How to estimate concentrate quality?

Generally speaking can you estimate the quality of a concentrate by its physical form at room temp? I live in SoCal and get lost and confused while looking at weed menus. I see shatter, wax, crumble wax, co2 liquids.

Does it take more skill to produce a certain type of concentrate, and therefore might expect the product to be made from higher quality flowers or trim?

Generally speaking IMO shatters have the best and sometimes longest lasting medicating effects. I personally don't believe any differ in manufacture difficulty, they all are a process that may seem hard at first but as with anything else are perfected and eased from then on.

Crumbles, waxs, and the similar are (not always!) Generally made from trim it at least trim with flower. In my experience shatter cannot be made from trim, at least not golden transparent, potent smelling shatter anyway. I also prefer shatter since its much easier to handle / pack.

The best way to learn anything is hands on experience, so you'll just have to see if you can get some sort sampler package from your local places since you say your in cali, otherwise just smell what your buying before hand and go with what you think smells better, and try to remember what smells had what flavor profiles and what effects and see what you like the best.

In case you wanted to know my least favorite, is crumble, effects are generally more mellow, and its a pain in the ass to handle.

There's no hard and fast rule. However I generally consider lighter colored extracts to be a higher quality. As DabComa said, smell is a good indicator of taste. It's really hard to judge taste by appearance though (almost impossible in my experience).

I've had excellent taste from all types of concentrates except C02- I've yet to try a CO2 oil that has any flower taste. Shattter seems to be the most stable and preserves flavor the longest.

As you long you dab the same amount (by weight) the effects of different concentrate types are practically identical (I've never noticed a difference).

Bouldorado said:

There's no hard and fast rule. However I generally consider lighter colored extracts to be a higher quality. As DabComa said, smell is a good indicator of taste. It's really hard to judge taste by appearance though (almost impossible in my experience).

I've had excellent taste from all types of concentrates except C02- I've yet to try a CO2 oil that has any flower taste. Shattter seems to be the most stable and preserves flavor the longest.

As you long you dab the same amount (by weight) the effects of different concentrate types are practically identical (I've never noticed a difference).

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I agree about the co2. Otherwise, I've had good and not so great results from all consistencies. I believe that for the most part if it's better than average people say it was made w/ flowers, and if not - trim. If people are using high quality, mature trim there is virtually no difference in the trichs between that and flowers - just less. A glandular trich of the same age and condition is pretty indistinguishable from another. Terps will usually be stronger in flowers. At a 15% return, you will only see 4.2 grams of concentrate to an ounce. Unless the grams of concentrate were being sold @ $80-$100/g, it wouldn't even be worth the time to make and resale.

Close the top shelf wax up here is $70g. Which is BS because their sister company sells it for $60. Its white crystal coma crumble.

I want to search around and find less popular deliveries that might have equal quality concentrate for less ass raping prices.

Thanks everyone for the advice so far!! Im learning a lot and very grateful
I am seeing the name "boss concentrates" thrown out, they got Candy Jack and Blueberry shatter. Are they a well known brand worthy of a looksie?

DabComa said:

The best way to learn anything is hands on experience

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This is the most true thing to take from this thread. I'll give a couple pointers but the only real way to learn is to actually see a lot of different kinds of waxes and see for yourself.

Stability
Definitely the easiest indicator. If it's stable at room temp (you can hold it in your fingers without it melting to them) then it's generally good to smoke regardless of consistency (wax, crumble, shatter). CO2 is liquid but that's an exception.

Clarity
Really only useful for shatter but works regardless, more transparent = more pure.

Color
Color is most useful at spotting bad oil, not good. You want it to be a light amber color, green usually means that it's a trim run (green is chlorophyll [ie: plant matter] that got into the concentrate). You really can't judge color unless you have a trained eye; for example, "lightly colored" waxes were suggested above, here's the first BHO I ever made (completely unpurged and I smoked it all lol)

Obviously not good but to the casual observer this could be mistaken for "light tan/gold" as opposed to a "real" gold tint:


If you're new to BHO I would basically just stick to buying stable concentrates. If you're buying from clubs then all their waxes are made correctly and it's just personal preference for whether you like shatter or crumble. Take home a gram, dab it, if it leaves residue don't get it again and if it doesn't then you're set.

Thanks for the info everyone!!!

I bought some shatter but it's super crazy sticky at room temp. Also a darker color than I was expecting.

Should I store this is the memory banks as not the best quality? Or not a true shatter? Was priced as top shelf paid $30 for 0.5g from a well known delivery service.

Depends on what room temp is for you, is thermostat on 80? Lol, if it's above 75 expect an increase in maliability (hopefully I spelled that right). Meaning shatter can become runny especially if on / near a heat source. Judge by the combination of aroma, taste, and effect, at 60g$ I'd hope for nothing but the best golden shatter nug run with no trim nonsense.

Let's say at 60* F is shatter supposed to be a solid?
For some reason I was picturing a glossy hard wax substance. But obviously I don't know dick about concentrates.
Love that there is a forum to ask questions.

IMO, in the truest sense of the term, "shatter glass" should have a consistency similar to one of these:



Thats not to say a concentrate isnt a "shatter" or that it isnt any good if it doesn't follow that general rule.

Ill get on my PC at home to see if i can find pictures of examples I've taken.

Okay, so here's a small collection of shots of various concentrates that I've had recently. I would consider all of these as "high quality" or "top quality" concentrates. As you can see, there is quite the variation in color and consistency. We have everything from thick honey consistency, to rock-candy like hardness... all at room temp.

In house Gods Goft "3x blonde" honeycomb wax


In house Lemon Skunk shatter


In house Alien OG shatter


HGH GoJilla OG "Over Shatter"


Prime Exteracts x DNA Genetics Tangie Shatter <--- best of the bunch IMO


Brutal Bee Tahoe OG "shatter"


BAMF solventless Tangie


HGH SVF OG shatter


(left) Elevated Minds Extracts Kushberry Skellington shatter

I see butterflys in the wax splotches!! Or wait is that a va jay?

This morning it was cool outside and I grabbed a tiny thin spread out piece that wasn't too sticky. Was able to drop it on the coil like i do the crumble wax. But now it's warmer outside. The shatter I have fuses the application tool to the coil. They could use it to install the front heat shield plates on the space shuttle I swear!! Workers are calling it the shatter shuttle.

Stick it in the freezer for a minute then try loading it.

edit: Okay I added annotations for the pictures in my previous post.