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D.I.Y. Edibles Essentials

May 26, 2023 Published by

Christina Wong is a culinary cannabis educator, recipe creator, and self-described “baked baker” whose expertise making her own edibles has garnered widespread attention throughout the industry. From beautifully decorated shortbread desserts, elaborate cakes, and a wide variety of other delicious creations, Wong frequently celebrates the intersection between culinary art and cannabis.

Through her creative media company Fruit + Flower Co., Wong teaches others how to properly understand the process of making their own edibles by demystifying the terminology, reviewing the methods of infusion, discussing correct dosing, and providing numerous recipes to put all the learning into practice. High Times took a moment to chat with Wong about tips for beginners, which infusion methods are best, and what’s trending in the edibles scene.

The Art of the Home Edible

To Wong, food and cannabis are a perfect combination.

“If you like cannabis, you love food, because the best thing in the whole world is to get high and eat,” she says.

Despite this, many people miss out on the enjoyment of homemade edibles because cooking with cannabis can be intimidating.

“When I first started looking [for information], there was this mystique and mystery to making edibles,” Wong says. “For me, there was definitely a fear of messing up or making it too potent, getting too high, or giving something to somebody that gets them too high. I want to challenge people to rethink that we can make cannabutter and edibles at very low doses, it doesn’t have to be all super high dose.”

Buying edibles at the dispensary is convenient, but it can be cost prohibitive, she says. 

“I think that cannabis is such an important plant medicine that the more people know how to cook and bake at home so that they can give themselves and their loved ones medicine, the better.”

Photo by Cherrnor Malekani @visualsbychern

Understanding Infusion

Wong shares that one of the most primary essentials to creating edibles is understanding proper dosing. Instead of decarbing flower and infusing a fat like cannabutter she recommends beginners try adding an oil-based tincture in which the THC dosing is already measured. Once confidence is established, home cooks can start to learn how to decarboxylate their flowers or trim. All of the recipes Wong posts online use whole flower infused with either cannabis-infused butter or oil, and include directions to dose at 5 mg per serving or less.

For first timers, Wong recommends going for an easy decarboxylation method: Mason jars in an oven.

“Everyone has a Mason jar, everyone has an oven, and it’s foolproof,” she explains. “It’s smell proof. There’s less smell. And even if it’s not the most efficient way of getting all of the cannabinoids to convert and to infuse, at least that’s the place to start. And then they can get their confidence, and then try something new.”

Wong explains in more detail on Fruit + Flower Co. that her usual process to decarb cannabis includes placing cannabis flower in a pint-sized Mason jar and sealing the jar with a lid. After setting the oven to 240 degrees Fahrenheit, she heats the cannabis an hour, shaking the jar every 20 minutes. After it is left to cool, the decarbed cannabis can be infused to a fat such as butter or oil.

Courtesy Fruit + Flower Co.

Expanding Expertise

While Wong has made it her goal to educate and inspire others to learn how to make their own edibles, it is but one facet of her expertise. In the past, Wong worked with brands and organizations to create unique desserts, such as Source Cannabis and Stündenglass. Most recently, she helped host the AAPI (Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders) 3rd Annual Mogu Magu party (Mogu meaning mushroom in Chinese, and Magu is the name of a Chinese hemp goddess) held in September to celebrate the mid-autumn festival.

Although she recommends using whole flower for beginners, Wong sometimes branches out to use a variety of other types of cannabis ingredients in her more elaborate creations.

“I’ve been experimenting more cooking with concentrates just because I love the pure flavor of that,” she says. “You can get so much flavor and terpene profile and high potency using concentrates.”

Making edibles at home offers unlimited potential, but edibles sold in dispensaries are usually more limited. But recently Wong has noticed an increase in edibles infused with solventless concentrates as well as savory edible offerings.

“I’m seeing more solventless edibles coming out onto the market because I think people are caring more about the quality of not just the ingredients of what goes into their edibles, but also the quality of the cannabis that goes in,” Wong says. “But I think if you are a plant enthusiast, and you want to appreciate all flavors, and everything the plant has to offer, solventless is absolutely the way to go.”

fruitandflower.co

Courtesy Fruit + Flower Co.

Recipe: Brown Butter Vanilla Bean Shortbread Bars

by Christina Wong

Soft and crumbly, these luscious browned butter and vanilla shortbread bars are glazed with a creamy vanilla bean icing. Infused with 10 mg of cannabis each, strains such as Wedding Cake and Biscotti with doughy, creamy aromas, would pair well with the nutty, vanilla notes of this edible. 

The showstopper decor is my signature “botanical bandit” style, made with pressed cannabis leaves and organic edible flowers. Inspired by my friend The Velvet Bandit, who spreads positive art through wheatpasting.

Time to Prepare: 55-60 minutes

Makes 20 approximately 3” x 1.5” bars dosed at ~10 mg each

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups all-purpose flour

⅓ cup cornstarch

1 ½ cups cannabutter (200 mg THC total), softened*

1 ¼ cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon choice of milk (whole, oat, hemp, almond)

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or 1 vanilla bean pod, scraped

½ teaspoon salt

Vanilla Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

¼ teaspoon vanilla bean paste or 1 vanilla bean pod, scraped

¼ cup choice of milk 

Other:

Small cannabis fan leaves and edible flowers for decoration, rinsed and pat dry (Optional)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. In a medium saucepan, melt the cannabutter over medium high heat until the butter starts bubbling and turns golden brown. Butter browns at 250 degrees F, a low enough temp to prevent cannabinoid and terpene burnoff. Remove from heat to cool to room temp, then refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour to chill until the butter has solidified from liquid to softened state. Stir occasionally. Can be made ahead and stored until ready to use.  

2. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Line a 13x9x2-inch baking pan with parchment paper. In a small bowl, stir together flour and cornstarch. Set aside. 

3. In a large bowl, beat together softened cannabutter, powdered sugar until creamed and fluffy. Beat in 1 tablespoon milk, vanilla bean, and salt on medium speed until combined. 

4. Slowly stir in the flour and cornstarch mixture a little at a time until combined. Continue beating until a crumbly dough comes together. It should feel like crumbly soft sand that holds together. Press together and make sure any crumbly flour bits are mixed thoroughly into the dough. If the dough is too dry and crumbly and not holding together, drizzle and mix in a little more milk until the dough can press and hold together. 

5. Press the dough evenly into the prepared baking pan. Place into the oven and bake on the center rack for 40 minutes. Turn the pan halfway through baking to bake evenly until slightly golden brown on the edges. Remove pan from oven and place onto a rack to cool. 

6. Make the Vanilla Glaze: In a small bowl, mix 1 cup of powdered sugar with milk and vanilla bean until you get a smooth, thin, runny glaze that just coats the back of a spoon with a thin film. If it’s too thin, add more powdered sugar a little at a time until you reach desired consistency. Set aside. 

7. Glaze + Decorate: Place the small cannabis leaves and edible flowers (optional) each scattered across the top of the cookie. Pour glaze evenly on top of the entire cookie pan and over the cannabis leaves and flowers. Using a small spatula or pastry brush, gently spread to evenly distribute the glaze and coat the decoration. The leaves should look like they’re covered with a sheet of ice.   

8. Let the cookie and icing cool completely in the pan until the glaze hardens, three or more hours. Using the sides of the parchment paper, lift the uncut cookie out of the pan and onto a cutting board. Using a sharp knife, cut into 20 rectangles. Store covered in a cool, dry place.

This article was originally published in the December 2022 issue of High Times Magazine.

The post D.I.Y. Edibles Essentials appeared first on High Times.

Solventless Concentrates Gaining Fans and Market Share

August 23, 2022 Published by

It’s commonly known that one of the benefits of cannabis is its ability to inspire creativity, and one doesn’t have to look further than the myriad ways the plant is enjoyed. Smoking dried and cured flower is the most common way to enjoy marijuana, but the herb’s benefits can also be delivered through vapes, edibles, tinctures and topicals. While the selection is wide, all of these other cannabis products have a similar start: Nearly all are created with a cannabis concentrate. Most concentrates are made with a solvent that extracts the desirable compounds from cannabis. But solventless concentrates, which are manufactured without the use of solvents such as hydrocarbons, ethanol or CO2, are becoming increasingly popular with consumers.

Data released by cannabis market analyst firm BDSA in June shows that solventless concentrates (the vape rosin product category) spiked by 1405% over the previous year. Between June 2021 and June 2022, the category grew by an average of 132% each month. In California, solventless products from Oakland-based Jetty Extracts command 55% of the state’s market. Ron Gershoni, Jetty co-founder and CEO, says that solventless concentrates are gaining popularity with enthusiasts because they preserve the flavor and potency of cannabis so well. But achieving the best quality isn’t just a matter of the process. With flavor such a priority, the cannabis used is just as important as the manufacturing method.

“To make solventless extracts, you really need a very high-quality starting plant material,” Gershoni says. “And so, on average, the plant material that you’re processing and extracting from in a solventless extraction is going to be some of the best quality fresh-frozen cannabis that you can find. What you put in is what you get out.”

Gershoni explains that most concentrates are made with flower that has been dried and cured, which results in a substantial loss of terpenes and other volatile compounds. But freezing the cannabis locks those compounds in, giving the final product “the truest form of what the plant was like, right when it’s cut down.”

Jetty works closely with the farmers that cultivate the cannabis the company uses, helping to coordinate factors such as strain selection and harvest time. Together, they plan the efficient use of the infrastructure designed to deliver top-quality frozen flower in prime condition for extraction.

“We’re starting with full-term, full-sun outdoor cannabis grown in California that’s flash frozen within an hour of being cut down,” Gershoni says of the herb used to create Jetty’s solventless products.

Once the cannabis has been frozen and delivered to Jetty, it’s agitated with ice and water in what are essentially large washing machines. The cold causes the plant matter’s trichomes—tiny glands that produce the essential compounds—to become brittle and separate from the flower, aided by the agitation. The trichomes are then collected from the water with filters to produce bubble hash, which has roots dating back to the centuries-old hash culture of Northern Africa and other cannabis-producing regions. Hydraulic presses are then used to apply heat and pressure to the bubble hash, which melts to produce live rosin, the most popular form of solventless concentrates.

Although the process sounds fairly straightforward, accomplishing it at scale was a challenge. Jetty began experimenting with the method in 2016 but only rolled out its solventless vape cartridge in September 2021. As one of California’s most popular concentrate manufacturers, Gershoni says that Jetty makes all types of extracts, including both solventless methods and hydrocarbon solvent processes. 

“We’ve gone with a good, better, best type product selection,” he says. “We make distillate, which is more of an entry-level product.”

The next tier up is live resin, which is also made with fresh-frozen cannabis but uses a solvent, usually a hydrocarbon such as butane or propane, to extract the cannabinoids, terpenes and other active compounds. 

“And then our solventless is our premium product,” says Gershoni. “And that’s what really seems to be resonating the most and is priced higher as well, given how difficult it is to make and how great of a product is.”

Jetty sells its live rosin in jars as its top-shelf line of cannabis concentrates. The company further processes the extract to produce other products, including standard 510 vape cartridges, as well as pods for Pax vaporizers. The company also offers solventless-infused pre-rolls, which are a growing product category.

Colorado’s Leiffa Specializes in Solventless Concentrates

PHOTO Courtesy of Leiffa Brands

Brandon Epley, CEO and founder of Denver-based Leiffa Brands, says that his company has been making solventless concentrates exclusively since it began operating half-a-decade ago. 

“We’ve been doing solventless from inception,” he says. “We’ve never done a solvent-based extraction.”

Epley said when he was planning to launch Leiffa, he wasn’t impressed with the experience offered by most concentrates available from the regulated industry. But an innovation in extraction, which had its beginnings in the illicit market, was gaining popularity at the time. Early attempts at producing live rosin involved home growers squeezing flower with a hair straightener to produce the required heat and pressure. But new methods were making it possible to produce solventless concentrates at scale. Additionally, the extraction process is much safer than others because it requires no flammable or hazardous chemicals. After weighing the pros and cons, Epley decided Leiffa would be strictly solventless.

“The area where our lab used to be located was pretty strict with their regulations,” Epley says. “So, we decided that since it was the experience we enjoyed the most, as well as mitigating some of the potential hazards in extraction, that was going to be the direction that we would go.”

Leiffa controls the process tightly, owning it completely from cultivation to the manufacturing of its products, which are sold via its flagship dispensary in Lakewood and at more than 300 retailers across Colorado. Finished products made with the solventless extract feature dabbables including first and second press live rosin, cold cure, rosin jam and unprocessed full-melt bubble hash.

“Everything we do is made with whole plant fresh-frozen, and we’re entirely vertical,” Epley says. “We have about 25,000 to 30,000 square feet of flowering canopy, so all of our products are made with our own material. We have complete control input all the way through.”

Innovation in Edibles with Solventless

solvent less edibles from Papa & Barkley
Papa & Barkley recently launched Papa & Barkley Kitchen, a new line of solventless edibles, including chocolate bars and gummies. PHOTO Courtesy of Papa & Barkley

California’s Papa & Barkley has been using only solventless concentrates to produce its comprehensive line of cannabis topicals, tinctures, edibles and other wellness products since the company launched in 2016. Cassie Perlman, Papa & Barkley’s senior vice president of marketing and e-commerce, says that solventless allows the company to keep its commitment to creating its products exclusively with clean cannabis. 

“By using solventless cannabis for our inputs, this lets us avoid harsh extraction processes and chemical solvents so that we’re able to maintain the integrity of the plant’s original compounds,” Perlman says. “We’re able to capture the full cannabinoid profile and all cannabis phytonutrients and terpenes. The result is the most potent, cleanest products possible and what we believe is the most true-to-the-plant edibles experience.”

In 2020, the company went even further with a commitment to clean cannabis, a set of principles that ensures pure production processes and ingredients from start to finish. Adding to its popular topicals, capsules and tinctures, in April 2022 the company launched Papa & Barkley Kitchen, a new line of solventless edibles including chocolate bars and gummies. Unlike the THC distillate commonly used to make edibles, solventless extracts present particular challenges and opportunities for the confectioners at Papa & Barkley.

“The solventless extracts we utilize are whole-plant, which means they have a stronger taste and can be harder to work with in edibles. We mitigate that by using the right form to pair with our edibles. For example, we pair our chocolates with rosin because the chocolate and rosin flavors complement each other well,” Perlman says. “In comparison, we use hash infused in coconut oil for our P&B Kitchen gummies, which improves the overall taste and diminishes any bitterness. We then pair the hash-infusion with strong natural flavor profiles such as lychee and pineapple ginger. For our Papa’s Select gummies we honor the plant by not adding any flavors at all. We put farm-specific, strain-specific ice water hash directly into the gummy formula and allow the terpene profile of the strain to speak for itself.”

With solventless cannabis extracts now claiming a growing share of a limited market, the method is gaining the attention of more and more processors, including newcomers that are attracted by the lower cost of entry to the industry. Epley says that while getting a butane extraction facility up and running can cost $500,000 or more, opening a solventless lab can cost hundreds of thousands less. And with new equipment simplifying the process, he fears that the special care taken to manufacture rosin by most processors until now may fall by the wayside.

“The technology for the extraction methods has grown substantially in the past couple of years. We used to do a lot of this by hand. It was a very niche process. It was made with love. And as we’ve started to get into some of the some of the larger machinery and some of the automation, I think that some of that love is starting to be overlooked,” Epley says. “I think that you see the companies that are really succeeding and doing it well—even though they’re using some of this automation—they’re still putting that love and that care into their extraction and into the products.”

The post Solventless Concentrates Gaining Fans and Market Share appeared first on Cannabis Now.

Celebrate 710 With This Complete Guide to Cannabis Concentrates

July 10, 2020 Published by

For many enthusiasts, concentrates are among the most enjoyable and versatile of cannabis products. While a little concentrate goes a long way, these extracts are easily vaporized, smoked, or used to make infused topicals, edibles, and more. Not all concentrates, however, are created equal. The way that different cannabis concentrates are prepared has an impact on the end result. 

In order to delve deeper into the past, present and future of cannabis concentrates this 710, we have called in the expertise of the team from Oleum Extracts. The Washington-based, multi-award-winning processor company is considered to be one of the best in the industry, developing consistently innovative products — like their THCA crystalline Wizard Stones — and producing high-quality extracts.

Here’s what every aficionado needs to know about cannabis concentrates.

The Evolution of Cannabis Concentrates

PHOTO Oleum Extracts

Oleum Extracts believe that the evolution of cannabis concentrates has seen a shift away from the wants and needs of producers towards those of the consumers.

“As consumers become more educated, they are asking better and more meaningful questions regarding the products they are ingesting/consuming, which is a good thing,” said Team Oleum. “New topics such as cannabinoid profiles, terpene profiles, how the products made, what kind of materials are used, and knowledge of the manufacturers are making their way into the purchasing decisions of consumers.”

They also think that as consumers become savvier to which companies and products have the most stringent production policies and consistent products, “brand trust and loyalty are beginning to make their presence felt.”

When purchasing cannabis concentrates, asking for the cheapest products with the highest THC levels should not be at the forefront of consumers minds and Team Oleum believes “we’re starting to see this shift happen away from that type of thinking.”

Recent developments of isolation products demonstrate “the evolution of concentrates that can be seen in THCA, THCV (appetite suppressant), CBD, CBG, CBN (sleep aid) and Delta-8-THC (anti-nausea).”

“We are anxious to see what comes out of the isolation of these other cannabinoids, as these compounds are often only found in trace amounts in flower form (less than 1%). Now that we are able to isolate them, we will be able to see the implications of larger doses and combinations of these cannabinoids and/or cannabis-derived terpenes on the human vessel.”

All About Solvents

The majority of cannabis concentrates require a solvent to extract. A solvent is a substance, usually a liquid or a gas, that separates trichome resin glands from unwanted plant material. The separated essential oil is then collected and further processed to create the high-potency oils and products that are so popular today.

Many different solvents can be used to make cannabis concentrates. Of these, however, there are three solvents that dominate the market: butane, carbon dioxide, and ethanol. Each of these solvents is used to effectively remove cannabis resin from the plant and concentrate the resin into the sap-like oil aficionado’s everywhere have come to know and love.

Butane

Butane is one of the cheapest solvents to use when making cannabis concentrates. It was also the first solvent to be used to make concentrates for dabbing, and concentrates made with this solvent are often referred to as butane hash oil (BHO). In general, concentrates extracted with butane tend to preserve more aromatic qualities than those extracted with carbon dioxide. For this reason, butane is used to make live resin, a concentrate rich in aromatic molecules called terpenes. No other solvent can be used to make live resin.

Carbon Dioxide

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is most commonly used to make syrupy extracts for vapor pens. The solvent, however, can also be used to make other forms of concentrates. Oils extracted with carbon dioxide can be dabbed, used to fill capsules, or used as oils put underneath the tongue. Unlike butane, however, carbon dioxide tends to remove much of the terpene aroma molecules found in cannabis flower. As such, CO2 oil can feature a strikingly different chemical composition than the cannabis plant from which it came.

Ethanol

Concentrates extracted with ethanol are among the most expensive around. And yet, this solvent is perhaps one of the best to use during cannabis extractions. For those hoping to maintain aromatic terpenes in their concentrate, products made with ethanol are typically the way to go. Ethanol captures more terpenes and pigment molecules called flavonoids than other concentrates. Concentrates made with ethanol are sometimes processed into full spectrum cannabis oil (FECO), while others are used to make products for dabbing.

How To Spot Quality Concentrates

PHOTO Dankshire for Oleum Extracts

Searching for truly high-quality material? There are three basic factors to keep in mind: color, consistency, and lab reports. A hallmark sign of quality in almost all cannabis concentrates is a golden-amber coloration. Most solvent-based concentrates should appear amber, although the color can range a light gold to warm rust.

Some concentrates, like FECO and RSO, may look almost black. The deep coloration in these products indicates that greater amounts of chlorophyll were extracted along with other cannabis compounds. While more chlorophyll may provide a bitter, herbal taste, the inclusion of a greater variety of plant chemicals may make these types of concentrates more appealing to medical consumers.

The introduction of alternative methods and new equipment has resulted in an improvement in cannabis concentrates — good news for the aforementioned medical patients and dabbing enthusiasts alike.

Concentrates should feature a fairly consistent constitution. No one, for example, wants to find hard chunks in their budder, nor do they want to find leaf matter or stem fragments in their hash. If a concentrate doesn’t take on the form that is advertised, chances are it is a low-quality product.

“In the beginning, good concentrates were known pretty much by aesthetics and the way they looked,” said Team Oleum. “Followed up with a sniff, the color and smell of the product were the easiest ways to spot a good concentrate back in the day. Now, a concentrate can look great, and even smell ok, but once dabbed or vaped might taste horrendous.”

Third-party lab reports are essential, proving the manufacturer and consumer with information on the chemical constituents in the concentrate, like the terpene profiles of the flower.

“While a concentrate may look attractive, low-quality flower with low terpene content may have been used during the extraction,” said Team Oleum. “Most lab reports list information on the potency and dominant cannabinoids in the product. Some reports, however, will also list the primary terpenes in the concentrate as well. In general, the more terpenes preserved in the concentrate, the greater the flavor and aroma.”

“The only individuals really doing any quality control of the products before going out to market are the producers and processors themselves. If these individuals are not cannabis consumers,  and/or are not trying their own products it is doing a great disservice to both their brand and their consumers.

“If the owners and operators of these brands do a good enough job at this, the reward is consumer trust in both the brand and its products. When people can trust where the material is being sourced, how it is being processed and the care that goes into its production from start to finish. These are the brands that are earning the most market share and seeing the most positive feedback from consumers.”

Most Common Concentrate Preparations

Walk into any cannabis shop these days and you’re sure to find a plethora of containers filled with sticky goo. The market for cannabis concentrates is growing faster than ever, with data suggesting that concentrate sales may surpass sales for dry flower within the next four years. Here are some of the most popular cannabis concentrate products.

Shatter

Cannabis ConcentratesPHOTO RuggedCoast

Shatter is easy to spot in a dispensary but relatively difficult to make for extractors. Shatter is a cannabis concentrate that takes on the consistency of an amber-colored glass shard. These shards can be broken up and dabbed, although the oil’s crystalline constitution makes it slightly more difficult to work with than other concentrate preparations.

Wax

PHOTO David

Wax and shatter are made in essentially the same way, although wax tends to be physically agitated more during processing. As a result, the preparation loses its glass-like consistency and instead develops a waxy, honeycomb-like constitution. Some individual strains may also be more inclined to “wax up” than other strains. In general, waxes tend to be softer and easier to manipulate than shatters.

Budder

Budder is whipped wax. Instead of walking on eggshells trying to create a glass-like shatter, budder is whipped automatically in order to create a smoothe yet opaque concentrate. The end result is soft, fluffy, and easy to manipulate.

Oil

PHOTO Eric Limon

Cannabis oils are concentrates that maintain a consistent liquid state. Oils are most often made with ethanol, which preserves the widest array of phytochemicals found in any cannabis extraction. Oils of this type are often referred to as full-spectrum cannabis oil (FECO) or Rick Simpson Oil (RSO). These oils are often used under the tongue or are ingested orally. Carbon dioxide, however, can also be used to make a syrupy oil, such as that found in vapor cartridges.

Live Resin

PHOTO Oleum Extracts

Live resin is a king among concentrates. Unlike all other concentrates, live resin is made using fresh cannabis flowers that have been flash-frozen in order to preserve terpene quality. These fresh flowers are then processed using butane as a solvent, creating a wet and semi-solid concentrate that features superior flavor, aroma, and overall terpene quality.

Solventless Concentrates

Using a solvent is the easiest way to extract cannabis concentrates. Solvents, however, are not required to make a concentrated cannabis product. Products like hash and rosin do not require solvents at all, which makes them preferable to many consumers. Although, solventless concentrates tend to be less potent than their solvent-based counterparts.

Rocks and Sauce

Cannabis ConcentratesPHOTO Oleum Extracts

“Rocks and Sauce is a product where THCA crystals grow in their own high terpene extraction,” said Team Oleum. “They are often made from fresh frozen material but can be made from dried/cured material, too.”

Hash

PHOTO Frenchy Cannoli

Hash is one of the oldest cannabis preparations available. It’s also one of the simplest to make. Hash is most often made by rubbing dried cannabis flower on a screen, breaking off trichomes via agitation. The broken trichomes are then collected and compressed into hash.

Bubble hash or ice water hash is another type of concentrate made using agitation. Only, this variety of hash uses ice water to freeze trichome resin glands. The cold temperature makes trichomes more brittle, which allows them to more easily break away from plant material. The end result is grainy trichome goo that is then dried and compressed into hash.

Rosin

Cannabis ConcentratesPHOTO RuggedCoast

Rosin is one of the most popular concentrates available today. Like hash, rosin is relatively easy to make. This solventless preparation uses heat and pressure to melt trichomes off of plant material. These trichomes are often melted between two solid hot plates, which compresses them into an almost shatter-like consistency. Rosin tends to be slightly translucent, although it remains mailable and soft, a stark contrast to shatter’s glass-like nature.

Exciting Advances and New Developments in the World of Cannabis Concentrates

Cannabis ConcentratesPHOTO Oleum Extracts

Team Oleum believe that isolates, the separation of cannabinoids and terpenes are exciting developments and new in the field of concentrates.

“We are now starting to understand isolation and separation on a much deeper level,” said Team Oleum. “This allows us to reconfigure ratios of cannabinoids to terpenes — to alter the experience, flavors and effects of these products.

“This has never been an option before with cannabis concentrates, we believe the future will incorporate a lot of these unique and novel combinations into the cannabis consumer’s diet. For instance, our IceWalker is a product that incorporates THCA Crystalline Wizard Stones, Delta-8-AquaTek Distillate and cannabis-derived terpenes. These types of concentrate concoctions were not possible a few years ago, we are excited to see what will come available in the next five years.

“In addition to isolations, we are also starting to retain terpenes (flavors) and their respective cannabinoids in such a way as to mimic the actual taste, smell and effect of the flower it comes from. It wasn’t too long ago that material was just put into a column and blasted with solvent, hoping for the best outcome in the end product and it was often hit or miss. Now, a lot more science, better cultivation, and preparation of materials, and better understanding and innovation of equipment have allowed us to employ much more efficient methods in cannabis extraction and processing. This, in turn, allows us to produce a much higher quality product much more consistently. Something that benefits both the producers and the consumers.

“Last but not least, CRC (Color Remediation Cartridge) seems to be making an introduction by offering solutions to the removal of unwanted colors and compounds in cannabis concentrates. These colors and compounds include lipids, chlorophyll, carotene, xanthophyll, pheophytins and lycopene,” said Team Oleum. “Due to the compounds being used in this process, it should only be done by those with proper equipment/lab and training. It definitely has its place in the concentrate industry as a means of cleaning up product, but in the same breath, good concentrates should always come from good starting material. As the tried and true saying goes, “Fire In.. Fire Out”.

“These methods of remediation can often take away from the true and original character of the strain and extract. We try to stay as close to the original cultivar as we can…in most cases it’s what we and the end consumer prefers.”

TELL US, did learn anything you didn’t already know about concentrates?

Originally published on cannabisaficianado.com.

The post Celebrate 710 With This Complete Guide to Cannabis Concentrates appeared first on Cannabis Now.

Inside Kalya Extracts, the Emerald Cup-Winning Hash Company

January 28, 2020 Published by

A month after sweeping the podium in the world’s most competitive solventless hash competition at The Emerald Cup, Kalya Extracts now gives Oakland, California a solid claim to producing the best hash on the planet. 

Kalya Extracts’ big winners this year in the solventless rosin category at Northern California’s prestigious Emerald Cup were a first-place Fruit Stripe rosin collaboration with Sours, a Banana Cream rosin collaboration with Monterey Kush Co. that came in second, and a Garlic Juice rosin with Dancing Dog Ranch that rounded off the podium. They also took 7th place with a Runtz collaboration with Sky High Humboldt. That means that, in addition to sweeping the podium, Kalya won four of the top 10 spots for solventless hash. Kalya also had two spots in the top five of the ice water hash category.

A month after their impressive showing at the Cup, I headed down to Kalya’s production facility in Oakland for the grand tour. While the company has only called Oakland home for a year, it has deep roots in Northern California’s exotic extract scene that thrived in the medical marketplace up until California’s legal market launched in January 2018 and regulations made boutique extract production more challenging.

“I used to be up north,” Kalya Extracts Co-Founder Marc Hammond said. “I ran a company called Medicine Man Extracts, along with running Ahti Hash.”

Ahti Hash famously battled 3rd Gen Family’s concentrate arm Moonshine Melts at the 2017 Emerald Cup, dethroning the reigning champions in the solventless world, and taking home three more spots in the top 10 in the process. Ahti Hash won with a Pink Lemonade collaboration with Tar Hill Cannabis, which also found its way to a third-place spot on the separate rosin podium.

“Funny thing, not a lot of people know about that batch [of Pink Lemonade],” Hammond said. “We were so hyped on it we called it Rainbow Sherbert at first.”

He added that one of his partners didn’t even want to buy the Pink Lemonade flower at first.

“I was like, I’ll buy these packs, these smell f*cking insane,” Hammond said. “I washed it, and we saved some of the water. I took pictures of the water. We were like, ‘Bro, this is going to beat Brandon [of 3rd Gen Family].’”

For so many years, Hammond and his team had watched 3rd Gen Fam absolutely own the top of the solventless mountain. “I was like, ‘This is going to beat it, oh sh*t!’”

Hammond said that, as he was founding Kalya Extracts, he wanted to make sure that it was connected to Ahti Hash. He and his partner named Ahti Hash after the Sanskrit word for “transcendence” in Sanskrit.

“So my little homage to that is Kalya is Sanskrit for perfection,” Hammond says. “Because we’re always chasing the perfect hash or whatever.”

In the end, that quest for perfection can prove daunting at times, but with the trophy shelf now stacked, Hammond says his process has been vindicated again.

“I never want to sacrifice quality,” Hammond said. “I have a lot of pride in every gram that goes on the shelf and such. I love seeing somebody’s face when they’re like, ‘This is some fucking heat.’”

Hammond said that, in order to make sure Kalya’s offerings are up to the standards he’s set, they’ve had to limit Kalya’s releases.

“That’s why there aren’t too many flavors right now,” he said. “We’ve looked at batches and been like, this isn’t making the cut. The scope of material that is good for solventless hash is so small. That’s what’s hard.”

He noted that in the end, that’s one of the reasons you see the elite solventless producers trending towards certain proven strains with a great nose and yield. “That’s why you see so much GMO on the market,” Hammond said. “It dunks.”

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