Weed concentrates are products that are made by separating Resin from the flowers in order to extract the maximum number of cannabinoids and terpenes, without unnecessary plant material.
Cannabis resin contains trichomes (tiny outgrowths on the flowers where most of the plant’s cannabinoids and terpenes are synthesized).
Concentrates can be found in many cannabis products, from edibles to oils and tinctures. They can also be consumed in their purest form by using additional equipment such as Dab Rigs and Vaporizers (pax, volcanoes, etc.)
Since they are so potent, the high you get from concentrates is almost instant and lasts for about 1-3 hours.
Types of Cannabis Concentrates
Hashish
This famous cannabis concentrate originated in North India and slowly expanded to Arabian Peninsula and then Europe.
Hash is a cannabis concentrate that is made by separating trichomes from the plant material and then forming the resulting resin into a consistent mass.
There are several types of hash:
- Bubble hash—made by separating the trichomes using ice-cold Water
- Lebanese hash—made by drying flowers, rubbing them with a piece of fabric and then pressing the material into slabs
- Afghani Royal (aka Royal Border) hash—made by putting flowers into water or tea to separate the resin, and then afterward pressing it into slabs
You can either smoke hash or consume it in an edible by de-carbing it.
Putting hash in edibles is recommended if you are trying to avoid smoking—you can easily bake hash brownies.
Smoking is a traditional way to enjoy hashish:
- You can Roll it in a joint with your favourite flower.
- Or you can heat up two butter knives, use them to press hash, and inhale the smoke.
Kief
Kief is a powdery material that collects at the bottom of your grinder.
It’s super-potent since it consists of pure trichomes. It’s rarely 100% pure, as most of the time it will contain some plant particles.
And as you’ve probably figured out, hash is made from kief.
How to Use Kief?
Kief is easy to work with as it’s simple to make and has many uses.
If you have a grinder that has a kief catcher, you can use the collected kief by sprinkling it in a joint or by Packing a bowl with a mixture of weed and kief.
Rosin
Rosin (or weed wax) is cannabis resin in solid form.
It’s made by extracting resin from flowers by applying pressure and heat.
One of the most popular ways to use rosin is to make a waxed blunt or a joint—you do this by applying rosin to the outside of a joint.
The most visually appealing way to do this is to make a snake-like shape out of rosin and then just wrap it around the joint.
Rosin can be smoked in a dab rig or vaporized.
Shatter
Shatter is one of the purest Cannabis concentrates out there.
It’s made by using a solvent to extract THC from flowers in a process called the butane hash oil extraction.
This type of extraction is not safe for DIY projects as the solvent needs to be eliminated from the concentrate before you can safely consume it.
Shatter looks like a coloured piece of glass and has a candy-like consistency. It’s potent—it can have upwards of 80% THC, but it’s not especially rich in flavour.
Shatter is hard to work with since it’s in a solid state. There are several ways to use the final product, from dab rigs to vapes and bongs.
Sugar Wax
Sugar wax is another concentrate made through butane extraction and it looks just like it sounds—shiny, sticky, and crumbly.
Cannabis strains that contain terpenes which are particularly prone to retaining water are better for making sugar wax. Know that if you are trying to make shatter, it can sometimes turn into wax because of the terpene contents.
Since the process of making sugar wax also involves butane, it’s not safe to make it by yourself.
Budder
Budder is something between shatter and wax, but it’s also made using butane hash oil extraction.
What separates it is the purity: Budder has fewer cannabinoids but is richer in terpenes. Also, budder is not as solid as shatter, and it’s more wax-like, which makes it much easier to use.
To use budder, put it in a bong or pipe, add it to a joint or blunt. Just like with all the above.
Live Resin
This is the latest method of cannabis concentrate extraction. Freshly harvested buds are frozen and then the resin is extracted from the flowers.
This method of extraction is complicated, requires laboratory equipment, and is not something you can do at home, so it’s better to buy live resin at your local dispensary.
Be Careful When Trying Cannabis Concentrates!
Always keep in mind that concentrates are incredibly potent—just a small amount can contain more THC than the entire gram of your favourite dried flower.
So, if you haven’t tried them before, be extra cautious the first time around.
Just take one hit first and see how it feels. It’s better to take small hits gradually than to get too high too quickly and feel horrible afterward.