Wax, sugar, budder, crumble, shatter, trim run, dog run, live resin – what does it all mean? With the growing popularity of BHO (Butane Hash Oil Concentrates), it’s a good idea to know what’s what in the world of concentrates. Here is a quick overview of the basic types of BHO concentrates.
There are several methods for making cannabis concentrates such as:
- hypercritical CO2 extractions
- dry sift resin collection
- ice water hash
The most common commercially available concentrates however, are butane hash oils.
These concentrates are often created by loading the cannabis into glass tubes and forcing butane through the plant material which acts as a solvent, stripping the resin glands containing THC and other cannabinoids as well as terpenes, pigments, and other oily components of the cannabis plant from the plant material. The oils and butane are filtered and collected from the end of the tubes into shallow pans. The oil butane mixture has been purged ideally using specially designed purging ovens, so temperature and time can be precisely controlled to evaporate the butane, leaving only the BHO concentrate. It is through the myriad of variables that occur in this process, that the resulting wax will obtain the attributes to classify it with a name.
The most basic breakdown is that of either shatter or wax. Shatters or concentrates, that have retained a crystalline structure allowing light to pass through them so that the resulting shatter is lightly translucent to nearly transparent. Wax, on the other hand, has lost this crystalline structure either through purposeful manipulation or agitation during the purging process, or by accident, or some unwanted disruption of the process and making shattered. Wax concentrates are opaque, but the texture of these concentrates can vary drastically.
So the basic stone concentrates is that:
1) If you can see through it – it’s a Shatter
2) If you cannot see through it – it’s a Wax.
Inside the wax category, there are various consistencies and textures that give it classifications. Some of these may be subjective classifications and there are regional variations on nomenclature.
Wax Concentrates:
Sugar Crumbles
Sugar Crumbles are signified by the crystallized surface of the wax and the crumbly texture. Light refracts up to sometimes gritty wax even get an often beautiful appearance and the crumbly texture makes it easy to handle and keeps it from being very sticky to the touch;
Wax Crumble
Wax Crumbles are very similar to the sugar crumbles and the consistency of the body of the wax. The difference is on the surface and the sheen. Wax crumbles have a smooth almost slick surface, though they’re not quite sticky to the touch. They tend to be more creamy, than the sugar crumbles;
Budder
The smoothest and creaminess of the wax family is the aptly-named of Budder Wax. Budders are very creamy and silky, and often with a very rich deep yellow colour. Budders are perhaps the cream of the crop when it comes to wax concentrates.
– Shatter concentrates are usually referred to simply as Shatters. Despite that, the consistency can vary from a thin oily consistency to a brittle glass-like hardness, depending on the temperature, humidity, and other factors. Shatters are primarily defined and sometimes judged by the translucent properties of the BHO.
– Liquid Hash Oils, which are translucent, are sometimes used in edibles manufacturing, but may not be a result of butane solvent extractions. Also sometimes propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin are added to a solid BHO shatter to create acid oils, such as seen in dank tanks and open.
But it may not be accurate to classify them truly as a Liquid Shatter. Commonly shadows are very sticky like taffy to a hard and brittle consistency. It is often thought, that the darker the shatter is and colour means, that the quality is proportionately bad. But this is not necessarily true. A very high-quality shatter, made from Grandaddy purple, for instance, could easily be darker, than a lower quality product, made from a lighter colour strain.
More than colour or consistency it is often the material that is used in making the concentrate that determines the strong flavour and overall quality of the end product.
Most BHO concentrates fall into one of the three following material categories:
– Trim runs –
Trim runs are the most widely available concentrates and are usually not labelled, as such a concentrate is generally expected to be a trim run unless it’s otherwise noted. These concentrates, whether Shatter or Wax, are blasted using trim leaves and the shake plant material. These concentrates may have less concentrated amounts of cannabinoids, such as THC or CBD, yet more flavours from the abundance of plant material in the tubes, while the extraction is going on.
– Nug runs –
Nug runs, however, use the actual bud of the cannabis plant, which contains a stronger concentration of the mind-altering cannabinoids rather, than the second-rate trim materials. Nug runs are often labelled as such, or in the case of the previously mentioned shatters. Nug runs are sometimes a separate more expensive brand from the same manufacturer.
– Live resin –
Considered by many as the Cadillac of concentrates – is live resin. Although many think because the price is usually expensive, that Live resin has stronger or more pure than other concentrates. But again, that may not be the case.
Live resin means, that the concentrate was made with fresh, green, uncured cannabis, either within 24 hours of being harvested or from fresh frozen material. Extracting from the green plant retains much more of the terpenes or flavours and aromas of the plant and the concentrated form.
Live resins are very flavorful and aromatic and give a more clear flavour profile of the source cannabis. But that has little effect on the potency. However, it does seem that the few people, who do manufacturer live resin for sale, such as Gold Coast extracts seem to really know what they’re doing and often produce very high quality concentrates.
Now it’s high time you click here to explore our cannabis concentrates.
