Anyone who has smoked weed long enough to try the different ways of smoking, ask them how they usually light it up. What are you most likely to hear? Joints, pipes, or vaping? Maybe for classic flower, but what about some of the newer, more concentrated strains like Shatter?
As a concentrate, you have the ability to smoke, dab, or vape your shatter to get much more of a high off of one hit than the old fashioned ways. Also, you would have to cook shatter down to make it easier to manage, but you can bake it into edibles than any standard strain of flower.
While best consumed as a vapor, shatter may sound similar to your average dab wax, but it has a distinct texture to get its name and a very distinct high that you will wanna try with caution.
What is Shatter?
Shatter, or Butane Hash Oil, is like weed on steroids (ironic, right?): It is pure, concentrated THC and terpenes processed with liquid gas, like butane, then cooled completely to get its distinct, candy-like solidity and color. Because of this, shatter ranks very high on the list of the most potent concentrates.
Not only that, but shatter as a thin sheet, how it is typically fashioned, makes it the most recognizable concentrate and one that actually looks a lot like ‘rock candy’ (ask your friends who watched Breaking Bad) just amber-colored instead of blue.
The fact that shatter is completely solid also makes it fun for newcomers to the smoke circle to break off a piece as a sort of right of passage. As mentioned, shatter is also growing in popularity for its potency, often where a single hit will get you high.
Is Shatter Like Resin?
Shatter and resin are just alike in a lot of ways but definitely vary in their potency. Actually, resin is the least potent of the group of weed concentrates whereas shatter is one of the, if not the, most potent concentrate.
At the same time, both can be used for dabs or vaping, both come in a variety of flavors and they are pretty similar in color, just not in potency, appearance or texture. Shatter is identified as this glassy ‘sheet’ of concentrate that you can break apart whereas resin looks and feels more like crystalized honey.
How to Smoke Shatter
Like most other concentrates, shatter offers different ways of consumption that you can try out to see which one you like best. It is most common for it to be used like wax and either put in a vape pen or smoked using dab rigs.
But overall, you will get the best results (and the best high) from smoking the old fashioned way: Lighting it up through a joint or blunt to get high off the smoke.
Smoke It
Even though shatter is not a regular strain of flower, it can still be put into a roll and smoked just like the real thing. Rolling, in general, is an easy, cheap, and convenient way to smoke weed and you can smoke your shatter this way with no hassle.
The only thing that makes this joint different from a standard pre-roll, or one you rolled at home, is the obvious addition of shatter to the grinded flower: some lines of shatter the length of your joint or broken into Tic-Tac-sized bits will be perfect for your elevated joint. Mixing with flower allows the shatter to burn properly so that nothing is left unused.
Keep in mind: Shatter is in fact, pure concentrated cannabinoids including THC, and this is mixed with up to a gram of your strain. That goes without saying: Be responsible.
Dab It
If you want the absolute maximum of THC extracted from your shatter (not recommended for first-time users), dabbing the concentrate is your best alternative. If your dab rig is on standby, fire it up with a butane torch so you can touch the nail to your shatter and breathe in the vapor.
Because you are vaporizing the shatter instead of burning it, you will get more of a high from your hits than the latter. As fun as that sounds, still approach with extreme caution.
Vape It
While you are vaporizing shatter with your dab rig, an actual vape pen will get you that same result with added potency control. All you need is a specialized pen (for concentrates) and just enough shatter to fit in the chamber.
Your hits will still be extremely potent, just not as much as dabbing. Considering a higher temperature creates more vapor, and dab nails can be twice as hot as vape chambers, vaping allows you to control your potency with more accuracy.
Can You Eat It?
Technically, yes. But: You cannot and should not eat raw shatter. The same goes for any other dab wax or concentrate.
Your stoned friends would probably tell you “You can eat anything if you’re brave enough”. But, by no means does that mean you should. Do not eat shatter or any other concentrate raw, this is dangerous and they will not work the way you want.
Concentrates need to be superheated and ‘decarbed’ in order for them to evaporate and give off the THC and terpenes that you want. You cannot do this by chewing and swallowing shatter because there would be no way for the THC to hit your brain.
You can, however, make edibles with your concentrate in the recipe, but eating raw shatter will not have that same effect. This could even be damaging when ingested because shatter is so sharp and brittle. You thought Cap’n Crunch hurt the roof of your mouth? This would be worse!
How High Does it Get You?
Very High. Very Fast.
One hit off of shatter is equal to about 10 hits of a joint in terms of THC and terpenes, 2-3 times more potent than an infused preroll. Your high will only last a couple of hours depending on how you use it, but shatter will give you a high unlike anything else on the market.
