Butter is probably the most popular oil for infusions. Cannabutter (canna-butter) is a combination of two words – cannabis & butter. The oil in the butter is a good receptacle for any wanted plant essentials and butter also satisfies the edible baking queens out there.
Cannabutter can be used in most edible recipes where butter is involved. It’s important to note that you should never exceed 350 F. (177 C.) to avoid evaporating key ingredients that were infused into the butter.
The process of botanical flower infusion relies on two other processes before the actual infusing can begin. Firstly the flower needs to go through decarboxylation, a chemical reaction using a set temperature over time ratio that strips a molecule away thereby “activating” the flower for the next phase which is extraction. Bear in mind that NOT performing the decarb stage renders the oil infusion almost useless, you MUST decarb before infusing although there are folks who say it’s possible to decarb right in the oil. We think that’s a bit tricky.
When a cannabis “joint” is ignited it is spontaneously combusting while the user is inhaling, the cannabis “activation” happens immediately at about 500 F. When infusing oil, the decarboxylated material is ready to be accepted by our endocannabinoid systems because it has been “prepped” for our bodies to receive, just like igniting a joint.
Extraction is the hidden process that happens before the infusion stage begins and is the release of the wanted compounds from the organic matter to be available for the actual infusion into the butter or coconut oil or whatever other oil you have chosen. This extraction allows the organic compounds the freedom to “bind” to the oil molecules and all at a very specific set of possible temperatures and time and in the case of BUTTER BAGZ™, it’s a pressurized environment which helps to capture as much of the plant essentials as possible.
The actual infusion is the third or final stage in the heated environment that is also in the same heated environment where the extraction process just took place. It’s a transfer of the wanted molecules from the plant to the oil but it has to take place under certain conditions such as length of time and temperature.