Indopedia All Things Marijuana
Back in an archaic era before text messaging, we used to get our kicks punching numbers on a calculator to make words. You know calculators — those things people use to do math without their phones? Anyway, it works on your phone, too: type 710 then flip it and you’ll notice that the number spells “OIL” upside down.
To celebrate this calculative alphanumeric discovery, the cannabis community has deemed July 10 (7/10) an oil holiday, but where did the roots of 710 originate? Who was working out math problems upside down to discover this?
The history of this holiday comes down to urban myths. What we do know is the first time concentrates were judged was in the Cannabis Cup of 2010. A lot has changed since that time.
The first Medical Cannabis Concentrates Cup took place in San Bernardino, California, in July 2016. It included 13 competition categories for solvent and solventless products, single-strain extracts, vape pens, and medically infused products (MIPs), which includes moon rocks and pure terpenes.
Competitions and consumer demand have caused concentrate craftsmen to step up their game. There are various types of concentrates that have been refined to satisfy the evolving taste of connoisseurs.
In the last decade, we’ve hyped up many different concentrates. Our polished palates once preferred bubble hash, then moved on to dry sift and crumble. The concentrated cannabis community soon moved past dried-textured concentrates and broke into the world of shatter.
The translucent amber-glass slab was the ultimate nectar. Dispensaries expanded their selection of shatter, and brands were shifting the focus on crafting the most potent, high-quality, terpene slabs ever melted in a quartz nail. The terpene flavors are immediately detected when you unwrap the parchment paper, guaranteeing an array of bold flavors. After shatters came the introduction of badder, budder, rosin, and distillate.
Distillate is potent and odorless, and can be used for dabbing, vaporizing, and cooking. The THC compounds, fats, and lipids are isolated from the cannabis plant using a hydrocarbon or CO2-based extraction technique while the impurities are extracted. Then Live Resin and sauce joined the family to pave the way for a new standard for dabbers.
Live Resin concentrates use fresh, frozen whole cannabis flowers instead of buds that have been dried and cured. The oil extracted from the fresh plant captures the aromatic essence that would be lost in the curing process. Live resin surprises your taste buds with an alarming hit of terpenes.
Last but not least, we have sauce.
This golden ball of diamonds is drenched in a terpene-rich honey and loaded with THC. Sauce is packaged in glass jars and crafted using standard butane hash oil and flash-frozen of freshly cut materials. Fresh, frozen flower allows the plant material to absorb maximum cannabinoids and terpenes that ultimately increase potency and deliver an explosion of authentic terpenes.
Concentrates and oils have evolved tremendously over the years. So, as a toast to 710, fire up your torches and take one, two, or maybe three dabs to celebrate this grand social holiday.
