Hash History: Legalization and the Resurgence of Solventless

Despite prohibition, there was still a large community of hash enthusiasts in the United States and around the world. In the mid 2000s, this led to a trend of solvent-based products that were often made in backyards and consumed at high temps. We now know that both of those practices are unsafe. But as legalization expanded to more states, hash enthusiasts began to desire a cleaner product. The solution to these growing demands was solventless hash, and it was about to undergo some major improvements thanks to an incredibly talented hash maker named Nikka T. 

Nick traveled the world, finding the best genetics and smoking the finest hash. During his travels he met several people that helped him to develop a lot of the techniques that are currently used by modern solventless hash makers. These people passed along oral traditions and new practices that they’d invented, all of which were game changers for modern hashish.

One of these amazing people is the hash queen Mila Jansen. She’s the inventor of what we now call Bubble Bags, and Nick learned multiple techniques from her. While they worked together, Mila explained to him that rinsing the trichome heads with fresh water while still in the bag would clean off any contaminants on the outside of the trichome. This led to what Nick calls the “rinse tech” and it’s still used by every modern solventless hash maker at this point in time.

Aside from popularizing his rinse tech and coining the term ‘solventless’, Nikka T was also the first hashmaker to popularize freezing material before it was washed; this is now a common practice that’s referred to as Fresh Frozen. The story of fresh frozen goes back to Nick’s time at Pink House, and he discusses this breakthrough in his wonderful interview with @thehashishinn (please give them a follow and listen to the Nikka T interview). 

During his interview Nick talks about the creation of what we now call ‘Live Rosin’. It began as an R&D experiment, but it has shaped the entire modern hash market. Today, even solvent-based extractors freeze their material before making ‘live resin’. This process helps to preserve a trichome’s terpene and cannabinoid content while simultaneously causing it to be more brittle, which helps to make sieving them off of flowers an easier process. These breakthroughs, and countless others made by Nikka T, have created a blueprint that is still guiding the entire cannabis community!

All of Nikka T’s various techniques and refinements have undoubtedly shaped the entire cannabis industry, and practically all of his methods are still common practice when making solventless hash today. The modern cannabis extract market just wouldn’t be the same without @nikka__t, @milahashqueen, @rosin.ryan, @diet.funk, @matt__rize and so many other talented hashmakers who have helped to refine and continue to perfect solventless extracts. Thanks to them our community has a much richer understanding of how to make clean and potent extracts using only ice, water, and cannabis. Without these solventless experts, Dialed In… and all of the wonderful extractors that we are blessed to work with may not even exist! We hope this history lesson has been enjoyable and informative, much love.