Yeah, I use a Raw rolling machine to roll my joints. So what. It’s cheap, easy, and effective. Doesn’t require as much focus and is faster. I’ve argued my case for rolling machines in detail and stand by my stance.
In this guide we explore:
Being a man of taste and culture I also like smoking hand rolled doobies as well. I also like cones and repacked blunts. I like vaporizers and I like bongs. I like edibles, I like topicals.
If it’s got some high quality craft cannabis in it, then I’m interested. Don’t care how don’t care why.
One treat in particular that I save for special occasions are infused pre-rolls and blunts. Mixing high quality cannabis flower with different types of extracts is I think a whole new universe that’s barely being reached its full potential in the rec market.
While the masses are still asking questions like “what’s got the highest THC percentage?” there is a dazzling galaxy of infinitely more exciting options out there if you’re a powertoker chasing “potency”.
Caring only about tested THC totals is like saying you like loud music, regardless of how that music actually sounds. You like the LOUD and that’s it.
And if that’s you hey, I don’t understand it but live your best life. For many of us though loud for the sake of loud alone isn’t as enticing as “loud” + a banging beat and soothing melodies.
When you combine loudness with quality and variety well, that is the recipe for an experience that as equally stimulating (mentally and physically) as it is “powerful”.
So for my 36th birthday I decided a temple ball of Chemdawg hash from Sand Castle Co. would make the perfect little something extra to make that night’s doobies extra special.
I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for hashish. For much of my life it has been easier to acquire hash than it has whole flower. Even when I could acquire flower the hash always outsmoked it in terms of quality.
If you’ve never tried hash and want to learn more about it I highly suggest checking out French Cannoli’s work. He’s considered by many in the west to be a “godfather of hashish” type figure who has been at the forefront of the industry for decades.
TL;DR hashish is trichomes that are gently formed into a ball via hand rolling. These hash balls then age, which unlike curing flower, results in all kinds of chemical transformations, including but not limited to the conversion of myrcene to hashishene.
Yes, hashishene is a stand alone terpene that has been isolated in hashish which may explain why good hash hits the way it does.
So enough explaining my motivations for wanting to break up some hashish into my Tigerz Eye doobies. It’s for nostalgia. It’s for pleasure. It’s for Frenchy.
A Quick Dispensary Run to Kaleafa
I don’t go to Kaleaf in Beaverton as much as I should because honestly traffic over there can kind of suck depending on the day of the week and time of day.
However a friend visiting from out of town brought us to Roma Ramen for dinner which made walking over to Kaleafa a breeze.
*Pro Tip: This area makes a great evening out smoking a joint around the block before heading into Roma to stuff your face before wondering around the surreal Uwajimaya looking for mochi and Pocky.
Sure enough Kaleafa had some Chem temple balls in stock. They also had some deliciously fresh Tigerz Eye flower from PDX Organics. Tigerz Eye is a Jokerz 31 and Gastro Pop cross from Compound Genetics.
One sniff and I was sold on an eighth of flower to embrace the Sand Castle Co. hash to be placed in in my soon to be DIY infused doobie.
But my shopping spree didn’t end with just the flower and temple ball. Something else had caught my eye..
Like a kid in a candy store my attention was drawn towards the Blueberry Muffin kief from Triple Crown. I’ve never heard of triple crown but they came recommended and the Blueberry Muffin’s smell was irresistible
The budtender homie even hooked me up with a b-day discount so I could justify the additional 2g kief purchase on top of the 1g ball of hash and 3.5g of Tigerz Eye.
So yeah, that’s pretty much your shopping list for a quality DIY infused doobie:
- Quality flower, at least a grams worth
- Quality hash, to snake out or crush up
- Quality kief to dust it up like a tiramisu
Note the “QQQ” here. It’s intentional. Hand-rolled DIY infused doobs are so much more special than run-of-the-mill, stale ass cheap ass cheap floor clipping joints soaked in nothing but cheap distillate that some unscrupulous dispensaries sell to unsuspecting customers.
If you can’t swing all three ingredients just get the flower and hashish. Many pre-made infused joints will dip their product in distillate and then roll in kief. While this looks gnar I’ve found that most of that kief smoke ends up burning off vs actually getting sucked up inside the joint to be inhaled.
But I wanted to keep with the theme and the theme with most over the counter infused offerings is they’ll have more than just one type of extract.
So yeah, kief and hash are both made of trichomes but the hashish undergoes an extra aging/soft heating process compared to the sifted kief.
Making An Infused Joint: Helpful Rolling Tips
I’m faaaaar from being a master of hand rolling but that makes these tips all the more helpful as I’ve found them to allow me to focus all of my concentration on the act of rolling.
Like a chef prepping ingredients before cooking it’s much easier to focus on rolling up if you don’t have to worry about setting your open in-progress doobie down repeatedly to open jars of hash or kief.
Instead set yourself up for success by grinding your flower, breaking up your hash, and opening your kief prior to the rolling process. Then you just have to dip your fingers in each pile as you roll, “salad bar” style.
Secondly I highly recommend getting some bigger papers. I’m using these big OCB bamboo slims with tips. The bigger your paper the bigger your canoe will be for staging your bud and the easier to roll up, especially if you have bigger fingers.
OCB is rock solid in consistency and the natural bamboo papers are some of the cleanest most flavorless burners I’ve had, which makes them a great canvas for the artwork that is the craft flower and extract infused filling.
Go slow and if you’re new accept that you’ll probably have to make a couple of attempts but ultimately even half-assed doobies can smoke just fine so don’t get hung up on perfection.
Focus on mixing your extracts into your flower evenly, filling your canoe, and getting your roll as tight as possible and you should be just fine.
The order you’ll follow will look something like this:
Step #1: Layer in your flower
Step #2: Layer in you hashish
Step #3: Dust it with your kief
Step #4: Roll her up by whatever means necessary
Step #5: Light ‘er up!
Experiencing the Symphony Effect of Doubly Infused Doobs
Walk into ten dispensaries and you’ll have at least five people tell you about the Entourage Effect and how the value of various combinations of terpenoids and cannabinoids are more important than things like THC percentage for example.
These earnest budtenders are correct. Top shelf bud that has been bred for maximal genetic representation of a particular trait, then cultivated by hand for those genetics to realize their full genetic potential, then perfectly cured to be delivered fresh to customers’ lungs, is miles ahead of lazily grown schwag.
I do believe it is worth spending on the good stuff. Most dispensaries have specials wherein at least one or two days of the week they offer a flat discount percent off flower, which usually brings top shelf down to more “retail” prices.
Now consider the exponential effect in combining quality craft cannabis flower with hash that has been harvested from a different strain of craft cannabis, combined with the kief of yet another amazingly flavorful strain.
My infused pre-roll ultimately consisted of a gram or so of Tigerz Eye flower, a few pinches of Chemdawg cured hash, and then a few pinches of freshly harvested Blueberry Muffin kief from Triple Crown.
What happens when you combine 3 different entourages? Well, after rolling this flavor bomb of a doobers up and Charlie-chiefing it down I can tell you that 3 entourages combined results in the creation of a dazzling symphony of flavors and effects.
What you’ve got in multi-strain infused pre-rolls are 3X the variety of terpenes, cannabinoids and thus smells and flavors. The effect is akin to injecting a kaleidoscope of feel good compounds throughout your entire body.
While I’d stop short at saying we’re at high-dose edibles level of high, I will say triple-infused jays and blunts are as close as you can get to eddies without actually eating eddies.
But while eddies are usually either fruit or chocolate flavored, with infused flower you’re getting different types of natural flavors from the plant, no addatives.
The super sweet smelling Blueberry Muffin kief on this freshly harvested and also fruity Tigerz Eye flower was an perfect pairing. The tempered sour and full bodied flavor of the Chemdawg hash added a nice aged depth to the canna-connection.
Needless to say this shit absolutely slapped. It slapped hard. Don’t think you’re going to be particularly productive or sharp but if you’re looking to celebrate something and don’t want to drink alcohol but still go hard then extract infused is the way to go.
More Trichomes More Joy
This whole adventure started with seeing someone share a picture of Sand Castle’s temple balls on Instagram. Like many pre-legalization folks I have a fondness for hash, particularly decent hash that hasn’t gone through a half dozen set of fingers already.
The kief addition was a spur of the moment decision I was glad to have made. If your birthday is coming up then go hit up a Kaleafa and make sure to tell them its your birthday. Getting a discount in a pricier purchase like 2g of kief is a great feeling.
If you don’t live by a Kaleafa you can do some research on the online ordering apps to find a local dispensary that’s got some old-school hash. Always tell them if it’s your birthday too. Not everyone offers discounts but you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take, playa.
Rolling Your Own Isn’t That Scary
Using some quality, neutral-flavor rolling papers (bamboo, hemp, or rice are my favs) and a great fresh strain like Tigerz Eye provide the perfect warm embrace for the extracts in this sticky little burrito of pleasure.
If you don’t want to fuss with rolling (I get it) there are some quality pre-rolled options out there for your consideration too.
For Oregonians, in terms of 1g-1.5g infused pre-rolls Decibel LOUDs and Highland Provisions are both great options, myself leaning a little more towards Highland although the LOUDs are definitely easier to find.
In terms of infused blunts I recommend both Piff Stix and Portland Heights. I’m sure there are others out there too that I haven’t tried, yet. If you’ve got an infused pre-roll or blunt recommendation that I need to try please let me know in the comments section.
Benefits of Rolling Your Own
Ultimately though, if you are the kind of person who is celebrating often, or perhaps you host people a lot and enjoy impressing your stoney friends, then rolling your own infused doobies is worth considering.
I’ll definitely keep rolling my own for special occasions and to share with friends, but I’m sure I’ll also keep sampling retail options as well as the extracts innovation never seems to end and well, sometimes I’m just lazy.
Similar in “wow-effect” as freshly mixed cocktails you not only get a great tasting fantastic experience when you DIY roll but you also end up saving a ton of $$$ over time. For two or three craft cocktails out you could purchase an entire bottle of liquor and all the ingredients and make dozens.
Seriously, for my eighth of quality flower, a 1g temple ball, and 2g of kief I paid $51. With an additional tax of $10.80 that’s $61.80 out the door. I’ve sinced finished the flower but I’ve got 1/3rd of my temple ball left and a shit ton of kief left to infuse until my heart is content.
Rolling your own infused doobs also allows you to play with different combinations of flower and extract which I find to be a particularly exciting aspect of this type of consumption and something I intend to investigate studiously for years.
The art of mixing strains and within strains, the physical form of the plant (flower vs hash vs kief vs…) being mixed, and the various ratios of each make for a infinitely customizable experience.
So next time you’re at your dispo or have an event coming up, go mosey over to the refrigerator and take a look at the extracts. If you’re already into cooking and/or legos then just drop the cash and thank me later.
