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
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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.
Hey this makes sense.
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…
That is entirely possible. My GF has a similar issue with her meds, can’t really get too stoned. I recommend a healthy t-break for a week or two. After that, pretty much anything should be much spicier for you.
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 perfect info. Where do diamonds come into all this? Live resin?
Glad it was helpful. From what I understand, yep, most diamonds are live resin and made with solvents. Solventless diamonds do exist though.
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
I did plenty of time experimenting with vaping dry herb as well. Perhaps a better setup would do me better. One thing I like about dabs though is there’s virtually no smell.
In terms of high, the various types of concentrates you would use in a dab rig are relatively the same. About the same variation as weed.
But the consistency can change how well it smokes/vapes. I like shatter for dabs because it’s easy to break off a chunk and drop it in/on the hot plate. I like crumble with a nectar collector because it is easy to make “lines” like I’m snorting coke, but is melty and sticky enough that it doesn’t get sucked up like a powder or slurped up like something more liquidy like live resin.
Distillate vs live resin or shatter or crumble and what not isn’t the same high. It’s more uniform across the spectrum of breeds used and the high is short lived and feels only slightly the same as what you’d expect from weed. It’s usually what’s in a cart. If you like carts, you gotta look specifically for live resin or rosin because distillate sucks.
And distillate is what comes in the vapen carts right?
Typically, yes. But they do have live resin carts, as well.
So, it’s complicated. A lot of differences in concentrates ultimately can be rooted in 2 things which are style of extraction (which often dictates consistency) and how much remains when the dab is “done” i.e. chazz (which often denotes how much byproduct there was), but realistically the difference between dabbing 85-95% diamonds or full spectrum rosin (generally ~$50/g) is pretty minimal. However the difference between 60-75% $5/g live resin is a step down, and below that is old school BHO shit (30-50%) which is literally over half plant matter.
Length of high? Maybe a little extended, maybe less is more if you manage that with tolerance and desire. Level of high? I mean, how high can high be… How quickly you get tired/couchlocked? How heady/spaced out?
For me personally, the difference between the %5/g live resin and anything higher quality is simply whether or not I get a headache. Other than that, like I said it pretty much comes down to how much chazz is left behind and how long the dab itself lasts (for cold start full evaporation).
You can actually test this fairly easy with the PuffCo :) I use the Focus V Carta, but all you do is get your dab and time the full session. That means turn it on, let it heat up, melt the dab in as it reaches temp (noting how long it takes for the oil to stop boiling - that means when the oil goes flat/settles down from sizzling), and then how long/how many hits are produced.
You’ll likely notice that something like diamonds may last a little longer even with relatively similar sized dabs of something lower quality, maybe as many as 6 sizeable hits. However whether that gets you higher for how high it can be priced is another story.
My general rule of thumb is trying to average the price/g and the percentage ratios. Live resin may only be a little over 70% but 10-15% of that is terpenes. For $5/g compared to the $35/g rosin? I’ll take the $5 dabs.
Comparatively, if all they were to have were BHO or $50+ actual quality dabs, I’d take literally anything over BHO because I value my health lol.
P.S. crumble is kind of like dry diamonds in the style of a mix of sugar/batter. Totally dry so not sticky but very dry and it crumbles. It’s ok, sometimes there’s a decent amount of leftover wax. Shatter can be quality but also like its name it needs to be shattered from its little sheet. This can cause pieces to go flying. I also find that shatter evaporates quickly compared to other dabs. Worth trying once in a while if they look nice and clear.
Wow thank you for this very informational reply. So far it seems like folks on Lemmy are overall friendlier and more willing to engage in the question or convo. But anyway…so which types are the non bho? Just rosin and diamonds? And when you say chaz, do you mean just gunk leftover after its done? If so, yes that’s definitely badder in my experience. Just not a fan of that at all. And for some reason I always assumed shatter was like the lowest of the low, so I always avoided it, but interesting to hear you say there’s good shatter out there. Honestly man, I don’t really ever feel high anymore. Likely tolerance, but wondering if my effexor dulls THC effects? Anyway, a happy medium? Would that be like sugar wax and crumble you think? Aka most band for you buck?
I was a big user on vaporents and all my hobby subreddits and I love sharing what I can when I can :D I’m always happy to share! BHO isn’t too prevalent anymore thankfully, but some places to have it. BHO is almost always black or dark brown so not many places have it anymore, but it’s basically extracting by freezing with butane… lol yeah.
Yeah, chazz is the dark gunk that’s leftover, it’s unavoidable it’ll always be there but it’s primarily plant matter so technically the more pure the less there will be, but I feel like there’s a line between $50 and $5 and some are more or less worth it than others but it’s always pretty vendor/brand dependent. But you’re pretty set with sugars and diamonds, but don’t be afraid to try lower priced roughly equal percentage concentrates to get a sense of what works for you.
Here’s just a quick google for the med: you may have comes across it
Dabbing and managing tolerance can be a bit harder but my general rule of thumb is try to wait as long as you can in the day before you start. Otherwise, just trying to stretch the most out of small amounts by doing cold starts.
Wow thanks again! So I’ve found sources with what I think to be good quality diamonds and sugar, there is almost never any left behind. Right now I’m on the badder and as expressed, I’m not a fan lol. But the discrepancies in some of the prices are insane. I usually find stuff in the $50-$75 range for 5 grams even up to half oz sometimes. I outta try some crumble and shatter I think. Those might be the only ones ive not tried
Oh for sure they produce way less chazz, just after a week you’ll inevitably still have some. Compared to most other concentrates though where it’ll be a day or few.
Yeah badder is ok but nothing special. If you’re used to higher quality stuff then it’ll definitely feel like crap in comparison haha! Crumble is around the same level, tiny bit higher quality but not necessarily always the case. It’s mostly just drier and true to the name.
Shatter can be nicer than both but it doesn’t mean it will be lol. Also all shatter kinda tastes similar IMO but it’s still a nice flavor. Worth trying at least ;)
Just to throw this out there - I’ve actually found the best concentrates to be in batters/butters & saucier consistencies. They can be more of a pain to deal with if they’re too saucy but in general the best flavors tend to follow this rule. For me, shatter and crumble are a pain in the ass to work with (for a few reasons) and rarely have much flavor by comparison.
Also on the topic of chaz - I’ve never experienced more chaz between any of the consistencies, only between higher and lower quality dabs. But I also dab fairly low temp so maybe that’s why? The only exception I’ve found to that is cheap rosin - I’m guessing because the process of pressing lower grade hash leaves behind more actual plant material, lipids, etc.
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).
Yea I’ve read a bit about rosins and I’m sure I had a few before from the dispo lol just don’t recall much. I too prefer the mid route. I try to find most bang for my buck without going to the bottom of the barrel
