What are weed concentrates? This question has been trending more and more as we go deeper into the cannabis industry. Today we will take a look at the definition, benefits, methods, and types of cannabinoids or weed concentrate and the logic behind it all.
Any weed enthusiast could have told you that the topic of weed concentrates has gained a lot of traction and attention as of late, even more so with recent changes in legislation. As well as big pharmaceutical giants that are all on the prowl for medical grade active ingredients, it is easy to understand why.
This raises the question of ‘what are weed concentrates?’ and why I would consider consuming weed concentrates as opposed to good old bud straight from the tree.
What are weed concentrates exactly?
Weed concentrates refer to certain chemical compounds, known as cannabinoids. These cannabinoids are present in the cannabis plant. Weed actually contains more than 110 different types of cannabinoids, the two who receive the most attention are THC (TetraHydroCannabinol) and CBD (CannaBiDiol), because of their extremely valuable medicinal properties.
The extract itself could either contain these compounds in a combination of both THC and CBD in a certain ratio, or the extract could consist of pure CBD or pure THC.
The point of extracting these compounds is to alleviate the user of digesting other unwanted or ‘unnecessary’ compounds such as normal plant materials, which may become hazardous, especially if you are planning on burning and smoking it in your pipe or in a joint.
In a nutshell, weed concentrates are concentrated forms of the stuff, inside of cannabis plants, that makes us high or cures us of certain illnesses.
So now that we know what weed concentrates are, let us look a bit closer into some of the more common forms in which you can purchase weed concentrates in the market today.
Hashish
Probably one of the oldest and most ancient forms of weed concentrates is hashish, a sticky type of putty made up of cannabis resin with a blackish appearance on the outside and a dark green color when you crack it open. Presumably descended out of India, hashish (or hash) consists of very little plant material and a combination of CBD and THC.
The ratio of which is dependent on the strain of marijuana used. It is traditionally made by rubbing your hands clean of the resin stuck to your skin or to your tools after working with dried out cannabis plants. Applying the same method but working with wet cannabis, as opposed to dried out material, results in a substance similar in appearance to hashish but with minor aromatic differences, called “charas”.
There are a number of other methods in which hash could be extracted like the dry-ice method or mechanically extracting the pollen by beating the trees over sieves.
Cannabutter
If it is edibles you are looking for, cannabutter may be your answer. Cannabutter is made by first roasting a predetermined amount of weed in an oven and then gradually adding the roasted weed to a pot of melted butter, or any other unsaturated fatty acid.
Then, allowing the brew to simmer on low heat, to enable the cannabinoids to merge with the structure of the butter. The excess plant material is removed out from the brew and the liquid is allowed to emulsify. A golden greenish butter remains, known as cannabutter.
Basically, any dish which requires butter in the recipe could be replaced with cannabutter for a tasty yet potent meal. Apart from physically consuming cannabutter, people also apply it externally to parts of the body.
CBD oil
CBD oil is usually very dark in appearance and is typically contained within a syringe for measuring the dosage. The recent production of CBD oil relies on male hemp cannabis plants, as this sex of cannabis plants has a very low percentage of THC concentration but often yields superior CBD concentrations.
Female plants also produce CBD, but the extraction process of pure CBD from female plants is much more complex and expensive and thus probably the reason why big companies are looking to hemp for CBD oil extraction.
This substance has been praised for its anti-tumor properties, creating a lot of hype in the pharmaceutical industry. Apart from its use as alternative cancer medicine, it has shown astonishing results in people with severe epileptic seizures, which drastically changed the quality of life of these individuals.
CBD oil is in high demand and websites are selling these miracle oils very successfully.
THC oil
Now we get to the more icky side of what are weed concentrates. THC concentrated oils come in a spectrum of different shapes and forms and have acquired all kinds of different names such as Honey, DAB, Shatter, etc. The difference in the name is usually prescribed to the method of THC extraction.
Honey
This normally gets extracted via the butane extraction method, which is certainly not the cleanest method to extract pure THC. Butane honey is golden brown in appearance and is a sticky paste, but not as sticky as the other concentrates discussed below.
DAB and Shatter
Both of these concentrates are two sides of the same coin. These terms are more associated with smoking the oils as opposed to eating them. DAB is usually a bit runnier in texture whereas shatter is much more sticky and see-through than DAB.
These substances are typically extracted from cannabis using a hydraulic press or using a dry ice system to separate the THC from the plant material. You can order some world class Pink Kush Shatter or Dark Star Shatter.
You could, of course, merely consume these oils orally and still experience the desired effects associated with THC, within 45-90 minutes of consumption. This, however, is seldom the case with recreational use of THC oils. In recent times we have come to witness a kind of cannabis sub-culture dedicated to smoking THC oils in a variety of fashions.
When smoking THC oils, the effects are almost instant from the moment of inhaling the smoke or vapor, and it withholds some of the negative effects associated with burning plant material, which is the probable cause of its popularity amongst users.
THC and CBD combinations
Certain experts claim that weed concentrates work most effective for curing humans at a THC- and CBD-concentration ratio of 1:1. Oils like Wildberry Tincture offer that perfect 1:1 ratio.
In our quest to determine ‘what are weed concentrates’ it is clear that we are only in the initial phases of designing different concentrates. Cannabis extraction and concentration is only a recent phenomenon in a plant that has thousands of years of history, thus we can eagerly anticipate other forms of weed extracts which could come in the future. For now, we can sit back and enjoy the sweet aromas of hash, indulge in the delicious meals infused with cannabutter, treat sick individuals using CBD oils and laugh as our mates get teary-eyed from smoking DAB and getting blazed.
You can browse a wide selection of the world’s best oil concentrates to find the perfect one for your needs.
