As the cannabis consumer market matures into well-informed shoppers, more weed enthusiasts have begun exploring the variety of products available. While joints and blunts are ever popular, marijuana concentrates have caught the attention of both weed smokers and non-smokers.
These cannabis extracts are becoming the favored way to consume weed that’s at its highest potency levels. Thus, dabbing, vaping, and using concentrates as additives in infused prerolls and edibles are the new ways to enjoy marijuana. If you’re looking to try out marijuana concentrates, knowing the different types will help you understand and select which products to start with.
Here’s a guide to discovering strong marijuana concentrates to find the best products.
Shatter
As one of the most popular and well-known marijuana concentrates, shatter has become a staple in the cannabis consumer market. It’s called shatter thanks to its brittle and glassy type of appearance. Unlike most concentrates that come in a dollop mass, shatter has a thin hardened sheet-like texture.
It’s made through an extraction method to separate the cannabinoids and terpenes from the rest of the cannabis plant. In the end is a concentrate that can be translucent in color to a yellow and dark brown and up to 80% THC potency. Some of the best marijuana products where you can consume shatter are edibles, pre-rolls, infused pre-rolls, or bought as an individual item to add to a dab rig. The best strains used to make shatter are classics like Golden Pineapple, Jack Ripper, and Diamond OG.
Budder
Also known as ‘butter’ or cannabutter because of its smooth and creamy consistency, budder is a concentrate created through a meticulous cannabinoid extraction and whipping process. The result is a highly potent cannabis concentrate of up to 80% THC level that ends up in a variety of colors ranging from amber to yellow.
Budder can be smoked using a dab rig or a vaporizer or smoked when infused with a pre-roll as an extra ingredient to give it more kick. Popular cannabis flower strains used to create budder are Bubba Kush, White Widow, Skywalker, and OG Kush. Despite its strength budder is considered a beginner-friendly concentrate because the consistency makes it easy to handle when using dabbing and vape tools.
Rosin
Many new marijuana concentrate consumers confuse rosin and live resin because of the similar sounding names, but rosin is made using heat and pressure with no extraction, using hash, sift, and cured marijuana flower. There’s also CBD rosin oil made from pressed hemp and live rosin cartridges. The result is a substance with a variety of consistencies from soft and buttery slabs to a smooth and runny sauce in a golden to dark yellow color.
What rosin lacks in potency it more than makes up for in flavor and aroma it retains from processing because no chemical solvents are used to make it. It’s also one of the only concentrates that can be made at home by experts instead of using a lab or manufacturer. Just like other concentrates, rosin can be dabbed or with a vape because it works at lower temperatures. It can also be added to a bong bowl over some sprinkled flower.
Diamonds
If there was a premium form of marijuana concentrates, it would be diamonds or THC diamonds. These are top-shelf concentrates of the highest quality because they’re almost a pure form of THC at 99% potency. Diamond concentrates are for smokers with the highest tolerance because they are the most potent concentrate in the cannabis market. This is a great benefit if you’re looking for intensely strong effects.
Furthermore, the diamonds are heated for dabbing or vaporizing with a flower added to give it an extra aroma and flavor because diamonds contain no cannabinoids or terpenes. Just like its namesake, diamonds have a crystalline gemstone cube appearance with a translucent and yellow color. They can be sold individually in a glass jar or come with their terp sauce.
Wax
Just as the name suggests, cannabis wax is a concentrate with a sticky waxy texture that is created by extracting cannabinoids and terpenes. The substance is then put through a whipping process to soften it to its usual frosting and wax consistency and a bright yellow to dark grainy brown color.
Wax can be consumed by vaporizing or dabbing, eaten when added to edibles, or applied topically on the skin in creams as a medical cannabis product. It can also be dissolved to make CBD oil concentrates and tinctures ingested under the tongue. Furthermore, the high levels of THC and its very quick effectiveness in the bloodstream make it a fast-acting and intensely potent concentrate. This is a major benefit for medical cannabis patients looking for immediate relief from medical conditions.
Live Resin
This concentrate is made from freshly frozen cannabis where cannabinoids, terpenes, and compounds are extracted to preserve its rich aroma and flavor. In the end, it turns out to be a sticky honey-colored substance with a varying potency level and a high-quality, premium cannabis product. Cannabis smokers can consume live resin by dabbing through a dab rig or vaporizer and inhaling the vapor or when it’s infused into a prerolls flower cone.
Non-smokers can enjoy live resin when it’s added to edibles as a cannabis ingredient such as gummies, chocolates, and cookies. When you buy live resin as an individual item, it will be contained in a small glass jar to keep it cool and last longer for storage. Some of the best cannabis strains used to manufacture live resin include Sour Diesel, Northern Lights, and Snoop Dogg OG.
Conclusion
The marijuana concentrates market continues to grow and weed enthusiasts can’t get enough of these highly potent extracts. Most are a yellow to orange substance extracted from the marijuana plant from its cannabinoids and terpenes. These different types of concentrates have a variety of textures and consistencies to allow cannabis smokers to choose their preferences.
The concentrate can then be smoked in a preroll, dabbed, vaped, or consumed with edibles for non-smokers. In the end, there are cannabis concentrate products to satisfy every marijuana consumer’s tastes at your nearest dispensary.