Shatter is a hydrocarbon extract with a smooth, glass-like texture that cracks cleanly like toffee. Its texture comes from the extract staying in an amorphous, non-crystalline state: cannabinoid acids, especially THCA, don't nucleate into crystals. Agitation, moisture, residual terpenes and time all encourage crystallisation, which turns shatter cloudy and sugary ("sugaring" or "auto-buddering").
In practice
"Pull and snap" describes shatter that is pliable when warm and snaps when cold, typically from higher terpene content. Shatter was the dominant solvent concentrate in the early 2010s; badder, sauce and live products have since overtaken it in many markets. Its translucence was long marketed as a sign of purity, but clarity mostly reflects the physical state, not potency or cleanliness. GenetixBay defines the product only and gives no extraction details.
Don't confuse with
- Wax / budder: the same chemistry agitated into an opaque, soft texture.
- Rosin: solventless; can be glassy but is a different product.
- Isolate: fully crystalline, single-compound.
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.THCA (tetrahydrocannabinolic acid) is the acid cannabinoid that drug-type cannabis makes in its trichomes; heat or time decarboxylates it into THC, losing about 12% of its mass.A hair-like outgrowth of the plant's skin; in cannabis the glandular types make and store the resin holding cannabinoids and terpenes.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.A dominant allele is one whose effect shows in the phenotype even when only one copy is present, masking the other (recessive) allele at that locus.Badder is a soft, cake-batter-textured concentrate formed by whipping an extract so its cannabinoids crystallise finely; it can be solvent-based or, as rosin badder, solventless.Solventless describes cannabis concentrates made only by mechanical or physical separation, using screens, ice water, heat or pressure, without chemical solvents.Wax is an opaque, soft-to-crumbly solvent-based concentrate whose texture comes from cannabinoids partly crystallising; budder and crumble are its creamy and dry variants.Cured resin is a solvent-based extract made from dried and cured cannabis rather than fresh frozen material, typically with a more aged, less bright aroma than live resin.A concentrate is any cannabis product in which the trichome resin has been separated from plant material, giving far higher cannabinoid and terpene content than flower.
