It is My Sincere Belief that Kief is Chief

Imagine: you’re at the beginning of your cannabis journey, and you’ve been grinding your flower in a grinder for weeks. Your grinder has several compartments, one of which is on the bottom, and you’ve never opened it before because why would you? You decide that today is the day. You peer inside and see what looks like a layer of brown-green sand. You’re momentarily worried you’ve been smoking straight mold and all of the moldy particles have fallen to the bottom, but never fear, you have just stumbled upon a treasure. Most of us have heard of kief at one time or another, but what is it?

Kief is essentially an accumulation of the crystalline resin glands of the cannabis plant. These glands, also called trichomes, are responsible for giving cannabis buds their beautiful hazy frost. These crystals are where the highest concentration of cannabis’s pain-relieving terpenes are found, as well as highly concentrated levels of THC, CBD, and other beneficial cannabinoids.

Regular cannabis flower typically tests anywhere from 15% to 40% THC. In comparison, because kief consists of just these cannabis resin glands and contains almost no unnecessary plant matter, some kief can test up to 70% THC. These high concentrations mean that kief can produce stronger, more potent psychoactive effects. Essentially, kief is to weed what espresso is to coffee.

It has been well-documented that THC can help manage depression, anxiety, nausea, sleep disorders, and chronic pain, and CBD has been found by the World Health Organization to help manage the pain and anxiety resulting from serious diseases such as Alzheimer’s, dementia, epilepsy, cancer, and others. This means that for many people, kief can be an incredibly beneficial addition to your wellness routine. The high concentration of beneficial cannabinoids within kief means that it is an extremely effective tool for managing both chronic and acute pain.

Now, you could wait for this wonderful by-product to naturally accumulate in the bottom of your grinder as you go about consuming your regular flower, but that takes time and patience which sometimes you just don’t have. Plus, trying to save excessive kief in something that you regularly screw and unscrew can result in the mechanical components (threads, screens, etc.) of your grinder becoming stuck and difficult to operate. This problem is frustrating for anyone but can become truly demoralizing for people who use cannabis to alleviate symptoms from conditions affecting mobility, such as arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis, and Parkinson’s disease.

Luckily for you, you can easily pick up any number of varieties of our pure, isolated kief to immediately elevate your smoking experience. Aside from the obvious physical and recreational benefits of utilizing kief, there are plenty of practical benefits to having kief on hand as well.

Accidentally buy some less-than-satisfying buds but can’t bring yourself to waste them? Have no fear, kief is here. Easily increase the potency and intensity of your cannabis with a dash of pure terp-y goodness.

Love the taste of cannabis and the ritual of smoking but your tolerance has gotten to a point where straight flower just isn’t quite packing the punch it used to? Sprinkle a little (or a lot) of your favourite strain’s kief over your bowl, inside of your joint, topping your pipe, bubbling within your dab rig, or whatever suits your fancy. Dust a layer of kief over a joint to instantly elevate any rotation, or, if you’re feeling especially crafty, roll your joint in wax and then kief to send your session to the moon. Just like everyone’s favourite nobility-themed burger chain, you truly can have it your way.

Maybe you love the heavy body high and mind-mellowing effects of a true indica-dominant strain like Northern Lights but want to borrow just a little bit of sativa’s happy euphoria? Try sprinkling a dash of sativa-dominant Sour Diesel over any heavily Indica variety to add uplifting, creative energy to your experience.

On the other hand, if you love a strain with an even 50/50 ratio of indica to sativa, like our AAAA-grade Alien Cookies, but it’s a little late in the evening and you’d like just a bit of a more sedative effect. Help yourself get to bed faster by adding the kief of a heavy indica like Purple Passion and enjoy the reward of quick relief for stubborn pain and insomnia.

Maybe you’ve just had one of those days – your phone falls in the toilet, the vending machine ate your last dollar, you accidentally hit ‘reply all’ on a perhaps overly-sassy email, you made pasta and poured the noodles down the drain instead of the water. No matter who you are or what you do, life eventually orders all of us a big slice of indica-dominant Humble Pie with a trichome-y cherry on top. Drift into spirit-lifting relaxation and blunt the sharp corners of reality with this excellent addition to anyone’s wellness routine.

In summary, Potsmart’s wide selection of kief allows you to easily expand the horizons of your smoking experience. However you choose to consume your cannabis, kief is an excellent addition to any smoker’s arsenal. Whether you’re seeking fast and effective pain relief, a more intense high, bursts of creativity, or just a fun weedy time, a better day is just a sprinkle away.

 

By Bailey Quarters, Cannabis Connoisseur and Guest Contributor for Potsmart