What is Keif and How to Smoke Keif

What is Keif and How to Smoke Keif

When you hear the word “Kief,” while you’re still a little new to the world of weed, you might wonder what is Keif. And what this thing that looks like valueless dust at the base of a weed grinder is! Well, kief is one of the many exquisite byproducts of weed that contains impressive concentrations of psychoactive cannabinoids like THC. So you are not going to want to miss out on learning about this one!

Kiefs are trichomes (hair-like structures) filled with resins that you see on a cannabis plant. They easily fall off from the plants when you grind them and what you would usually toss off in the trash!

So what should you do with kief? What is the big deal about this stuff that accumulates on your sifter or container? You will soon find out, so keep reading to know what is Keif, how to smoke Keif, and what to do with Keif.

In this article, we will explain to you exactly what to do with these cannabis crystals and see if there is any difference between kief, hash, wax, and dabs. You will also learn about the many ways you can use and cook with kief. So get ready to educate yourself today about this potent cannabis pollen.

What is Kief?

Cannabis kief, often going by the spelling “kif” or “keef,” is the fuzzy residue that collects in the bottom of your weed grinder. These highly powerful resin trichomes are separated from the crushed cannabis leaf through kief screens and collected in the kief catcher or collection chamber at the base of the weed grinder.

Kief is also known as cannabis pollen, cannabis crystals, and weed dust. It contains a very high concentration of cannabinoids, even more than the buds, nugs, or any other part of the cannabis plant. And that is why it is becoming one of the most talked-about parts of the weed plant.

You have the opportunity to collect kief from all cannabis plants, whether you smoke the Blue Dream, OG Kush, White Widow, or Sour Diesel, or just anything you have your hands on.

Those who know how a weed grinder works or how to use it know that kief usually breaks up from the cannabis when you shred the plant in the grinder. And then, some green powder accumulates in the tray at the bottom of the grinder as you crush more and more ganja flowers.

People have been using cannabis in several other forms beyond grinding, such as kief cannabutter, essential oils, hash hashish, and moon rockweed, to name a few. The widespread use of kief started in India and the Middle East and is now spreading worldwide due to its high potency and varied uses.

They heat, press, and process kief to make hash bricks and hashish cakes, store them, and popularly smoke or vape in hookahs and pipes. Kief is a byproduct of weed with high concentrates, and many prefer using them instead.

When you press and heat kief into hash cakes or turn them into loose pucks, their trichome heads and resins (terpenes) rich in cannabinoids crush and mix together to form a trichome powder.

Bubble hash forms when you soak weed flowers and leaves in ice water until it freezes and makes the trichome heads brittle. The heads then separate and fall from the rest of the plant matter, which you gather using a fine kief mesh at the water reservoir’s bottom.

Wax, dabs, and hash are a result of the collection and processing of weed resins to make powerful concentrated oils and solids. They contain heavy percentages of desired cannabinoids like CBD and THC.

Do you want to know how potent kief is? Typically, ganja contains around 15-25% THC, and kief has about 40-60% THC infused in it. But again, if you have kief refined and extracted through the ice water method, where the trichome stalks detach from the plant, expect a THC concentration up to a whopping 80%! This is why kief should be used sparingly; these cannabis pollens are extremely potent regardless of the method you take them.

Getting Kief from Weed:

We hope it is clear now what is keif and that these astounding cannabis trichomes are a powerhouse of cannabinoids and terpenes in the weed plant. And that the dust that you collect from your buds and bugs during your ganja grinding process is kief.

Because of the knowledge that the highest concentration of cannabinoids of the cannabis plant is present in the pollen and trichomes, pot farmers are consistently and meticulously working on creating hybrid cannabis strains. They are constantly selecting and crossbreeding different phenotypes of this species to develop a hybrid plant that produces the maximum amount of trichomes per flower.

Some strains definitely produce much more trichomes, giving trichome powder that is more potent than the other strains. Therefore, the kief’s potency associates with the overall marijuana strain’s potency. But if the kief has more refined extractions, it has more than 40-60% THC than the regular ones. The THC that you get from your kief is going to have some really dynamic effects compared to other sources!

How to Smoke Keif

Now that you know what is Keif, I bet you are wondering how to smoke Keif! You definitely can! But know that it is going to be a powerful and harder hitting because of the heavy kief THC concentration. Although the preferred method of smoking is for you to decide, the simplest way to consume this plant matter is to sprinkle a little bit of it on a weed bowl.

Kief is also great when you sprinkle and mix some of it in your regular blunt or joint. There are many ways you can enjoy these cannabis crystals your weed offers.

Who wants to know more about hash? You can get kief even in the form of a kief puck, which you can smoke through a pipe by crumbling some in it. Kief can also be heated and squeezed into hash oil or hashish, which is great for smoking in a dab rig, pipe, or joint.

Did you know? You can heat and press your kief hash by simply collecting it in parchment paper and pressing it with a hair straightener! Although you would need a good amount of plant material, it’s not hard to do it yourself.

Another way to enjoy kief is smoking moonrocks stix or moon rocks, which are sticks or buds, dunked in hash oil and packed in kief. You can smoke kief-dipped wax and dabs too.

If you are thinking of collecting and storing kief from the kief catcher of your grinder, from your marijuana jars, by straining weed immersed in ice water, by sifting frozen weed flower or using a blender,  use a silkscreen to sift it and store it in airtight containers. Whichever way you collect the kief, make sure you are storing them in cool, dark places to avoid deterioration of the kief.

How to make hash from Kief:

By now, you must know a little about how to prepare kief hash and how to smoke keif. Making hash oil is whole another thing to talk about. But for now, let’s learn the fundamentals of turning your kief into hash.

Rolling kief into a hash: While handling a big amount of cannabis buds, trimming and harvesting them, you will notice the dark brown resin glands of the plant trichomes sticking to your fingers and hands, and they will feel sticky. You can turn them into small hash balls by rubbing your hands and moving them in circular motions just as you would while making a ball out of clay. Doing this will give you pressed kief right away that you can put into a pipe and enjoy!

Scissor hash isn’t too hard to make either. If you are using scissors or shears to trim your pot plants, you will see that the resin is stuck on them. Simply scrape them off and collect the falling resin, which you will then roll into balls.

So is rolling and dabbing kief possible? Of course! Just shape the sticky resin with your hands into a ball, press it into your hash pipe, and you have your own kief hash.

If you want to learn more, there are two other methods of making hash from kief including:

Using strong force: If you have a lot of cannabis kief, pack them in a Rosin press and pin them into a good, solid block. But not everyone has a hash press, and you might want to process only a small amount of kief. In this case, simply wrap the kief in parchment paper and hold it down with a good amount of pressure using your fingers or something heavy.

Heat and pressure: This second method consists of making kief hash by pressing the life using pressure and heat. It will turn the resin glands into appropriate, smokeable hash. Check out the following step by step process to turn your resin into hash.

Gather the kief and enclose it with a plastic wrap. Ensure that it is waterproof, tight, and firm.

Take the plastic wrap, wrap it with wet newspaper, and put it on a baking tray. Preheat the oven to 320°F and place the baking tray in it for ten minutes.

The next step is to take the kief hash package out of the newspaper wrap and place it on a dry surface that is heat resistant. Press and roll the package gently with a rolling pin.

You will then have to rinse the package with warm water and put it back in the oven for another ten minutes. The quality of your hash and how refined it is will depend on the number of times you repeat this process.

Upon completion of the whole process, you would want to refrigerate the hash overnight to let it sit and take shape. That’s all! You now have your own perfectly smokeable kief hash, which you can smoke immediately.

Are hash, wax, and dabs different?

Before we move further with the topics, if you are confused about what hash, dab, and wax are, let us explain it to you. Hash is simply heated and pressed kief. Dab is made by drawing out cannabinoids like THC from the cannabis plants using carbon dioxide or a butane solvent. It results in the formation of resin oils which we commonly know as butane hash oil (BHO), wax, budder, and shatter.

Since they are all concentrates of cannabis, you can’t say there is much difference in smoking wax, dabs, or hash. You can use all of them in most dabbing and vaping rigs.

By the way, you can smoke hash without rigs if you don’t prefer it. There are bongs, hash pipes, vapes, and hot knives (you heat a knife, put the hash on it, and use a straw for breathing its vapor).

Some people even like to eat dabs if you might want to try too. If you can collect kief, you have a number of ways to prepare and enjoy it.

Can you snort Kief?

If there is anyone wondering if you can snort kief, let us tell you that the straight answer is a big no. Of course, you can technically do that, but assuming that your purpose of consuming kief is to get high, then it’s not happening if you snort it.

Kief activates only by applying heat to it. Snorting it will not stimulate the THC and other cannabinoids present in the trichomes. Because of that, touching kief and getting your skin in contact with the weed crystals do not get you high.

Other Uses of Kief:

You know now what kief is, the different ways to smoke it and dab it. But who said those are the only ways you can enjoy kief! Read along to find various other ways you can consume these cannabis crystals besides smoking.

Cook using kief: You can boost any meal by adding kief to it. But the process a little more than just spreading some weed powder on your already prepared meal.

The simplest way to cook with kief is by heating some oil in a pan and adding one or two teaspoons of kief to it. Keep the burner on medium or low heat. Stir the kief as the temperature of the oil increases, and let it saturate for about 20-40 minutes. When you’re done with that, you can put the other ingredients and mix them properly.

How to make Kief Coffee: A very popular way of consuming kief is by adding it to your coffee to increase its potency. You can add either kief butter or hash butter for this purpose; they are similar. The hot coffee will decarboxylate and activate the lief’s cannabinoids like THC and CBD. Just put about a pinch to the streaming coffee. The caffeine in your coffee will help in enhancing the psychoactive effect, although it can increase restlessness if you use a strain heavy in Sativa. Both cannabis and caffeine are known to enhance the secretion of dopamine in the brain, invigorating the mental pleasure points. To be on the safe side, always remember that kief is a strong substance and not something to play with. When it comes to kief, even just a tiny bit will go a long way.

How to make Kief Butter: If you’re feeling creative, you can also make kief butter and store it for the times you might want to use it. Kief butter is a stronger form of cannabutter and quite like hash butter. Get some regular butter, melt it with low heat in a saucepan, and add the kief into the completely melted butter. Remember to stir the butter and kief mixture every ten to fifteen minutes. After that, allow the mixture to simmer for about four to five hours to make sure that the cannabis pollen and the butter’s fat molecules bind together. Your kief butter should last up to a month if you store it in an airtight container and about six months if you freeze it.

How to make Kief Coconut Oil: Kief coconut oil is a highly coveted substance because coconut oil acts as the best binding factor for cannabinoids like THC. It has saturated fats in a super high concentration, which makes it an excellent choice for binding with kief. Olive oil and other vegetable oils have saturated fats too, but only about 20% in concentration, whereas coconut oil has over 80%. So what we are trying to say is that binding your kief’s cannabinoids with the saturated fats of coconut oil will give you a really psychoactive and potent oil.

Here is how to make kief coconut oil:

Ingredients-

• One to two tablespoons of kief; you can add more if you’re feeling adventurous! But remember that kief is a potent ingredient.
• 1 cup of coconut oil
• Strainer
• Saucepan or crockpot

Directions-

• Mix your kief and the coconut oil in the saucepan or crockpot, and heat them for two to four hours on low heat. This process will decarboxylate the kief and activate its THC.
• If you are using a saucepan, stir the mixture frequently for about three to four hours, and turn down the burner on a low flame. And if you have a crockpot, keep the heat low and braise the kief coconut oil mixture for four to six hours. Whichever way you are cooking, add a little water to prevent burning. Having a confection thermometer will help check the temperature, which should not cross 118°C or 245°F.
• After finishing the cooking process, filter/strain the mixture using a strain or cheesecloth and pour the oil into an airtight jar or container. You can use your kief coconut oil for two months if you store it in the fridge. It is versatile cooking oil, so feel free to use it for anything you’d like to cook.

How to make Kief Tea: Here is a step by step guide for making kief chai or kief tea if you want to enjoy kief in the form of tea:

• Take a teaspoon of kief and put it into a clean tea bag, coffee filter, or a metal tea infuser/ball.
• Place the packed kief in a mug.
• Boil some water like you would while preparing to make tea.
• When the water gets to boil, pour it into the mug where you placed the kief filter and soak it for 5 minutes. You can increase the potency of the tea by soaking it longer.
• Enhance the taste of the kief tea but adding creamer or milk and sweeteners. Creamer or milk also increases the high your kief tea gives because THC and other cannabinoids combine with fats in dairy products.

How to make Kief Gummies: One of the many fun ways you can enjoy kief is to make kief gummies. And if you are wondering about how to make them, don’t worry, we got you!

Ingredients-

• One large packet of orange Jell-O
• One and a half cup of orange juice
• Half cup honey
• One-fourth cup of kief coconut oil
• Four packets of gelatin
• One-fourth teaspoon of cornstarch
• Silicon candy molds

Directions-

• Mix one cup of orange juice and one packet of orange Jell-O in a pan (medium). Then add a half cup of kief coconut oil and half cup honey and heat it slowly. Don’t forget to stir frequently!
• Combine the remaining half cup orange juice with the gelatine and let the mixture sit for about five minutes.
• The next step is to pour the gelatin mixture over the Jell-O and cook for five to seven minutes on low heat. As the mixture might stick to the pan and start to get really sticky, whisk it frequently.
• Your kief gummies mixture is now ready. Pour it into your candy molds and let it sit until it cools downs. After turning to room temperature, put the filled silicone molds in the fridge to set.
• After setting, take the gummies out of the mold and make sure to dust them a little bit of cornstarch. This will help prevent the gummies from sticking to each other.
• Now you are ready to enjoy your kief gummies!

Is Kief Strong?

The definite answer is yes. It is even much stronger than the pot plant because most of the substances that give you psychoactive effects and make you “high” are present in the trichomes. And even more in the cannabis crystals that make their way into the grinder’s base while grinding weed.

Pot farmers are working hard, trying to make hybrids of weed plants that produce more and more weed dust as they know that they are the most potent parts of the plant. Whenever you grind weed, you make kief. And there are several uses of this substance- from smoking to cooking and drinking to enjoying treats like gummies. So the next time you grind your weed, make sure not to throw away the cannabis crystals that can be of much more use than you think!

Conclusion- Everything about Kief:

So there it is- the solution to the question, what is Keif!  If you want to know how to smoke Kief, now you know! Just sprinkle some of it over your weed bowl, or just have a kief bowl. But remember that kief is an extremely potent substance, and you would want to be careful.

If you want to dab kief, there is nothing stopping you from doing that either! Dab kief as kief hash or kief oil, whichever you prefer. And if you want to vape kief, surely you can do it as you would vape other solid weed concentrates or oils. You can dab and smoke kief, or get some pressed and heated kief to smoke and dab kief hash.

Those who know what a weed grinder is, how to use one, and know the purpose of the kief catcher present in it can have access to their own kief or weed dust. You can consume kief as it is or turn it into kief hash, which you must know by now how to make it!

A commercial kief press or a homemade one along with some heat will compress these cannabis crystals into hash easily. If you are aware of the difference between kief and hash and know how to smoke them, then you will be able to decide whether to dab or smoke kief or enjoy a blunt.

Consuming kief is a whole different way of enjoying it. You can make some kief butter, kief treats, or even kief coconut oil at home to great your dose of kief creatively! Don’t forget to try out the recipes we provided for you to enjoy kief in different ways. If you’re thirsty for some kief, you know you can instantly make some kief tea or coffee!