Now GlassWork710 and myself have given you the Dabbing 101, we felt a glossary of extracts & the terms come in handy! There’s so many different words thrown around it can get a bit confusing. I wanted to better understand these terms myself and share that information with you. After all the more you know, the more you can get from your cannabis experience and the less likely you'll get conned.
The best place to start would be the kinds of extraction methods that are used to make dab worthy concentrates: Water and Ice, Butane/Propane, Dry Ice & CO2.
Water & Ice: Mixing the frozen plant material with ice & water in some sort of machine machine/ bucket/salad spinner type device (these can vary) with ‘bubble bags’ inside. The bags are made from different grades of micron screens. The trichomes catch in the screens. This is bubble hash. The finest quality bubble hash is called full melt, this comes from the finest micron bags, around 70-120µm. When this is put through a rosin press it makes hash rosin.
Dry Ice: Mix dry ice and flower/plant material, the extreme cold temperatures almost shock the trichomes of the plant. Just gently rubbing and the crystals fall and gather as dust/kief. Using a rosin press to produce Rosin.
Butane/Propane: This requires specialist equipment called a CLS, a closed
loop system. It consists of a large column you pack the plant material into. The butane/propane or a mix of the 2 is passed through the column, through the material and strips the plant of the compounds we want, i.e cannabinoids, terpenes, flavonoids etc. This then goes into a vacuum purge oven which removes the solvent. After this you have BHO, Butane Hash Oil or Butane Honey Oil.
BHO can be processed/agitated in different ways to produce different types of extracts. Shatter, Budder/Badder, Live Resin, Diamonds & Sauce
CO2: This is another extraction method that requires specialist industrial top end equipment. It uses CO2 and pressure to extract the good shit, this process is called Supercritical fluid extraction. This is a method that tends to be used for CBD production.
These are the most common extraction methods for concentrates used for dabbing. These are the extracts those extraction methods make!
Wax & Oil *middle range: These are essentially the same thing. Wax is more solid and Oil more liquid. This is also an umbrella term for all of the extracts in the list, it's an interchangeable word, a tool for communication.
Resin: Made from BHO. This tends to be another umbrella term for these concentrates.
Shatter *lower priced/affordable: This is normally from BHO poured from the collection chamber of a CLS in a way as to least disturb it. The calmest coolest pour you can manage, once poured it goes into a vacuum oven to remove any residual solvent. When it comes out it cools into a solid that literally shatters when broken. Take a shard and whack it in your banger!
Budder/Badder *lower priced/affordable: This is also normally BHO except when it comes out the oven it is whipped to create the badder/buddery consistency. It tends to be fairly priced and not too expensive. This can be a great starter extract for a newbie as it can be found on a lot of menus and it's lower priced, so you don't have to break the bank to try dabbing.
Diamonds & Sauce *higher priced: This is generally only from BHO. Before the mix goes into the vacuum oven to remove the solvent it goes into little jars. The jars are stored at a certain temperature under pressure and the THC will crystallise to form diamonds. Once this has happened then they go into the vacuum oven to remove the solvent.
Full Melt: This comes from water and ice extractions using the bubble bags. Once it comes out the 70-120µm bubble bags and dried that's it, what we call full melt.
Rosin: Is solventless extraction. It is raw plant pressed in heated plates to squeeze out the oil. It's a wet one.
‘Live —’ This just means Fresh Frozen plants are used in the extraction method.
Live Resin: Using fresh frozen from BHO extract
Live Rosin: Using fresh frozen plants in heated plates to press the good stuff out.
Hash Rosin *tends to be higher priced: Is pressing kief in heated plates so you have only the finest most concentrated wet stuff.
How can you tell if you've got bad extracts? Like eye balling bad weed, what's the tell tale signs you got something you shouldn't dab?
- The wetter the better. The more liquid it is can mean a higher terpene profile
- The lighter the colour is a good indication but this can vary depending on strain
- When you dab your extract shouldn't leave anything black or gunky in your banger. It shouldn't be ashy and tarry.
- It shouldn't look plasticy, could almost be bluetacky
- If an extract doesn't have much of a smell even when it's been disturbed it can mean it doesn't have much of a terpene profile (although diamonds are pure THCA and do not have a smell so this can depend on the extract).
- Flame test: If you take a little bit of any extract made from BHO or a solvent on a dab tool and put a flame to it,if there is any remaining solvent it will sparkle and crackle. This means its not been purged properly, this isn't fit for consumption. Ask for your money back and get that shit off their menu. If they dont receive the information well, name and shame those unprofessional brands. It's disgusting, this is medicine. Dont ever be afraid to name and shame if they are putting profits over the quality of their meds first.
CRC Extracts: What is it?
Colour Remediation Column: This is something to be careful of and stay clear. This is a method of cleaning up messy or dirty extracts. It extracts target molecules to ‘clean’ it. So for example, a crop full of dark coloured extracts could be processed through this column to produce a better looking product. It produces a plasticy extract, a synthetic derivative of a natural product.
How to tell CRC extracts from others.
This can be a difficult thing, especially as the colour of extracts wildly varies from extraction method to strain.
- Iso Test: take a blob on a dab tool and pop it in isoproply alcohol. If it dissolves quickly, you've got real extracts. If it takes a while to melt, over a minute where you have to play and prod its CRC. It can also leave a white trail in the iso.
- It can seem a bit more plastic-y than normal extracts. Normal extracts would melt with your body heat and get sticky, CRC doesn't quite melt the same.
- It can burn your throat and nose in an unpleasant way. Some extracts do give you that facial fuzzy tingle but not feel like a burn.
We hope this article helps you demystify the dabbing world and make it a bit more accessible for all. If there's anything you’d like us to cover in the future or something you feel we have missed from this article please don't hesitate to get in contact with us via email or social media. GlassWorks710 have a contact us form on their website or their email is info@glassworks710.co.uk
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