We don’t know who came up with the saying “airtight and outta sight” but that person knew what they were talking about. If you take your fresh, moist cannabis, transfer it to an airtight vessel and sequester it away in a dark place, it’s going to retain its moisture content for a good long time.
Unfortunately, most of us don’t do that. Instead, we bring the bag home, crack it open, go a couple of rounds with our custom glass pipes and leave the bag open on the table for who knows how long. The result: dusty dry weed. Which begs the question: Is there a dependable way to rehydrate weed?
The answer is “Yes”. There are actually quite a few. Below we’ve brought together 7 of our favorite methods for rehydrating desert weed. Enjoy.
Mix Your Dry Weed With Fresh Weed
One of the big reasons people want to rehydrate their dusty weed is that they don’t want to have to go out and buy fresh weed. So this method isn’t going to go over well with everyone. That said, if you happen to have some fresh buds available, a good way to reanimate your dry weed is to put some of the fresh stuff in with the dry stuff in a mason jar and store it out of the sunlight, checking on it every couple of hours. The moisture from the fresh buds will be absorbed by the dry buds making everything in the jar passably moist and delicious.
Put Something Damp In With Your Dry Weed for a While
If you have a glass jar that seals up tight, you can put a damp sponge or paper towel in the jar with your dried-out buds, seal it up and set it aside in a dark place for a few hours. The trick with this method is to make sure the moist sponge or cotton ball (or whatever you use) does not come in direct contact with the weed itself. So you may have to create a kind of false bottom to the jar that will allow the moisture through but will keep things separate.
Ye Olde Citrus Peel Method
A quick poll of our Denver staff and customers in our head shop suggests most people who rehydrate weed use – or have used at some point – the citrus peel method. We can understand why. It’s an incredibly simple, fairly reliable way of breathing new life into old buds. Just peel some of the skin off of a lemon or an orange, and place either fruit in a sealed jar or Tupperware container with your distressed buds. It shouldn’t take more than a few hours for the moisture from the peel to be absorbed by the weed. Just don’t leave it in too long or you could wind up creating mold.
Use Lettuce To Moisten Your Lettuce
Lettuce is almost entirely water, which makes lettuce leaves a reasonable, effective alternative to sponges and paper towels. Just put a leaf in a ziplock bag or mason jar with your bone dry buds and leave it there for 2 – 3 hours. That should be enough time for some of the moisture in the lettuce to be absorbed by the dry buds. If it needs a little more time, so be it. The great thing about lettuce is that, unlike lemon or orange peels, it won’t impart any of its own flavor to the weed.
Break Out the Tea Ball
Tea balls are a rehydrator’s best friend. You can place a damp paper towel, a damp cotton ball, or a small piece of damp sponge into the tea ball and then put it in a Tupperware container with your desert herb. This will keep the elements separate and allow the moisture to be absorbed effectively by the weed. Just make sure not to make the paper towel or cotton ball too wet, and don’t leave it in with the weed for more than a few hours.
Wet It Directly
Why bother with tea balls and citrus peels when you can just cut right to the chase and just spray your weed with water and get on with it? Just lay your buds out on the bottom of a Tupperware-like container, spray them lightly with distilled water using one of those plant sprayers, seal the top and leave it for a couple of hours. The keyword here is “lightly”. Too much water and the weed won’t spark up in your glass pipes. Excess water will also promote the growth of mold.
The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread Is… Sliced Bread
Finally, if you don’t have any fruit available or a tea ball or lettuce or fresh, moist buds simply place a slice of fresh bread (not dried out moldy bread obviously) into a zip bag with some of your dried buds and leave it overnight. By morning you should have weed that’s worthy of your new custom glass pipes.
The Bottom Line
At some point, every weed aficionado discovers that their precious buds have taken on the look and feel of petrified wood. The good news is that you no longer need to settle for trying to get a buzz off your dust bowl buds. Use any of the above methods to restore vim and vigor to your mummy weed, and if you’re in the neighborhood stop by our Denver headshop and check out our full line of glass pipes.