) of cannabis that contains 10% THC.
To find the weight of THC in your tincture, multiply the weight of the cannabis by its THC content. So for this tincture, 28gX10% = 2.8g of THC. This would typically be written as 2800mg.
From here, you can figure out how strong each dropper is. Using the amount of alcohol and the ratio to the THC, you can find out how many mg of THC a standard dropper (1ml) contains.
For a tincture that uses 375ml of alcohol, you’ll need to divide the total THC by 375.
So, you’re left with 2800/375, which comes to around 7.5mg/ml. That means that every dropper dose contains 7.5mg of THC.
Most standard tinctures will be in the area of 10mg/ml, having a 10mg dose in every full dropper. Some tinctures will be stronger or weaker, though, so don’t think this is always the case.
Finding the Strength of a Homemade Tincture
Making your own tincture simplifies things a bit, as you’re using the measurements you want to use. However, you should still pay attention to the strength of your tincture to avoid any mistakes.
As long as you weren’t asleep when starting to prepare your tinctures, you should know how much cannabis you used and what strain it is. Using these, you can calculate how much
THC by volume is going to be in your concentrate.
The big difference between premixed and homemade tinctures is that you control how distilled it is.
Depending on what ratio you use, you may need to adjust the calculation to reflect this. For example, if the previous example used half the amount of alcohol you’d end up with 15mg/ml. Pay attention to how much alcohol you use to avoid making a tincture that is too strong for you.
Final Thoughts
So now you know how to calculate the strength of a tincture. Using this method, you’ll be able to stay on top of your tincture intake.
By measuring out and paying attention to the concentration of THC and CBD in your tincture, you’ll never go wrong with your dosage.
Now all that is left for you to do is get to work calculating the strength of your tinctures.
Enjoy!