To many, every last morsel of weed is absolutely precious. Especially when you are paying high dollar for a premium strain, you don’t want any crumb of bud to go to waste — which is why it is so critical that you know exactly how to collect and use your kief.

Kief is one of the oldest cannabis concentrates in the world, and it remains an incredibly valuable resource to the economical stoner. If you have never heard of this magical substance, read on to learn everything about what kief is and how to harness its power.

What Is Kief?

Though kief is often described as a byproduct of cannabis, kief is more accurately described as the good stuff of weed that gets left behind during the joint-rolling or bowl-packing process. When you are working with dry flower, you need to break up large nugs into smaller pieces or ground bud to ensure even heating when you smoke or vape. As you handle flowers, with your fingers, chopsticks, or a dedicated herb grinder online, some sticky bits are bound to fall off and get left out. These leftovers, in essence, are kief.

Kief has two main components: trichomes and plant material. The plant material is rather self-explanatory; kief can include bits of flower, stems or leaves, all of which contain some amount of cannabinoids worth preserving. However, the most valuable stuff is trichomes, which are the glittery, sticky frosting you can see on high-quality bud. Trichomes are like small tubes of highly concentrated cannabinoids, and if you can collect and use a high quantity of them, you can radically increase the potency of your pot product. Because kief effectively captures extra trichomes, it is a powerful powder that most stoners prize highly.

Do You Make Kief on Purpose?

Kief is called a byproduct because most stoners collect small amounts over time as they go about their regular smoking processes. However, it is possible to set out to make kief on purpose. There are two ways you can make kief at home with minimal equipment: an herb grinder or a dry sifter.

Most every stoner beyond the beginner level has a grinder to quickly and efficiently break bud into smaller bits. Four- and five-chamber grinders provide an increasingly fine grind, and they also typically trap kief powder in a final chamber. Aggressive grinding is a good way to transform most of your flower into kief.

A dry sifter is like a fine mesh screen, or several screens, inside a bucket or box. Instead of grinding your bud, you vigorously shake the sifter to break the trichomes away from the plant material. Because sifters tend to be larger than grinders, they are more efficient at producing high-quality kief. Specialized sifters are often how manufacturers produce kief for sale in Oklahoma dispensaries.

How Do You Use Kief?

So, you have collected your kief or made plenty on purpose with a grinder or sifter. Now what? You should consider using your kief in the following ways:

Sprinkle. The easiest way to use kief is to sprinkle it on top of an unrolled joint or an open bowl. This gives a big boost of cannabinoids, increasing potency and improving the high. You can also roll your joint or blunt in kief, which can give your smokable a sophisticated look.

Vape. Dry herb vaporizers handle kief like a dream. You can pour kief into a vape’s chamber as you would with regular flower, but you should be careful when it comes to dosing. You can also dab kief on a dab rig, but this only works if your kief is almost entirely trichomes with exceedingly little plant matter.

Drink or Eat. Kief makes the perfect topper to any food or drink, effortlessly transforming innocuous snacks into powerful edibles. Considering that making DIY edibles is usually a chore that requires a long, tiresome infusion process, sprinkling some kief on top a beverage or meal is easy and equally rewarding.

Create. With enough kief, you can craft specialized concentrates and cannabis products that go above and beyond the regular nug. The following spinoffs are well within the capabilities of a kief beginner:

●        Moon rocks, or cannabis buds dipped in hash oil and rolled in kief. With the right strain and purity of kief, moon rocks can exceed 50 percent THC content.

●        Hash, or kief that has been pressed or rolled into blocks or pucks. Hash is often considered the first cannabis concentrate, and it is certainly the safest concentrate to make at home.

Every stoner should know about kief. Even if you don’t go out of your way to make the strongest, purest kief possible, you should at least be able to use the kief you unavoidably make in your everyday cannabis activities.