Edibles have become a lot more popular lately. You can buy anything from gummies to cookies to beverages. Making your own edibles has also evolved way past the classic pot brownie. One very important process to making a good batch of anything infused with cannabis is decarboxylating.
Decarboxylation is the process of activating the compounds like THC and CBD in cannabis. In order for decarbing to occur you need two things to be on point – the temperature you heat the cannabis to and the duration. Some say you need to be at 220 degrees fahrenheit, while others will say 240. The general rule of thumb is that you need approximately 45 minutes at this temperature for decarbing to occur. Personally I found this entire process of decarbing to be confusing and nerve-racking. I’ve spoken to people who swear by the crockpot method.
I had heard of the magic butter machine for infusing but had yet to see a product that also decarbed the cannabis, and then I stumbled upon the Ardent FX. This device promised to decarb, infuse and also cook small sized edibles all the while being smell proof. Seemed too good to be true but I had to try it. At $350.00 it certainly isn’t a cheap machine, but the idea of my entire house not smelling like cannabis plus decarbing with only the push of a button was worth it to me. I have made some of the best infused butter in this machine, however it is definitely not smell proof. Decarbing in my oven had made my entire house smell for days of cannabis, the Ardent was not as overwhelming as the oven but you could definitely still smell it.
I wanted a way to utilize as much of the plant as possible so I use trim as well as buds for edibles. The Ardent can hold up to 4 ounces of plant material at a time, for my butter recipe I use about 50 grams with most of it in the form of trim and approximately 10-15 grams of dried buds. I use cheesecloth to hold it all together and for easier clean-up. You are able to activate both THC and CBD separately should you want to make a CBD only product – I have not tried the CBD only setting yet. The settings sheet indicates that for the THC and CBD cycles the unit heats up to 230 degrees Fahrenheit and for the infusion cycle it heats up to 176 degrees. The time of cycles is long – decarbing takes about 3 ½ hours and infusing is about the same, making it an all day process. It’s important to allow the unit to cool down before going straight into infusing.
I did email customer service about the smell at one point and they promptly sent me a new top. This didn’t really do the trick but overall customer service was prompt and helpful. Their website features recipes and tips which I found useful. While I am always still learning when it comes to edibles, this machine is extremely helpful and I would recommend it.
