Thru my journey in the cannabis scene within the past 8 years, I’ve noticed that those who don’t consume concentrates, usually abstain due to a lack of knowledge. They may have heard snippets of various extraction processes and or seen someone take out a torch and blast a piece of glass until its red hot…it can all be a bit MUCH. Resin, Rosin, RSO, Distillate, all forms of concentrates with different extraction methods and uses. To someone who has smoked green their whole life, why make the switch? The TL;DR for a higher potential of medicinal value/ potential health benefits for combustion-only smokers. In this article I hope to provide some insight on the world of concentrated cannabis and why I have personally fallen in love with HASH.
What is hashish? Hashish (hash), is a collection of trichomes from the cannabis plant. Traditionally this is collected using either ice-water extraction or a method called Dry-Sifting. Ice-Water extraction is what is most common today and it involves ‘washing’ fresh frozen cannabis (cannabis cut right from the plant and stored in the freezer until 100% frozen) in water near 32 F, this will separate the trichome heads to be collected and sorted via various micron screens. Dry-Sifting is done using dried material placed on top of a stack of micron screens in which you gently shake and ‘sift’ the heads through each screen. Both methods can produce great quality hashish though Ice-Water extraction of live plants is considered superior due to the way it preserves the live terpenes of the plant.
When I first familiarized myself with cannabis concentrates, BHO ‘Shatter’ was all the rage. Golden sheets of sticky sap-like substance, typically came inside of a yellow envelope with the strain on the outside (if you were lucky) with the wax encased in parchment paper on the inside. BHO is also known as Butane Hash Oil and it is extracted using pressurized columns full of your blasting material (weed) and gas to build the pressure (butane). This became a common practice and I would say about 90-98% of the wax on the market at that time was made in a similar fashion. This is likely due to how much more this extraction method yields when compared to Ice water extraction (the process used to make hashish that has been around for centuries). Nowadays BHO is often referred to as Live Resin. You may also see Cured Resin which is the same extraction process but using cured material instead of fresh frozen. The last thing to know about BHO is CRC. I know, what's with all the acronyms? CRC or (Color Remediation Column) is much like what it sounds. A filter. At first, this makes sense, my water is filtered. Why wouldn’t I want my cannabis? Well for a few reasons, the main one being most people judge concentrates on how light in color they are. This is not always correct, but we as consumers generally tend to like lighter/ ‘purer’ concentrates. With the introduction of CRC, you can blast material you wouldn’t even think about wanting to roll up and make it look like you blasted the best material in the state. It is only upon smoking that you will realize that either A. the medicinal value is not what you’d expect it to be, B. If you are familiar with concentrates it may be harsher than you are used to, C. Everything that has been CRCd has a ‘taste’ to it. CRC has made it very hard to trust the BHO market and I believe it is why we see such a saturated Rosin market today.
Bubble Hash and Rosin have been around for quite some time. Your stoner uncle probably can tell you a few stories about his buddy’s bubble from back in the day. It is only in recent years that hash rosin has gained popularity to the point of almost mainstream consumption. I believe that this will only trend upward as more users become educated about hash and its history. With there being such a wide variety of hash makers out there now, there have come a lot of different techniques and practices to the growing and washing cycle to get a ‘preferred’ product. Some of these differences can include different micron sizes (hash that is labeled full-spec has all of the microns from the wash in the jar, while a jar labeled 90-120u would only have that range of trichome heads inside), varying wash times, longer or shorter growth cycles (this can produce a lighter or darker resin, lighter resin tends to be more cerebral and darker tends to be more body), and the list goes on. One of the only things that almost everyone will agree upon is that if you are farming for resin, typically, organic-based farming/nutrients will give you a higher yield.
All in all there are many different ways to skin the cannabis concentrate cat. It is up to us as a community to help educate our fellow consumers in a way that inclusive and inviting. Share what you’re passionate about and believe in, and others will follow; this is the way of the hash.
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