Types of Concentrates

What is the best type of concentrate in Canada this year? To answer this, you need to first learn all about the different types of concentrates that are most popular in the country today. And that’s what we’re going to talk about in more detail here. So as you go through our guide, you can expect to learn interesting facts about the different types of wax dabs, among other concentrates in Canada’s cannabis market.

But what type of concentrate is strongest? Don’t worry. With all the fascinating stuff we prepared just for you in our guide, you’ll soon get to know the best type of concentrate to dab for your particular preferences and physiological condition. We talk about things like your tolerance and familiarity with the body and mind high effects of the country’s different kinds of wax concentrate products this year.

Though what is the cleanest concentrate? And what is the best form of concentrate? For the past several months, our peers and many other seasoned Canadian weed lovers have kept fielding us these questions. And this is why we went ahead and included straightforward, simple-to-understand answers to these questions in our guide below. So dig right in!

Types of Concentrates in Canada This 2022

And as promised, let’s start with a list of the top types of concentrates in the country today. What shook out from our extensive research, thorough tests and impartial deliberations for the past several months are Canada’s best type of concentrate products this 2022. But of course, we also carefully considered our interviews with lots of our fellow Canadians. We mingled with local communities of cannabis lovers and networks of medical professionals at the country’s top research laboratories and university groups. We meticulously reviewed the notes we took during our conversations with them, along with their top picks, anecdotal stories and scientific results. So dig right in before you check out our concentrates:

Hash Concentrate

What is the cleanest concentrate? Hash is our answer to this question. That’s because of the all-organic, all-natural process of making hash.

But of course, this depends on the cannabis plants used for making hash. For example, if pesticides and other substances that might be harmful were used to grow the cannabis plants, then it won’t be the cleanest concentrate. And this is why you’re always recommended to check if the growers and producers that supply the cannabis plants to your favorite brands and dispensaries have been certified by the Canadian national, provincial and local governments of where they’re situated.

Hash is among the most popular types of concentrates in Canada today. It’s been used in the country’s black market for decades. This is even before the Canadian government decriminalized, legalized and regulated marijuana and hemp for scientific research, medical, therapeutic and recreational use in lots of provinces, cities and towns all around the country.

Smoking hash derived from marijuana plants is known to usually cause much more robust body and mind high effects than smoking dried buds and leaves of the same plants. And this is mainly because of the higher THC per-weight concentration that’s in hash compared to dried buds or flowers of marijuana plants.

We recommend going through all the fascinating stuff about this all-organic concentrate. And here’s everything you need to know about hash.

How Are Hash Concentrates Made?

Hash is made from dried kief, which is dried trichomes. These are collected for compression once they fall from a cannabis plant.

Trichomes are glands of cannabis plants. These produce sticky resins and are part of the plant’s pollination system and defensive mechanisms. These resins contain naturally occurring compounds, including THC, terpenes and CBD, among others.

How Are Hash Concentrates Used?

Lots of our fellow testers told us that they prefer to use a hash pipe to smoke this concentrate. This has a similar design as a standard tobacco pipe. But it’s developed to hold tiny clumps or pieces of hash. Plus, lighting it up and inhaling its smoke is generally the same as what you do with a tobacco pipe.

Though some of our fellow Canadian weed lovers who voted for this concentrate as among their most preferred types of concentrates this year say they’re pretty fond of breaking hash blocks into tiny pieces and spreading it unto their dried buds. They then roll these up into blunts or joints to smoke them.

Wax Concentrate

Unlike shatter, wax concentrates aren’t bone-dry and solid. Instead, these have a waxy consistency and a dense yet clay-like texture. Many of the additional wax dabs that we tested primarily have brown and amber yellow colors. Some Canadian weed lovers we interviewed cast their votes on white wax dabs as the best type of concentrate to dab.

And again, similar to shatter, lots of the different kinds of wax concentrate products in the country’s cannabis market today are derived from marijuana plants. These have higher than usual THC levels, sometimes reaching 19% or higher. But there are also some was dab products out there today that are extracted from hemp plants. These have higher than usual CBD concentrations and 0.3 to 0% THC.

How Are Wax Concentrates Made?

The process of making wax concentrates also involves the BHO extraction process. Similar to shatter, this is where BHO extraction equipment has a tube for storing dried buds, leaves and tiny stems of cannabis plants. This is connected to a pressurized tube that holds the butane solvent.

But what’s different is, instead of allowing the extracted substance to dry up entirely just like how it’s done with shatter, the result of this extraction process is isolated and taken out of its extraction tube. At the same time, it still has a runny consistency. And this is also why wax concentrates are also known as budders.

How Are Wax Concentrates Used?

We tested many of the different types of wax dabs through vape pens. These are designed with a tip that holds the wax in place. Its heating mechanism then produces smoke from the burning wax, inhaled from the other end of the vape pen.

But some of our other fellow Canadian weed lovers told us they prefer to use a ceramic vaporizer for their favorite wax concentrate products. They place the wax concentrate in their vaporizer’s containment unit, light up and inhale the smoke. They told us that this gives them the flavor and aroma they want from these wax concentrates.

Rosin Concentrate

Rosin is another contender to the cleanest concentrate, in our opinion. This has a more liquid-like consistency than wax concentrates. It’s runny, sticky and usually comes in golden amber colors.

The process of making rosin retains many of the terpenes of the buds, leaves and tiny stems of the cannabis plants used. This gives it a much richer aroma than the other concentrates here on our list. Lots of our testers say this gives it a more flavorful taste.

And the THC and CBD concentrations of a rosin product primarily depend on the cannabis plants used. Many of our fellow Canadians voted on rosin products extracted from top shelf Sativa-dominant strains as the best type of concentrate for them.

How Are Rosin Concentrates Made?

In Canada, certified producers and growers use high-quality hydraulic presses and similar equipment to make rosin products from their organically grown cannabis plants. But if you’re growing your own, then you can use household items like hair straighteners and flat irons, as well as parchment papers.

That’s because rosin is mainly created through heat and pressure. This is unlike shatter and wax concentrates where a butane solution is needed. And this makes the process of making rosin safer and, more organic, more natural.

How Are Rosin Concentrates Used?

Similar to wax concentrates, rosin can be smoked using a vape pen. But look for brands that are designed explicitly for rosin, as its tip needs to be developed in ways that can hold the rosin and keep it in its sappy, fluid-like state for a long time at room temperature.

Some brands have also started to design ceramic bongs and other vaporizers to accommodate rosin concentrate products. Many Canadian weed lovers say they prefer to use this when smoking rosin as it retains more of its natural taste, flavor and aroma.

Shatter Concentrate

Shatter is a concentrate that’s extracted from particular breeds of cannabis plants. It has a crystal-like texture and easily breaks into pieces like glass. This is where it got its name.

Many of our testers and many Canadian cannabis lovers told us that this is the best type of concentrate to dab this year. It gives them the body and mind high blend that they want. However, we noticed that most of this group mainly consisted of veteran weed lovers. This means they’ve steadily built up significant tolerance to the psychoactive effects of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and the physically relaxing high of CBD (cannabidiol).

And upon closer deliberation, we observed that they primarily talked about shatter concentrate products in Canada’s cannabis market derived from marijuana, a particular breed of cannabis plants. This usually has higher THC concentrations, making it a potent dab for your vape pen. We also noticed that some of them prefer to shatter concentrated products extracted from hemp, another less potent breed of the cannabis plant.

Marijuana and Hemp — What’s the Difference?

Hemp contains no more than 0.3% THC. Meanwhile, marijuana has beyond 0.3% of it. This is the most salient difference between marijuana and hemp.

So this also means shatter concentrate products derived from marijuana are known to cause much stronger psychoactive effects. But there are also hemp-extracted shatter concentrates with lower THC levels but higher than average CBD concentrations. And these are known to cause much more potent than usual body-high effects.

How Are Shatter Concentrates Made?

Shatter concentrates are manufactured from an extraction process called BHO. This stands for butane hash oil. And that’s because butane is the solvent used to extract shatter from marijuana or hemp plants.

This is done by soaking buds, leaves and tiny stems of cannabis plants in a butane solution. The organic material from a fresh harvest is held in the extraction tube of closed-loop BHO equipment. And this, in turn, is connected to a pressurized tube, which holds the butane solution.

How Are Shatter Concentrates Used?

The most highly recommended ways to use shatter include vape pens and ceramic vaporizers. This is where you place pieces of shatter in a tube of a vape pen or a containment unit in the ceramic vaporizer. Each of these products is implemented with heating mechanisms.

A vape pen uses electricity from a tiny battery to heat the shatter pieces in its container, usually the tip of these vape pens. All you need to do here is to press a button. Smoke coming from the evaporating pieces of shatter can be inhaled through the other end of the vape pen.

There’s a similar heating mechanism in a ceramic vaporizer. But instead of electricity, many ceramic bongs designed for shatter have a flame-lighting mechanism below its containment unit, which holds the shatter. And it also has a tube where you can inhale the smoke that’s coming out of its containment unit when it’s heated up.

As mentioned, lots of our testers and fellow Canadian weed smokers say they prefer this over other different types of wax dabs. And that’s what we’re going to talk about next.

What is the Best Type of Concentrate in Canada Today?

Hash takes the number 1 spot in our list of the four best types of concentrates in Canada this 2022. And our findings are based on the votes of our testers and many Canadian weed lovers we interviewed while mingling with the country’s local communities of cannabis lovers and professional networks of medical researchers at the top universities and laboratories for the past several months.

But of course, significant considerations in our careful deliberations are the results of the tests we did in controlled environments. We tried these different types of concentrates for specific use cases, including anxiety and stress management, pain relief, fun, socializing, drinking and enjoyment.

Next on the list of our testers is rosin. They say this gives them a more covert way to smoke their favorite weed strains. That’s because this usually doesn’t produce the distinct aroma of marijuana, unlike smoking hash and wax concentrates.

But the votes of our fellow Canadian cannabis lovers outnumbered those of our testers. So this is why wax concentrates took the number 2 spot in our collection of the four best types of concentrates in Canada today.

What Type of Concentrate is Strongest?

We know that naming the strongest type of concentrate requires considering specific brands instead of general types. And that’s because this depends primarily on the breed and strain of the cannabis plant used to make the concentrate, as we mentioned in the previous sections of our guide.

But basing this on the votes of our testers and fellow Canadian cannabis lovers, hash also takes this title. And upon closer investigation, we noticed that many of the individuals who participated in casting their votes for this particular title prefer types of concentrates and specific products with higher than usual Sativa blend dominance and THC concentrations.

What is the Best Form of Concentrate?

Because we already mentioned what shook out of our deliberations for the cleanest types of concentrates in Canada this year, let’s go to the best form of concentrate. Many of our testers and other Canadian cannabis lovers told us that they prefer to shatter concentrates when discussing the ideal form of a concentrate.

So we decided to dig deeper. We asked them for their reasons. And many of them said shatter is simpler to store and divide into their preferred doses because of its solid texture. This makes a lot of sense for us, as you can quickly and easily divide shatter into chunks and pieces, depending on how much of it you want to smoke. Plus, it seems to be more resilient against temperature changes when stored, based on our tests and the anecdotal evidence provided by many Canadian shatter consumers.

And this concludes our guide to the four best types of concentrates in Canada this 2022. We didn’t include oil because most of our testers and the Canadian weed lovers we interviewed say they consider oils as CBD and THC products mainly for edibles and topical pain relief.