There’s a natural progression that happens with marijuana. The more you smoke it, the more educated you become on the matter. Eventually, several years pass you by and you are suddenly an expert in chemistry, even though your college degree would say otherwise. 

If you are here, it’s because you’re interested in leveling up your marijuana game yet again. Congratulations, and welcome. 

What We Know About THC Diamonds

Just like the stars in the night sky, THC Diamonds sparkle and shine. They are the jewels kept on the top shelf of the marijuana universe. THC diamonds are as close to 100% pure THC as you can possibly get. 

There is a great deal of mystery surrounding the exact process used to extract these beauties because just like a secret sauce, companies are reluctant to give away their individual recipe for success. But we do know it is done using a closed-loop system, a medley of solvent solutions, sub zero freezing temperatures, and a chromatography machine.

Made from freshly harvested marijuana flower, THC from the marijuana plant is separated from other cannabinoids and terpenes through an elaborate scientific process that requires temperature-controlled equipment and tons of added pressure. 

This cold and pressure transforms the diamonds into a THCa crystal. The crystal is non-psychoactive in this THCa state, and must be heated to the point of cannabinoid conversion. When you use a dab rig, an e-rig, or a tabletop vaporizer the THCa turns into THC and has the potential of hitting 4 times stronger than a joint. 

A single diamond may have between 97-99% THCa (and often times is at 100% pure THCa), and the remaining 1-3% is made up of terpenes and additional cannabinoids (depending on which strain of flower is used). It is the lack of influences from these terpenes and cannabinoids that make THC Diamonds the most potent and pure extract available on the market.

The end result is a clear-ass, beautiful-ass, diamond-ass-looking rock of THC!

What Do You Do With The Diamond?

THC diamonds can be as small as a grain of sugar, and as large as a piece of rock candy. 

Many people crunch up their THC diamonds with a mortar and a pestle (or a knife and a rolling tray) and sprinkle the dust atop their bowl of weed or joint for added potency. 

If you are someone who dabbles in dabbing, you can coat your diamond pieces with terpene “sauce” and smoke them in an oil rig, or a dab rig- just like how you would smoke live resin. 

Live resin differs from THC Diamonds because it is more rich in terpenes. Terpenes make up almost zero percent in THC Diamonds because of the more vigorous extraction process.

You can also smoke THC Diamonds without the terpene sauce as long as you have the right set-up. Typically this consists of: a rig, a carb cap, a quartz banger, a quartz dab tool, a torch for heating up the bowl and a little bit of water to pull and filter the smoke.

What Are The Benefits Of Smoking THC Diamonds?

THC Diamonds are becoming extremely popular because their potency is able to be measured. This guaranteed measurement helps with exact dosing for medical purposes, and is a huge win for consistency because it eliminates much of the guesswork that comes along with smoking mind-altering substances. 

Positive physiological benefits have been reported from using THC Diamonds. People claim that their stress has been eased, along with pain, depression, and anxiety. 

By itself, THCa has been lauded to reduce nausea and vomiting, help with inflammation, and have neuroprotective properties.

Classically there are some things that cannot be helped when it comes to smoking a marijuana by-product, such as; dry eyes, dry mouth, and wanting to eat all the snacks. 

In Conclusion

There are many affordable options when it comes to smoking these lovely compounds. 

THC Diamonds are so smooth and so potent that you might have just found your new preferred version of being high. Be sure to ask your JARS bud tender their advice on getting into the diamond business.

Snowboarding season only comes around once a year so it’s important to be prepared with the perfect weed strains to go along with your wintertime activities. Whether you’re sipping a hot toddy back at that lodge or getting ready to shred your favorite trail, the buds you choose can make a major impact on your overall experience. Although each snowboarder has their own personal favorite, we’ve gathered a list of our favorite cannabis strains for hitting the slopes and beyond. 

Bubba Kush 

After a long day in fresh powder, your body can take a real beating. Whether you’re dealing with sore muscles or achy joints, Bubba Kush is said to relieve minor aches and pains, making it perfect for chilling with a mug of hot cocoa. From head to toe, you’ll feel a heaviness begin to settle in and a dreamy euphoria will float into your mindset with each puff. As you enjoy this classic indica strain, you’ll discover notes of mocha, dried herbs, and a hint of earth. 

Durban Poison

For many, Durban Poison is their go-to for any outdoor adventure, including snowboarding or skiing. The bright sativa effects give boost your mood and provide a slight burst of energy, bringing all of your senses to the present moment. Cruising through the snow, you may feel almost spiritual as you feel the cold wind on your skin and watch the fluffy flake fall from the sky. No matter what you’re doing, it’s hard to be in a bad mood when you’re smoking Durban Poison. 

Forbidden Fruit 

Perfect for an evening sesh spent fireside, Forbidden Fruit is like a tropical cocktail of calm. With notes of fresh mango, bright grapefruit, and sweet cherry, all that’s missing is a little umbrella. Puff on this weed strain to discover a carefree attitude, ease sore muscles, or help you get a good night’s rest before heading out to your spot for another day in the snow.  

Northern Lights 

When you think about the clear sky on a crisp winter night, the glittering stars are often one of the first things that comes to mind — that’s one of the reasons we had to put Northern Lights on this list. Named after the famed Aurora Borealis light show that happens over some of the world’s most snow-covered destinations, these pine-forward buds are both soothing and stimulating. 

Despite being an indica-dominant strain, Northern Lights awakens the adventurous spirit within all of us and ushers in a euphoric state of mind. Just a few puffs will get your mind right and a few puffs more will eventually carry you off to sleep — so be sure to watch how much you smoke if you don’t want to drift off to la-la-land. 

Super Silver Haze 

There’s nothing like a classic sativa strain to bust the wintertime blues. Its citrusy aroma and sage-like flavor uplift your mood while offering a buzzy body high that lasts for hours. The long-lasting euphoric effects will effortlessly carry you through your day on the slopes without a single care in the world. 

Stop By JARS Before You Hit the Slopes

Whether you’re looking for an uplifting, energetic strain or a relaxing, pain-reducing strain, we’ve got everything you need at JARS. Ask our budtenders for any of the strains above or have them recommend something just for you.

(Read to the tune of Rudolph The Rednose Reindeer) You know Snoop Dog, Redman, Tupac, and King T. Bushwick Bill, Daddy Kane, Bob Marley, and Public Enemy. But do you recall, the first person to out-smoke them all? 

A Brief History Of Cigars

Before we get into blunts as we know them today, first we need to do a quick spotlight on cigars, because without cigars, we would have never had cigar wrapping which is crucial for blunts. So we turn to South America. 

The Mayan empire extended through much of Southern Mexico. The present-day states are Guatemala, Belize, Northern El Salvador, and Western Honduras. 

The Mayans were extremely prolific people who are celebrated for ingenious discoveries and accomplishments, including developing a complex calendar using astronomy, inventing the mathematical concept of zero, and creating a written language of hieroglyphs. 

So it’s hardly a surprise that archaeologists uncovered a piece of Mayan pottery dating back to the 10th century depicting the first people puffing on cigars. 

Hell yeah.

The Evolution Of Cigars and Tobacco

Shifting focus to off the coast of Mexico, now we look closely at the Caribbean, Cuba, The Bahamas, and Jamaica.

Chris Columbus’ dumb ass arrived here and was introduced to tobacco by the locals. Columbus went home to Spain and narced about his “discovery”, which then spurred a gigantic cigar and tobacco boom. 

The French ambassador to Portugal, Jean Nicot was so obsessed with smoking cigars that nicotine was named after him. Spain then claimed Cuba as their own (which is insane, colonialism is so mean), and so the tobacco industry was born.

People in Europe stopped rolling cigars in leaves and opted instead for paper wrapping instead. So that is how cigarettes split from cigars and came into existence.

But this article is about blunts, and so we say goodbye to Europe because we need to remain focused on the leaves that make up a delicious cigar/blunt wrap.

Modern Day Blunts

New Yorkers are obsessed with Starbucks, Derek Jeter, and blunts. The form that blunts have taken on today as a cigar skin filled with weed is very much a New York thing. 

In 2018 a law went into effect that raised the price on all tobacco and tobacco products in New York from under five dollars to over 15 dollars overnight. Celebrities like Desus Nice clapped back on Twitter because a blunt should not cost more than a couple of bucks.

For being such a New York thing, the name “blunt” itself comes from the famous Phillies Blunt cigar brand. Philly, like Pennslyvania. Not New York

Phillies began to manufacture blunts in 1910 in Philadelphia. The famous painting by Edward Hopper, “Nighthawks” prominently features an ad for Phillies on top of the nighttime diner crowd captured in this New York moment. Only five cents a pop! Don’t tell Desus.

Each individual smoker has their own preference when it comes to what they use to roll their blunt up with. Phillies, Backwoods, Swisher Sweets, straight up fronto leaves. 

Blunts in Music

The modern blunt was first referenced in rap songs 35 years ago, appearing in “Raw” by Big Daddy Kane in 1987. 

“Try to front, perpetrating a stunt 

When you know that I'll smoke you up like a blunt”

Uh-oh! I’m shaking in my boots, Big Daddy Kane!

The next year King T makes mention of a blunt in his song, “Flirt”. 

“I diss a stunt after smokin a blunt

Catch a real fly girl cause they think I'm a hunk”

Four years later Redman came out with a whole song detailing how to roll a blunt in his hit song, “How To Roll A Blunt”

But Who Smoked the First Bleezy?

Okay okay fine! The short answer is, we don’t REALLY know. 

But! Using all that good history that we reviewed at the top of this article, it’s safe to assume that the idea of a blunt traveled in cigar form from either the Caribbean or South America and into New York City. 

Snoop Dogg mentions in an interview that the first person to ever sit down and split open the guts of a blunt and re-roll it with weed was Geto Boys member, Bushwick Bill. After some heavy Googling, it was revealed that Bushwick Bill is straight up from Jamaica… but before you get too excited thinking we just cracked the Da Vinci Code.

Snoop Dogg has also gone on the record and said that Tupac passed him the first blunt Snoop Dogg ever smoked at a wrap party for the film Poetic Justice in 1993. Before they smoked the blunt, the two rappers were rivals. Once Tupac realized Snoop had never seen a blunt before, Tupac showed him how to roll one up, and from then on they were cool. 

In Conclusion

Blunts rule. There’s nothing more badass than rolling up a blunt so fat that you are suddenly out of weed and then sharing it with your friends. 

So, to whoever the stoner is that actually sparked up the first blunt, props! Nothing will ever be as cool.

Remember hanging out in a packed garage at a party with a bunch of other people (pre-covid), when all of a sudden some dude is hacking up a lung while simultaneously handing you a clear garbage bag full of… air? Beckoning you to do the same thing. 

What if that gross dude imploring you to suck the bag wasn’t being as irrelevant and random as you thought. He was thinking big. 

Sure it may seem like a glorified science experiment, but just like in elementary school, the science behind a volcano is impressive. 

Volcanic History

Don’t worry, there’s not going to be a quiz on this, but it’s still interesting stuff. 

The Volcano (for weed) was invented in 1998 in Germany by Marcus Stortz. He was inspired by a tidbit he had read which speculated that hot air passing through herbs would be an effective way to extract and activate ingredients within the plant.

Marcus changed the course of weed highstory twenty-four years ago when he invented the volcano vape in his basement. 

Since then the use of vapes and handheld vapes has taken off using the power of pure convection heating and rechargeable lithium-ion batteries.

How Does It Work?

The volcano is more than a goofy toy for frat guys and dudes in metal bands. It uses breakthrough and cutting-edge technology. 

The volcano vaporizer uses convection heat to fill a large plastic bag full of smokeable weed vapor. Just like a real volcano, this device will indicate when it’s time to smoke by emitting a big puff of smoke from the top.

Another cool feature of this device is that it allows the user to smoke either flower or concentrate.

The Parts Of A Volcano

First, the magma rises from the mantle and through the upper crust causing the volcano to explode. Lol, jk.

• The iconic cone-shaped volcano base

• A drip pad 

• A normal set of screens

• A valve balloon with mouthpiece 

• A filling chamber with a cap

• Marijuana, or marijuana concentrate of your choice.

Setting The Scene

1. Place the volcano on top of a sturdy surface near a wall outlet.

2. Plug the volcano into the wall directly. Do not use extension cords, they may not be able to facilitate the exact power specifications needed to carefully heat your weed in incriminates of ten degrees (depending on if you want your smoke to be more or less flavorful you can roast it longer on lower, or at a higher temperature for less time).

3. Unscrew the filling chamber cap.

4. Grind your weed finely. This will help the vaporizer to evenly heat your flower and not have to pass through much surface area.

5. Fill the chamber with your ground herb. Be sure not to pack the chamber too tightly with weed, it should be loose enough for air to pass through easily.

How To Krakatoa 

1. First, you must pre-heat your flower if the control lamp is off. 

• Push the red “heat” button. This will turn on the orange control light.

• On top of the volcano, attach the filling chamber.

• Wait until the orange light turns off.

2. Expand your balloon, stretch that thing out so that air can pass through easily.

3. Take the mouthpiece off of the balloon and fix the bag to the top of the base.

4. Flip the green air switch and watch as the bag begins to fill.

5. Stop filling the balloon at the first signs of it becoming tight.

6. Remove the bag unit from the volcano.  Never leave it unattended.

7. BE CAREFUL! Don’t burn your friggin hands on this thing, it gets as hot as a regular oven.

Usually, people heat their volcano around 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 

In Conclusion 

The weed volcano is a relic of the early and middle 2000s, and just like hair-crimping, it is making a nostalgic comeback.

If you are a regular smoker and are looking to switch things up in your smoking routine, it could be really fun to be the provider of your own party bag of weed. 

Maybe it would be nice to not need to rely on some bro to smoke you out with his nasty, crusty, personal volcano balloon. 

But to be honest, unless you have a lot of storage space in your home, the weed volcano is a big and somewhat goofy investment. It is very easy to vape nowadays without needing to purchase a big science experiment.

There are plenty of rechargeable handheld vape options that offer the same benefits as a volcano, just in smaller quantities. Let’s face it, unless you’re smoking out the Von Trapp family, there’s no need to harvest that much weed vapor at a time if you are just one or two people. 

Ask your JARS budtender what they recommend when it comes to vaping flowers or concentrate and how to get started!