Know Your Cannabis: What Are Concentrates?
There are many kinds of cannabis concentrates. They come in various colors and consistencies and go by many names. What ties them together, however, is that every concentrate was crafted with the goal of perfectly separating trichomes from the dried botanical matter of the cannabis plant.Trichomes are a small mushroom-shaped outgrowth on a plant which contains the highest concentration of THC, CBD, and other valuable compounds. When a solvent, pressure, or temperature of dry or fresh cannabis flowers is altered the essential oils of the plant separate from the dry leaves and flowers.For beginners who are interested in cannabis concentrates, it’s important to learn about a few of the methods and uses for them before buying. Sometimes, the names of concentrate products are differentiated by the method used for making them, but other times it’s a reference to the consistency of the concentrate.
Kief & Dry Sift
Kief is made when trichomes are removed from dried weed using pressure and grinding. The first method is to use a grinder with a kief catcher to grind flower or cannabis nugs before smoking or vaping them. The grinder method is typically for personal use — for a large scale cannabis farm, a pollen box can help speed up the kief workflow. The last way to make kief is with dry ice, a product that freezes the trichomes off of the plant.Dry sift is a process that also separates trichome heads from the plant, but this is a more methodical approach. This type of hashish is made with a series of different sized screens and hand sifting that gently slice the trichomes off into the bucket below.Once kief and dry sift are made they can be put on top of bowls or sprinkled into joints for extra potency. These cannabis concentrates can also be decarboxylated and added to culinary delights.
Bubble Hash
Submitting cannabis flowers to water and agitation will create bubble hash, an artisanal concentrate. Like making kief, bubble hash can be made safely at home. To craft bubble hash, cannabis flowers must be submerged in water and then agitated. This can be done with a bucket and a spatula, a hand mixer commonly used to mix cake batter or a miniature washing machine made for camping or tiny living.Bubble hash is made by placing the cannabis into buckets of ice-cold water and agitating it to knock the trichomes off of the flower. Then the water is separated from the now wet cannabis into variously sized micron bubble bags meant to slowly separate the hash from the water. At the end of the laborious process, there will be some bubble hash to scrape out of the final bag. Once finished, bubble hash can be used just like kief but is often more potent.