Wana
Are you curious about the more potent side of cannabis? Here’s everything you should know about cannabis concentrates, including a few High Country Healing staff picks.
The HCH team is here to help with a guide to the wide world of concentrates, including what they are and how to consume these forms of cannabis. We’ll also share our favorite types of cannabis concentrates so you can start exploring.
What are the types of cannabis concentrates?
There are many types of marijuana concentrate made from cannabis plants. We’ll explain them in detail below, but here’s a handy list of the most common forms to get you started:
- Budder
- Crumble
- Shatter
- Sugar wax
- Crystalline
- THC oil
How are cannabis concentrates consumed?
Cannabis Live Resin
What is live resin?
Live resin is created with an extraction process where high-quality cannabis plant matter is flash frozen and blasted with a chemical solvent before being pressed. Depending on how the resin is treated during processing, the final product might be:
Sugar
Extract with a crumbly, brown sugar consistency, typically high in THC.
Budder
A super soft, waxy extract with a sticky consistency and high terpene levels.
Badder
Another name for budder, a cookie dough consistency distillate with a soft, yielding texture.
Diamonds
Crystalline structures formed from live rosin left to separate during the curing process.
Cannabis Shatter
What is shatter?
One of the most common forms of cannabis concentrates, shatter is incredibly popular with concentrate enthusiasts. It looks like hard candy or stained glass, and it’s as potent as it is pretty. While it can be difficult to smoke without a rig, shatter remains at the top of the distillate game because of its potency. With upwards of 80% THC content, it’s one of the strongest concentrates out there.
Cannabis Waxes
What is wax?
Packing as potent a punch as shatter but easier to smoke if you don’t have a dedicated rig, cannabis wax can be smoked with a specialty vape pen designed for wax vaporization. It is soft, sticky, and aromatic, and it serves up a whopping 80-90% THC content with a higher level of terpenes and flavonoids than shatter typically contains, resulting in a more aromatic experience.
Cannabis Rosin
What is rosin?
Created using heat and pressure in a process originally dreamed up to create rosin for violin bows, rosin is a solventless cannabis extract, making it especially appealing for extract enthusiasts who are looking to keep their high-potency smoking experience all natural. Consumed with a dab rig or rosin vape pen, it packs a powerful punch without the solvents some cannabis users prefer to avoid.
Hash
What is hash?
One of the oldest forms of cannabis concentrate, hash making has been practiced for centuries, although modern methods are far more sophisticated than those Napoleon’s soldiers used! Like rosin, it’s solvent free, produced using physical processes and temperature manipulation to create various types of final products.
Dry sift hash
A collection of resin that has been sifted off cannabis flower through a series of mesh screens, dry sift hash is basically fancy kief. Flowers are agitated to break off dried resin and allow the trichomes to pass through a series of increasingly fine screens to create a powdery substance.
Bubble hash
Also called ice water hash, bubble hash is formed by submerging flower in ice water to freeze the trichomes. The liquid is agitated to break the trichomes free before filtering through screens in the same way dry hash is created. The resulting resin is dried to produce bubble hash.
High Country Healing Staff Picks
Doug says that Green Dot Fortissimo Rosin is the “Cleanest, stoniest, rosin I’ve ever smoked…. Straight GAS!!!!”
Jack C says their Lemon Gutter Rum is the “Perfect wake and bake rosin…. Great with coffee.”
And Alycia says their Dali Rosin has an “Amazing taste! Sweet and funky. My fav rosin to date. Effect was super stoney and chill at the same time!”
But with so many amazing brands to choose from, Green Dot isn’t the only staff favorite.
Scout said that the Summit Cheese Wiz is “Very cheezy!” with a “Great stoney chill high.” It’s the perfect concentrate for kicking back and chilling hard.
Joe also went for the supine vibes. His pick for his favorite concentrate is 1:11 Blue Velvet, which he calls, “The best relaxer at the end of the day to wind down after aspen peeping.”