What is Hash?

By: Sadaf Naushad

If you’ve recently entered the cannabis universe, you may have heard of hash or hashish.

At its simplest, hash is a cannabis concentrate that is generally inhaled or smoked.

People enjoy hash due to its incredible ability to make one feel tranquil and euphoric.

If you’re searching for that extraordinary mind and body high that will alleviate all troubles, hash is perfect for you. 

What is hash?

While marijuana consists of dried, unprocessed flowers from the female cannabis plant, hash derives from tightly compacted cannabis resin.

This resin creates solidified blocks of potent trichome heads, ranging in colors from amber to dark brown.

As a concentrated form of marijuana, hash can be separated from the plant through mechanical or chemical measures.

Similar to any type of cannabis, hash contains various active chemical ingredients, including cannabinoids such as THC and CBD.

Because of its high potency, ingesting small amounts of hash is recommended if wanting to experience effects similar to marijuana.

Where does hash come from?

While its original usage remains unknown, hash initially became widespread in the Middle East, South Asia and Northern Africa. For generations, people consumed hash for religious and medicinal purposes.

Users originally treated hash as an edible until the 1500s when smoking evolved as the preferred method of ingestion.

Three hundred years later, numerous botanists and doctors in Europe welcomed hash with open arms, promoting its curing benefits to the public.

Slowly but surely, hash’s popularity expanded globally as more people began to use it. Today, most of the world’s hash is grown in Morocco, Afghanistan, Nepal and India.

Hash originates from the tops of unpollinated flowers in female cannabis plants. When left unpollinated for a long duration, the plant’s flowers generate sticky resin glands, known as trichomes.

These frosty specks of cannabis resin coat the plant and produce terpenes and cannabinoids.

Terpenes are responsible for giving cannabis its distinctive scent and flavor while cannabinoids cause the psychoactive and non-psychoactive effects of cannabis.

Trichomes encompass high concentrations of the cannabinoids, with the most powerful cannabinoid found in resin being THC.

By extracting these potent trichomes from the cannabis plant, the compacted resin creates hash.

Types of hash

Due to its current worldwide consumption, a multitude of diverse hash types exists. Some types of hash require certain tools to extract the concentrate while traditional approaches embrace a natural process.

Examples of different hash include kief, Indian charas, bubble hash, marijuana rosin and honey oil.

Kief

Kief, also referred to as Dry Sift Hash, is composed of round resin glands found at the surface of cannabis flowers.

Most users are able to extract kief through a three-chamber grinder, in which flakes of trichomes fall from the bud from constant friction of the grinder.

Depending on the amount one smokes, these bits of trichomes accumulate overtime in the chamber.

Once extracted, kief can be made into a soft, dough-like shape by applying heat and pressure.

Indian Charas or Finger Hash

Long before advanced technology, Indian ancestors created hash solely from their fingers. As a concentrated form of cannabis, Indian charas are constructed through fresh cannabis buds that are weeks away from full maturity.

While its availability first emerged in India, charas’ cultivation can be traced to several other regions along the Himalayas, where cannabis enthusiasts grew a variety of finger hash.

Bubble Hash

Considered as an upgrade from finger hash, Bubble Hash gets its name from its bubbling effects when smoking. High-yielding and easy to make, bubble hash is a solid extraction of trichomes.

By mixing frozen cannabis buds with ice and water, trichomes are smoothly separated from the plant.

Its high THC content makes bubble hash more potent compared to regular hash and comes in many colors, from light blonde to dark brown.

Marijuana Rosin

Rosin is a solid version of extracted resin, produced through heat and pressure.

What makes rosin unique in comparison to other hash is that it can be molded into any type or texture of concentrate.

It’s the ideal hash to experiment with, as rosin can be sculpted from shatter to budder or wax.

Honey Oil or Hash Oil

A thick, sticky substance, honey oil is named after its condensed amber color. Recognized for its significantly high THC content, honey oil THC ranges anywhere from 80% and above.

Used to make shatter or wax, honey oil is the transformation phase between the bud one smokes and the cooled shatter/wax one uses to dab.

How is hash made?

Hash can be made through multiple ways; however, traditional processes of making hash are always natural and do not incorporate any chemical supplements.

For example, many users design hash through a grinder containing a sieve. By twisting and turning the dried cannabis plants, trichome bits fall through the sieve.

These resin glands are separated from the plant matter, forming kief. Large quantities of compressed kief constitute hash.

Charas, or finger hash, is another traditional hash-making process. It can be handmade by rubbing one’s fingers over the flower tops of a living female cannabis plant.

This then detaches the trichomes from the flower tops, where the trichomes allow for shapeable hash. As the resin is scraped and compressed by hand, users shape the hash into a ball.

This scraping and compressing process emits oils against the palm, releasing a black, tar-like material.

Users are to roll the ball until it stops releasing oils. Top-quality charas involve slow hand movements to prevent resin being lost in the process.

Bubble hash, on the other hand, requires ice-filled water. Cannabis flower tops must be added and stirred to “bubble bags” or bags of iced water.

Because bubble bags freeze the resin glands, they strain trichomes down to its purest form. This filtering essentially eliminates any other plant substance.

How do you smoke hash?

Hash consumers around the world appreciate hash’s easy, versatile ways of ingestion. Generally, users can smoke hash by adding it to another smokeable herb or by vaporizing it through a vaporizer or a dab rig.

To smoke hash using a joint or a blunt, users need hash, a smokeable herb, rolling paper and a lighter.

Just like a regular joint or blunt, users first add their preferred ground bud to the rolling paper and can then top it off with crumbled hash.

If one wishes to smoke hash from a bong, bowl, bubbler or spoon pipe, it is best to have the following materials: one of these preferred items to smoke, hash, marijuana flower and a lighter.

Users should first begin by priming their hash with a lighter, but it’s important to not burn the hash. Therefore, experts recommend moving the lighter around the hash to increase the surface area of the flame.

This ultimately softens the hash’s texture, and once softened, the hash is much easier to sprinkle on top of grounded bud in a bowl or pipe.

Anyone wanting to use a vaporizer or a dab rig with their hash must have one of these. If using a dab rig, a blow torch and an e-nail are required.

Not all hash compositions melt easily; thus, vaping or dabbing hash can be slightly more difficult. In this case, if one is vaping, it’s important to have a vape that can reach high temperatures up to 400°F.

If planning to use a dab rig, the bottom of the e-nail must be heated up to 450°F with a handheld torch.

What does it feel like to smoke hash?

Similar to marijuana, people smoking hash typically experience contentment, along with a relaxing sensation.

Because hash is more potent, users only need a small amount to encounter a high similar or even stronger to cannabis.

Other effects may comprise a sharper sensory perception, an increased appetite and an altered perception of time.

Some researchers also believe hash is capable of treating certain medical conditions, such as chronic pain or cancer.

Hash vs. kief

Kief comes from an accumulation of the cannabis plant’s trichomes and is the “before product” of hash.

Trichomes’ resin glands resemble a delicate, dry powder that sticks to one’s fingers, producing what is identified as kief. Kief’s content can reach levels up to 50%.

Users can top their bowl or joint off with a dust of kief for a strong, pleasurable high.

Hash is an abundance of kief that has been pressed and heated into solid wax or extracted into a liquid form.

Since all kinds of hash consist of different concentration levels, THC content fluctuates anywhere between 20% to 80%.

When comparing kief and hash, both devise advantages and disadvantages. While kief is easier to extract and is a less potent (yet still intense) high, hash carries a higher THC level and allows for more options for consumption.

Additionally, hash is less sticky and less messier than kief. Because of its intense high, many avid cannabis users enjoy hash more than kief.

Its earthy fragrance delivers users a great, unforgettable experience.

To sum it up

There’s a reason hash maintained its global popularity through hundreds of years.

From the time consumers discovered its benefits all the way to its present-day usage, hash remains a well-respected form of cannabis.

Little to no resources are required to make hash, expanding its worldwide acceptance.

Its varied means of consumption range from region to region, yet all users are able to bond over its beautiful, irreplaceable high.

Sadaf Naushad is a writer who focuses on cannabis culture and lifestyle.

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