To grind or not to grind. That is what most cannabis foodies ask themselves when they venture into the cannabis cooking journey. And with the quick-growing cannabis space, edibles and their cooking tools have been widely available.

While most of the information available is anecdotal, most people tend to debate whether or not you should grind your weed before cooking. And as such, we’ve investigated and created a mini-guide to understand the debate around this.

Some people tend to prefer to grind it due to presentation, while others like to chop it or crumble it to keep the THC crystals intact to get a better high. Grinding could also be good if you want to incorporate Kief into your food edibles if your herb miller has a compartment for this.

Because of all the anecdotal information and myths about whether you should grind or not weed, we gathered some points about each to help you decide.

Without further ado, let’s check each point and help you decide which method is better for you.

This article is made in collaboration with the premium grinders and cannabis devices that Flower Mill offers.

Grinding has always been a debate in the cannabis-cooking community. Some blogs and people suggest for you to grind your weed, as it gets more flavor and terpenes infused into the cannabutter or cannaoil of your preference.

Others say grinding is a mess to strain without a cheesecloth, and prefer to put whole buds or just crumble their weed in their mix. So for the regular cook, grinding might seem like an extra step that can get tedious.

The one consensus the cannabis community has, is to leave the sticks, stems, and big leaves out of the mix, whether you chop it, crumble it, or grind it. This is because it might leave some unpleasant texture in your dishes or baked goods, and it is a no-go if you want to sell or gift them.

Grinding weed before decarbing? Absolutely—it’s like prepping your veggies before roasting.

Weed grinded makes sure that heat is evenly distributed across all those precious bits, maximizing the activation of THC. Think of it as unlocking the full potential of your bud, ensuring no part goes underutilized in your culinary cannabis adventures.

So yes, give it a good grind to get the most bang from your bud when you decarb!

Does Weed Lose Potency After Grinding?

No, grinding cannabis doesn’t directly cause it to lose its kick. But, if the ground cannabis is exposed to air, heat, or light for a long time, it can degrade quicker than unground buds would.

The real question here is if you should grind or crumble your weed. There is a constant debate on which one is better, although both have different pros and cons. The thing we do recommend is breaking your buds in some way after decarboxylation, as whole buds might not give the same desired effect.

So, pros and cons. While grinding helps with the process of infusing the cannabinoids and terpenes in your oil of preference, crumbling might seem a better option when you wish to get better highs due to the trichome level. 

So, what’s the better option? Both are completely valid, depending on whatever you have on hand. If you have cheesecloth or fabric at hand and enjoy the flavor of terpenes, grinding it might be a better way to infuse your edibles.

Grinding it also helps with the presentation when making baking goods, so if you are bringing a batch of brownies or cookies to a party, you might want to grind your buds.

If you are making something that won’t be baked or want stronger highs, I’d probably recommend the slightly chopping or crumbling option. This keeps the trichomes intact and it’s easier to strain for mac and cheese or savory dishes that use sauces with the cannabutter.

There is a way to have the best of both worlds. Some grinders like the ones from Flower Mill won’t shred or grind your weed, but instead progressively crumble the flower to give fluffier results.

That means your weed won’t be mushed up together and the trichome crystals that contain the THC will be intact in the infused edibles you make. So it takes the best part of making it easy to strain, while also maintaining the THC crystals intact.

Trichomes are the THC crystals found on top of the weed. Most of the time, they are present as small orange crystals or specks that stick around your bud. 

These little folks not only are adorable looking but actually give you the high we all love from the bud. You can appreciate these crystals better in indoor strains, where the crystals are pretty much what gives the bud a more potent feeling.

If you grind your weed, most of these crystals end up shredded by the process. And if your grinder doesn’t have a pollen chamber or catcher, most of the kief will be lost. Kief is the dust or smaller particles from the weed after ground up, that most of the time is lost in the conventional grinder.

A good thing about premium grinders like the ones at Flower Mill is that you can keep those trichome crystals intact. But not only that, as their fine mesh and pollen chamber will collect all the residual kief to sprinkle in your edible concoctions.

Kief can be used as a topper on some baked goods or just added to cannabutter for a stronger high. Since this green gold is the result of the finest particles of your bud, you won’t really notice a texture, which is great for certain baked goods or sauces.

So if you were looking for a little extra on your cannabis cuisine, trying a Flower Mill grinder with a modular design with pollen chamber might be a great addition to your canna-kitchen tools.

Another thing you might want to consider before choosing to either grind or crumble your weed is flavor. Grinding your weed will lead to more plant material in your edible, which means more herbal flavor.

If you don’t really like that kushy undertone when cooking and consuming cannabis-infused goods, skipping the grinding might make sense to improve the flavor of your concoctions.

So if you want a better high while keeping the flavors intact, crumbling or chopping the weed might be right up your alley. 

Remember though, that the herbal flavor will still be present in most homemade edibles if they are made with dry flower. You would be only minimizing the acrid undertone that sometimes stays on your palate after eating it.

However, if you are cooking the precious premium flower that you handpicked at your local store, you might want to have those undertones present while eating it. The best option for this is to use a miller like the Flower Mill, which helps to maintain these flavors with its food-grade, strainless aluminum body while keeping both undertones and potency.

In the end, grinding or not your weed is based on the desired effects on your cannabis cooking. If you want a better presentation, although your food might have stronger kushy undertones, grind your buds. With this said you might want to get a cheesecloth or fabric to strain your cannaoil.

If better flavor and stronger highs are what you are looking for, a regular crumble should be more than enough while creating. This method requires fewer tools, although you might still have to strain your preparation.

The best of both worlds is getting a grinder that can get you a fluffier bud, like the ones from Flower Mill. By progressively crumbling your buds, you’ll find better results with stronger highs by keeping your trichomes intact. This, and the possibility of adding kief to your edibles might be the solution for the grinding versus not grinding buds debate.

Do you prefer grinding your bud when cooking or baking? Let us know in the comments below.