Whether you buy weed online in Quebec or buy weed online in Alberta, you need to know about kief. Kief is a magical crystallized substance that shakes free of cannabis buds during handling.
Kief has a long tradition of use around the world for the creation of hash. If you love smoking weed and don’t know about kief, you’re losing out on the juiciest bits of the plant.
What is Kief?
Kief, sometimes called pollen, is the crystallized trichomes coating cannabis flowers. These trichomes contain the highest concentration of cannabinoids and terpenes and essentially give each strain its unique properties—the more potent the strain, likely the thicker the coating of trichomes.
After cannabis buds have been harvested, dried, and cured, the trichomes become fragile. During handling, let’s say when you grind it in your grinder, the trichomes break off. At the bottom of a grinder, you might have already noticed the fine dusting of powder collecting at the bottom. This is kief. These are the trichomes.
In hash producing cultures, like India and Morocco, kief is extremely valuable. Hash is the processed, compacted version of kief. Kief is dusty, individual particles, and hash collects these particles into a compressed, and more resinous form.
How to Collect Kief
As a weed smoker, there are three ways to collect kief for use later. Remember, the more flower you handle, and the more potent the strain, the more kief you’ll end up with.
A Kief (or Pollen) Collecting Grinder
Some weed grinders come with only two chambers: the chamber to put the bud, and the chamber which collects it after grinding. But without that much extra investment, you can source a three-tier grinder. The third tier sits just below the collection chamber, separated by a fine metal mesh. Over time, the trichomes from your favorite potent strains, like Purple Space Cookies or West Coast Bubba, collect on the bottom of the collection chamber and trickle through the mesh.
A Kief Collecting Tray
If you don’t buy weed online (in Alberta, Quebec, or anywhere in Canada), maybe you grow some at home. If you do grow cannabis at home, you may be familiar with the labour-intensive trimming process. Every bud needs to have the sugar leaves removed, and cleaned up for curing.
If you trim at home, consider investing in a trimming tray. It’s a two-part system, with two trays nested into one another. The top tray has a fine mesh bottom to allow for kief collection. Much like with the kief grinder, as you work on the tray, the valuable trichomes sift through the mesh to the bottom. Once you’ve completed the job, you’ll end up with a massive collection of kief.
Your Fingers
Have you ever heard of finger hash? Finger hash is an ancient method of collecting and repurposing the plant’s trichomes. If you handle a lot of weed, perhaps during the trim process, the oily trichomes melt onto your warm fingers. Soon, you find a sticky coating forms over your hands. If you rub your fingers or palms together, it becomes more malleable and collects into a single ball. This is the world-renowned finger hash, which is technically just a big ball of kief.
Buy Kief Online
Of course, if you don’t want to go through all the hassle of growing your own, you can buy kief online. Purchasing kief through an online dispensary also ensures you don’t have to wait for it to build up within a kief collector. Remember, if you are only a casual smoker, it can take a few months to collect enough kief to use. If you don’t have enough time to wait or enough energy to grow, save yourself the effort by ordering kief online in Canada.
5 Ways to Make the Most of Your Kief Stash
However you got it, you now have a small stash of kief. What are you going to do with this golden and potent product?
Smoke it in a Joint (or Bong)
The simplest way to make use of kief is to use it in a joint, blunt, or a perfectly packed bowl. Sprinkling kief into a joint before you finish the rolling process or on top of a bowl helps amplify the entire experience: Boosts flavour, increases potency, and speeds up the onset of the high.
Kief also works when sprinkled around the outside of a blunt or joint. A common practice is to use honey oil (or another resinous, sticky cannabis concentrate) to coat the outside of a finished joint in a tacky layer. Once you have covered it in resin, rollover a small pile of kief to cover the outside with crystals. This is a beautiful tribute to cannabis culture: a kief sprinkled joint is a sight to behold.
Vape it in a Vaporizer
If you have a vaporizer, like the Davinci, Volcano, Pax, or any other brand, you may find it surprising to hear they are compatible with kief. Smoking kief is smoother than smoking flower, and vaping kief is an altogether heavenly experience. Incredible smooth pulls and rapid onset of the high. Keep in mind, you may need to purchase a special concentrate addition to make kief compatible with your vaporizer.
Make Hash
Who would have imagined you could make your own hash at home? Borrowing the methods used for centuries in India or Morocco, if you have enough kief stashed away, you can make a small brick in the comfort of your living room. First, collect or buy enough kief to make the process worthwhile. We are talking about one to two cups of kief (or more).
Put a kettle of water on to boil, and grab a large mason jar with a tight-fitting lid. You’ll also need a piece of parchment paper large enough to wrap the kief into a tight package. Don’t forget a pair of oven mitts!
Wrap the kief tightly in an envelope of parchment paper. Once the water boils, pour it into the jar, tighten the lid, and put on your mitts.
Carefully begin rolling the hot jar of water over the envelope. The warmth will start melting the resins and oils within the kief, much like your hands would when making finger hash. After several minutes, check inside the package, and you should have a warm, moldable brick of hash. Form into a nice brick or ball, and store in a glass jar.
Make Kief Butter
Do you make your own edibles? Did you know that kief is another essential kitchen staple that can elevate a meal, snack, or candy? Instead of making cannabutter or infused oil from bud, it’s even more lovely to make it from kief. After all, kief is a much more concentrated in cannabinoids like THC and CBD, meaning you can use less and get the same benefits.
Add two cups of clarified butter (or olive oil) into a slow cooker set to low. Add at least a cup of kief once the butter has melted, and stir to combine. Cook this mixture for at least four hours.
Turn the slow cooker off and allow the mixture to cool slightly. Using a cheesecloth, strain the butter into a glass container to remove the leftover kief. Discard the kief, and store the butter in the refrigerator until you are ready to cook. Use your funky and fragrant kief butter in any recipe with butter as an ingredient. Always test the potency of the final edible before taking a big helping for yourself. You never know how strong it might be!
Make Moon Rocks
A final, and fantastic idea for making use of excess kief is to make moon rocks. These are made by rolling beautiful buds in cannabis oil, and sprinkling with kief. Easy enough, but sure to impress even the most experienced cannabis connoisseur.
First, choose a choice bud, maybe a nug of GG4 or Blue Dream. If it needs a bit of trimming to tighten it up, do so now. Then, choose a cannabis concentrate with a sticky, spreadable consistency (like a live resin or BHO). Carefully spread a thin layer over the entire bud. Set this sticky layer in place with a thick coating of kief. The aim is to seal the resin in a powdery coating. Now, enjoy!
Nothing beats the hard-hitting high, nor the wild appearance of a cannabis moon rock.
Buy Weed Online in Alberta or in Quebec, but Always Safe the Kief
No matter where you order weed online in Canada, always collect the kief. There is no reason why these juicy trichome crystals should ever go to waste. Invest in a kief collecting grinder, a kief collectors tray, or just buy kief online. You’ll never lose out on this incredibly valuable and potent natural concentrate again.