# Citrus Decarboxylation with a Blender



## AirAnt (Aug 6, 2014)

So I'm experimenting making smoothies and shakes and stuff with cannabis in a blender. Cannabis has a taste and can be used kind of like spinach, and has as a lot of nutritional value. Well I bought a blender and it arrived yesterday and I just made my first concoction ever with ice, blueberries, banana, mango, lemon juice, molasses, cannabis leaves, and banana-strawberry yogurt. 

Turned out pretty good, like a fruit pudding. I'm quite satisfied with it but can think of several ways to try to improve the next to make it more drink-like. Using grape or pineapple juice rather than yogurt and crushing the ice first before adding any other ingredients will probably help. That's not the point of this thread though; to discuss fruit blending.

I've heard that cannabis can be decarboxylated (rendered psychoactive) by blending it into citrus. 

Does anyone have any experience with doing this to know if it's true or not? I was thinking that if it was plausible, i'd grind a bunch of cannabis (actual buds) and lemon or grapefruit juice, strain it, and then add the ice and then all the other ingredients.

So what do you think? Is it scientifically sound to expect the grinding of a 1000w blender to create enough friction to heat a cannabis mixture past 200 degrees, activating it's cannabinoids and thus making a psychoactive smoothie?


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## AirAnt (Aug 7, 2014)

Ok so I attempted to see If I could do this. I used way too much citrus though; pineapple and grapefruit juice and lemon juice. Future note to self - stick with a single citrus at a time. Because multiple blended citruses taste like battery acid I can't drink it very quickly, so it's hard to tell if there's a psychoactive effect. 

Tomorrow morning should give me a better idea. I really tried to use a method that would decide for sure whether or not it would work though. All of that citrus plus about a half ounce of dried and frozen marijuana. I think fresh, undried marijuana tastes better than cured buds, so i'll be using fresh leaves from live plants from now on. 

It's mostly being done for the health benefits of juicing, finding an easy way to make the substance psychoactive would just be a nice bonus.


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## AirAnt (Aug 7, 2014)

random unrelated blog-type-post:

my mangosteen and bonsai dragon eye plants arrived today and are transplanted and sitting by a window, going to get their first taste of LEDs soon. A very exciting day. Mangosteen "queen fruit" has an incredibly long tap root, and this plant arrives with like 6 inches of above ground growth and a foot and a half of underground growth so of course I snap the roots in half putting it into the container.

Hopefully it's just stunted instead of killed, it's need to be a dwarf anyways since the trees can reach 20ft tall.


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## SnapsProvolone (Aug 7, 2014)

I think you will require heat to decarboxylate.


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## AirAnt (Aug 7, 2014)

That's what I thought too, but I'm subbed to this Youtube channel with this chef who does all this cooking. He's got this video about making cannabis smoothies and warns 'don't add citrus or else the action of the blender will decarboxylate the cannabinoids'. It seems kind of unlikely to me too, but cooked marijuana is kind of gross, at least the cannabutter I've tried, so I'm looking for other things. Here's the vid:


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## polo the don (Aug 7, 2014)

AirAnt said:


> cooked marijuana is kind of gross


Try water curing the stuff you intend to eat or drink. It takes allot of the plant taste out. It's easy.


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## AirAnt (Aug 7, 2014)

polo the don said:


> Try water curing the stuff you intend to eat or drink. It takes allot of the plant taste out. It's easy.


That's a good idea, i'll try that with some of the low-quality herb I still have. I might try blending just grapefruit juice and water-cured buds, straining it, then trying to make an ice cream or something out of it. That way it could potentially decarboxylate into the citrus or the ice cream. First I have to finish the blender-full of this ungodly citrus concoction though, lol.


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## SnapsProvolone (Aug 7, 2014)

Or you could extract the oil via bho, qwet or qwiso, purge and then decarb your results in a 250f hot oil bath.


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## SnapsProvolone (Aug 7, 2014)

http://skunkpharmresearch.com/decarboxylation/


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## Texas(THC) (Aug 7, 2014)

Hey AirAnt
you need to go to BadKittySmiles thread
close to the bottom of the 1st page
Citric Acid Extractions

yes apparently all you need is the blender and citric acid

but I like to watch oil decarb like snaps suggested


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## CC Dobbs (Aug 7, 2014)

AirAnt said:


> So I'm experimenting making smoothies and shakes and stuff with cannabis in a blender. Cannabis has a taste and can be used kind of like spinach, and has as a lot of nutritional value. Well I bought a blender and it arrived yesterday and I just made my first concoction ever with ice, blueberries, banana, mango, lemon juice, molasses, cannabis leaves, and banana-strawberry yogurt.
> 
> Turned out pretty good, like a fruit pudding. I'm quite satisfied with it but can think of several ways to try to improve the next to make it more drink-like. Using grape or pineapple juice rather than yogurt and crushing the ice first before adding any other ingredients will probably help. That's not the point of this thread though; to discuss fruit blending.
> 
> ...


If you heat a watery mixture past 200 degrees it will boil away.

Messiah


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## AirAnt (Aug 9, 2014)

yeah, you guys had some good ideas in this thread. I thought an alcohol extraction would be good to try, soaking weed in 151 for a few days and using the alcohol in a drink.

i crushed ice into snow, then added raspberries, strawberries, mango, peach, banana, lemon juice, agave nectar and about 10 shots of cannabis-infused Bicardi 151. 

it's about the most delicious thing I've ever tasted. best blend of the 4 that i've done by far, I wish i could give out samples. 

The qwet or qwiso method would also be interesting, as I've done that recently and the residue produced was pretty delicious. I decided if I ever tried cooking with marijuana again I would use an extraction, not flower. But with juicing I'm trying to set up something that I can just throw together easily every day without too much planning so the intent is to use fresh, raw cannabis as much as possible. alcohol infusion serves the purpose but it might not be the best idea to get drunk every day. every other day seems more reasonable. 

Still need to test just simple decarboxylation with citrus in a blender, perhaps won't be able to get satisfactory results until I can complete my current grow which is at least a month out from completion so I can use better quality herb.


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## SnapsProvolone (Aug 9, 2014)

@Fadedawg what thoughts might your vast reservoir of information provide on this subject?


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## AirAnt (Aug 9, 2014)

I am kinda curious as to the science behind things. From what little information I can find, citrus is not THC soluble, but it does break down cannabinoids. So I'm wondering if in a citrus, yogurt, cannabis mixture if the citrus would cause the thc to be absorbed into the yogurt (or coconut oil/milk) without having to bring the mixture to a high temperature which changes the taste and causes it to spoil. 

There's a few interesting methods I can think of floating around in my head.

I really like the qwet oil idea, I might try that next but I need to buy more liquor. The alcohol infusion was a great success though, I only drank half of what I made and it's definitely a noticeable sensation, like being drunk and high off eating fruit.


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## SnapsProvolone (Aug 9, 2014)

I wonder how the citric acid breaks down the thc acetate to knock off the COOH group.


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## AirAnt (Aug 12, 2014)

best drink known to my blender:
2 tablespoons honey
1 tray of ice
500 mLs grapefruit juice
2 cups frozen strawberries, raspberries, blueberries
7 cannabis leaves
2 shots cannabis-infused bicardi 151

I would put this drink up in a taste test against any drink ever made. I believe i'm some kind of blender-savant. It literally took me 15 years to learn to make myself some chop suey but a week with a blender and I can make a drink that makes the best tasting thing you can buy in stores seem like hog-soaked sewer swill. Marvelous.


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## Texas(THC) (Aug 13, 2014)

sounds delicious
your making me want to go buy a jamba juice and drop a gram of qwet in it
will be trying this soon!


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## AirAnt (Aug 13, 2014)

Next up is blueberry-pineapple icecream. But yea, i'm ranking blender up there with one of my best purchases next to my PC and guitar. cannabis is a great herb, too. I started eating leaves raw just to sample the taste before I got my blender, and it was ok, but I can put about half a plant in with some fruit, some juice, and a bunch of ice and it becomes this sublime beverage. 

when i was buying all this frozen fruit and juices and stuff the cashier and the lady behind me were talking to me about how I should have bought some kale because it's really healthy and tastes good and yada yada...I wanted to say 'ladies...fuck your spinach' lol.


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## docter (Sep 3, 2014)

Cannabis Ceviche


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## butterbean (Jul 24, 2018)

Citric acid decarboxylates bud. Heat does speed up the process, but because THC is an alkoloid and citric acid is, well, an acid, lowering the pH of THC-A causes it to lose its carboxyl group and become THC. Ice and frozen yogurt may slow down the process a bit.


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## loopieblunt (Apr 5, 2019)

I believe it takes a while for the citric acid to break down the THCA into THC Ive read to let it soak for a week or so.?


AirAnt said:


> So I'm experimenting making smoothies and shakes and stuff with cannabis in a blender. Cannabis has a taste and can be used kind of like spinach, and has as a lot of nutritional value. Well I bought a blender and it arrived yesterday and I just made my first concoction ever with ice, blueberries, banana, mango, lemon juice, molasses, cannabis leaves, and banana-strawberry yogurt.
> 
> Turned out pretty good, like a fruit pudding. I'm quite satisfied with it but can think of several ways to try to improve the next to make it more drink-like. Using grape or pineapple juice rather than yogurt and crushing the ice first before adding any other ingredients will probably help. That's not the point of this thread though; to discuss fruit blending.
> 
> ...


I believe it takes a while for the citric acid to break down the THCA into THC I've read to let it soak for a week or so.?


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## fumble (Apr 10, 2019)

Texas(THC) said:


> Hey AirAnt
> you need to go to BadKittySmiles thread
> close to the bottom of the 1st page
> Citric Acid Extractions
> ...


I tried BadKats citric extraction years ago. I can't remember the effect or anything, but the citric acid did change the consistency of the hash ...kief...i used. It mixed with the citric acid and I was able to roll I into a nice hash ball. I believe that maybe there was some kind of chemical reaction between the two creating a mild heat. So it kind of makes sense to me that the action of the blender would create the ssme kind of thing. ImIdef no scientist though


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## USMCgreen (Feb 8, 2020)

The purpose of the citric acid is to chemically break the carboxyl, COOH, bond, thus changing the Cannabinoids from their Acid form into the forms that provide the medicinal properties. Though most processes will add heat to speed up the process or dry out the plant material, it is not required for the decarb to work. The problem is the taste, especially if you use too much citric acid or vinegar, which I dislike using because of the taste. I have done concentrates using this method as well as regular infusion into grape seed oil. The citric acid takes time to break the bond and most likely any euphoric feeling felt with quick recipes is from the slow decarb that happens during the drying and curing process, but the percent of cannabinoids that are not in acid form is minimal compared to after decarb. I have been experimenting with no heat decarb processes to retain the terpines as much as possible to keep the flavor and smell. Decarbed material using heat takes that fresh flowery aroma and flavor away, for the most part. I am far from a pro or chemist and do everything through experimentation. Have had good concentrations and bad. Just keep reading, learning, and experimenting. I made a sort of citrusy sugar powder that I can mix into drinks. It causes a fizzy foamy reaction, but a few tsp’s and you can feel it after about an hour. Like I said, every batch is different in potency...so test a small amount each time...I have had batches that I could barely feel after a whole mL and others that have put me on my ass after a few sublingual drops...lol...good luck and canna on!


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## fumble (Feb 18, 2020)

USMCgreen said:


> The purpose of the citric acid is to chemically break the carboxyl, COOH, bond, thus changing the Cannabinoids from their Acid form into the forms that provide the medicinal properties. Though most processes will add heat to speed up the process or dry out the plant material, it is not required for the decarb to work. The problem is the taste, especially if you use too much citric acid or vinegar, which I dislike using because of the taste. I have done concentrates using this method as well as regular infusion into grape seed oil. The citric acid takes time to break the bond and most likely any euphoric feeling felt with quick recipes is from the slow decarb that happens during the drying and curing process, but the percent of cannabinoids that are not in acid form is minimal compared to after decarb. I have been experimenting with no heat decarb processes to retain the terpines as much as possible to keep the flavor and smell. Decarbed material using heat takes that fresh flowery aroma and flavor away, for the most part. I am far from a pro or chemist and do everything through experimentation. Have had good concentrations and bad. Just keep reading, learning, and experimenting. I made a sort of citrusy sugar powder that I can mix into drinks. It causes a fizzy foamy reaction, but a few tsp’s and you can feel it after about an hour. Like I said, every batch is different in potency...so test a small amount each time...I have had batches that I could barely feel after a whole mL and others that have put me on my ass after a few sublingual drops...lol...good luck and canna on!


Great info...thank you. I just got a new bottle of citric acid, so I may just do some experimenting.


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## Zinger59 (Feb 18, 2020)

AirAnt said:


> So I'm experimenting making smoothies and shakes and stuff with cannabis in a blender. Cannabis has a taste and can be used kind of like spinach, and has as a lot of nutritional value. Well I bought a blender and it arrived yesterday and I just made my first concoction ever with ice, blueberries, banana, mango, lemon juice, molasses, cannabis leaves, and banana-strawberry yogurt.
> 
> Turned out pretty good, like a fruit pudding. I'm quite satisfied with it but can think of several ways to try to improve the next to make it more drink-like. Using grape or pineapple juice rather than yogurt and crushing the ice first before adding any other ingredients will probably help. That's not the point of this thread though; to discuss fruit blending.
> 
> ...


Unless the citric acid causes the chemical reaction as heating in an oven would, I doubt it. The H2O in the pot has to evaporate for the reaction to happen I believe.


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## Zinger59 (Feb 18, 2020)

Zinger59 said:


> Unless the citric acid causes the chemical reaction as heating in an oven would, I doubt it. The H2O in the pot has to evaporate for the reaction to happen I believe.


Reading other replies proves how much there is to learn.


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## curious2garden (Feb 18, 2020)

fumble said:


> Great info...thank you. I just got a new bottle of citric acid, so I may just do some experimenting.


Hey girl, good to see you how you doing?


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## fumble (Feb 19, 2020)

curious2garden said:


> Hey girl, good to see you how you doing?


Hey C2G how've you been? Doing pretty good here... getting ready for the new season. Hope all is well with you


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## curious2garden (Feb 19, 2020)

fumble said:


> Hey C2G how've you been? Doing pretty good here... getting ready for the new season. Hope all is well with you


I'm doing well thanks! My biggest problem is I have a plant that's to pretty for me to chop  if only all my problems could be that tough! I hope you have a GREAT season this year.


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## fumble (Feb 19, 2020)

Lol...yes, that is a good problem to have. I hope you have a garden full of the same.


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