Which Oils Should I Use For Infusing Cannabis?

In the complicated world of edible making, the choice of cooking oil can make all the difference. With a wide range of available options, it’s easy to get confused on which one to choose- and to make a ton of mistakes along the way. That’s why we’ve decided to take over the dirty work and determine once and for all which oil you should choose for maximum effect and cannabis emulsion. You can thank us later.

Different Oils Have Different Infusion Efficiencies

Not all oils infuse the same. Different cooking oils have, what we like to refer to as, different infusion efficiencies. This means that different cooking oils can infuse different percentages of THC depending on a wide variety of factors. That’s why it’s incredibly important to choose the right oil. You don’t want to be wasting precious material!

The only way to find these infusion efficiencies for cannabis specifically is to actually perform the infusions with different oils and then send them off to a laboratory for variance testing. We made sure to find data that used samples of the same cannabis plant to perform the infusions, ensuring that any variance was caused by the type of oil rather than the cannabis used to infuse.

Comparing Cooking Oils for Optimal THC Absorption

Below is a chart we’ve put together comprised of both our own data and that found in a study by Ardent LLC. Included are the type of oil tested, the amount of decarboxylated flower that was placed into 1oz of the oil, the total amount of THC that was infused into the oil, and the infusion percentage, or how much of the THC we placed into the oil actually infused with it.

From this chart, we can conclude that extra virgin olive oil and vegetable shortening are the most efficient oils for infusing THC. Using these oils would result in the most efficient use of your cannabis and ensure that the least amount of THC is lost in the infusion process. This however begs the question; how much THC can I put into 1oz of oil before I start seeing diminishing returns? I’m glad you asked!

How Can I Make the Most Concentrated Oil Possible?

So, you hate eating sweets but you love getting high. We’re in the same boat here at SeshWell, and we’ve got your back!

First, let’s discuss if you’re using flower. From our tests, we were able to get up to 4 grams of ground flower into one ounce of MCT oil. That’s 32 grams per cup! At that concentration, we still saw an 87% infusion percentage (700mg per oz).

We also had to test using concentrates such as kief, hash or distillate. We went with distillate for this particular test. The results in this test were less clear, but we found that using a 1:2 ratio of distillate to cooking oil was a safe, yet still extremely potent ratio to shoot for. In general, you want to be able to entirely saturate your distillate with your cooking oil of choice. We noted that adding liquid soy lecithin to the emulsion generally improved results and stability.

What High Potency Edibles Can I Make Now That I Know About Infusion Efficiency

SeshWell has you covered! In the coming weeks, we’re going to be releasing our very own edible making guides containing the very recipes we use every day to keep us healthy and smoke-free!

Included in the recipes will be our highly requested high-dose edible guide for patients and consumers who don’t want to eat an entire plate of cookies to get the medicine they desperately need. Stay tuned and subscribe to our e-mail list to be the first to hear about exclusive discounts, free educational guides and recipes!

Written by SeshWell Media. Copyright 2023.

^{Sources: https://ardentcannabis.com/2018/08/16/how-to-infuse-cannabis/}