Kief: Another (Great) Way To Consume Cannabis

Let’s talk about kief. Remember those sticky crystals all over your deliciously fat, fresh cannabis bud? Yeah, it is kief, also called a ‘dry sift.’

Kief is a substance found in the resin glands which make cannabis flowers so unique by producing cannabinoids and terpenes. So, it is crème de la crème of the bud, which makes kief one of the most potent ways to consume cannabis.

Protecting Cannabis From Herbivores

Kief is the crystal formation on the tip of a gland which is called a trichome. Trichomes protect a marijuana plant from herbivores by producing intense psychoactive effects, barring a disoriented animal from eating the rest of the plant. The distinct odor attracts pollinating insects and predators, which scare herbivores from the area.

How To Get It?

There is no need to buy expensive extraction equipment. You can sift kief at home — and it is an excellent way to try concentrates while reducing the number of harmful by-products you take into your body with smoking.

Use a three-chamber herb grinder to finely grind your cannabis while letting crystals fall into a small compartment. Two-chamber grinders can do but not so well — they often let potent crystals go to waste since the substance simply sticks to the inside of the grinder.

Buying extracted product at a dispensary, keep in mind that the purer the kief, the lighter the color will be. The well-cleaned stuff tends to be more of an off-white color.

What to Do With Kief

There are many good ways to use your pile of unrefined kief. Here are some of them:

Sprinkle It Over A Packed Bowl of Cannabis
Or ‘crown a bowl’ — it is one of the most obvious ways to use it. Sprinkling will dramatically increase potency and don’t forget to corner your hits (or burn a quadrant of the bowl at a time) so that you can enjoy your cannabis even longer.

Roll a Twax Joint
Pepper your ground cannabis with kief and mix well. The extra trichomes should stick to the ground leaves, adding potency to your joint. Or just dampen the outside of the joint with a lick of your preferred wax and roll the top 1/3 in kief to make a twax joint.

Make Hash
Hash is basically kief that has been heated and pressurized to form a soft, green substance. Applying heat and pressure ruptures the resin glands which, in turn, changes the overall taste and effects of the product. The more pressure you apply, the darker the hash gets.

How About Moonrocks
Moonrocks are nugs covered in oil and rolled in kief. They possess very high potency and are relatively easy to make if you have everything necessary. Gently heat oil and coat your buds. Sprinkle crystals over warm buds or put them in a kief bath. Let them harden and break them up by hand and sprinkle them into your bowl.

Press Rosin
The popularity of rosins grows among cannabis lovers, thanks to solventless extraction methods. You can press flowers, but by pressing kief, you get higher potency and quality of rosin.  You are good to go using a hair straightener, but professionals tend to use high-pressure portable presses.

Add It to Cannabutter
Cannabutter is legendary, and kief is an easy way to boost potency without adding any extra steps. Just make sure you thoroughly intermix it with buds.

Experiment and have fun!

This post is written based on this Leafly material.

(Sweedsy in no way encourages illegal activity and would like to remind its readers that marijuana usage continues to be an offense under Federal Law, regardless of state marijuana laws. To learn more, click here.)