CANNABIS CONCENTRATES, OILS AND EXTRACTS

Extracts, concentrates, and oils — these are all terms you might have heard or seen recently at your local cannabis shop, or online. If you’re not 100% sure about what one or some of them mean, don’t fret, we’ll be grinding down all of these terms in this blog, along with others, leaving you with nugs of wisdom on this glorious plant that keeps on giving.

Now you might be wondering why anyone would bother to learn all these technical terms when you can easily buy pre-rolls or bud from a store? Flowers might work well for you and your lifestyle, but there are plenty of great reasons to try alternatives.

TOP FOUR REASONS TO TRY SMOKELESS CANNABIS

1. Smoke-free consumption: Vaping, ingesting, or applying topical extracts are healthier and cleaner alternatives to smoking.

2. Potency: Oils and concentrates offer more potent and efficient products than smoking just the cannabis flower. Ounce for ounce, concentrates have a greater proportion of cannabinoids and terpenes when compared to cannabis flowers.

3. Cleaner consumption: Removing excess plant materials and impurities leaves us with smoother, cleaner, refined extracts.

4. Flavour: When properly removed from the plant, all of the tasty terpenes are trapped in extracts. All of that flavour, and the synergistic effects of terpenes with THC and CBD, can be passed along to the user.

CANNABIS EXTRACTS
An extract is a type of concentrate created using solvents. Solvents, like ethanol, butane, propane, or carbon dioxide, are substances that are capable of chemically dissolving solutes, like trichomes (the good stuff) and other components off the cannabis plant, forming a highly potent solution. Butane hash oil, shatter, C02-extracted cannabis wax or oil, and live resin are some of the examples of cannabis extracts.

Butane — Hash OilCommonly referred to as BHO, this is an oil created by using butane as the primary solvent during the extraction process. BHO comes in a variety of textures and consistencies based on the techniques used during and after extraction. BHO extraction gives us products like shatter, badder, crumble, and sauce.

Live Resin — This extract falls under the umbrella of BHO, and is considered the champagne of cannabis concentrates. Using cryogenic freezing to flash-freeze the cannabis plants immediately after they’re harvested, the primary goal of extracting Live Resin is to reproduce the aromas and essence of the live cannabis plant.

CANNABIS CONCENTRATES
Similar to extracts, cannabis concentrates come in a variety of textures, and require different methods for consumption. Concentrates, however, are created using mechanical or physical means, rather than solvents. 

Resin — This sticky organic compound is secreted by plants to protect them from injury, predators, and pests. The resin produced by the cannabis plant holds together the trichomes- tiny, crystal-like hairs that you might have noticed on mature female plants- which contain cannabinoids (THC & CBD) and terpenes. Resin is also a term used to refer to the dark residue left in bongs or pipes after use.

Hashish — When the tiny, resinous glands that cover the cannabis plants, the trichomes, dry and fall off, they’re known as kief. Kief is commonly collected at the bottom of cannabis flower grinders, but it can also be pounded, or manipulated in other ways. Pressed kief is what makes up Hashish- a sticky disc or ball of cannabis pollen.

Bubble Hash — This solventless extract that gets its name from the way that it bubbles when exposed to flame, and because of the bags used to make it, known as “bubble bags.” Extracting Bubble Hash involves agitating the whole cannabis plant in ice-filled water, causing the trichomes to freeze, break off, and sink to the bottom to be sifted using mesh filters. The end result is a crumbly, THC-rich concentrate that can be smoked or dabbed.

Rosin — is another solventless concentrate, which is extracted using pressure and gentle heat to squeeze out the resinous sap from cannabis flowers. There are three main types of Rosin, based on the starting material from which they will be pressed: Flower Rosin, Hash Rosin, and Dry Sift (Kief) Rosin. This particular cannabis derivable is popular because of how easy it is to make it, and how little cleanup or equipment is required (a regular hair straightener and parchment paper will do!).