Highly concentrated: tips for better hash from Colorado's best
One of the absolute best things to come out of ganja's quasi-legalized status here in Colorado and other medical marijuana states is the abundance of concentrates now available. It used to be that getting hash in Colorado meant knowing the grower or running into just the right person in the parking lot of a Red Rocks concert. Not anymore.
Paul Tokin
Today, it's not a matter of finding hash -- everyone has it -- but finding quality hash. And Colorado is quickly becoming the mecca for master concentrate masters. For every hash-maker out there, though, you'll get a different set of instructions on how to achieve the best results. Thankfully, many are willing to share their knowledge in online forums, at monthly hash meetups and even on Facebook - pushing the progression of concentrate making with group thought, so to speak.
At their core, all hashmaking methods somehow involved stripping the psychoactive materials from the plant, filtering the results and condensing them into a potent, putty-like substance. Beyond that, it becomes and art and we have tapped two recognized cannabis concentrate artists in the Colorado scene for their insight into hash making, the art of extraction and what makes great concentrates.
Selecta Nikka T lighting up a spliff.
SELECTA NIKKA T
Nik is well known not just in Colorado but across the world for that matter for his skills; fortunately, he's been very open with his knowledge of hash, and gives tips and pointers to anyone who asks. I met up with him a few months back, just as he was getting his company off the ground and starting to work with dispensaries as a third-party hash processor. Though he's based out of the PinkHouse Grows team of Pearl Co., Cherry Co., and Teapot Lounge, any shops can hire him out to turn their leftover trim into amazing smokable product.
Nik grew up in Northern California, where cannabis farming is about as much a part of the local economy as the vineyards producing the Golden State's wines. By the age of 16 or 17, he says he was experimenting with hash making, always trying to get a better product than what he was seeing people produce around him." Growing up, I just saw so much black, gooey hash. It was fine then, but I knew there could be more purity."
Just as every stoner since the 1970s has wanted to do after high school, Nik went to Amsterdam where he lived for a while and learned about cannabis extracts from the legendary Mila Jansen. One of the most important hash makers of our time, Jansen is credited with perfecting both automated dry-sieved hash and ice-water hash extraction in the first half of the '90s. Many of the tricks and traditions Nik was taught by Jansen are not included in any of her books or lectures; she picked them up on her travels through India and Holland.
When Nik returned to the States, he settled in Boulder and attended the University of Colorado while perfecting his hash craft with Colorado herb.
Lately he's been pushing the limits of what ice, water and some nylon screens can produce with his Solventless Wax -- a term coined by local ganja Internet blogger Paul Tokin to describe the melting, oil-like qualities of the ice-water extraction that are usually found with chemical extractions. "The main trick is controlling variables," he says. "I've always been very, very particular and obsessive-compulsive, and that's what has helped me with my hash game a lot."
Paul Tokin Pre-98 Bubba Kush
Page down for Nik's tips for better hashmaking:
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