What is a kief?

THC, CBD, terpenes, and other chemicals found in trichomes—resinous glands that grow in the buds of mature cannabis plants—as well as other substances add to the euphoric and medicinal effects of cannabis. Trichomes resemble small crystals; picture finely ground salt or sugar. These trichomes produce kief when they dry and separate from the plant.

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Kief often has a deeper hue than trichomes, ranging from pale gold to brown, because it has oxidized and loses its freshness when detached from the plant buds. It looks powdered and has a somewhat sticky texture—less sticky than trichomes on a bud, though. Although “kief” is the official term, “pollen,” or occasionally “keef,” is another name for it.

When your bud is lacking, add some kief to your joints, bowls, or vape chambers for some extra punch. If your grinder holds enough kief, you can also press it into hash.

It is important to remember that purer and more potent kief will be lighter in color, usually off-white or slightly yellow, when purchasing it from a dispensary or retail store. Though well cleaned kief usually has more of an eggshell hue, kief that appears black or green still contains some plant debris mixed throughout.

How to gather and prepare kief

While most people use grinders to gather the powder—which breaks down and shreds cannabis buds into small, even bits for rolling joints, smoking in a flower vape device, or loading pipes and bong bowls—kief naturally separates from buds with time and agitation.

For this reason, grinders typically contain a separate chamber at the bottom known as a kief catcher. It greatly simplifies and reduces the mess of the entire operation.

Manufacturing a kief catcher

You will need a grinder with a kief catcher (typically a 3- or 4-piece one) in order to gather kief crystals. Ask the staff at your neighborhood smoke store or budtender for recommendations.

How to use screens to gather kief

Have you misplaced your grinder? If you happen to have a silk screen lying around, you may also harvest kief by pressing material from cannabis plants onto it. If you have a lot of cannabis, this is a wonderful way for extracting a lot of kief. These screens are available in various sizes; the ideal range for screen permeability assessment is between 75 and 125 microns.

In order to purify the product and remove any plant matter or other materials that may make the kief unpleasant to smoke, home extractors should run the product through many screens of varying sizes, stacked from biggest to smallest mesh.

Is kief more potent than bud?

Keif has a significantly greater THC concentration than the entire plant since trichomes are where most cannabis cannabinoids are found. Pure kief will probably feel stronger than a full-flower dose, but kief is most effective when combined with other ingredients. With a higher THC concentration than flower, pure kief tends to feel harsher and its effects wear off faster since it lacks the other components contained in the entire plant.

Additionally, terpenes and distinctive tastes that come from smoking the entire plant are absent from kief.

How to utilize kief

What should you do with a clump of kief, or cannabis pollen, that you now have? Here are several methods to improve the kief’s consistency and flower’s potency.

After adding kief to a bowl of cannabis, smoke it.

This method, which is often referred to as “crowning a bowl,” is the most popular technique to utilize kief and will make any bowl more potent.

To get the most out of a kief-topped bowl, corner your hits. This means burning a little portion of the bowl at a time rather than the entire thing, allowing you to enjoy numerous hits without wasting any kief.

Roll a twax joint or sprinkle kief within.

You may add a good pinch of kief to your mixture before rolling a joint, blunt, or spliff. Using pollen this way is a terrific method to give it an extra boost. It is important to distribute the kief evenly across the joint to avoid uneven burning.

Additionally, a joint can be “twaxed” by rolling the upper third of the joint in some kief and using a lick to dampen the joint’s exterior.