What is kief?
If you’ve ever had the luxury of touching some freshly harvested high-quality bud, you would have noticed that they were coated in a ton of sticky golden powder-like crystals. These trichomes, also known as ‘kief’ or ‘keef,’ are rich, resinous crystals of THC, terpenes and other valuable cannabinoids.
Within each bud of cannabis, these tiny cannabinoid-rich resin bombs are what give cannabis their highly sought after medicinal properties. Valued for their potency and efficiency, cannabis connoisseurs have developed a vast array of different recipes to enjoy your kief.
Want to find out what the deal with Kief is? Keep on reading!
So What is Kief and How do You Get it?
The term Kief doesn’t quite follow the same structure as many other words in the English language. The reason being is that the term was derived from the word “كيف” [kaif] in the Arabic language, directly translating to “delight” in English.
When it comes to the cannabis plant, Kief refers to the bulbous crystal-like resin glands located on the surface of the cannabis flower. These fine hairs that are found on the surface of many cannabis plants are known as trichomes, with kief just being a single component of the whole structure.
When examined from a distance, trichomes take on the appearance of delicate white hairs with a bulbous crystal tip. Their role in cannabis biology is to act as a defense mechanism to potential hungry herbivores by sedating them with an intense psychoactive trip.
These trichomes can effectively disorient potential predators, preventing any further consumption of the plant matter while also attracting insects for pollination through aroma, which can further keep herbivores at a distance.
Luckily for us, consuming Kief won’t impede on our ability for survival.
Are Kief and Hash the Same Thing?
Hash is one of the most ancient forms of refined cannabis. While Kief refers to crystal formations at the end of the trichome, Hash is essentially Kief although with a bit of processing. By pressing Kief together and heating it, it will form a soft brownish waxy substance which is known as Hash. Applying both heat and pressure to kief will rupture its resin glands, resulting in an ever so slight difference in taste and effect, while also darkening the color of the Kief.
When it comes to Hash, you can create a multitude of different products. Whether you’re interested in creating shatter or a cannabis oil, it can all be done with Hash.
How to Get Kief
For many people, the easiest way to make Kief is to use a three-chamber grinder, specifically one with a screen that is able to collect kief that is lost from grinding your bud.
Simply continue grinding and consuming your cannabis as you normally would, making the move to check your keef compartment every once in a while. While using a two-compartment grinder is compact and easy, you quickly lose the ability to properly store any lost kief when grinding your bud, leading to wasted money and less overall use of your cannabis.
A faster method to stockpiling larger quantities of keef is to sift it from your cannabis.
With keef only measuring about 50-125 microns in diameter, many people layer 3-4 Kief screens to ensure that only the cleanest kief is collected without the addition of any unwanted plant material. The mesh filters that are most effective in sifting kief fall in line between 80 and 270 LPI (Lines per inch).
What to do With Kief
Use it as a Dressing For Your Cannabis
Whether you plan on smoking a bowl or rolling a joint, knowing how to smoke kief the right way is a valuable piece of information. One of the easiest ways to consume is to sprinkle it on top of your flower.
When smoking a bowl, simply “crown” it by sprinkling a dusting of kief over it to give it some extra power. Since kief is so rare, it’s important to make sure you’re cornering your hits so that all of it gets put to use.
When rolling a joint, you can sprinkle some kief over the ground bud to effectively create a keef joint. In the case that you’ve got some freshly ground cannabis that’s sticky to the touch, add kief to mix to get things going a little bit faster. Don’t worry about it not sticking to your ground cannabis, if it’s a fresh high-quality batch, it usually has enough sticking power to hold on to it.
Create a Twax Joint
If you’re looking to make something that’s even more powerful, you can create a twax Joint. This is an advanced version of the standard joint that involves either making hash oil or purchasing a cannabis concentrate.
What you’ll need to do is first coat your rolling paper with some liquid cannabis concentrate or hash oil. If your oil is a bit too dense, try briefly heating it up to liquefy it. You can either coat the paper on the interior or exterior, depending on how you want your twax joint to look like.
Once coated, you’ll want to sprinkle some keef over the hash oil coating, making sure that the whole surface area is covered. Once completed, simply add your fresh ground cannabis and roll the joint.
Make Hash From Your Kief
As mentioned previously, hash is one of the most ancient forms of refined cannabis. What you’ll need to do first is to gather your kief. All hash is essentially kief that has been both heated and pressed to form a brown waxy like substance that is suitable for dabbing.
Pressurizing and heating the kief tends to change its composition slightly, resulting in it turning darker the more pressure that has been applied.
Create Some Moon Rocks
When it comes to the cannabis experience, Moon Rocks are reserved for those who seek only the very best. These top-quality nugs are buds of cannabis, coated in Hash Oil, and then rolled in keef. That said, these tend to carry an extremely high content of cannabinoids and terpenes that can send you flying high for hours on end. Use with care.
What is Kief? Concluding Thoughts
Keef is strong, easy to collect, and highly potent. Whether you’re a casual consumer or cannabis connoisseur, having Kief in your arsenal of tools is never a bad option. Like any other potent weed product, you’ll want to start low and go slow. Enjoy!
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