Understanding Cannabis Distillate: The Ultimate Guide
Cannabis distillate is a highly refined extract known for its versatility. This thick, usually golden-ish liquid is created by refining cannabis resin.
If you’re exploring the world of cannabis products, understanding distillates can enhance your experience and broaden your knowledge. This comprehensive guide will help you grasp what cannabis distillate is, how it's made, its uses, and why it has become a popular choice among cannabis enthusiasts.
What is Cannabis Distillate?
Cannabis distillate, often referred to as “cannabis oil”, is a highly purified cannabis extract that has undergone extensive refinement to remove impurities and unwanted compounds and plant amtter. The result is a clear, viscous liquid. Distillate is prized for its high concentration of cannabinoids, like THC or CBD or minor cannabinoids like CBG and CBN. Its lack of taste and smell, making it ideal for various applications.
How is Cannabis Distillate Made?
The production of cannabis distillate involves several key steps:
- Extraction: Cannabis material undergoes initial extraction using hydrocarbon or ethanol solvents to produce a crude oil containing cannabinoids, terpenes, fats, and other plant materials. The crude oil is mixed with alcohol and frozen to remove fats, waxes, and lipids. This is a different process that happens when producing full-spectrum extracted concentrated cannabis products like hash, rosin, wax, resin, et cetera.
- Filtration: The frozen mixture is filtered to separate the undesirable components from the desired cannabinoids.
- Decarboxylation: The filtered oil is heated to activate the cannabinoids, converting compounds like THCA into THC. See our blog on THC-A.
- Distillation: Using heat, vacuum pressure, and molecular separation, the cannabinoids and terpenes are separated from the plant material. This process creates a highly concentrated and purified product.
Uses of Cannabis Distillate
Cannabis distillate’s purity and potency make it suitable for a variety of uses:
- Vape Cartridges: Distillate is commonly used in vape cartridges, providing a potent and clean vaping experience. However, because of the purity, the vape carts that are mostly distillate produce a “linear high,” and consumers eventually will “hit a wall.” Those seeking more intentional consumption with ratio’d cannabinoids such as a THC:CBD 1:1 distillate vape produces specific effects and relief.
- Edibles and Drinkables: Its lack of taste and smell makes distillate ideal for infusing into edibles and drinkables without altering their flavor. Because delta-9-THC converts (through enzymes from digestion through the liver) into 11-hydroxy-THC (read more here) and produces a different intoxication effect than inhaling or other methods that bypass the liver such as tinctures (under the tongue), topicals, or suppositories.
- Topicals: Distillate can be added to creams and lotions for localized relief.
- Tinctures and Capsules: It’s also used in the production of tinctures and capsules for precise dosing.
Benefits of Cannabis Distillate
- High Potency: Distillates can contain up to 99% pure cannabinoids, providing a powerful effect.
- Versatility: Its lack of taste and smell allows for multiple applications.
- Consistency: The distillation process ensures a consistent and reliable product.
Consuming Cannabis Distillate for Wellness
Because distillate contains isolated cannabinoids and terpenes, it is ideal for intentional wellness dosing needs. However, some users may find that exclusive consumption of distillate products can lead to diminished effects over time. If you experience this, consider taking a Tolerance Break or switching to full-spectrum cannabis products like flower, concentrates (wax and rosin), and Full-Spectrum Oil (RSO) to benefit from the full range of valuable compounds in the cannabis plant.
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