There is a term commonly known to anyone who smokes from a bowl, for example, via a pipe or a bong. This term, “cashed,” means that the bowl is spent, or in other words, it means that you have smoked all of the good stuff out of the flower, and now you must dump out the ash and reload. Unfortunately though, what I have been recently realizing is that a lot of people have also just been dumping out their brown buds after vaping, as if it were some dirty, spent ash. Anyone who is still doing this, needs to halt this blasphemy immediately, because throwing away vaped bud is like throwing away almost half the money you spent on that flower initially. What is left in your bud chamber after you finish a vape session is not cashed, but is actually still almost as good as green. After vaping dried flower, the remnants are very valuable, and can be used for a few further purposes, before their day is done.
“Raw” cannabis is what cannabis is called if it hasn’t yet been heated to a certain temperature, and this raw plant has properties that differ greatly from “activated” cannabis. Raw cannabis possesses all of the cannabinoids within their acidic forms (THCA, CBDA), and as acids, cannabinoids still have a ton of medicinal properties, although, no psychoactive effects (they can’t get you intoxicated). Essentially, the decarboxylation of cannabis is the crucial step that takes raw flower and converts it into a state where it can give you some euphoric and mind-altering effects. “Decarbing” has to be done within a temperature range high enough break the chemical’s acid chains, but not high enough to burn or combust away all of cannabinoids. This temperature range falls between 157 to 225 °Celsius, and it is also very conveniently, the temperature range that most people vaporize their dried flower at.
Essentially, after a finished session with a vaporizer, a lot of cannabinoids were precisely heated and transferred to your bloodstream to medicate you, but, a lot of cannabinoids were also still left over inside all of that brown mess. That brown stuff actually has its own title, which is, ABV (already been vaped), AVB (already vaped bud), “duff,” or “vape-poo.” Since this ABV cannabis has already gone through the process of decarboxylation, the medicinal mind-altering effects of the plant have been activated. Therefore ABV can be used for many purposes within this form.
Technically, you could just pick up a handful of AVB, eat it straight, and it would get you high, although this would taste horrible and be pretty awful. You could also technically still roll or pack it, and smoke the ABV, but this will also be an equally painful experience, and it would defeat the whole purpose of vaping. So, the best thing to do with your vaped buds is to collect and store them, until you have at least one cup’s worth (ground as fine as possible), and then infuse them into coconut oil. By heating your brown ABV inside a pot of coconut oil, you pull the cannabinoids out of the plant matter and into the fat molecules of the oil. After applying heat for a long enough time (minimum of 45 minutes), the yucky brown stuff can be strained out, leaving you with a clean infused oil.
This infused coconut oil can then be used for diverse purposes. You can, of course, incorporate the oil into recipes, just like traditional cannabutter or cannaoil (ensuring to only use cook temps below 230°C, to preserve potency). Although, even more simply, a lot of people just take a big spoonful of those healthy fats in the morning, or stir some into their coffee for a nourishing and medicating perk. And finally, since coconut oil is such a great moisturizer, you could even use ABV infused coconut oil as a luxurious topical ointment for skin maladies or sore muscles.
Below is a graphic that outlines how to infuse ABV Coconut Oil, using a stovetop or a crockpot.
Click here for a standard cannabutter recipe
Click here to make recipes with oils