Even before Colorado allowed the first sale of recreational marijuana in January 2014, people had lots of questions about what was in store for the state. To answer those questions, we created our weekly Ask a Stoner column. But some queries demand more time and attention, including this one, which we received last fall from Michael B: “Could you explain the differences — and why I should care about them — between budder, crumble, shatter, CO2 oil, rosin, live resin, bubble hash and sift?”
This question pointed up one of the major developments on the recreational pot scene: There used to be just a few varieties of concentrates, and now there are many, many more. (So many, in fact, that we just decided to update this response to Michael B’s question.) Most budtenders are good at explaining the differences among them, but the majority of us aren’t comfortable listening to fifteen minutes of pot talk while those waiting in line get more and more impatient. So for future reference, here’s a map around the concentrate world that you can study while you’re waiting at the pot shop.
Budder
Budder, a wax-concentrate variety, is one of the most popular forms of concentrates in Colorado dispensaries right now. Typically extracted with butane or CO2, budder is made by using a chemical solvent to “blast” through marijuana to extract the THC, which is then “purged” with heat and air pressure to remove the solvent. The same broad process is used to create shatter and crumble wax, but the results are very different.
