Behind the search for the perfect dab

The dab market is by far the wildest corner of the weed world. From high-tech devices to crystalline extracts, innovation is advancing at a rapid pace, producing futuristic products and new forms of concentrates at warp speed. In the race for the perfect dab, it is hard to believe that we still threw up wax with blowtorches in 2018.

While this rapid development may seem exaggerated for the niche corner of an already niche market, something is working. Concentrates are the fastest growing sector of the industry today. According to Headset, a cannabis data and consumer insights company, sales of concentrates grew more than 40% in 2020 – $ 567 million in 2019 to $ 797 million in 2020 – a larger share of the cannabis market than ever matters.

While some of this stems from the fact that we were literally couch-bound for the whole of 2020, trying to get as high as possible, it’s also because of advances in the oil space that have made this divisive method of taking more accessible than ever .

As a cultural journalist who has been working in the cannabis field since 2014, and before that a lifelong stoner, it was wild to watch the dab volution. I remember attending a High Times party in February 2018, just weeks after the Puffco Peak was released – the first electronic rig and catalyst of seismic shift in dabbing culture. I was shocked to see “peaks” replacing traditional rigs at every concentrate brand stand.

The event celebrated women in cannabis – even though the dab world was a total boys’ club at the time and the concentrate intake method was reserved for the most intoxicating stoners and was considered “sketchy” by pretty much everyone else.

Dr. Dina, an industry veterinarian who was known for being the inspiration for the hit show Weeds, was also at that party. As one of the first supporters of the central Puffco creation, she raved prophetically.

When you look at all of the smart rigs and portable vaporizers available today, it is clear that the industry has exploded. Every day my inbox fills up with PR email about some futuristic new device that may do exactly what everyone else is doing. Isolated cannabinoids and new forms of solvent-free extraction are all the rage. The industry continues to race, driven by a mixture of innovation, imitation and hype.

While this juggernaut of progress is fun to watch and even more fun to experience, whether we want to understand, need, or even want to understand most of what is flooding the market remains to be determined. This begs the question: is the industry’s search for the perfect dab a solo mission or are we just as excited as they are about another avenue to get high?

When dab rigs became high tech

Among other things, I write about cannabis in the form of device reviews. When evaluating a new dabbing system, e-rig, or vaporizer, the first thing I ask myself is, “What makes it different or better than everyone else?” If the answer is nothing, it’s essentially just junk on earth that nobody needs.

As in most industries, real innovations in the device sector rarely take place, which leads to a domino effect of imitations in different quality levels. The Peak is the perfect example of a lightning rod invention that changed the world of concentrates, bringing thousands of doppelgangers to market in the process.

The Puffco Peak revolutionized the concentrate world when it hit the market. (Source: Gina Coleman / Weedmaps)

“The idea for the Peak came in 2016 and was born out of a desire for a dabbing machine with no learning curve,” said Roger Volodarsky, founder of Puffco and creator of The Peak. “I wanted it to be shaped like a beer bottle so people could walk around with it at a party without really sounding the alarm or attracting attention.”

He continued, “It really started with attracting people who were disinterested because of the stigma, the intensity, or a learning curve. It was our way of involving them, mainly because these people were our friends and we wanted them to share an experience with them. ”

In 2017, when the Peak was conceived, concentrate sales declined. “I had to convince [my designer] that the reason for dying is because something like the Peak wasn’t on the market, ”said Volodarsky. “There was no easy, classic way to deal with concentrates.” He paused: “Now concentrates are the fastest growing segment in space.”

Since then, dabbing machines have flooded the market in every way from super cool to totally lame.

On the other hand, of course, we have the Peak Pro as well as Puffco’s new electric dab tool Hot Knife. The Dab Tech Trio is an incredibly practical three-in-one electronic dab straw, vape pen and concentrate vaporizer that fits on any bong or rig. I also love the G Pen Roam, which is basically a mix of a huge vape pen / e-rig with a bubbly water feature that is perfect for adventure.

Indux Labs reflux is one of the most innovative systems on the market that uses electromagnetic waves to perfectly vaporize chemical compounds at optimal temperatures. And then of course at the forefront of dab couture, lazer bongs and floating dab rigs.

At the completely lame end of the spectrum, there are all the blatant copies of original designs. I don’t feel the need to call out any of these brands or devices. Just remember, if you are considering buying a copycat device, there is a reason they are cheaper. Often times, these derivative options are poorly manufactured, which means they keep breaking. In the world of dabs and in life in general, you get what you pay for.

Hash oil, budder, and live resin options are now flooding the cannabis room. (Source: Gina Coleman / Weedmaps)

The evolution of the extracts

As the devices passed from analog to the moon and beyond, extracts have also experienced a great glow. Growing up in SoCal as a teenager in the late 2000s, the first extracts to hit the California medical market looked like black slime and were THC distillates that removed all other cannabinoids and terpenes and got you high in the most one-dimensional way possible .

Now we enjoy a delicious selection of carefully extracted, high quality rosins, resins, diamonds, slivers, butters, badders and more. The development of the extracts has been shaped by three major developments, especially in recent years. There is the transition from solvent extracts to solvent-free concentrates, the preference for “live” over “cured” products, and the rise of isolated cannabinoids.

A live rosin dab tool. (Source: Gina Coleman / Weedmaps)

To find out more about what this all means, we spoke to Khalid Al-Naser, Head of Product at Raw Garden, one of the most popular and high quality extract brands on the market.

“I’ve been part of the California cannabis community for over a decade, and there has been a lot of evolution,” said Al-Naser. “My earliest memories were of really poor quality hash or cannabis oil, which was all back then. Butane-honey oil explosions occurred in homes and garages, so there was a feeling that this is not medicine or that it is not clean. ”

He continued, “A lot of people just seemed to push for solvent-free alternatives and things they might think were safer, and then started pushing quality.”

The market has taken a lot of the hype around solvent extracts like these distillates or, more recently, living resins, which use an accelerator like butane to separate trichomes from plant matter. Solvent-free concentrates like rosin are extracted using only a combination of heat, ice, water and pressure and are in high demand, which has sparked a debate in the industry and consumers about what is better and why.

“With rosin, it was like someone had just stumbled upon the idea that heat and pressure were separating the oils from the hash, and then they found out that you can do the same with flowers,” said Al-Naser. “You have seen this resurgence of solvent-free products. I think much of this shift reflected in part the volatility of the recreational market. ”

“Live” products such as living resins and living rosins are also very popular. These products use snap-frozen live plants in the extraction process, creating an extract with a far more robust terpene profile than dried flowers, as much of the smell and taste of cannabis is lost during the drying process.

At the forefront of innovation in the concentrate space are products like THCA diamonds, the pursuit of isolated cannabinoids, and forms of supercritical CO2 extraction that claim to revolutionize solvent-free extraction. The possibilities for advancement in the extract field are truly limitless, especially when it comes to cannabinoid isolation, as we’ve only just scratched the surface to understand what these chemical compounds do together, much less alone.

A dab tool with diamond sauce. These concentrates are sought after among niche weed subcultures. (Source: Gina Coleman / Weedmaps)

The future of dabbing

So, back to the question at the heart of it all: Are we consumers as excited about all of this wild advances as the people who benefit from it? Rodger Volodarsky is not convinced, and neither is I.

“I think consumers care about one thing,” he said. “And that is experience. I had to learn this lesson very early on when I got through with the Puffco Plus. We are currently selling a ton of them. But when it first came out I thought people would lose their shit if they saw it was a ceramic concentrate pen with no coils. But nobody took care of it. ”

The blatant mistake in the dab race is that brands are so busy outdoing each other and making money on the wave that they forget that most consumers not only don’t care, they don’t have the bandwidth to keep up with Keeping up with all of this is hypercomplicated progress.

Occasional users just want to get high and feel good. They buy the products that most clearly communicate what they are doing. After testing dab equipment for years, I own pretty much all of them. When friends who are casual smokers come over and see all of these things, they frowned giggles, but very few of them are interested in knowing more. The vibe I get from most people is why, not wow.

Products that simplify something complicated, as Peak did with traditional dabbing, will always beat products that unnecessarily complicate things in the pursuit of innovation. Innovative advances like electronic dab rigs, portable vaporizers, and live rosin have made concentrates more accessible and, along with weed marketing, hype, and celebrating 7/10 subcultures, will continue to bring more people to the dabs world.

“They didn’t get it until we started showing the usage and they made the connection that it’s a hash one hitter. Then sales exploded, ”said Volodarsky. “I think innovation is about improving the experience, not new features.”

Featured image by Gina Coleman / Weedmaps