Wax is a catch-all for opaque extracts with a waxy, cake-like or crumbly texture. The texture comes from partial crystallisation of the cannabinoid acids in the extract, often encouraged deliberately by agitation during processing, and from the extract's moisture and terpene content. "Budder" (or "butter") is the smooth, creamy, frosting-like form. "Crumble" and "honeycomb" are drier, more brittle forms.
In practice
Consumers choose wax-type textures mainly for handling, since they're easier to portion than sticky oils or brittle shatter. Texture alone says little about potency or purity: chemically similar extracts can end up as shatter, budder or crumble depending on how they were finished and stored. The word also gets used loosely for any non-glassy extract. GenetixBay defines the product only.
Don't confuse with
- Badder: a looser, wetter batter-like texture, often whipped.
- Shatter: the glassy, non-crystalline form.
- Plant waxes: the lipids that refining removes; not the product name.
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.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.Shatter is a glassy, translucent solvent-based concentrate that snaps when cold, formed when an extract stays in a stable, non-crystallised state.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.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.
