The art of hand rolling hash seems to be just as old as cannabis being used for medicine, and it’s one of the simplest ways to create your own cannabis concentrate. Hash, also sometimes called hashish, is a cannabis concentrate made up of a large collection of very small trichomes. The substance is fairly malleable and can come in many forms, including squares, balls, ropes, cannolis, and just about any other shapes you might like to form.
I remember hand rolling my first real big batches of hash when I worked as a grow lead for a 6,000-plant cannabis cultivation facility. The process is extremely simple and results in a very highly concentrated end product with high potency. The potency does depend on the cannabinoid profile of the plant material you start with, as well as which part of the plant you use. Hash made from cannabis flower will likely be more potent than hash made from leftover trimming material.
To begin this type of hash rolling, you want to start with clean and sterile hands. You can also use non-powdered latex gloves, but I prefer the more traditional method and just use my hands. First, you’ll take the cannabis plant material in your clean hands and gently rub your hands together with the plant material in between. You’ll be able to feel how sticky the trichomes are as they start to collect on your fingers and palms. Repeat this process with your plant material until you start to see a sticky resin layer starting to form.
Depending on how much plant material you’re working with, the layer of trichomes can be very thin, or get very thick. Either way, once you feel like your hands are coated well, or you run out of plant material, you can then start to focus on rolling one area of your hand, usually a few fingers until it creates a small ball of hash. If your layer is thick enough, you might even be able to peel it right off and form a shape to collect the rest. Once you have this started, continue to roll the ball of hash around the different areas of your hands that are still coated until you’ve collected as many of the trichomes off your hands as possible.
What you’ll be left behind with is your own ball of freshly rolled hash that you can essentially mold into any shape you’d like. The balls can be aged to imitate classic temple balls. This beautiful sticky collection of concentrated trichomes can be smoked by itself as a direct concentrate or can be added to ground cannabis flower to add a little extra oomph to your bowls, joints, cones, or however you prefer to enjoy your cannabis.
