Cannabis Extracts and Concentrates

Quartz - the vaporisation surface of choice

As the world of cannabis concentrates evolves, so do the methods of consumption used to enjoy these extracts. The basic principle of vaporising the extract and inhaling it through a water pipe or rig/bubbler made from borosilicate glass remains the same, although the size of these bubblers has, as a general rule, reduced somewhat over time. The main changes have been in the surfaces upon which the vaporisation itself takes place. In a short number of years, we've gone from fairly rudimentary methods like titanium skillets or swings, through adjustable nails with glass domes, domeless nails made from ceramic or titanium, right up to the quartz "banger" nails used as a standard by almost anyone who dabs today. Even these quartz nails have evolved in the last couple of years, from the early slanted-top design to the flat-top bangers that are de-rigueur at the session these days, and on to even more creative and functional designs. Who knows what innovations will await us in the coming years?

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Kief is a substance derived from cannabis and consisting - for the most part, as you’re about to see - of glandular trichomes. It is, therefore, a resin extraction of considerably higher strength (cannabinoid concentration) than the buds used in its preparation. Given its old age and popularity in many disparate areas, it has multiple names like kifi, kif, skuff, dry sift, and of course, kief.

As is often the case with extracts obtained without solvents, you can find differing qualities, which depend on a number of factors as varied as the cannabis strains used and the mesh size of the sieves with which the plant matter is sifted. Let's see exactly what kief is and how to obtain it.

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Without a doubt, BHO is one of the most popular resin extractions of the last decade. Thanks to modern extraction techniques and equipment, and the surfacing of high-quality ultra-refined butane brands, this type of concentrates became especially popular a few years ago, since apart from allowing you to process a large amount of plant material in a short time, the final result offers an amazing quality and purity, particularly when compared with the concentrates prior to the appearance of BHO (Butane Hash Oil).

Nevertheless, thanks to this butane extraction process, it’s possible to achieve different textures by changing certain parameters during the purge, like temperature or product agitation. Modifying these parameters will give different results known as Wax, Sap, Crumble, or the one we’re dealing with today, Shatter. Let's see exactly what it is and how to make it.

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How do I make cannabis oil capsules?

Cannabis is a plant that can be consumed orally and form part of a healthy diet, but too often, the characteristic flavour of this plant can be a turn-off, and it’s not easy to find tasty new recipes to which we can add our weed.

Preparing cannabis in the form of capsules allows us to get over these two limitations and orally ingest cannabinoids in a simple and effective way. In this article, we’ll show you how to make your own cannabis capsules, or “canna caps” for therapeutic and recreational use.

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Thanks to the rise of resin extractions - largely due to cannabis legalization, in many US states - cannabis users can choose among a growing number of different products, from the classic dry sieved hash - also known as dry sift or kief - to the purest cannabinoid distillates. Today, we would like to talk about one of these products, which in fact is a combination of several types of extractions and the actual plant matter; that is, the bud itself.

Known as Sun Rocks and Moon Rocks, it’s a product marketed in the United States since 2014, which due to its striking looks and high potency, it hasn’t stopped gaining supporters. Let us explain next what cannabis Moon Rocks are and how to make them.

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At this point in time, many of you would have tried two of the most famous cannabis concentrates - BHO and Rosin - or at least you´d have heard of them. They are two types of resin extracts that, while being similar in terms of purity, flavour and aroma, they use totally different extraction methods; which can lead us to opt for BHO, obtained by washing the plant matter in butane gas, or Rosin, a concentrate of similar quality and strength, but produced with no chemical solvents.

Naturally, both methods have their pros and cons, which can make us lean towards one technique over the other. In this article we are going to analyse their main features and highlight their most important advantages and disadvantages.

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Over the years, many new and different ways have been developed to extract resin from the cannabis plant, ranging from the age-old Charas, typical of Central Asia, to the modern methods of BHO or Rosin. Nevertheless, today we're going to present one of the oldest techniques for separating the cannabinoids and terpenes of cannabis from the plant material.

Cannabis extractions and tinctures made with alcohol are products of one of the most ancient techniques still in use, particularly in the field of medicinal cannabis. The theory is simple: by macerating cannabis leaves or flowers in alcohol, the trichomes are dissolved and their contents infused with the chosen alcohol. Today we'll show you how to prepare Green Dragon, one of the names by which we refer to this type of extraction and without a doubt one that will provide us with many memorable moments!

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Nowadays, the increase in the types of resin extractions and the different extraction methods are nothing like the situation just a few years ago. Soon after the introduction of concentrates such as BHO (Butane Hash Oil), a new technique of mechanical separation called Rosin was developed. This method uses no chemical solvents, relying on just pressure and heat. Nevertheless, if there is a cannabis concentrate which has been "rejuvenated" during the last few years is, without doubt, hash, the oldest of them all.

Thanks to modern techniques such as static electricity dry sift and the processing of fresh material, these types of concentrates have reached a degree of purity never before seen. Due to legalisation in numerous places, professionals have been able to develop new methods and to implement machinery solely reserved until now for other applications, both during the extraction procedure and the post-processing phase. This is the case of the Harvest Right freeze dryers, used to perfectly dry bubble hash or ice water hash, and which are increasingly popular among concentrates artists thanks to the many advantages they offer, and which we will see below.

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Why isolate cannabinoids?

In recent times we've seen a great increase in the amount of isolated cannabinoids coming onto the market, with CBD crystals and pure THC distillate becoming a more frequent sight on the menus of dispensaries. Their popularity is mostly due to the ease of calculating dosage amounts. While the vast majority of resin extracts have an unknown cannabinoid content, when we isolate a cannabinoid, users can be confident that they have a product with a purity approaching 100%, which makes it very simple to adjust dosage to a specific amount of milligrams. This is particularly important when preparing edibles, tinctures or other products for oral consumption, where knowing the cannabinoid content is vital to avoid any ill effects caused by ingesting too much THC.

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Rosin has become a hugely popular extraction method, not only because it's really easy to carry out and completely safe, with no risk of explosions or fire, but also because of the purity of the results, giving clean cannabis concentrates produced using only heat and pressure, totally free of solvents, and within the reach of everyone.

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What are Solvent Extracts?

Whereas all solventless concentrates are extracted via mechanical means, be it agitation or heat and pressure, we can also make cannabis concentrates with a wide range of chemical and organic solvents, most commonly butane, propane, ethanol and CO2. This process works by dissolving the trichome heads in the liquid solvent which is separated from the plant material and purged (evaporated off) in a vacuum oven or dessicator and vacuum pump to ensure we are left with a pure resin extract with as little residual solvent as possible. Solvents are divided into two groups, polar and non-polar, with non-polar solvents like butane readily dissolving non-polar compounds from the plant, in this case the oils and lipids making up the trichome heads. Polar solvents like Ethanol however will extract both non-polar and polar compounds, meaning water-soluble compounds like chlorophyll are more likely be extracted alongside cannabinoids and terpenes. Many of the solvents used in extractions are highly flammable, meaning only the proper equipment should be used to extract and purge, and additionally a high level of safety and care must be taken to avoid accidents at all stages of the process.

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Until recently, it was very difficult to find professional quality extractions without investing several thousand euros in a complex closed circuit system.

Herborizer offers one of the most interesting alternatives with this Passive Mini Closed Loop system. Closed circuit systems permit us to obtain better quality oils thanks to the purification of the gas (which we will

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Nowadays more and more people are being made aware of the benefits of consuming cannabis resin extracts or concentrates, they are more efficient, with higher purity and potency, they have better flavour and give relief more quickly than smoking or vaping flowers. Indeed, in California, cannabis flowers currently make up just over half of the market (55% in the 2nd quarter of 2017.), with extracts making up the remaining 45%, and according to figures from Colorado, another beacon of legalisation in the US, the concentrate market is growing at an astounding rate, with sales increasing by 125% from 2015 to 2016, compared to an 11% rise in flower sales and a 53% rise in edibles.

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Cannabis concentrate consumers are increasingly numerous thanks to the advances in equipment available on the market allowing the production of good quality homemade cannabis resin extractions. Here, fans of Rosin or BHO can find various different methods to consume their extracts.

Spread on rolling paper (Twax Joint)

One of the simplest and probably one of the oldest methods, in the 70's, consumers of honey oil made with alcohol would smoke it by smearing some onto a cigarette.

Now in 2018 consumer habits have evolved somewhat. The Twax Joint has become famous across instagram and it's frequent to see increasingly complex and highly decorative spliffs covered with various different types of cannabis oil, it seems there are no limits to the creativity and imagination of cannabis users.

When consuming this type of joint, we should take some care not let the oil drip off and fall to the ground, we will have to hold the joint in an upright position to ensure the oil flows onto the paper.

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What is reclaim?

Any lover of dabbing cannabis extracts and concentrates has seen, every now and then, some yellowish/brownish residue stuck to the internal parts of his water pipe or bubbler. This residue is basically composed of resin, which gets stuck to the glass due to the recondensation of the vapour.

This residue is often called reclaim, and while its appearance may not seem as eye-catching as the "raw" concentrate, it still contains large amounts of cannabinoids that can be used.

Be careful though, for reclaim must not be confused with the resin stuck to the pipes from the combustion of dried flowers, which does not contain much cannabinoids due to the high temperatures reached during combustion. We're exclusively talking about the resin accumulated in rigs and dropdowns when dabbing extracts.

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Comparing two techniques of hashmaking

In this article, we will be examining and comparing the two most popular approaches to making ice water hash, bubble hash or Ice-O-Lator from cannabis buds: In the first two extractions, we will be using fresh-frozen material to make the hash, while the second two extractions will be carried out using dried, cured flowers.

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