Water Curing Already Vaped Bud

Dry herb vaping is my favorite cannabis consumption method by far, and all of the uses of already vaped bud is a big reason why. I’ve been pretty open about the fact that my first experience eating AVB was to mix it in peanut butter and chow down, and it was one of the few times I declared myself too high to do anything. This was also memorable because of the taste of AVB, which while it can really complement some flavors, it can also be stomach-churningly unpleasant.

The process of water curing helps with both the stomach cramping issues experienced once you work up a tolerance for AVB and need to consume more of it and it vastly improves the flavor. It essentially uses the fact that cannabinoids are not water-soluble, and washes away impurities, carbon, and other nasties introduced into the bud by vaporizing. Check out the image below for what a first rinse looks like.

Rinse the AVB

There are a lot of ways to accomplish this. My favorite is by using a french press. I dump my AVB into the french press, put some water in (I haven’t yet started to experiment with water temperatures of this rinse), and then stir the AVB in the water. Then, it’s a waiting game. At first, I’ll change the water relatively frequently because it gets nastiness off pretty quickly, but then I slow the frequency of water changes over the next few days. You can also accomplish this part by using cheesecloth — make packets of AVB wrapped in cheesecloth and soak in a large bowl (or get inventive, a pot or a turned-off crockpot).
You don’t want to have this soaking for more than a week, and you definitely want to be checking for any evidence of mold. I normally make my AVB sit, partially plunged, throughout the process.

Squeeze out some Water

Next, get as much of the water out of the AVB. If you’re using a french press this job is much easier, and that’s why I love using a french press for this process. If you used the cheesecloth method, squeeze the dickens out of those AVB cheececloth packets. From here, you can either put it to immediate use, or you can dry it out.

To Dry or Not to Dry: That is the Question

I like to make tinctures with glycerin. I use glycerin because I’m a recovering alcoholic. But, I’d imagine this would be true of any tinctures — water messes up the ratios, and when you’ve water cured AVB it really messes up how much water you have in your tincture. If you are making cannabutter, and use the method where you separate butter and water, there is no need to dry your AVB. But, if your plan use is to bake your AVB into bread, this might also be a consideration for you — anything where having water logged product messes up your plans — make sure you dry the AVB.

To dry it, you can lay it out on a covered cookie sheet or pizza pan, or even put it into an oven pan. Put your oven on the lowest setting (mine is 150), and bake. I move around the product every 20 minutes or so to make sure the heat is being evenly distributed, and to check my oven thermometer to make sure things aren’t getting too hot. In about 100 minutes, your AVB should be dry again!

Now that you’ve cured and / or dried your AVB, you can substitute it for decarbed cannabis in most recipes you’ll find around the internet. Or you can still just eat it with peanut butter or Nutella. It will definitely taste better!