Get the best out of your Kief.
On your cannabis tour, you are almost guaranteed to buy a few whole nugs of some premium Mary Jane, which you will grind down into a size you can stuff into a bowl or easily roll into a joint. Yet, even the most perfect grind leaves a little green dust behind — and that dust is more valuable than you think.
You have probably heard the term “kief,” even if you aren’t sure what it refers to. Kief is also called dry sift or pollen within the cannabis community; it is essentially the resin glands that develop on marijuana flower buds, which have the highest concentration of cannabinoids on the plant. Often, kief crystals fall off the cannabis bud when the bud is handled and especially when it is ground up for use. This sticky dust is essentially the easiest-to-make, lowest-budget concentrate.
You don’t want your kief to go to waste. Here are a few ways to capture kief and make sure no bit of your weed investment goes to waste:
Buy a Multi-chamber Grinder
Recreational dispensaries sell all manner of cannabis goodies, from trimmed bud to edibles to concentrates and more — but it is worth noting that they also sell useful paraphernalia. For example, you can stock up on rolling papers, buy a new glass pipe or bong or, most importantly for kief management, invest in a high-quality grinder.
Grinders are essential for transforming huge nugs into a more useful size. While you could shove a trimmed bud into your bowl and smoke it, doing so isn’t exactly economical; you aren’t maximizing the marijuana inside the bowl, and you aren’t evenly mixing the plant material and the delectable resin. Historically, the problem with grinders is that they leave some amount of good stuff behind as sticky dust — which is exactly why you need a good grinder, which will collect that dust for you to use as kief.
The cheapest grinders will have only one chamber, where you shred your weed. More advanced grinders have one or more additional chambers, which allow you a finer grind and allow for the capturing of kief. One of the chambers should be layered with a mesh screen, which will ensure your kief is perfectly sifted. While you are on your tour, you might talk to a budtender (or your tour guide) about the pros and cons of different grinder models, so you can make the most of marijuana in Colorado.
Use Kief Wisely
Once you have a way of harvesting your kief, you need to know how to use it properly. Here are some of the best methods used by beginners and experts alike:
Sprinkle it on packed bowls. Also called “crowning,” adding a layer of kief on top of a packed bowl is a good way to boost the cannabinoid content of your hits, especially if you master the cornering technique.
Roll it into joints. Similar to crowning a bowl, sprinkling a layer of kief onto the top of your cannabis before you roll it up will make the joint much more potent. A more advanced method is to make a twax joint, which entails dampening the outside of your rollie, perhaps with wax (a cannabis concentrate), and rolling the joint in kief.
Make hash. Hash is essentially kief that has been heated and pressed into a certain shape. You can use hash like bud, packing it directly into a bowl or joint for an incredibly intense high, or you can vaporize it, use a hookah or even dab it. It is remarkably easy to make your own hash if you already have a good supply of kief.
Press rosin. Rosin is a cannabis extract, but unlike other extracts (like budder, wax, shatter, etc.) rosin does not require a solvent. In truth, you can press regular bud to make rosin, but starting with kief makes your rosin more potent.
Make moonrocks. A moonrock is an exceedingly high-quality nug, covered in cannabis oil and rolled in kief. These are extremely potent and best saved for when your tolerance is quite high. You might be able to find some moonrocks at a dispensary you visit during your trip, but you can also make them at home if you accrue the right ingredients.
Having the right tools for collecting kief is crucial, as is knowing when best to deploy your kief for maximum effect. As you gain more experience with marijuana, you will come to appreciate kief for its powerful impact.