While there were lots of legal concentrates made available at the beginning of the Cannabis 2.0 rollout, let’s be honest – most of them sucked. I’m not going to bore you with the details about shatter so full of chlorophyll it’s black, or live resin the colour of poop, or bubble hash that’s a year old and sticks to the jar. N’est pas bon mes amis. But here’s a roundup of what’s actually good in Canadian concentrates.
Good Buds
Brothers Tyler and Alex Rumi of Oakville, Ontario came together with their best buds to found the first outdoor organic grow in Canada. Good Buds started with a bunch of trailers on Salt Spring Island off the coast of BC. Built from shipping containers, their Gulf Island farm has evolved into one of the premier organic rosin producers in Canada. Good Buds rosin is everything you’d expect to find in the legacy market, and then some.
Purple Hill Farm
Live resin from this Creemore, Ontario outfit screams California quality. It’s the whitest extract I’ve seen on the legal market. And its terp content is out of this world. Started as a project to see how micros can be sustainable in Canada, Purple Hill is where Peter Miller’s family has been farming since the 1860s.
Mood Ring Legacy Hashish
This blond brick of traditional style hashish is handcrafted by cannabis sommelier Jose Dominguez, a master grower and Quebec legend who now works at Neptune Wellness Solutions crafting the most premium products from CBD to hash and flower. Dominguez uses terpene-rich nugs in an ice water extraction process to pressed into bars of gold.
Greybeard
Bubba Nicholson and the team at Thrive in Jarvis, Ontario have just opened one of the first farm gate stores. If you’re used to buying pricey exotic extracts from Instagram, save your money and buy a gram of Greybeard to get the same quality you’d grab at the Emerald Cup.
BOAZ Honey Oils
Floral terpalicious with notes of banana, this traditional honey oil is not to be missed, although you can also use it to infuse your edibles. Honey oil is a traditional product from British Columbia. BOAZ is now bringing this tradition across Canada in a glass syringe which you can put directly on your banger for dabbing.
Blendcraft Sativa
Arguably some of the best shatter on the legal market, Blendcraft Sativa does seem to be a bit different every time. The first batch that I tried in BC was almost pink, with a snap and pull texture. But whatever you get, it’s reasonably priced. Blendcraft is by Decible (Qwest) and also includes indica shatter in addition to the occasional wax. It’s nice to know that it’s lab tested and not going to flare on your rig from unpurged butane!
BIG
BIG was founded by cannabis industry heavyweights John Fowler and Scott Walters who got their start at Supreme and Aleafia and have most recently gone independent as Blaise Ventures. Their first offering, BIG rosin coins is going national. Coming soon across Canada.
Earth Wolf Farms
From the folks who brought you Whistler Therapeutics, Earth Wolf Farms, located in the traditional cultivation region of Lillooet, British Columbia cultivates outdoor organically in one of the warmest most arid climates in Canada. It’s where Canada’s gold rush began. Now Earth Wolfe has turned their sites to mining for the new gold –fresh frozen hashish.
Premium 5
Premium 5 is a collection of concentrate producers under one brand owned by Heritage and crafted by the former ops team at Aurora. It’s also a really nice platform for micros like North 40 to trial their Black Cherry Punch hash rosin, as it expands to its own branded products. This is arguably my fave SKU on the market!
Hank
Last but not least… how excited is the world for Bubbleman to finally release his own line of hash? For devotees, to taste his legal bubble hash is to make a pilgrimage. I tried dabbing it, but it’s better for sprinkling in joints as a THC booster. More premium grades are coming. Hash sales in the legal market are slow to start, but new products are coming like Hazel hash joints.
Lisa Campbell is CEO of Mercari Agency Limited.
