With so many new and exciting cannabis products becoming available to consumers, it can sometimes be hard to tell them all apart. It doesn’t help that we have different names for the same thing; what you call a blunt, I may call a spliff, and the same goes for crutches and filters. This isn't a problem per se, but it's easy for weed-infused vernacular to sometimes get lost in translation.

One important distinction that frequently (and understandably) gets blurred: hash vs. hash oil. The dojo-derivative hashish has been in existence about as long as weed itself, and there are several different methods of achieving this end-product. Essentially hash is manufactured by collecting trichomes, or the “red hairs” and “crystals” found on the outside of the marijuana plant. This magic goo is scraped from weed leaves in a process that is both primitive and delicate. The accumulated cannabis concentrate is sticky and gummy in texture, similar to taffy or a Tootsie Roll. But depending on whether it is water or oil-based, hash can also be golden blonde and dense, or brownish black and closely resembling small chunks of coal. Hash can be smoked from a pipe or rolled with tobacco, weed, or both.

But hash oil is another concentrate entirely, the consistency of which varies depending on the extraction method. The stuff is made by grinding marijuana leaves, flushing the ground flower with a solvent, heating up that mess, and pressurizing the goop to squeeze out the prized gel. Hash oil can be vaped, dabbed, or distilled with flavorful terpenes and even sometimes slathered onto joints like some kind of psychoactive adhesive. As shifts in state-level marijuana laws increase access to cannabis, more people are wising up to the fact that hash oils are as diverse as they are convenient to consume. According to a 2016 dataset from Seattle-based business intelligence platform Headset, “The vapor market is an extremely promising one with a growth rate more than double that of the overall [legal cannabis] market.”

In short: Hash is old school. And hash oil is something (relatively) new. Both offer a concentrated form of cannabis, which in turn provides a more intense high. 

Want to try hash for yourself? We've got you covered.