Cannabis concentrates come in many forms. You may have heard references to a variety of concentrates, but in all formats, the true essence of concentrate is its relative strength compared to that of traditional flower.
If you’re wondering about different types of cannabis concentrate, including how to consume them, we break them down below.
What is a cannabis concentrate?
Cannabis concentrates are (just as their name suggests) concentrated forms of marijuana flower. Think of them as the equivalent to a liquid water enhancer—smaller in size but packing a punch.
They’re extracted from the cannabis plant using a solvent, which distills the plant’s terpenes and cannabinoids into a condensed product. This means concentrates provide very high doses of cannabinoids like CBD and THC while maintaining terpenes like limonene or linalool.
Depending on a variety of factors, concentrates can take on many looks, feels, tastes and effects. Below are five of the most popular cannabis concentrates and suggestions for how to use them:
1. Hash
Hash or hashish is one of the oldest forms of cannabis concentrate, and the variety of hash products comes from the different ways the product is created. Two of the most popular forms of hash are bubble hash and dry sift hash.
Bubble hash is made by freezing the plant’s trichomes, stirring the frozen mixture, filtering the resulting liquid and drying the resulting resin.
Dry sift hash is made by rubbing cannabis flower over a screen and collecting the dried resin glands. That resin is then sifted and a fine powder is collected.
Hash can be infused into beverages, like lemonade, or sprinkled on top of flower and smoked to elevate a session.
2. Tincture
Cannabis tinctures are made by soaking a marijuana plant in alcohol to create a liquid infusion. The resulting substance is a highly concentrated liquid that contains high levels of cannabinoids and terpenes.
Ideally, tinctures are orally ingested. They can be added to food and drinks or dropped straight in your mouth. The product kicks in quickly and its effects can generally be felt within 15 to 30 minutes.
3. Rick Simpson Oil (RSO)
RSO gained notoriety as a potential cure for cancer after the concentrate’s creator, Rick Simpson, used the high-THC oil as a treatment for skin cancer. This claim has never been substantiated.
RSO is made by washing cannabis flower buds with a solvent and boiling that solvent off to leave only an oil. The key difference in this oil is that the process leaves all of the terpenes, cannabinoids and valuable compounds from the plant fully intact.
Either ingest the oil orally or apply it topically to skin irritation or other problem areas.
4. Cannabis Rosin
Rosin is a solventless cannabis concentrate made using high heat and pressure. The cannabis plant is placed in a machine that presses down on the flower while simultaneously heating it, producing a hot oil that cools into a wax-like substance.
Try making tea from cannabis rosin with this recipe. Or you can go the traditional route of dabbing or smoking the high-THC concentrate.
5. Live Resin
Not to be confused with rosin above, live resin is a newcomer to cannabis concentrates and is said to best preserve the natural aromas and flavors of the plant it’s made from.
Live resin is created by immediately freezing the cannabis flower after harvesting and keeping the plant frozen throughout the entire extraction process. Once extracted using a solvent such as butane, the substance is heated, packaged and eventually consumed.
To consume your live resin, either purchase a live resin vape cartridge, dab the product directly or top off a bowl or joint with a few globs of the wet wax.