2 minute read
HOW DABS ARE MADE
from July 2020 — Maryland Leaf
by Northwest Leaf / Oregon Leaf / Alaska Leaf / Maryland Leaf / California Leaf / Northeast Leaf
As you exhale those tasty terpenes from your last dab or vape pen hit, do you ever wonder: How did some genius turn a green plant into a beautiful golden oil? The following is an attempt to explain this Cannabis complexity in the most basic terms possible.
Step 1 The extract process refers to pulling the THCA, CBD and terpenes from the plant matter. This process typically uses a mix of butane and propane to break the trichomes - tiny little sacs that form on the leaves and buds that contain the THCA and terpenes - from the plant. This is done by basically freezing the plant and snapping off the trichomes. Butane and propane drop below freezing when exposed to air facilitating this process. The Cannabis is frozen and then poured into large sacks that fit into long extraction chambers.
These large chambers are carefully bolted into an extraction machine that will allow the gas to travel through the Cannabis, removing the trichomes, fats and lipids.
Step 2 After the gas has traveled through the Cannabis long enough to extract the majority of the THCA and terpenes, crude oil is expelled.
This crude oil needs to be winterized, which is done by combining the crude oil with liquid ethanol, and then frozen or run through a roto-Vape, a device that winterizes at a faster rate. The freezing process separates the fats and lipids from the THCA and terpenes. After winterization is complete the final process begins, called purging. The oil is placed into vacuum ovens that heat at very even rates throughout and purge the extraction gas from the final oil. This process takes several days and will result in a dabable product containing less than 500 parts per million of residual solvent, or in many cases, zero parts. Step 3 When completed, processors end up with a large pyrex pan filled with several hundred grams of concentrates. From here the product can go in two directions...
If it is high quality and desirable to be dabbed, it heads for packaging where a jar is placed on a scale and a weighing technician carefully weighs out one gram, seals it up, and packages for sale on your local rack. At Dabstract the scale was hitting 1.2 grams on every jar!
If it is not of high quality, the oil will be further purified using distillation.
This process involves running the oil over a heated glass cylinder. At different temperatures, certain compounds are able to be removed including THCA. However, when exposed to the heat of glass walls, the THCA is converted to THC and all the terpenes dissipate. The oil is run through this process several times until the desirable level of clarity is achieved.
This final product can be used in the production of edibles as well as vape pens. At Dabstract they use HTE, High Terpene Extract, which is strain specific and blended with the THC to make pure Cannabis vape cartridges and pods.
The blended liquid is heated a little so it is more viscous, using calibrated machines and injected into the cartridge for your vaping pleasure.
