Cannabis Concentrates: What Is Shatter?

The abundance of cannabis concentrates can be overwhelming for experienced consumers, let alone those who are new to dabbing.

Shatter, oil, wax, crumble, budder, badder, resin — do you know which concentrate to pick for your first dabbing sesh?

No?

Don’t worry.

Honestly, there’s no such thing like a bad concentrate. A properly manufactured dab is a good dab, regardless of its type. Nevertheless, each of those products has its own unique benefits.

So does shatter.

Shatter is one of the most popular concentrates as of right now — and a subject of our interest for today.

We’ve got plenty of things to cover, so without further ado, let’s dive into this!

What Is Shatter?

Shatter is the purest form of concentrated cannabis that resembles a hard candy in texture.

The final consistency of shatter depends on its temperature. Cold shatter looks like a sheet of glass, but when heated, it looks more like thick honey.

Your shatter may also vary in transparency and intensity of color depending on a range of factors, such as the amount of terpenes and moisture levels, as well as heat the concentrate gets in contact with.

Shatter boasts extremely high potency, with around 80% THC on average. The potency comes at the cost of shatter’s flavor. This product requires higher extraction temperatures to achieve the highest cannabinoid content, which destroys its many terpenes.

Because of that, shatter is pretty bland compared to other concentrates.

How Is Shatter Made?

Shatter is produced through solvent-based extraction. The most common solvent used for making shatter is butane. It pulls THC along with other cannabinoids and terpenes from the plant material. This process is referred to as the butane hash oil (BHO) extraction.

Because butane is highly flammable, shatter shouldn’t be made at home. Even if you tried to make this kind of concentrate yourself, you’d had a hard time achieving the purity level of professionally manufactured shatter.

As mentioned, shatter has a solid consistency; it looks like glass and is easy to break, but it’s definitely not the most friendly material to work with. 

Before we give you the ins and outs of using shatter, let’s talk about its benefits for a second.

The Benefits of Using Shatter

Shatter is remarkably high in THC. For recreational consumers, this means stronger and longer-lasting psychoactive effects; the high also kicks in much faster. Cannabis concentrates like shatter, wax, or budder, can elevate your experience with the herb to an entirely new dimension.

Medical cannabis users, on the other hand, can reap the benefits from concentrates by gaining almost instant relief. Many patients struggling with severe inflammation, chronic pain, neurological disorders, and autoimmune diseases are turning to cannabis concentrates because they boast more cannabinoids than any other weed format on the market.

Shatter is also believed to be a healthier alternative to other weed products due to leaving away the redundant plant material.

How to Consume Shatter

Wondering what to do with that jar of shatter you’ve just bought? Let us help you out:

1. With Weed

Mixing cannabis concentrates with the flower is the easiest and the least expensive way to enjoy the best of both worlds. You just need to add tiny bits of the concentrate to the ground bud you usually smoke out of a bong, pipe, or joint.

For smoking shatter, its best to use a pipe or bong. Like we said, shatter isn’t the easiest material to work with, so it’s better suited for bowls rather than papers.

2. In a Vaporizer

If you’re more into vaping than smoking, you may try a vaporizer to enjoy some shatter, too.

However, not all vaporizers work with concentrates, so make sure that you have one that comes with a dedicated chamber for this type of cannabis. The vaporizer will allow you to draw more flavor from the shatter — it will also extract more cannabinoids into the vapor, increasing the efficacy of your product.

3. In a Dab Rig

Does the term “dabbing” ring a bell?

Dabbing means taking a small amount of cannabis concentrate — a dab of shatter, for instance — and combusting it in a specialized device called a dab rig.

The shatter is placed on a pre-heated nail (usually the nail is made out of titanium) that can rich between 550–750 Fahrenheit degrees. Then, you need to inhale the vapor through the rig’s mouthpiece.

Because dabbing uses a form of flash-vaporization, it brings you the enjoyable part of smoking the shatter while giving you all the benefits of vaping.

Where Can I Buy Shatter?

Shatter is widely available in cannabis dispensaries. You can shop for it locally or use the courtesy of online dispensaries to get yourself some high-quality shatter.

The average price of shatter ranges between $50 and $70 per gram, with better deals on bulkier purchases. For examples, many dispensaries sell shatter at $120 for an 8-gram slab.

What’s the Difference Between Shatter vs Other Concentrates

People sometimes confuse different types of cannabis concentrates, especially when they’re just getting started.

Here are other dabs you may come across that are definitely not shatter:

• Wax: just like shatter, wax is obtained through BHO. It looks exactly what it sounds like; it’s shiny, sticky, and gooey. It usually has a higher terpene content than shatter.

• Budder: As far as consistency goes, budder falls somewhere between wax and shatter. It has more terpenes but is less potent than shatter. It’s also easier to handle.

• Crumble: crumble is made using the same method as other waxes but it involves lower temperatures. This allows the manufacturer to capture more flavor without compromising the amount of cannabinoids. Crumble is the least moist form of concentrate.

• CO2 oil: true to its name, CO2 oil is a type of cannabis oil obtained through CO2 extraction. This method produces a clean, liquid concentrate that cannabis consumers can load into vape pens. CO2 extraction contains more cannabinoids and terpenes in the oil. It also requires very expensive equipment, so it’s cost-prohibitive for most manufacturers.

Shatter: How Well Do You Know Cannabis Concentrates?

Dabbing is a hot trend in the cannabis community. Both recreational and medical consumers enjoy a flavorful dab full of cannabinoids, so it’s no wonder that these products have conquered the market at such a rapid pace.

Cannabis concentrates even have their own celebration day, 7/10, which translates to “OIL” when turned upside down. This date is often called “Dab Day.”

If you’re looking for the purest type of concentrate with remarkably high concentrations of THC, shatter will be your best bet. It’s an effective way to get fast relief from your symptoms — or learn the new definition of getting lit.

What’s your experience with using shatter?