Cannabis is a natural substance that can potentially provide you with several benefits. It is known to provide psychoactive feelings, putting you in a state of euphoria and relaxation. Additionally, several studies have also shown that cannabis is capable of providing many health benefits.
Despite this fact, many people don’t know what cannabis or cannabis concentrates are. That said, below are a few facts about cannabis concentrates.
What are Cannabis Concentrates?
To know what concentrates are, the first thing you would have to know is what cannabis is and how it provides people with psychoactive feelings. Cannabis is a substance that contains cannabinoids. These cannabinoids are responsible for interacting with the brain and the endocannabinoid system responsible for maintaining homeostasis and regulating so many body activities.
So far, there are about 113 cannabinoids you can get from cannabis, but two of the most important are THC and CBD. The effect cannabis has on you largely depends on the concentration of these two cannabinoids. Luckily, weed is readily available in Canada. Thus, there are many places you can steadily get weed or Coco Coir only from trusted dispensaries. They sell a variety of CBD products such as CBD oil, CBD gummies, and so on.
Additionally, you can also find Terpenes in cannabis. You can find them in many insects and plants, and they give off a strong odor. There are over 120 terpenes in cannabis, and they give the cannabis strains their trademark flavor and smell. Terpenes also enhance the psychoactive effects and potential health benefits you get from cannabis.
Cannabis concentrates are chemicals that producers have carefully processed, removing unnecessary substances like chlorophyll and other impurities. These cannabis concentrates often contain THC, CBD, and Terpenes.
Types Of Cannabis Concentrates
Understandably, many people don’t know that there are two main types of variants, which are solvent and solvent and non-solvent concentrates. For you to understand what they are, here are a few facts about both of them below:
-
Solvent Concentrates
These are cannabis concentrates that manufacturers make with solvents. Some of these solvents include alcohol, butane, and Carbon dioxide. These solvents do not include water. When it comes to solvent-based cannabis concentrates, there are several ways to classify them. Some of them are wax, shatter, and budder.
Shatter is a hard substance resembling a glass-like structure. Since it looks like glass, it has a transparent structure. However, it would be best not to confuse transparency for purity. Contrastingly, wax is a soft substance resembling a gel-like structure. It is not transparent. In addition to the difference in structure between shatter and wax, there is also a difference between how much these substances were agitated during extraction. If cannabis is agitated frequently while extracting it, it will become wax, and less frequent agitation would make it the shatter variant.
Budder is the last variant of solvent concentrates, and it is a wax-like substance with a creamy texture that looks similar to butter. This is arguably the most common because of how easy it is for people to use it. Producers mainly get budder by heating shatter to a very high temperature. When you want to get budder from shatter, make sure you whip shatter on a hot plate mildly but thoroughly at the same time.
-
Non-solvent Concentrates
As you may have already guessed, non-solvents are cannabis concentrates that manufacturers produce without using solvents. Instead, they manipulate its shape and texture using only external pressure and heat. They come in multiple forms, but some of them include kief, hash, and Charas.
Kief is the most simple non-Solent concentrate you can get. You can quickly get kief by shaking up some cannabis flowers and having something to collect the particles underneath. When you do that, you can easily scrape off the kiev.
Hash is very similar to kief. However, the only difference is that manufacturers get this form of non-solvent concentrate by compressing kief. This is arguably the most common cannabis concentrate globally, as many people continue to demand hash. The shoe method is the simplest method to make hash, and you can do this by using cellophane and a plastic bag without any airspaces or air bubbles to wrap your kief. After, you can put this bag under something heavy and warm for a while. You can even insert it under the heel of your shoe and walk around with it. The more time you leave it in for, the higher the concentration of hash you will get.
Lastly, Charas is similar to both of the cannabis concentrates mentioned above, with the only difference being that it uses fresh leaves instead of dried cannabis. If you want to make this non-solvent concentrate, you can do so using the hand rolling method. Start by taking newly cut leaves from your cannabis plant and running them through your fingers. This would help to remove the resin. However, try to apply slight pressure while doing this. By now, there should be some residue on your fingers. Keep rubbing this residue together until it becomes a stick or ball. The result is Charas.
Final Thoughts
Cannabis is a beneficial substance that can help you improve your quality of life. Cannabis flowers and cannabis concentrates are different in some ways. The most significant difference is that cannabis concentrates contain THC, CBD, and Terpenes, while cannabis contains many impurities.
