I started my exploration with concentrates about a year ago. I got myself a puffco peak pro. I’ve tried all kinds of different concentrates, but not all of them. I’m wondering if concentrates are concentrates or are there some that are better than others or is it purely personal?
I like sugar wax as its easy to handle and isn’t messy. I like wet diamonds. Again easy to handle and might have felt more potent. Dry diamonds were weird and hard to handle, not sure I was a fan. Lastly, budder or batter type, I hate this one. Its so hard to handle and gets way too messy. Have been wanting to try crumble, never had much interest in shatter, idk if I’m missing any.
Would love to hear your thoughts! Thanks
The lungs can only absorb so much good stuff at a time, I theorize that after a certain point THC concentration has diminishing returns. For example a 90% THC concentrate might hit just about the same as a 60% high wise. A lot of the smoke is being wasted. This is why I think a slow and steady stream of vapor from a dry herb vape is the most efficient way since its little bits of smoke at a time which your lungs can absorb more easily in full.
A lot of great responses here already. I wanted to offer a few thoughts.
What does quality mean to you when it comes to concentrates? For me, I search for solventless rosins that try to capture the flavor and essence of the strain/plant being used.
Concentrate quality is typically determined by:
- Input material - What did they use to make the concentrate? Cured nugs, trim, whole plants? As they say, “Fire in = fire out”
- Extraction method - Do they use some type of solvent (e.g. butane) to create the concentrate? Or is it solventless, and maybe created via ice water hash or press methods.
Comparing outputs:
- Distillate: While typically the most potent and used in vape carts, I’d generally say anything with distillate will be the least representative of the original material used (no taste), and something I try to avoid. Distillate = headaches, for me.
- Live / Cured Resin: Resin is extracted with solvents, and retains more of the plant’s profile of terpenes and flavonoids. A great budget concentrate option. This is typically where you’ll find shatters, waxes, budders/badders, crumble, sugar, etc.
- Live / Cured Rosin: Then we have Live Rosin which is extracted in a solventless method, and to me, is the best concentrate available. Full of flavor and character that is representative of the original plant/strain used. I’ve seen rosin come in shatter (fresh press), sauce, and badder-y variants.
EDIT: Also if texture can be an issue, I know people who swear by the Hot Knife by Puffco: https://www.puffco.com/products/the-puffco-hot-knife
This is great information. I’d also like to add that marketing is very misleading in the cannabis space. Lots of brands might market as live resin, but then use an extraction method where they re-introduce terps (Botanical or Cannabis derived). It can be hard sometimes to find a brand with a quality product.
Regarding diamonds - there are live rosin diamonds and jams, which are made via heat curing. You’re not likely to find that in a dispensary as much though. I like cold cure as it’s like a ‘cookie dough’ or ‘cake badder’ material - sometimes I’ll just use a second dab tool to help me drop it in, but I’ve heard good things about the Hot Knife as well.
Coming from dry herbal vaporizing, no. I have found some concentrates are more “Full spectrum” than other concentrates.
A lot of it comes down to how it’s extracted from the plant. Temperature and pressure can alter what gets extracted into the concentrate.
Personally I equate most concentrates to junk food - yes they taste great, but they don’t give you the full nutritional content of a healthy salad.
Same with dry herbal vaporizing - it lets you extract everything you want from the plant, directly. Yes it’s not as concentrated and for a dabber they probably won’t get much enjoyment from dry vaporizing since it’s a slower extraction. But after having “dabbled” with a bunch of different concentrates myself over the years, I’m perfectly content with dry herbal vaporizing.
Just my $0.02
No, all concentrates are the opposite of equal. Different types, strains, extraction methods. Different terpenes and cannabinoids content.
You see, I do not have the ability to pick specific things like that out of my high. Heck, I never really even could tell a difference from sativa and indica. I don’t ever really feel like I’m actually high. I’m not a newbie at all either, been at it for a while. So that’s where I question of my venlafaxine medication is actually dulling the effects…
You can find high quality dabs in any consistency, so a lot of that comes down to preference. And in terms of effects, yeah they’re all pretty similar whether you’re spending a lot of little (excluding the extreme ends of the spectrum).
But if you care about flavor (the main thing Im picky about), there is quite often a difference between the $10 gram of sugar wax and the $30 gram of live resin.
In that sense I’ve found the sweet spot is mid range live resins/rosins (with the highest terpenes) but more expensive does not necessarily mean better dabs, and rosin is also not inherently better than resin (despite what the prices and marketing often imply).
