The concentrate shelf uses more jargon than the rest of the store put together. Strip it back and there are only two questions: how was it made, and from what.
Solventless or solvent-based
This is the first fork in the road.
- Solventless uses only ice, water, heat and pressure. Hash, bubble hash and rosin live here. Nothing is added and nothing has to be purged.
- Solvent-based uses hydrocarbons or CO2 to strip the resin, then removes the solvent. Shatter, budder, sauce, resin and diamonds live here. Legal Canadian product is tested for residual solvent.
Neither is automatically better. Solventless tends to taste closer to the plant. Solvent-based can reach higher potency and more consistent texture.
Live or cured
Live means the plant was frozen fresh rather than dried and cured first, which keeps far more of the volatile aroma. Live rosin and live resin are the flagship products in most Canadian catalogues for exactly that reason. Cured extracts are less aromatic and usually less expensive.
The formats, briefly
- Hash. The oldest concentrate there is, and having a real moment in Canada. More in our hash guide.
- Rosin. Pressed with heat and pressure. Solventless, aromatic, premium.
- Shatter. Glassy and brittle. Stable and easy to handle.
- Budder and badder. Whipped to a soft, spreadable texture. The easiest thing to work with.
- Sauce and diamonds. Crystalline THCA in a terpene-rich liquid. High potency and high flavour.
- Kief and dry sift. Trichome heads, sifted. The simplest way to add something to a bowl.
Temperature matters more than anything
Concentrates are mostly terpene, and terpenes burn off fast. Lower temperatures preserve flavour, higher temperatures produce more vapour and less taste. If a concentrate tastes acrid, the temperature is too high.
Handling and storage
Cold, dark, sealed and away from air. Silicone or glass, never plastic. A dab tool rather than fingers. Rosin in particular should live in a fridge if you are not using it quickly.
If you are new to it
Start with a vape cartridge or an infused pre-roll before you buy a jar. It is a far gentler introduction and costs less. See the vape guide.
Browse the shelf. Extracts and concentrates, delivered free across our local Toronto area.