Bubble hash: what is it? Full melt, fresh frozen, and quality criteria

Renowned for its rich aroma and solventless extraction method, which makes it one of the purest resins, bubble hash is a highly sought-after product among connoisseurs of premium resins. With the recent spotlight on Piatella, a refined form of bubble hash, the latter is experiencing a significant resurgence in popularity.

But there are a huge number of terms and variations to describe bubble hash, its different qualities, and its preparation methods. For example, you'll find full melt, fresh frozen, Ice-O-Lator, 6-star hash… so it can be a little confusing.

What is bubble hash? How is it made? What are its different qualities? How can you recognize them? What are the real criteria that make them different? Here's everything you need to know about bubble hash.

What is bubble hash?

Bubble hash is a resin extracted using a process involving ice water . The principle is to "beat" the flowers directly in ice water to separate the globules containing the active compounds from the plant material. The water is then passed through increasingly fine sieves to collect the famous bubble hash, which then undergoes a drying process.

For those who might recognize it, this is indeed the same extraction method used for Ice-O-Lator hash . Because Ice-O-Lator is a brand name for bubble hash, extracted with the machine of the same name.

If you want more information on the bubble hash extraction process or Ice-O-Lator hash, we have explained it in this article.

Discover our Ice o Lator

Full melt or fresh frozen: what's the difference between the two bubble hash?

These two types of bubble hash are among the most popular , but they do not refer to the same thing:

• Full melt refers to a quality : it is a bubble hash so pure that it melts completely when heated.
• Fresh frozen refers to the raw material used to make the resin. It's a bubble hash extracted from freshly frozen flowers, the famous WPFF .

In practice, you can therefore have a bubble hash made from frozen flowers that melts completely or not, and a hash that melts completely but is not made from frozen flowers.

So there is bubble hash that is full melt and fresh frozen, or only full melt, or only fresh frozen .

Full melt: bubble hash, a guarantee of quality

If a full melt bubble hash melts completely when heated, it's because it's very pure. It contains almost nothing but trichomes, which contain cannabinoids, terpenes, and flavonoids .

This is the best quality you can get, it's the famous 6 stars .

Bubble hash is classified as follows:

• Bubble hash, 1 or 2 stars : composed of 50% trichomes and 50% plant matter, it reaches approximately 25 to 35% CBD. This quality is harvested on the coarsest sieves, around 160 to 220 microns.
• Bubble hash (3 or 4 stars) : composed of over 70% trichomes, it often reaches 45 to 55% CBD. It is also called half melt. It is harvested on intermediate screens, around 90 to 160 microns.
• 5 or 6 star bubble hash : the full melt, the pinnacle, the holy grail. It reaches a concentration of around 80% CBD, leaves no residue, and melts completely. It is harvested on the finest sieves, around 70 to 120 microns, where the purest glandular trichome heads are concentrated.

Fresh frozen bubble hash: what is the benefit of using frozen flowers?

Using flowers frozen directly after harvesting freezes the terpenes and cannabinoids . The goal is to preserve them as much as possible in their original state. They are not altered by the curing and drying processes usually applied to flowers.

Hash created from WPFF has particularly intense and complex aromas, more "green" , closer to flowers than to the classic taste of resin.

How to recognize a quality bubble hash

Now that we've seen how bubble hash is made and what the different notations and names are, we're going to see how this actually translates into the taste, texture, and color of the product.

The color

The colors of bubble hash can vary, sometimes significantly, from one product to another. They can range from very light brown or blond to very dark brown, almost black.

It's often assumed that the purer the hash, the lighter it will be, because the trichomes are transparent: the more there are, the lighter the color. But this isn't entirely true, as the color can change depending on the maturity of the trichomes. More mature trichomes will be browner, while younger trichomes are lighter.

Furthermore, some trichomes from varieties like Purple are naturally darker. Bubble hash produced with this type of flower will therefore be darker, even if it is very pure.

The texture

As with color, texture can vary from one product to another depending on the flowers used . Bubble hash can be powdery or even sandy, oily, sometimes very oily, or resinous, almost hard. But while the texture can vary, it's generally considered best to aim for a homogeneous texture : if some parts are more or less oily, more or less crumbly, it's often because several different flowers were used, or because of poor storage conditions, resulting in average quality.

The smell and the flavors

Besides color and texture, smell and taste are often much more revealing. Since the higher the quality of hash, the more trichomes it has, and trichomes are what give it its taste and smell: the more intense its taste and smell, the higher its quality.

However, here again, the taste can vary greatly (sweet, citrus, exotic, creamy, spicy…) depending on the flowers used.

Flame resistance: the only 100% reliable test

The first quality of bubble hash is that it melts while making bubbles , and that is precisely what gives it its name.

The other criteria of colour, taste and flavour give indications which may vary depending on the genetics of the flowers; however, all trichomes have the same behavior when exposed to flame.

• A 1 or 2 star bubble hash burns more than it melts
• A 3-4 star bubble hash partially melts
• A 5 or 6 star hash melts completely without leaving any residue

In short: what you need to know about bubble hash

Bubble hash refers to a resin obtained through a solventless, ice-water extraction technique similar to Ice-O-Lator. It can be made from freshly frozen flowers, in the case of fresh frozen hash. Varying in color, appearance, and taste, its quality, rated on a star system from 1 to 6, is primarily determined by its meltability , which indicates its trichome concentration.

To learn more: products made from full melt bubble hash

As you've probably gathered, full melt is the gold standard when it comes to bubble hash. And while the creators and experimenters could have stopped there, that's not what happened at all. They managed to create two new products to further enhance full melt: Live Rosin and Piatella.

La Piatella: cold-matured bubble hash

Simply put, it involves adding a cold maturation step to the 6-star bubble hash. This refining process doesn't alter the potency, but it allows the aromas to mature, revealing their full depth and complexity.

To learn more about Piatella, its history, and how to make it, see our article on the subject.

Discover our CBD Piatella

Live Rosin: a concentrate extracted from bubble hash

You might be familiar with the technique used to make Rosin (if not, we wrote an article about it). In short, it's an extraction process that involves pressing flowers between two hot plates to reach the melting point of the trichomes, causing them to flow. Well, Live Rosin is the same thing, but starting with bubble hash. It yields a concentrate of unparalleled purity, potency, and flavor.