Ardent - June 14, 2022
Decarboxylation 101: Easy Beginners Guide
What is decarboxylation?
Decarboxylation (de·car·box·yl·ation) is the process of applying just the right amount of heat at just the right amount of time to activate the special effects in plant material.
Why is decarboxylation important?
Decarboxylation is important because without it you wouldn’t feel the special effects of the plant! For example, if you ate a handful of raw plant material right now, you wouldn’t feel any different than eating a handful of regular lettuce! However, if you ate a handful of decarbed plant material…. Well, let’s just say you’ll be feeling gooooood.
Why do we want to PROPERLY decarb our plants?
We want to properly decarb because the more accurate you are decarbing your plant material, the more special effects you get!
- If you decarb at too low of heat, you won’t get as much special effects
- If you decarb at too high of heat, you won’t get as much special effects
- If you decarb for too short of a period, you won’t get as much special effects
- If you decarb too long, you won’t get as much special effects
Just like everything in life, there is a sweet spot with decarboxylating! We want to hit that sweet spot every time we decarboxylate because you don't want to waste plant material.
The science behind decarboxylation
Decarboxylation is often called the activation stage. This makes sense because we are actually activating a chemical reaction in the plant material to create the special effects we all love.
When decarboxylation occurs, the plant material experiences a chemical reaction which permanently alters its own chemical structure resulting in specific carboxyl groups being removed!
What the heck does that actually mean?
The science behind decarboxylating is just a fancy way of saying that the normal raw plant material you buy has multiple components. For this example, let’s call them group A, B, and C.
- Plant material made up of just group A and B create the special effects we are looking for.
- But plant material made up of group A, B AND C do not create the special effects we are looking for.
When we decarb properly (adding just the right amount of heat for the right amount of time), we remove group C! This results in our decarbed plant material being made up of only group A and B, and therefore giving us the special effects we want.
How does Ardent make the decarboxylation process easy?
As we now know, decarboxylation is quite confusing! Who has time to figure out the perfect amount of heat and time every single time they decarb?
NOT US! Which is exactly why our founder, Shanel Lindsay, created Ardent. Our devices automatically calculate the correct amount of heat and the correct amount of time for you, ensuring perfect decarbing every single time with a touch of a button.
Ardent's easy process of decarbing
- Add plant material to our device.
- Press the button and walk away!
That’s it! Our device takes care of all the hard work of figuring out the temperature and time.
Traditional process of decarbing
- Measure out how much plant material you want to use.
- Based on that number, calculate the what temperature you want to use.
- Based on that number, calculate how long you need.
- Pre-heat the oven.
- Add your plant material to the baking sheet or a heat safe mason jar.
- Add to the oven.
- Pray you got your calculations right!
I don’t know about you, but we think that is too much work for unreliable decarbing.
Science behind Ardent and decarboxylating
Since the decarb process is completely science based (aka the perfect balance of heat and time), Shanel worked with MCR Labs to create Ardent devices. Simply put, she created a technology that fully surrounds your plant material and applies the correct amount of heat and time for 97 - 100% activation.
This is important to understand for 3 reasons:
- Plant material being surrounded by heat is the most precise way of decarbing. This technology is fully patented by us, meaning no other device on the market can do this.
- Traditional decarbing methods (such as using a baking sheet and oven) only activates plant material by roughly 70%. You are getting 27 - 30% MORE special effects out of your plant material with us!
- We cannot stress enough how important it is to use a decarb method that is based on SCIENCE. Our competitors do not work directly with a lab, which means they have no proof of how much activation they get. Decarbing is a scientific process and because of that we don’t believe it makes any sense for companies not to fact check their products.
Decarboxylate conclusion
There’s a lot of information floating around the internet on how to decarb your plants. You can spend hours scrolling through websites, joining different forums, Googling the question “How To Decarboxylate” and reading the endless amounts of information that all contradict each other–OR you can use our science based, lab tested, Ardent FX (Flex) device that does all that work for you.
Ardent's goal is not only to simplify the process of decarboxylation, but to also give you the best possible results every time you decarb!