What Is Kief: It Was Never A Cannabis Byproduct

What is the most potent part of a cannabis plant? If you’re wondering what the most potent cannabis product is, the answer is definitely kief. This article is everything that you should know about kief. Yes, all the interesting kief facts in one piece.

What Is Kief

The name kief is derived from an arabic term “kayf” which translates to pleasure. Other names for kief are pollen, dry sift and keef.

Kief is a collection of dried trichomes manually extracted from the cannabis plant. Trichomes are the glandular appendages that form on the cannabis plant. The trichomes appear on the flowers and leaves. The sticky glands are highly potent as they are made from the engine that churns cannabinoids and other essential compounds for the cannabis plant.

Kief is in the form of a powder and dons a blonde or light tan color. Poorly extracted kief may be greenish which implies plant matter presence.

Extracting kief from trichomes

So we understand that our kief comes from trichomes. But what are the best methods for extracting kief from your cannabis flower?

Dry sift/screening method

This method uses multiple screens to filter the plant matter while allowing the trichome heads to go through them. You may need multiple screens with different sizes of holes. The method is simple as it only needs you to rub your nug on the screens. Your hand will work best here.

When dry sifting, start with the largest micron screens to get rid of the large plant matter quickly. Reduce the screen size until you can only get the trichome heads going through.

The three chamber grinder

These aren’t the usual grinders that crush a bud to make it easy for rolling joints and blunts. In a three chamber grinder, kief falls off the bud into a collecting chamber. Two chamber grinders make it hard to collect the knife as it sticks in its inner walls. You don’t want to waste your seriously potent kief that easily, right?

Dry ice

The dry ice method necessitates that you have a micron bubble bag, dry ice and a clean surface. Well you need your trichome rich bud too. Simply put the dry ice and your marijuana flower into the bag. You can then shake the content and collect the falling kief on top of a dry surface.

Kief benefits

Why would you want to collect kief from a cannabis flower? Here is why you can risk lowering the potency of your flower by extracting its trichomes.

• Collect a high potency product. A standard flower has a THC potency of 10–20%. Did you know that kief potency is more than 40%? In fact, pure kief is used to make 99% THC products.
• Get a versatile kief to be used in many ways. As we shall see later in this article, kief can be used in a number of ways. A bud can only be vaped or smoked.
• Highly efficient and safe for your lungs. The other way of extracting trichomes is using solvents. When compared to kief, the former involves chemicals that may seep into the end product.
• It is an easy to collect and inexpensive method. Dry ice, a grinder or silk screens are what you need to get your kief done. The methods are as easy as ABC. An amateur kief maker will have a field day.

How to use kief

We all love kief for its versatility.

The core use of kief is adding potency to your other cannabis products.

Crowning the bowl

Whether you’re using a bubbler, a bong or a bowl, kief will dramatically spike their potency. You can use a tool to place the kief in your bong. For your bowl, sprinkle some of the keef on top of your flower before lighting it. One more reason to crown the bowl? Your favorite strain’s aroma is certain to be all over you.

Twax your kief joints and blunts

Kief is sticky enough to attach to the outer surface of your joints and blunts. Kief covered joints make great tarantula joints. After rolling your crushed flower, you can also wet the outer surface with cannabis oil so it gets to hold as much kief as it can for maximum potency. Well, some kief lovers roll the flower and kief inside altogether.

Vaporize the kief

Modern vaporizers allow you to vape kief. You can use a dry herb vaporizer to directly vape your kief. A second way of vaping kief is to make it less viscous by using additives such as vegetable glycerin. You can then use the standard concentrate vaporizer.

Making hash with kief

Define hash. Hash or hashish is heated and pressed kief. The process changes and enhances the taste and aroma of your kief. The resin glands of trichomes are ruptured and color changes to a darker one. Hash can be smoked or vaped.

Adding kief to your cannabutter

Just like the kief, cannabutter shows great versatility in its uses. Adding kief to cannabutter will certainly improve its potency tremendously. Here is a simple step by step guide to blend kief into cannabutter.

1. Melt the butter in a bowl under medium heat
2. Add your kief and stir thoroughly
3. Pour into a cooling bowl and leave it to cool
4. Cover and place in a refrigerator to harden

Make kief edibles

Kief is so fine that it can easily be infused in any edibles. When preparing your edibles ensure to activate all the THC using a heat source. But be careful to not overheat it which denatures the THC.

Moonrocks from kief

Moonrocks wear an appearance that makes you imagine their potency. The appealing moonrocks are made from dipping a marijuana flower in cannabis oil before drenching in kief. The flower is then let to harden enough to be broken with bare hands. A piece broken from the moonrock can be smoked or vaped without crushing it.

Cannabis strains best for making kief

Some cannabis strains are notorious for forming huge loads of trichomes. This is what every kief user wants. You may be wondering the best strains that will give you the highest amounts of resin. How about trying these high trichome strains?

1. White widow- Trichomes have a whitish appearance and that’s what exactly you see with a quick glance of the white widow strain’s flower. The name betrays its potential of yielding so many trichomes. The strain is a balanced hybrid from a south indian indica and a brazilian landrace.
2. Hash plant- A strain with not only the trichomes for making hash from kief but also the pungent Afghani aroma. The 90% indica queen is wrapped in clear trichome crystals.
3. Chemdawg- It is one of those strains that are parents to a host of other strains. You may wonder why it is used to successfully crossbreed new strains. Its high potency that emanates from high trichome content is a self explainer.
4. G13- A strain wrapped under mystery on its origin. However, its kief production potential is no secret.
5. Hashberry- Do you know that the hashberry cannabis strain won the strain of the year 2006 by High Times? The secret behind its popularity? Its hash undertones.

Wrapping kief definition

Kief is the dried resin formed from extraction of trichomes from cannabis buds and leaves. It dons very high potency, up to 99% when properly extracted with high purity levels. It may not be a perfect product for newbie marijuana users, thanks to its overwhelming effects when used alone. However, adding kief to other cannabis products dilutes the potency.