So, what exactly is hash?

Unlike cannabis resin which is obtained from the buds of the cannabis plant, hash comes from the rest of the plant, especially any flowers, which contain trichromes.

These trichromes contain both cannabinoids, such as CBD and THC, along with terpenes, which are responsible for providing hash, and cannabis resin, with its distinctive smell.

Up until the 1980s hash was traditionally made by heating and pressing the chopped-up cannabis plant to create a brick-like product.

It was in the late 1980s that a machine was developed to separate trichromes from the rest of the plant material, which were then used to create hash.

However, you can do this just as simply by freezing the remaining cannabis plant after you have extracted the buds, adding it along with blocks of dry ice to a muslin net bag that is sufficiently fine to stop most plant matter falling through, but allowing the trichromes to fall through, and then shaking the bag above a flat surface to catch the trichromes as they fall through the bag.

Alternatively, you can take your frozen plant material and place it on top of a very fine-mesh screen that has been placed above a flat surface. The cannabis plant should then be gently rubbed and spread over the fine-mesh screen, encouraging the trichromes to fall through and onto the surface below.

You have to be careful not to do this for too long or you will also begin to break down the plant itself and that will then also fall through the screen, lowering the purity of your hash.

This powder-like substance of trichromes is called kief.

No, not Keith, it is spelled K.I.E.F and it is then collected and compressed in a block for a few minutes using a car jack.

Once you release the jack and open up the block, you will find a very solid hash brick inside.

If you know of other ways to make hash, perhaps using water extraction, let us know in the comments section below.