A concentrate is a product made by separating the resin, meaning the cannabinoids and terpenes produced in trichome heads, from the leaf, bract and stem of the plant. Concentrates divide into solventless types (kief, hash, rosin) and solvent-based types (shatter, wax, badder, live resin, distillate, isolate). Separation removes most of the plant mass, so cannabinoid content rises sharply.
In practice
Solventless hash commonly tests far above flower, and refined solvent products such as distillate can exceed 80-90% THC. That is the main reason extremely high numbers appear in the market: they belong to concentrates, not flower. Giordano et al. (2025) found concentrate labels in one state's retail market were generally closer to measured values than flower labels. Legal categories, testing rules and limits vary; check local rules.
Don't confuse with
- Flower: dried buds; even the best flower can't approach concentrate potency.
- Edible: a product made with a concentrate or infused fat, not the concentrate itself.
- Infusion: cannabinoids dissolved into a carrier (oil, butter), not separated resin.
Myth check
House position: 40%+ figures belong to concentrates, not to flower. See buyer beware.
A cannabinoid is any compound that binds the body's cannabinoid receptors or shares the typical cannabis terpenophenolic structure; the plant-made ones are phytocannabinoids such as THCA and CBDA.Terpenes are volatile hydrocarbon compounds built from five-carbon isoprene units; in cannabis they are made in the trichome heads and are a major part of aroma and flavour.Trichome heads are the bulbous resin-filled tops of capitate glandular trichomes, where cannabis makes and stores nearly all its cannabinoids and terpenes; they are the raw material of hash.In cannabis, the small leaf-like sheath (perigonal bract) that wraps each female flower's ovary and carries the densest capitate-stalked trichomes.Solventless describes cannabis concentrates made only by mechanical or physical separation, using screens, ice water, heat or pressure, without chemical solvents.Hash is any concentrate made by separating trichome heads from cannabis and collecting or pressing them, from dry sift and ice water hash to hand-rubbed charas.Live resin is a solvent-based cannabis extract made from fresh frozen plant material instead of dried and cured flower, to retain more volatile aroma compounds.Distillate is a highly refined cannabis oil in which cannabinoids, usually THC or CBD, have been separated from most other compounds by distillation, leaving a clear, almost odourless oil.Rosin is a solventless concentrate: resin squeezed out of flower, kief or hash using heat and pressure, then collected as an oil free of plant material.The potency ceiling is the practical upper limit of cannabinoid content in dried flower; GenetixBay holds that flower labelled above about 35% total cannabinoids is not credible.
