The Definitive Green Dragon (Revised, Updated, Combined)

[dragonrider]

I made a variation on Master Wu's recipe that worked really well. It was potent, tasted pretty good, and it is a little easier to measure out than the Green Dragon tincture. This variation is more of a Green Dragon Liqueur that you measure out in shots, instead of a concentrated Green Dragon tincture like Master Wu's that you measure out in droppers. But it is based on the principles that Master Wu described, and it uses a lot of the same techniques as Master Wu does.

I used about 4 grams of good bud. I didn't grind it in a grinder, but I broke it up into small hit-sized pieces. I decarboxylized it in the oven at 200 degrees Farenheit for about 25 minutes --- I was afraid of using the higher temperature that Master Wu uses. Thanks for the info on decarboxylizing, Master Wu --- it seems like that is an important step.

I used the boiling water bath and put the bud in a Pyrex measuring cup with 8 ounces of Everclear. I suggest using the Pyrex measuring cup becasue it is made to take extreme heating. It won't break. Ordinary glass is not made for heating, and it can break when there is a heat differential. I think an earlier poster mentioned having their jar break when lifting it out of the water bath. Use the Pyrex instead of a jar. Also, in California the Everclear is 151 proof, not 190 --- probably some kind of legal limit in this state. That seems to be the strongest liquor available. I used a full 8-ounce cup of Everclear, which is about 4 times what Master Wu uses. I used more because I was aiming for a liqueur, not a tincture.

I boiled the mixture for about 25 minutes, and it reduced by about 2 ounces, so there was about 6 ounces of liquid left. I strained off the extracted liquid into another larger measuring cup using a fine mesh strainer, and I squeezed out as much liquid as possible by squashing the mash with a spoon. I'm always afraid there is still some of the good stuff left behind, so I put the squeezed-out mash back in the original measuring cup and added another few ounces of Everclear. I heated that for a couple of minutes, then strained off that liquid and added it to the first batch of liquid. And then I repeated it one more time with a few more ounces of Everclear. The first press was a dark chartreuse color, the second press was a lot lighter, and the third was barely colored at all. So I'm pretty sure I got everything that could be extracted.

Side Note: Three extractions might be a little overboard, but my recipe needs the alcohol anyway, so why not? If you are aiming for a tincture like Master Wu's, maybe you don't want to do all the extractions. But I would always be concerned that there was a little left behind. If a dose of Master Wu's Green Dragon tincture is 1 ml, it seems like there could be a dose or two left absorbed in the mash no matter how much you squeezed it. One suggestion if you are following Master Wu's recipe would be after squeezing all the Green Dragon tincture out of the mash, add another shot of alcohol back to the mash and do a second extraction, but don't add the second extraction back to the tincture. Just dilute it to a drinkable state and chug it on down. If someone is making the tincture, you might try this and report back. Maybe I am worrying over nothing, or maybe there is some good stuff that can still be recovered.

OK, back to the recipe. After combining all three extractions, there was about 12 ounces of chartreuse-colored liquid. I wanted 12 ounces, so I don't actually remember if the extracts added up to 12 ounces or if I topped it off to 12 ounces with clean Everclear, but one way or another it was 12 ounces. Everclear is not drinkable. It will burn your mouth and throat. And not like, "Ouch. That burned my mouth," more like, "Holy crap! The lining of my mouth and throat are painfully scorched, my lungs feel like I inhaled fire, and now I need to spend a week healing! What the hell was I thinking?" Don't drink Everclear without mixing it with something else. My goal was to make a drinkable liqueur, so I needed to dilute it a bit and sweeten it. I added somewhere between 3/4 cup and 1 cup of simple syrup to sweeten it. Simple syrup is sugar syrup that is made by disolving 2 parts sugar in part water and boiling it until it disolves. It's good to have around for mixing cocktails. You could just use an equal amount of straight suger instead of simple syrup, but it takes a little more stiring to disolve it. Or you could use honey, which is what I am going to try next time. After adding the simple syrup, I added water to bring the total volume up to 3 cups, or 24 ounces.

Another Side Note: An interesting thing happened when I added the water. The extracted liquids were still pretty warm, and I added cold mineral water from the refrigerator. Before I added the water, the extracted liquids were green, but pretty much clear --- you could see through them. As I added the cold water, the liquid clouded and became opaque, sort of like the Green Fairy reaction that happens when you add ice water to Absinthe. Next time I think I will add warm water to see if I can keep the liquid clear. It might be fun to make a variation of this recipe that you serve by doing the Absinthe ritual, complete with the Green Fairy phenomenon.

The end result is that I have a bottle of Green Dragon Liqueur that is pretty tasty and will knock you on your ass if you are not careful. Master Wu says that his process results in 1 ounce of tincture, which is 30 ml, and a dose is about 1 ml, so about 30 doses per extraction. I would figure about the same number of doses for my variation, but mine is more diluted, so the doses are larger shots. I ended up with about 24 ounces, so if you say 30 doses is pretty close to 24 slightly stronger doses, then figure a good strong dose is about a 1-ounce shot of Green Dragon Liqueur. Following Master Wu's instructions, I "self titrated" with a 1-ounce shot. Within a half an hour I started to come on, and after an hour I was flying. I would guess maybe a 4 to 5-hour high with some lingering after effects. It was maybe a bit more than what I was looking for at that particular time, but probably OK in some settings. The next time I tried it, I tried half an ounce, which was effective, but maybe a little less than what I wanted. For this batch I'm thinking my perfect dose is about 3/4-ounce shot, more or less, depending on setting.

The flavor of the Green Dragon Liqueur is not bad. It tastes like bud, kind of grassy with a bit of a floralness, maybe some bitternes that is cut pretty well with the sweetness from the sugar added in the recipe. The most I was really hoping for was that it not be totally disgusting, and it is actually OK. I did start with some pretty nice floral-smelling bud, so if you started with something else, it might not be so nice. The basic ratios of alcohol extract, sugar and water are loosely based on recipes for other liqueurs, like Creme de Menthe --- about 1 and 1/2 cups grain alcohol over whatever is your flavoring, like mint leaves, age it, strain it, add about a cup of sugar, and top off with water to 24 ounces total volume. Becasue it was based on recipes that work for flavor, it actaully tastes decent. If you wanted to make it even better you could experiment with adding some mint extract, or maybe orange or lemon extract, whatever you thought would go with the taste of buds. I might try that. Or you can leave it as is and let the taste of the buds come through.

I figure the alcohol content of the Green Dragon Liqueur to be close to 75 proof, or 37%, maybe a little less. That is a bit strong for most liqueurs, but a little less than most distilled spirits, like whiskey or vodka. I calculated that by assuming the 12 ounces of extracted liquids were pretty close to the 151 proof, or 75%, alcohol content of the original Everclear --- they were probably actually a little lower becasue the heating would have evaporated some alcohol. If you take 12 ounces of a 75% alcohol solution and double the volume to 24 ounces by adding water and sugar, you get a half strength concentration, so about 37%, or 75 proof. I like this strength. It's not so high in alcohol compared to the cannabis content that you are going to get drunk before you get high, but there is enough alcohol to transport the cannabinoids into your system. Master Wu mentioned having good results from adding his Green Dragon tincture to a beer or wine. I believe that this is bacause alcohol is what transports the cannabinoids. I think there is a good chance that in Master Wu's original recipe, almost all of the alcohol is evaporated out of the tincture. So adding the tincture to an alcoholic beverage would help its effectiveness by adding back the alcohol needed to transport the cannabinoids. I think the liqueur variation probably has enough alcohol so that you should not need to add any more alcohol to boost effectieness.

I like how all the ratios worked out on this recipe. I started with about an 1/8th. I ended up with a full 750 ml liquor bottle of good tasting, medium alcohol content liqueur. And a nice round 1-ounce shot will send you to the moon.

One thing about the dosages --- I would guess a lot depends on the bud you start with and your own physiology. If the weed was not very good, or you have a Klingon constitution, or you have more or less weed, this exact recipe might not work out the same way. I would sugget you smoke some of the weed and try to figure out how many times you could get high on what you have. In my case, I would have guessed I could get high about 20 to 30 times on what I had, so working the recipe out to 24 1-ounce shots worked out just right. If the weed was not as good or not as much and I thought I could only get high 10 times, I would have aimed to get 10 ounces of final product. I would have done the extraction with less Everclear, topped it up with clean Everclear so that I had about 5 ounces of Everclear/extracted cannabis in the end, then added the water and suger so that it tasted right and came to about 10 ounces. Then I would have had about 10 1-ounce doses.

Thank you Master Wu for explaining the importance and technique for the decarboxylizing process. And for describing how to safely extract the liquids over heat without lighting the house on fire or having to use the wait-and-shake-for-a-month method. Your info helped me a lot.

[Mandelbrot]

Well I did another test today. I baked it at 325 F for at 20 min. The last time I did it, I baked it like 5-6 mins and never got any result. I saw the little cloud of vapor and everything, the weed turned more brown green compared to the an unbaked sample. I did simmer it in 94% alcool for 23 minutes. What I got after straining was an opaque-green mixture. The exact color is hard to describe. If I strain it again with my 0,22 µM filter syringe I will necessarily get a green emerald mixture which is, according to Master Wu, a faillure. That's approximately what I got the last 2 times I tried and I never got any buzz. Goddam it, another 8th lost. fuck!

[Mandelbrot]

Well thinking about that, Master Wu uses 151 proof rum which is already a little amber-light brown if I'm not mistaken. So it's probably normal if I get a greener solution since I use pure ethanol which is translucid.

[Mandelbrot]

The final color of my GD is more like Office or Forest green according this chart http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald_(color)) It's definitely not emerald.

[Mandelbrot]

Green - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia my mistake.

[dragonrider]

Well thinking about that, Master Wu uses 151 proof rum which is already a little amber-light brown if I'm not mistaken. So it's probably normal if I get a greener solution since I use pure ethanol which is translucid.

I think Master Wu mentioned that when he used a differnt kind of alcohol, it came out more green. The brownness was due to the color of the rum 151.

When I made it with Everclear, it came out green, and it was very strong. I hope the same happens for you!

[Mandelbrot]

I finally tried my new(09/27/07) batch for the first time today. 1 ml in 10 m l of water, one shot. I kind of felt a little effet, but nothing really great. After 2 hours still nothing significative. I'll try 1.5 ml or maybe 2 next time. But I think I felt something, so might just be a question of dosage.

[ryemasta]

Chronic Peanut Butter & Green Dragon


When i got a massive stem in my weed i was pretty upset. I took it out immediately and put it in a water bottle with a little water in it.

A couple days later i was looking at tea's with chronic in it. That is when i stumbled across this forum about GD. Which i just learned about tonight.

I took my enoumous stem out of the water and cut it into little pieces with scissors. I also took about a gram from my new eighth of weed and cut that as fine as i could get it.


http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f4...k/DSCN2233.jpg
I followed these rules exactly but used a giant spoon like thing that made the baking a lot easier and effecient.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f4...k/DSCN2235.jpg
I also took the already baked leaves and re-heated them with this thing right over the flame.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f4...k/DSCN2232.jpg
I then took that cannibis that had been baked, been in the water chillen for 20 mins and releasing its THC, and been cooked in the little pearing spoon and put it directly into some peanut butter and made enough peanut butter for a peanut and jelly sandwich tomorrow thats gonna get me highhh.




http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f4...k/DSCN2240.jpg
This is what i had left of my 1/8 sack after i smoked a nice sized joint, hit my bong once, and made the GD. Its also the GD that i made for the first time:jointsmile:.

Not bad for my first time cooking with cannabis right? give me your feedback? what shall I try next?

[subsonicbug]

Hello Cannibis.com forum readers!

I have just recently joined this forum to discuss Master Wu's Green Dragon Recipe because I love it so much!

I have tried master wu's recipe a few times with good results, but as the cheap and nerdy stoner that I am I would like to maximize our end result (THC Concentration in the Green Dragon) while minimizing initial herb amont (you know you feel me on this). To do this we need to ensure every step in this process is as efficient as possbile.

To me, the step that stands out the most is the decarboxylation process. It seems like the crucial process of decarboxylation has a variety of techniques, and I would like to join our efforts as herbal scientists to figure out the proper temperature/time for the most potent results.

As I have gathered, its seems like Master Wu uses a quick 5min bake time at 325 degrees fahrenheit, smokey uses 20 mins at 200 degrees F. Other websites have a variety of temperatures and bake times. Since the goal of this process is to remove a carboxyl group from the thc-a molecules WITHOUT vaporizing any thc and other active cannibinoids, I would assume that the best way to do this would be at the lowest temperature possible while still ensuring proper decarboxylation.

If I am mistaken and there is another chemical process taking place here apart from decarboxylation (possibly converting other less psycho-active cannibinoids to more active ones...) please tell me about it and explain why the higher temperatures accomplish that.

Master Wu, have you tried lower temperatures yet? or are you so happy with the 325 degree / 5 mins technique that you feel no need?

What information does anyone have concerning the minimum temperature for vaporization of the carboxyl group? So far the lowest temperature that I have read that remove the carboxyl group is 150 degrees F for 15 mins. I have also read that THC and other active cannibinoids can vaporize and leave the plant matter at temperatures as low as 250 degrees. This is why I want to find out exactly what temperature we can remove the carboxyl group with losing any active cannibinoids.

Moving on to other steps in the process, does anyone know of any technique that enhances the extraction rate/amount of THC from the plant material during the water-bath step? I make sure to use everclear and stir pretty often during this step as I have read that there is a thc-rich film which forms in the alcohol during this time that needs to be stirred back in.

Lastly, what methods of consuming Green Dragon yield the most complete absorbtion by the body? I read Wu's Green Dragon in Beer posts and this is what I have done for my attempts. I also assume the empty stomach is crucial. Anything else that can be added?

I would like to perfect Master Wu's technique, it's very close, but I think with everyone posting their techniques/results in a scientific way we can take it another step further. Master, please get back on this thread, I haven't seen any updated posts in a while!

[Mandelbrot]

I finally got some interesting result with 6 ml, definetly a significative effect(but nothing like smoking) lasting about 2-3 hours, 40 mins after ingestion. I guess I skrewed the pre-baking step again. It is the sensitive step for sure. Next time I'll use 250 F, 20 minutes. I'm so exited about getting it done correctly, I don't want to loose another 8th.