I made green dragon before, following master wu's recipe, and it didn't really work. I used hash, but I think I messed up the potency levels. I knew I messed up and that green dragon was capable of more.

I made it again today. I combined a few methods I've read about, and added my own. Let me know what you guys think. I'll fully admit this experiment sucks, because I didn't try the other alternatives, but my supply is fairly limited.

I used perhaps a gram of Jack Herer kief. I'm estimating here, I didn't weigh anything. That would be too reproducible...

This herer, when smoked (the bud, anyway) was the strongest thing I've ever had. It destroyed me. Unlike some of the descriptions I've read, when I smoked the herer, it hit me very much like an Indica; I was slow, heavy, etc. Personally, I love that high, so I didn't complain. Interestingly enough, when vaporized (volcano, if you wanna get serious) was much more of a heady high.

I also used approximately a gram and a half of random kief from my grinder. Some of this kief is very old (2+ years...I never empty it) so I don't know how potent it is at all. I also threw in about half a gram of Herer bud, ground with the volcano grinder.

I put this in the toaster oven, in a tiny stainless steel bowl, with aluminum foil covering it, for 5 minutes at 325f. At the fourth minute I started to smell pot, but I let it finish the time. At the 5 minute mark I turned the heat off, but let it sit in the oven for a few minutes to make sure it was thoroughly warm. (I put the stainless steel bowl on the baking sheet for the toaster, and the baking sheet I had in the toaster for the entire preheat, so it was nice and warm, and able to conduct heat into the bowl.) All in all, I'd say it was in the toaster for 8 minutes, 5 of which the toaster was running for.

Afterwards I put the bowl, still covered with foil, in a frying pan full of boiling salt water. I added the salt to the saturation point, and then some, because I figured the water would boil a little hotter (ethanol still limits it to 172f, but stick with me on this), but also because it made the water boil with smaller, more even bubbles, that didn't knock and kick the bowl around. At this point I used a toothpick to poke 3 holes in the aluminum foil to relieve built up vapor pressure. I checked the bowl after 20 minutes and noticed the alcohol had boiled off completely. I added more alcohol, and stirred and scraped the edged of the bowl to try to redissolve as much as possible. I then put the bowl, again covered with foil (with the three holes) back into the salt water to boil. At ten minutes I checked it, and it was very low on alcohol.

At this point, I deviated from master wu's recipe, and brought in some ideas I had. One of these (I believe Coelho and dragonrider are to thank here, sorry if I forgot others...) was isomerization. One thing I always thought weird when they did their isomerization, is they did it after the extraction. I wanted to do it during the extraction. They used lemon juice as an acid, but I wanted to try something different. I used distilled white vinegar. I poured a little into the bowl and it instantly became cloudy, and I covered the bowl and put it back in the salt water to boil.

I used distilled white vinegar because I read it had a pH of 2.2-2.4, and because it is a product of alcohol decomposition. I knew THC is alcohol soluble, so I figured maybe vinegar would work better than lemon juice (acetic acid vs. citric acid).

I noticed that while in the salt water bath, the vinegar wouldn't boil. After being in the salt water bath for about 20 minutes, I took some tongs and held the bowl above the flames. (gas stove) I figured direct contact (flame to bowl) would damage the THC, so I held it about 4-6 inches above the flame, varying as it boiled. When it got down to a small amount (slightly more than a paste consistency, maybe runny paste) I added the alcohol back, and stirred to get all the stuff off the sides. I then covered it again and boiled for another ten minutes. I then put this in my eye dropper (a big 2 ouncer) and it filled it maybe 1/5. I filled the rest with alcohol. I left all the kief in it, and the little bit of bud too. I figure it won't hurt it much, if at all, and maybe I'll get more out of it.

Also to note, in the eye dropper there was left over glycerin tincture that semi worked. I turned it upside down and let it drip out, but I didn't want to rinse it out. I figured it too wouldn't hurt much.

To try it out, I took two dropperfulls in a glass with some orange juice and Cointreau (master wu said additional alcohol may help come up). I never drink, so that was unusual for me too. I actually kind of enjoyed the Cointreau and orange juice (highly unusual for me) so I had another, without the green dragon.

As of now, 45 minutes after ingestion, I do not feel too high, but I am high. In the beginning, within the first 15 minutes, I felt VERY high. It is now more of waves, but its a different high than it started out. I was giggling at first (I'm a heavy smoker), and now I just feel really high. I don't have the giggles any more, but it is a strange high. It isn't entirely heady, but not too stoney either. I like it, and again, this is only 45 minutes into it. I'll post back later with updates on how it is going, but I can't complain as of now.

Also, I hate to write, and never write anything very long. I took the tincture, waited about 30 minutes and wrote this...:hippy: