How many of you have heard about Cannabis oil but never grasped how a flower turns into something like a dab? How many of you have dabbed but never quite understood the difference between solvent and solventless or hydrocarbon and CO2? Perhaps you’ve been curious about the difference between a shatter, a sugar and a budder. Well, Maryland Leaf aims to set you straight as you continue to quest onward into the wonderfully delicious and potent world of Cannabis concentrates. Like many types of products in this world, Cannabis oils are not all created equal, just like not all cultivars are created equal.
The first thing to know about Cannabis oils is the old “fire in, fire out” adage. This phrase is the first step to understanding, producing and consuming Cannabis oils. It means that, regardless of the extraction system you use, you need high-quality flower to produce high-quality oils. However, we live in Maryland, so we can assume that our extractors will be using some of the best flower in the whole country.
Next, we look at the overall House of Extraction techniques, which can be boiled down into two main categories: solvent-based and solventless. At the very top of the pyramid are the solventless methods, which refer to the mechanical separation of trichomes from the plant using only heat, pressure or sieving. The solventless category includes ice water bubble hash, dry sift, pressed hash, rosin, charas and temple balls. This method is typically very labor-intensive and time-consuming, and it requires top-shelf flower. These products are expensive and rare, but they very much capture the complete essence of the plant and are the oldest and most traditional concentrated oil products in Cannabis history.
Solventless systems are generally considered to be small-batch systems, and they are not always the most economically viable options in today’s billion-dollar Cannabis markets. To address Cannabis oil at a scale that can feed the markets, we turn to solvent-based extraction, of which there are three main types: ethanol, supercritical CO2 and hydrocarbon extraction. “Solvent” is a term that refers to a substance that can dissolve another substance, and for our purposes, this means dissolving the trichomes of the Cannabis plant and concentrating them down into a single cohesive, potent and delicious oil. Ethanol provides us with the highest degree of extraction efficiency. Supercritical CO2 is the safest method with the highest ability to selectively extract niche compounds. Hydrocarbon is widely considered the most potent, producing the highest quality of dabs.
Hydrocarbon extraction uses solvents — like butane and propane (and sometimes blends) — to pull all of the most desired compounds out of the Cannabis plant, while a supercritical CO2 loop will pull most of those same desired compounds, depending on whether the operator runs a supercritical or subcritical extraction process. Both systems will yield dabs of all varieties packed full of our desired cannabinoids, terpenes and other unexplored oil compounds.
The viscosity of the oil that is produced varies between cultivars and extraction standard operating procedures, but it dictates the colloquial dab nomenclature we know and love. A shatter is a flat, brittle oil that snaps or breaks to the touch. A badder/budder retains plant fats and waxes for a creamier, smoother texture, and a crumble/sugar leaves out most of those fats and waxes, which results in small crystal (or crystal-like) structures that resemble, you guessed it, sugar. If you further treat your oil and allow the crystallization process to continue, you will eventually form diamonds — aka very large THC crystals — which are the highest potency products on the market.
Not all oil is created equal, but all oil is amazing. The science and artisanship that have brought us to this point in Cannabis history cannot be understated, and the divisions in oil products have more to do with the convenience of use rather than the quality of the toke itself. Some products work well in a banger, some are easy to manipulate into a bowl or joint and some make for better cooking products, but all of them represent the fullest expression of the Cannabis plant. Before you decide what kind of oil you like, consider what kind of toker you are and what you like from Cannabis overall. After that, I would encourage you to try every type available and expand your palate to new horizons.
And never forget that adage: “fire in, fire out.”
