No More Waste – Ways to Re-Use Your Vaporized Dry Herbs

By Melrose Aguilar
Last Updated on

No More Waste – Ways to Re-Use Your Vaporized Dry Herbs

One of the most frequently received questions from you guys, members of our VapeFuse Community is:
‘So what should I do with the leftover after vaping? Can I reheat it and use it over and over again? Or just throw it away?’

Fair question, we all want to get the maximum benefits out of our herbs without any waste. Because we want to make sure every single vaping session is a remarkable one, great taste, great quality vapor, great time, happy face, and of course, we are very conscious of our money as well.

Bud before and after vaporization

The shift from combustion to vaporization in the consumption of dry herbs gives you a health-friendly solution to get the best medicinal benefits out of your dry cannabis buds.

A cool thing about vaping and vaporizers, as opposed to smoking and combustion, is that vaping your herbs allows you to utilize the already vaped cannabis. How cool is that!

After learning about the value of AVB (already vaporized herbs), many members of our community started to collect their AVB. And it starts building up … one jar after another and the question naturally arises – what do you do with your AVB?

Jars of AVB (already vaporized buds)

Great question, let’s look into what you can do with cannabis that has already been vaporized.

Storing Your AVB

Firstly, let’s talk about how to store your AVB to make sure it preserves its goodness until you get to utilize it. Your best bet is to store your already vaporized buds the same way you store your buds. Hence a glass jar is perfect.

You don’t have to worry about humidity control or anything though. Just make sure you store it airtight in a glass jar away from direct light and excessive heat.

How to Use Already Vaporized Cannabis Buds

Now that you started to collect your AVB and know how to store it, you need a few ideas to make the most of it.

One question we get regularly is if it is worth the effort to use your AVB at all. Vaporization already extracts more cannabinoids than smoking, is there anything worthwhile left in cannabis after it’s been vaped?

Fair question.

Let’s learn a bit more about the medicinal value left and the re-use of the fully vaped herbs.

The Medicinal Value of the Dry Herb After Vaporization

Wondering if you can still reheat and reuse your vaporized cannabis? Well, yes and no.

After vaping your dry herbs, the leftover has been activated due to heating and only retain low concentrations of extractable, active ingredients. They can make delightful, but not highly intense byproducts.

For instance, after medical cannabis undergoes vaporization, it still contains therapeutic cannabinoids.

Storz and Bickel Mighty Vaporizer Chamber

The level of cannabinoids retained in already vaped buds varies by temperature used to vaporize them. Exceedingly high temperatures may yield amorphous and crispy chunks unsuitable for reprocessing.

Lower temperatures ranging from 175°C to 190°C (350°F to 375°F) give maximum potency and still hold considerable amounts of cannabinoids you can reuse.

When you vaporize medicinal cannabis, heat stimulates the acid form of cannabinoids, such as CBDa and THCa into CBD and THC.

Unlike combustion, vaporization only activates the ingredients but does not denature proteins, so that all the original properties do not get exterminated or diminished.

Vaporized cannabis may still hold up to 20% to 30% of the cannabinoids compared to before vaporization. Even if the vast proportion of the active constituents get extracted from the herb during vaping, already vaporized herbs can still be used as an ingredient for instance for brownies and all kinds of treats.

Vaping enthusiasts don’t mind using the ‘leftover’ as an active ingredient for a variety of cannabinoid-infused edibles.

Cannabis Edibles

Reusing Vaporized Dry Herbs – Does Temperature Matter?

After fully vaporizing your favorite dry herb, you cannot get the original extraction of active constituents out from your residue, as they have already been exhausted due to sponging off all active ingredients at high temperatures.

If you set your dry herb vaporizer at 160°C (320°F), it’s more likely there will still remain some medicinal value in the vaped herb, than using your vaporizer at the temp of 230°C (446°F), since the residue at a lower temperature will preserve more ingredients that you can beneficially further reuse.

Studies have discovered that the perfect hit for vaporized medical cannabis checks in at 170°C (338°F). However, the cannabinoids begin to evaporate at a lower temperature, from 140.5°C (285°F). When vaporized, most cannabinoids get dissipated together with the unique taste, smell, and impacts.

Vaporized cannabis first expels terpenoids that have a lower boiling point of 55.5°C (132°F). Typically, users seeking a pleasurable, aromatic spot start with low temperatures and inch upwards to polish off the material.

Vapes with Preset and Adjustable Temperature

Alright, so we keep talking about the boiling points and different temperatures used to vape your precious herb, and you may wonder ‘how can I control the temperature?’, ‘is it something that all vaporizer can do?’

Here you go, luckily, you can fine-tune temperatures if you have a vaporizer with adjustable temperature control.

Most desktop vaporizers out there come with digital display and the temperature can be set by the user. I won’t go into a whole lot of details on this, you can find out more about preset or adjustable temperature vaporizers here.

A lot to think about when you are about to get a vape, right? Check out our FREE Vaping Guide, it will surely help you to find the best vape suitable to your needs.

Using AVB in Cooking

One of the most common ways of using AVB is eating it. Let’s go through a few ways to go about it.

Eating AVB as is

Obviously, it is already decarboxylated from the vaporization process. As a result, the cannabinoids are heat activated and ready for consumption. You can literally grab a spoon and eat some, although the taste is not for everyone.

You can mix it with a variety of foods. Examples are yogurt, hummus, honey, and so on, you get the picture. Simply mix a little bit of AVB, let’s say about a teaspoon with something you like and eat it.

Cooking AVB into delicious chocolate

Understandably not everyone is keen to eat AVB as is. Especially when you can quite easily add it to chocolate.

What, did someone say chocolate?

Cannabis AVB infused cocolate

Yes, you can easily add smaller amounts of AVB to your favorite chocolate in about 10 minutes or so. Let’s do it!

Ingredients:

– Your favorite chocolate (we use 100g simple organic dark chocolate bar)
– AVB (We add 9 grams for every 100g of chocolate. Anything more than that seems to be too much to mix in well enough.)

You’ll also need a double boiler (we simply use a glass bowl in a small saucepan), scales, another glass bowl, a tablespoon, some kind of a grinder to grind the AVB, and a mold for the chocolate.

What you need to make Cannabis AVB infused chocolate

Process:

As the first step, break your chocolate up into your double boiler and put it on the stove.

Chocolate melting in double boiler

While your chocolate is melting, measure your AVB on a scale. We use 9 grams for every 100 grams of chocolate. We’ve tried different amounts, however, anything more than 9 grams seems to be too much and the chocolate is not as nice.

9 grams avb

The next step is to grind your AVB to a powder consistency. You can use a herb grinder like the GrindeROO, a mortar or a coffee grinder. I used a coffee grinder this time.

Already Vaporized Cannabis buds before and after grinding

By this time, your chocolate is most likely already melted. Add your ground herbs into the melted chocolate and mix it in well. After that, use a tablespoon to scoop the mix into your mold.

Adding Cannabis AVB chocolate into mold

You can add sultanas, goji berries, or some nuts to the bottom if you’d like to increase the nutritional value of your treats.

Once you scooped all your mix into the mold, put it into the fridge for about 30 minutes to an hour to cool down and set. Finally, take it out of the fridge and out of the mold into a storage container.

Turning your AVB into infused oil or butter

Another solution to utilize your vaporized buds is to make infused oil or butter. Once you have infused oil or butter, you can use it to make all sorts of goodies from that. Brownies, muffins, or any kind of dish really.

The process to infuse butter or oil is the same. You can choose either depending on your preference or dietary requirements. For demonstrating the process we’ll infuse organic coconut oil with our AVB.

You don’t necessarily need any appliances, however, I do this process a lot, so I have a Magical Butter machine. Don’t worry if you don’t have it, you can do the heating part on the stove.

Let’s get started.

Ingredients:

– Already Vaporized Cannabis Buds (as much as you’d like to infuse, we did about 4 ounces this time)
– Oil or butter of your choice (we used organic coconut oil)
– Lecithin (we used soy lecithin, but you can use other kinds)

Process:

First, measure your desired amount of AVB and add it to a large saucepan.

Adding AVB to the Magical Butter Machine

Next, add your oil or butter to the pan, followed by the lecithin. Lecithin is an emulsifier to help with permanently mixing the goodies from the AVB into the oil. You need a tablespoon of lecithin to every cup (250ml) of oil you use.

Adding Lecithin to AVB

After that, heat the mixture to approximately 160°F (about 70°C). Keep it on low heat like that for about 90 minutes to 2 hours, stirring it regularly. If you have a Magical Butter Machine, you can simply select 160°F and press the 2 hrs button.

Once you are done with the infusion, the next step is to drain your infused oil. You can use a cheesecloth or some other kind of very fine screen. We use a Magical Butter Purify filter.

Draining infused coconut oil

The drained infused oil can be stored in the glass jar your oil came in if it’s suitable. If you are using butter, you can drain it into some kind of molds, so they are easy to work with once cooled down.

Cannabis infused coconut oil

As you can see above, the infused oil is just a little bit less than the oil we used. In other words, if you drain the mixture well, you regain most of the oil.

There you go, AVB infused coconut oil. You can use it in your cooking, in smoothies or however else you wish. Instead of coconut oil, you can use olive or any other oil really as well as butter.

Making Canna Caps with your AVB

AWB Canna Cups

Another easy way to use your AVB is by making canna caps. This process involves filling vegetable glycerin caps with already vaped bud. We have created a guide on how to create canna cups that you can check out here.

The Taste and Potential Downside of Reusing the Leftover Vaporized Herbs

Despite the popularity of dry herb vaporizer leftover used in edibles, there are always some people who just cannot get around its taste.

Depending on the treats you make, you may find the product tasting funny due to its bitter, burnt, popcornish taste and smell.

Cooking with vaporized cannabis herbs

If you are one of those whose taste buds are a bit picky, well, then just deal with it 🙂

To avoid any issues, you must watch for bacteria and other disease-causing microorganisms. Keep the vaporizer leftovers in a cool, dry place such as a refrigerator.

Let’s Sum Up What We Learnt Today

When you finish drawing in on your vaped dry herbs, you can always stash up the leftovers for reuse. Depending on the type of dry herb, temperature level, and how fine you grind your herbs, you can tap into the vaporizer residue.

Refilling your chamber with already fully vaped herbs is not highly recommended since most likely the medicinal values have gone after heating the dry herbs to your preferred temperature.

But nothing to worry about, the variety of recipes of using the vaporized dry herb leftover is endless, give it a try and surely you won’t regret it.

Melrose Aguilar

Melrose Aguilar

Mel is a passionate vape enthusiast with interest in dry herb vaporizing as well as e-liquid vaping. Mel has been part of the VapeFuse Publishing Team since 2016 as an editor. More recently she has been writing on various vaping related topics and reviews as well.

13 thoughts on “No More Waste – Ways to Re-Use Your Vaporized Dry Herbs”

  1. I found this entire article very informative. It answered all the questions I thought I had about my leftover vaped herb and many more. Thanks.

    Reply
  2. Great job on this article. It was informative, educational and you really hit all the marks as far as answering any questions one may have. Nicely done, thank you!!

    Reply
  3. How do you estimate the strength of your edibles when using AVB? Is there an estimation? e.g. 1 tbsp = 10g THC (totally made up that value to illusion the point)

    Reply
    • Hello Matt, when you are using AVB for edibles, it is quite hard to estimate as you don’t know how much THC is in your already vaporized cannabis flowers.

      When your are turning your AVB into, you are limited to how much vaped flower you can put into it as if you put too much it will be hard to mix it in. As Mel mentioned in the article, we use 9 grams for every 100 grams of chocolate.

      When you are infusing your vaporised buds into oil or butter, you can use as much ave as you’d like so your oil is pretty potent and then you can start slow and work out your ideal dose with the oil.

      I hope this helps. All the best!

      Reply
  4. hmmmm…interesting. very interesting. question. how dark is too dark for the avb. mine looks almost black with some lighter colour flecks in it. is it still usable??? Thanks!

    Reply
    • Hello Debbie,
      If your AVB is really dark, like charred, you may not want to use it further. However, if a bit toasty, but not charred, you can indeed still use it for infusion, cooking or capsules. I hope this helps.

      Reply

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