Calculator
How strong is a dropper?
Tinctures dose by the drop rather than by the tablespoon, which makes them the most precise thing you can make and the easiest to misjudge. Here is what a dropper of yours is worth.
Questions people ask
- How many milligrams are in a dropper?
- A full glass dropper holds roughly 1 ml, so it carries whatever your tincture is worth per milliliter. That is entirely down to how much flower went into how much solvent — run your own numbers rather than copying a figure, because tinctures vary more between batches than almost anything else on this site.
- Is alcohol better than glycerin?
- As a solvent, considerably. Cannabinoids dissolve readily in high-proof ethanol and poorly in glycerin, which is mostly sugar and water. Glycerin tinctures are sweeter and alcohol-free, and they are meaningfully weaker for the same input. The calculator reflects that difference.
- Does a tincture work faster than an edible?
- Partly. Held under the tongue for a minute, some absorbs through the mouth and arrives sooner than something digested. Swallowed, it behaves like any other edible — which means the two-hour rule still applies before you decide it is not working.
- Do I still need to decarb for a tincture?
- Yes. Alcohol will extract THCA perfectly happily, and THCA is not what you are after. Decarb first, then extract cold — the cold part is what keeps chlorophyll out and the tincture clean.
- Can I cook with a tincture?
- You can dose with it, but it brings no fat, so it will not replace butter or oil in anything that needs the fat for structure. It is excellent in drinks, dressings and no-bake recipes, and the wrong tool for a cookie unless you add the fat back separately.
The tincture method page covers making one, and the gummy calculator is where a tincture beats an infused fat outright.
Every constant behind these numbers is written down, with its source, on the how this is calculated page. If you think one of them is wrong, say so — that page exists to be argued with.