Vaping Flower vs. Vaping Concentrates

CANNABIS CONCENTRATES ARE becoming an increasingly popular consumption method, but a lot of people new to concentrates feel intimidated by them. This isn’t completely unjustified when you consider the learning curve and tolerance adjustment required for concentrates. Because concentrates are a lot more potent than flower and are often associated with complicated consumption technology, why bother switching to something intimidating and confusing when flower seems so much easier and more familiar?

There are several potential benefits to be derived from concentrate consumption, but before you get to vaping, get started with these five basic concentrate facts.

1. Concentrates Go by Many Names

Although the multiplicity of strains available can make one’s head spin, even beginners have a pretty good idea of what they’re getting with flower, regardless of its name. “Concentrates” is an umbrella term that refers to a variety of different cannabis extracts and their monikers—and that’s where things can get more confusing.

Imagine you’re standing at the glass counter of a dispensary. Inside you see the following items: shatter, rosin, BHO, CO2, wax, crumble, honey oil, dabs, hash, tinctures, and capsules. Don’t let the breadth of options drive you away—many of these are different names for the same thing. Here are some quick tips for narrowing your search down:

Shatter, wax, crumble, sugar, honeycomb, sap, and oil often refer to a concentrate’s texture. While some people have a consistency preference, what’s important to many people is the solvent used to make the extract and how compatible that extract is with their preferred consumption method.

Most concentrates are extracted using CO₂, butane, hydrocarbons, propane, water, alcohol, and heat. Solventless extracts made using water (e.g., hash) or heat (e.g., rosin) are excellent choices for those wary of how consuming solvents might affect them.

Ask your budtender which oils work with your delivery method of choice. Looking to dab something? Consider trying the recommended shatter, hash oil, or CO2 oil. Do you prefer vape pens? Choose a cartridge that’s compatible with your battery. Interested in ingestible concentrates? Ask about dosing tinctures and oil capsules.

2. Concentrates Are More Potent

The most important distinction between cannabis flowers and concentrates is potency. While bud potency tends to range between 10 to 25 percent THC, a concentrate typically falls between 50 to 80 percent (and some extracts can even push past 90 percent). Those numbers may be enough to scare off any unseasoned consumers, and for good reason: dosing gets trickier as potency increases.

A mildly or nonpsychoactive CBD-rich concentrate would be a good choice for beginners (that’s right, not all concentrates are designed to get you sky high). Hash and tinctures also tend to have lower THC contents than other types of concentrates, so you might consider steering toward those before graduating to the more potent oils. Just remember to always start with a low dose and work your way up if you’re new to concentrates or have a low tolerance.

3. Concentrates Can Be Administered Differently

With bud, you can smoke it, vaporize it, and roll it, but there’s not much else you can do with it. Concentrates offer more options.

Dabbing: The process by which you apply an extract to a hot nail and inhale the resultant vapor through a glass piece is swiftly on the rise among cannabis enthusiasts. Dabbing is an easy way to get a potent dose of cannabinoids, though the learning curve, safety considerations, and equipment demands make it a less accessible option for new users.

Ingestible oils act like edibles in that they take effect slowly and last much longer due to the way they’re metabolized. These oils (or any extract, really) can be high in THC, CBD, or both. So if you’re interested in smoke-free methods of consumption—especially for treating medical symptoms and conditions—oil capsules may be worth looking into.

Tinctures are a sublingual concentrate, meaning they’re dropped under the tongue and enter the bloodstream from there. They act faster than edibles and ingestible oils, though they’re often less potent.

Hash and oils may be consumed using some of the same methods as flower. Some vaporizers are compatible with “loose” oils, though most portable pens are specially designed to be used with specific cartridges. Motivated enthusiasts can even augment their standard bud-packed joints with hash and oils for added potency.

4. Plant Matter Is Stripped from Concentrates

When you smoke flower, you’re also smoking the plant material that leaves your glass black with tar. That can take a toll on your lungs. However, you may have noticed that when you dab oils, the glass and water stay clean for much longer. In concentrates, extraction processes strip out plant material and isolate the compounds you want like THC and CBD, which is a major benefit for many consumers. That said, some things you don’t want, like pesticides, contaminants, and residual solvents, can also be concentrated in oils, shatters, and waxes; make sure the products you consume are tested for contaminants prior to consuming them.

5. Flowers May Have More Flavor and Terpenes, but Not Always

If flavor is something you care about, be aware that some concentrates will lose their aromas and flavors in the extraction process. Terpenes are the volatile, fragrant oils secreted by the cannabis plant, and they give the flowers their smells from the sweet, fruity, and floral to the earthy, piney, and musky. Being sensitive to heat, terpenes are difficult to preserve in many extraction processes.

For this reason, many producers have begun reintroducing these aromatic compounds afterward—which can result in products even more flavorful than the flower they came from.

An Experiment

BY LEAFLY EDITOR, BAILEY RAHN

Many cannabis consumers think customizing their cannabis buzz is limited to the strains on the shelves, but temperature is an equally important factor that impacts your experience. Think of temperature control as the key to unlocking the full array of effects a strain can offer. A strain that’s high in CBD (nonpsychoactive, relaxing, antiepileptic), for example, must be heated to the compound’s boiling point of 356°F if you’re to reap its benefits. Likewise, the relaxing terpene linalool isn’t unleashed until you hit 388°F. Temperature can also determine a strain’s intensity: higher temperatures typically exaggerate effects, while lower temperatures offer a gentler, more mellow experience.

This type of customization isn’t possible through smoking. When you bring a lighter to your bowl, you’re combusting the plant material, which creates smoke, carbon dioxide, and other harmful by-products. The temperature is hot enough to activate the THC and other compounds, but this “sledgehammer approach” isn’t terribly efficient, as temperatures that high can also destroy volatile but pertinent cannabinoids and terpenes.

Knowing that cannabis has a variety of precious constituents with different boiling points, I wanted to see how temperature affected the overall experience felt by different strains. Lining up a row of strain jars like test tubes, I turned on my trusty tabletop vaporizer and began playing mad scientist.

LOW TEMPERATURES FOR CLEARHEADED, FUNCTIONAL EFFECTS

310°F to 330°F

Possible effects: mild euphoria, focus, productivity, subtle relaxation

There’s a time and place to be stoned off your rocker, but sometimes all you need is the slightest kick from your cannabis. For days when you need uplifting relief to carry you through chores and tasks, low-temp vaping is the key to a functional, productive buzz.

I loaded my Headband concentrate and set my vaporizer to 320°F in order to release three key constituents: the uplifting, focus-feeding terpene pinene; the pepper-flavored anti-inflammatory terpene caryophyllene; and of course, the psychoactive commander in chief, THC. Despite high levels of THC, vaporizing at this temperature didn’t make me feel stoned in the slightest. Instead, I was left feeling acutely alert and in complete control of my faculties. The taste was a subtle mix of herbs and pine, but certainly lacked the loud flavors found at higher temperatures.

Turning the heat up to 330°F, the high became slightly more intense but tasks and concentration were still completely manageable. The 290°F to 330°F range seems the perfect fit for those who wish to stay productive and functional, cannabis novices and newbies, and/or anyone sensitive to THC’s side effects (dizziness, paranoia, dry eyes/mouth, lethargy, et cetera).

MODERATE TEMPERATURES FOR A BALANCED BUZZ

330°F to 370°F

Possible effects: moderate euphoria, enhanced sensory awareness, mood elevation, functional relaxation

As you increase the heat, more THC is volatilized and your high becomes more intense. This middle range—330°F to 370°F—gives rise to more euphoric effects that help elevate the mood, stimulate giggles, and kick-start the appetite. It’s more functional than when you push past the 370°F mark, but you will most definitely start to feel the high that lower temperatures spared you.

Historically, 365°F has been the sweet spot for me (I’ll never forget because the first time I vaporized, my friend read the machine’s clock-like screen and thought it was 3:65 p.m.). I’ve always loved the combination of tamed euphoria coupled with the subtle relaxation and focus found at this temperature. I turned my vape up to 365°F and dished out more of the Headband wax. The vapor felt fuller than it did at 330°F, and the flavor was perfectly fruity with the aftertaste of sweet vanilla and licorice. Its effects were distinctly different from the low-temp experience: my thoughts went from a sloppy sprint to a relaxed walking pace, allowing me to unwind and focus.

Whether you’re kicking back with a book, exercising, socializing, cleaning, or playing video games, these moderate temperatures provide most of the cannabinoids and terpenes you want without fully volatilizing the THC—I know many people who want as much THC as possible, but for others it’s about achieving a careful balance of clearheadedness and blissful elevation.

HIGH TEMPERATURES FOR INTENSE EUPHORIA AND RELAXATION

370°F to 430°F

Possible effects: Intense euphoria, sleep, heavy relaxation, meditation

For ultimate THC decarboxylation mode, turn your vaporizer above 370°F. At these high temperatures, you get terpenes like linalool (calming, anxiety relieving) and cannabinoids like THCV (energizing, appetite suppressing), but keep in mind that they’re approaching combustion territory. You may even notice the vapor becomes smokier and harsher on the lungs.

Durban Poison is a South African sativa known for its elevated levels of THCV, a highly psychoactive cannabinoid known to weaken appetite (yes, weaken). I coincidentally had this strain in my collection last week, so I decided to cook it at 430°F to see if I felt more energized than I would at a lower temperature.

For me, the answer was a definitive yes. I started inhaling the bag of Durban Poison fumes (a little bit went a long way) and shared it with my roommate when I realized how high I had become after just a few hits. I passed the kitchen on my way out, and caught a glance of those old-fashioned glazed chocolate doughnuts—the kind you’d normally eat like popcorn after getting stoned. Call it a THCV placebo or miracle, but those seductive delicacies had no power over me (until later, but that’s irrelevant).

Vaporizing the indica Skywalker at a high temperature—390°F to be specific—was an entirely different story. My muscles melted, eyelids got heavy, and thoughts became shrouded in a pleasant mental mist that made it easy to fall into a calm, meditative state. I can’t say for certain whether it’s the linalool gained at 388°F or the more fully volatilized THC, but this strain was detectably heavier at higher temperatures and decidedly more sedating than the Durban Poison when vaporized at the same temperature. That brings us to the final and most obvious consideration when attempting to customize an experience: the strain.

Temperature Variation vs. Strain Variation

The aforementioned temperature tiers don’t so much “create” effects—they modify them, so keep in mind that the limits of your customization are set by whatever strain you’re working with. Take Durban Poison and Skywalker as examples. Between a racy, upbeat sativa and a heavy, pacifying indica, Durban Poison will always have that high-energy cerebral-effect profile and Skywalker is destined to be a calming sedative (in most people’s opinions). Temperature is basically the volume knob: turn it up for intensity, and turn it down for subtlety.

In summary, don’t forget that with increases in temperature, you can uncork more essential compounds; however, go too hot and you may be destroying some of those delicate cannabinoids and terpenes. Everyone has their own preference, and it’s up to you to find your own favorite temperature, but knowing exactly what is vaporizing at those temperatures may help.