Concentrates and Extracts: What are Your Options?
Experimentation with different ways of isolating the main secondary compounds in cannabis has led to the recent popularity of vaping and smoking—and eating, for that matter—concentrates. While hash has been around for centuries, most types concentrates are relatively new. Technological advances in extraction methods have led to the development of several different types of concentrates. From THC distillate to High Terpene Full Spectrum Extracts (HTFSEs), medicating with cannabis is no longer limited to smoking the buds.
While all extracts are concentrates not all concentrates are extracts. Extracts are concentrates made using solvents such as butane or ethanol, whereas solvent-less concentrates are collected naturally (as with dry sift) or made mechanically (like rosin).
Solvent-less Concentrates
Rosin (or hash) is a mechanical concentrate, made by heating and pressing cannabis trichomes. The term live rosin refers to rosin that has been pressed while the plant material is still wet, as opposed to hash rosin which is pressed after the buds have been cured. Many companies are now making Rosin presses to help producers make large quantities for retail, but you could also use a hair straightener and parchment paper to make your own at home.
Kief, sometimes referred to as dry sift, is another solvent-less concentrated form of cannabis. Kief refers to the plant’s resin glands which contain the medicinal compounds found in the plant—i.e. cannabinoids and terpenes. These resin glands, or trichomes, can be collected in a grinder with a kief catch or can be purchased from many cannabis distributors. Due to its powdery consistency kief is generally used as an additive to flower.
Bubble hash is a method of extraction that has been around for decades, and was arguably a precursor for the modern concentration craze. Bubble hash is made by separating the trichomes from the plant in ice water using centrifugal force (spinning) and then strained through porous material (usually cheesecloth) to filter out the plant material. Today most producers press their bubble hash to make rosin, but you can now buy bubble hash kits to do this yourself at home as a fun Sunday science project.
Extracts
Shatter—previously known as BHO, or butane hash oil—is one of the more common concentrates available. called shatter in reference to its glassy, brittle consistency. Shatter is made by using a hydrocarbon solvent (such as butane or ethanol), usually in a closed loop system. Shatter is a cheaper full spectrum option, and while hearing the word butane in conjunction with cannabis preparation may sound scary, the truth is that a person inhales a higher parts per billion (ppb) butane content lighting a cigarette or a joint than the ppb levels of a high quality hydrocarbon extracted product.
THCA Diamonds are a concentrate product that isolates THC but does not include the plant’s other cannabinoids and terpenes. What this means for cannabis users is that THC-A diamonds alone will only offer a short lived hollow high that doesn’t really mimic the effects of smoking bud. THCA diamonds can certainly be added to other concentrates to give them more of a kick though! In fact, distributers often take the crystalized THC and add in back in to the terpene sauce created after the diamonds form, creating the ‘rocks and sauce’ that can be found in many medical marijuana dispensaries and store fronts. (‘Rocks and sauce’ are considered an HTFSE, or high terpene full spectrum extract because of the terpene sauce the THCA is added back into.
Honey Crystals are an HCFSE (high cannabinoid full spectrum extracts) that is made in a very similar way to THCA diamonds or rocks and sauce. First the cannabis is turned into a concentrate (often BHO) but before refining it fully it is sealed in a jar so that THCA molecules can separate out from the other cannabinoids and terpenes. The process is then stopped before the THC crystals get too big or fully separate from the rest of cannabis’s other medical compounds.
Distillate is a term that usually refers to concentrates containing only THC. Some producers add terpenes back into their products, but distillate is not a full spectrum option—meaning that it provides the medical benefits of THC but not of the other medicinal compounds found in the plant. Distillate most often comes in cartridges that are a convenient and discreet method of medicating in public, or in syringes which are good for measuring out edible milligrams and adding distillate to flower or other concentrates.