The instant fame of cannabis has led to the creation of a lot of misleading digital content. If you’ve ever smoked concentrates and weed, you’d know that concentrates are considerably stronger than weed. Cannabis concentrates are just what their name suggests i.e. concentrated form of cannabis. Just like weed, concentrates come in various qualities and types. But how do you differentiate them? And what does it matter? In this blog post, we will help all the cannabis enthusiasts know more about the types of concentrates and how they’re different from each other. Let’s begin with the basics:
What is a Concentrate?
Cannabis concentrate is a term used for marijuana plant extracts. It is a highly potent THC-concentrated mass (40 to 80 percent content) that looks like honey or butter. The tetrahydrocannabinol level of concentrates is four times more impactful than a high-grade marijuana strain, which usually ranges in the 15 to 25 percent spectrum.
Nowadays, one of the hottest debates among the progressive marijuana circles is about dark shatter and light shatter. Read on to know more about these concentrates.
What is Shatter?
Shatter is an extraordinarily potent cannabis concentrate and one of the popular forms of dabbing. A high-quality shatter has a translucent shape and features a golden tint. it looks like honey and has multiple degrees of colour profiles as well as transparency. When a shatter is warm, it’ll appear like thick honey, and when it is cold it will look like a glass.
Although shatter is known for its purity, it still has variations. Note here that it is not easy to tell a lot about a shatter’s quality just by glancing at it. it could be thick like dark shatter and still carry a high content of active substances, or transparent like light shatter and still low on CBD/THC content.
Let’s discuss both these variations of shatter in more detail:
Dark Shatter
This murky, thick shatter is obtained through heat or chemically extracted marijuana oil that is toughened into a glassy, dark substance. Its darker kind can be created with CO2 or BHO extraction methods. The latter method is more popular because of its economical nature. Another reason why this shatter has a dark colour is that the plant itself is dark from which it is extracted. For example, Indica strains and some hybrids are darker in colour than the Sativa strains.
Key features of Dark Shatter
· It provides your body with a grounded high, unlike the light shatter. Thus, if you’re looking for a sedating, calming, and pain relieving high, then get yourself some dark shatter.
· Dark shatter is known as the king of cannabis concentrates due to its rich potency. It is because it undergoes a filtration process that purges the organically developed fats and waxes. This is how it is packed with high volume of THC compared to regular weed that carries only 10 to 25 percent tetrahydrocannabinol.
· It contains more tar and chlorophyll, which gives it users a grassy feel and a rough taste. Also, it contains more terpenes and fatty acids as compared to light shatter, which is why it gives you a mind-numbing high.
Light Shatter
Irrespective of the potency of this shatter, it reaps many rewards because of its translucent colour, as users are psychologically inclined to opt for lighter shades of concentrates. However, the underneath concept that the lighter the colour, the higher the quality is just a myth.
Light shatter is usually produced using the BHO extraction method. When solvents are removed from the shatter, the temperature is kept at a low reading, which makes vacuum purging of the leftover chemical solvents more difficult. As a result, many residual solvents are left in the extract, which may contain a certain percentage of contamination.
Key features
· It is smoother and purer in taste and shape as compared to dark shatter as it contains less tar and chlorophyll.
· Light shatters have more cannabinoids than the dark shatters.
· The effects of light shatters are energetically cerebral, mainly due to the high volume of THC they contain.
Know that the type of shatter a consumer may opt for is essentially a choice of his personal preference. It depends on what kind of effects you’re looking for. The people who prefer grounded high may opt for dark shatters whereas those looking for an energetic high may choose light shatters.
