What Is Kief and What Can You Do With It?

Kief is the most potent part of the cannabis plant, found in the crystals of the flower buds. Packing the highest concentration of cannabinoids and terpenes in the whole plant, kief is a versatile powder ideal for enhancing the cannabis experience.

But what is kief, exactly, and how can you use it? Let’s see below.

Collect and store it

As explained, kief is a cannabis concentrate. If you grow your own plants, you’re likely to collect a lot of it harvesting dry, cured buds.

The best you can do is use a three-piece herb grinder to collect your kief. A grinder catches the ground herb in the middle chamber, allowing for the trichome dust to fall through a screen and gather at the bottom; afterwards, you can scrape with a scraper or a metal dab tool to get it. It’s more than likely that you’ll actually gather more kief than you can handle in one session, so you might as well store it ―in a container, or compressed into tightly packed disks using a pollen presser.

What is kief?

Kief actually refers to the glands found in the buds of the cannabis plant, also known as trichomes: they are the ones excreting the thick, sticky resin where THC, CBD, and other cannabinoids and terpenes are located in the highest concentration levels in relation to other parts of the plant.

Essentially, what we call kief is dry trichome dust. When buying kief, look for the pure, blonder-looking kind, as the greener the color, the more plant matter should be mixed in. On its own, kief is very strong, since it may contain up to 70% THC (depending on purity). Therefore, you must take its potency into account when determining the intake amount, depending on what you do with kief, whether you’re doing it alone or mixing some into your tobacco/marijuana joint.

Roll it in a joint

One of the most popular ways to consume kief is by sprinkling some into your weed or tobacco joint. You can add some into your ground buds, or tobacco; the powdery kief will stick on, ultimately resulting in a much more potent effect, with enhanced and boosted flavor and aroma.

Plus, there is also the “twaxed joint”, for those who want to step up their game. Try dampening the exterior of your weed joint with some wax, and then roll it around in kief, coating it, for an extra kick and a funky look!

Dabbing

Most kief isn’t nearly clean enough to be considered safe to dab, especially the home-collected kind. However, if you manage to find very pure, top quality, “99% sift,”, then dabbing is certainly an option ―but make sure that the kief you got is intended for that use.

Make Hash

If you have gathered a large quantity of kief, you can make hash!

After you’ve filled a small plastic bag, roll it up and tape it shut tightly. Afterwards, wrap the package in some layers of newspaper, and wet it; apply pressure with a hair straightener or an iron, and press until the kief has compressed into a block of decarboxylated hash.

You can roll it into joints, or sprinkle in food and drinks, after it’s hardened up.

Cooking and Drinking

If you want to use kief for edibles and drinks, do so after you have decarboxylated (activated) the cannabinoids, by heating: like cannabutter, the most popular and arguably best method is to make some kief butter, which can be organically incorporated into your meals.

Furthermore, people regularly add kief to hot coffee, or tea, for a brilliant, potent effect resulting from the combination of caffeine and cannabis. As aforementioned, kief is full of cannabinoids and terpenes, so a small amount is more than enough: for example, half a gram to a full gram of kief is perfect for a 6 oz drink. Pro tip: add milk to increase the potency, since the fat helps extract and activate THC.

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