If you have spent any time combing through different CBD retailers online, you will likely have run into these confusing terms.
There will be plenty of full-spectrum CBD oil for sale on sites like Premium Jane. However, on a different website, or perhaps just on the very next page, there will be a listing for a CBD tincture. The descriptions won’t really help you decipher what they are, nor provide a breakdown of the differences between them.
So, what is the difference between CBD oils and CBD tinctures?
What Is a CBD Oil?
CBD oil didn’t used to be as well-known as it is now, but these days it feels like it is almost everywhere. CBD oil is quite a simple product, despite its rather complicated reputation. It is really nothing more than a carrier oil that has been imbued with extracted cannabinoids.
CBD is extracted from cannabis and hemp plants using a process known as CO2 extraction. The CBD is whisked away from its plant, leaving the vital compounds undamaged. It is then immersed in an oil solution, creating CBD oil.
You can take CBD oil in many different ways, though it is typically taken orally. The choice of carrier oil differs between individual brands, with some preferring hemp seed oil and others preferring coconut oil.
The great thing about CBD oil is that it offers up the ability to adulterate its flavors; you can mix in all kinds of flavor compounds or terpenes to improve the flavor of the CBD oil. The CBD itself has a particularly bitter taste when taken directly, so many consumers prefer to flavor it somehow.
Some people enjoy taking it directly under their tongue, whereas others use it to flavor their food. Some people even make edibles from them, using the CBD oil as a replacement for some of the fat in any given baking recipe.
There are also some people who believe that using fatty oil as the carrier for the CBD means that it will be absorbed into the body all the more quickly, whereas others like it simply because it is cheaper and easier to buy in bulk.
What about a CBD tincture, though? What makes it so fundamentally different?
What Is a CBD Tincture?
Fundamentally speaking, CBD tinctures and CBD oil are pretty similar. They are both easy ways to enjoy CBD without having to deal with the hassle and potential health ramifications of smoking.
However, CBD tinctures are slightly different from CBD oil in that they are made from different substances. Where CBD oil is made using fatty oil and CBD, CBD tinctures use alcohol instead. This small amount of distilled alcohol keeps the CBD suspended, allowing you to easily store your CBD tincture for years at a time and still take it effectively.
CBD tinctures are a bit of an older way to enjoy CBD, or any substances at all, these days. Back in the day, any time you wanted a medicine of any sort, it would usually be administered as a tincture. Now that we have better industrial practices and more advanced medication, CBD oil has naturally begun to replace tinctures almost entirely.
The main reason to enjoy CBD tinctures over CBD oils is that tinctures are much more neutral tasting. Some people really abhor the flavor of CBD oil, regardless of what kind of flavoring agents are added to it.
With CBD tinctures, it is pretty challenging to taste the CBD at all, as it is entirely dwarfed by the strong taste of distilled alcohol.
However, for most purposes and for most people, CBD oil is really the way to go. It is a lot easier to add in flavorful terpenes and other cannabinoids, as well as being a decent amount cheaper to produce and purchase. Alternatively you could go down the organic route and opt for a more natural CBD oil which does not include reams of additives and unknown ingredients. Have a look at Cannacares organic, vegan-friendly CBD oil which can be purchased from https://www.cannacares.co.uk/collections/cbd-oil-tinctures.
Final Thoughts on CBD Oils and CBD Tinctures
One final thing to keep in mind is that, much like the rest of the English language, the world of cannabinoids is continually changing and renaming things. This is why some stores will use CBD oil and CBD tincture interchangeably, as if they are the same thing.
While you will still certainly be able to find some traditional CBD tinctures made with alcohol on offer, they are usually pretty few and far between. Most of the time, these days, if a company is advertising CBD tincture, they actually mean CBD oil, as they cannot even imagine using CBD tincture.
It is also to do with marketing – ‘CBD tincture’ sounds a lot more medical and beneficial than CBD oil, so some brands prefer to call it a tincture.
Make sure you are checking what the label of your CBD product says to find out if it has alcohol or fat in it, just in case.