Hybrid Kief

What is kief and how can you use it?

The cannabis plant is covered in resinous glands called trichomes, which contain THC, CBD, terpenes, and other compounds. When these trichomes dry and break off of the plant, they become kief. Kief is usually darker than trichomes, ranging from gold to brown. It’s a powdery substance that is somewhat sticky, though less so than trichomes on a bud. Trichomes secrete a sticky resin containing the terpenes and cannabinoids that give cannabis its unique qualities. As concentrated resin glands, kief is a potent form of cannabis. It can be sprinkled on top of joints and blunts, infused into food, or pressed into hash.

What are the advantages of kief?

One of the benefits of kief over other methods of making hash, including butane, propane, ethanol, and even water, is it requires almost no equipment and has no safety concerns. For consumers who don’t like the idea of chemical solvents, kief stands alone as a supremely natural method of concentrating cannabis, dating back several thousand years to hash-making locales like Morocco and Afghanistan. Even water hash can get moldy and could constitute a health risk if poorly-made… but kief is basically idiot-proof, in that you’ll always get a safe product that is stronger and more pure than straight-up marijuana.

If you want to go one step farther, you can also press your refined kief using light heat and get something similar to a shatter, which can be easier to work with than loose, dusty kief.

How do I use kief?

Most people just end up sprinkling a little bit (or a lot) of kief on top of the weed in their pipes or joints; though this is a great method that adds a punch of potency and/or flavor to normal flowers, it doesn’t allow you to experience the kief on its own. Our recommended method for smoking kief is to use a screen on top of a glass pipe. You can purchase durable specialty titanium screens for smoking hash at well-stocked head shops, but you can even use a standard stainless steel pipe screen with no issues.

Gently heating the kief using indirect flame (held an inch or two above the kief) is the best way to release the essential oils and prevent burning it — good kief will begin to bubble and melt like you see with high-grade water hash, leaving behind very little residue and giving a full-flavored hit. On the flip side, poorly refined kief can taste harsh and woody due to the presence of remnant plant matter, so if you care about flavor, it’s important to try and get your kief as clean as possible before smoking. If you have access to any kind of microscope, look for flecks of green and trichome stalks in your kief — this will indicate that your kief isn’t totally pure and may need more refining.

Does kief get you higher than bud?

Gram for gram, yes, though it depends on the strain and consumption method. Since kief is concentrated trichomes, it’s inherently more potent than bud of the same strain. That’s one reason some consumers prefer to use small amounts of kief to boost the potency of other forms of cannabis, rather than just consuming kief itself. Kief is another form of cannabis concentrate but one that collects automatically at the bottom of a cannabis grinder. If you already grind flower to vape or smoke, you’ve got kief on hand. And because it’s concentrated trichomes, it’s more potent than the flower it fell off of. It only makes sense to harness the sticky resin and use it somehow.

How to Buy Kief Online + Shipping & Delivery

You can buy Kief online directly from us! We offer same day cannabis delivery within Toronto, the GTA, Durham Region, Peel Region, York Region, Halton Region, Hamilton, and more. View all of our delivery zones here. Live outside of our delivery zone? Not a problem! Get same day shipping across Canada via Canada Post or Purolator. Kush Buddy is your top local cannabis dispensary near you!