Crushed flower lovers don’t have time to distill cannabis

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For Irelyne Lavery of Toronto, her reasons for switching from cannabis flower to pre-milled products revolved around convenience and value for money.

It’s easier to simply drop some into a bowl for a bong than to grind it up first. Plus, the prices are hard to beat, with bags of seven grams priced at around $30.

She doesn’t consider herself a connoisseur, so she doesn’t notice much difference in quality from the more expensive unground blocks on the market, and most of her friends don’t.

“Over the past two months, in my circles of friends who also smoke cannabis, everyone has made the switch,” the 22-year-old said in a recent phone call.

Ground cannabis sales are increasing quarter by quarter

According to the 2021 Ontario Hemp Store Insights Quarterly Reports, sales of ground cannabis at the retail level increased 104%, from $6,518,000 to $13,360,000 from the first quarter to the second quarter. by Q 3Ground flower sales rose again to $19,853,000.

Seattle-based data, analytics and intelligence firm Headset is tracking progress in the category they have dubbed “the flower of the earth” in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Saskatchewan. In those markets, ground flower sales grew from 0.7% of total dried flower sales in January 2020 to 5.8% in March 2022.

According to their data, today’s top brands are shredAnd Pure Sun Farms And Steel City Greenand 90% of all sales are the seven-gram bags, which is the most common size for ground products.

“This is a battle of connoisseur versus practical stones.”

Mike, what’s my pot, says about the ground cannabis trend.

The popularity of the ground flower makes connoisseurs refuse

Owen Allerton, Kitchener co-founder, Ont’s Highland Cannabis Store, also noted the huge appetite for ground flower products.

In the last episode of Dank . watcha US-based podcast by the Future Cannabis Project, shared how the category became popular with shoppers in his store — impressing consumers and longtime connoisseurs who featured on the show.

“You amazed me that this is such a popular product, Owen,” said one guest in disbelief.

Based on a call from his home in Waterloo, Ontario, Mike, founder of the breed recommendation website What is my bowlHe jokingly called his fondness for ground cannabis “naked.”

It is traditionally believed that ground products are made from whippeds, which are the loose pieces of the cannabis flower that remain in containers or have fallen to the ground or work surfaces while the real buds are being processed for sale. Mike explains that this is not the case with modern milled products.

“This is the battle of expert versus practical stones,” he said. “It’s certainly not an expert to smoke, you know, a blend of ground herbs. He’s not the type to win any of the High Times competitions. But at the same time, we smoke weed every day because we have to, not necessarily because we want to, is not it? ”

Mike has type 1 diabetes and said that taking THC helps reduce the amount of insulin he relies on by 20-30%. Suffering from some neuropathy and rheumatoid arthritis, cannabis is also used to control pain.

While he also buys a few premium brands and pre-rolls, the ground products give him a level of convenience — no need to worry about cumbersome containers and grinding with sore hands, as well as the value he counts on as a frequent medical consumer.

Shred’s success is a testament to improvements over time

Organigram launched its first ground mixture in 2017 in the medical market. But it missed the mark in 2018 with its own ban mix, and the product was pulled, according to Alicia Fernandez, the company’s senior director of communications.

But they took what they learned and applied it to a new batch of recipes, releasing Shred in 2020 in three flavors: Tropic Thunder, Gnarberry, and Flower Power. Strains are mixed based on sharing similar scents, and categories such as Indica/Sativa are left behind.

For example, Tropic Thunder’s proprietary blend of cannabis strains has largely citrus and fruity flavors. THC is at least 18% effective, and each bag comes with a moisture pack.

Fernandez wrote in his book, “Shred has benefited from the somewhat dormant, light-hearted, and rebellious side of the emerging Canadian legal market, which has become known for taking himself seriously and the big corporate brands that all seemed the same.” e-mail.

“It casts a wide net for weed lovers who just love to get high and aren’t overly interested in the more progressive elements of cannabis like terpenes, bud structure, breeder history, etc.”

It’s all about grinding

While ground blends aren’t necessarily for the connoisseur, their reputation for being very low quality isn’t really accurate, according to Andrew MacMillan, senior vice president of commercial affairs at Auxly, who The return of the fortieth The brand is popular in the category of grinders.

“Our ground flowers are selected based on THC content to ensure they meet our high standards, and then evaluated for moisture content to ensure the flower does not dry out too much and that we provide a consistent product,” Macmillan said in an email. “The ground flowers are then sifted to remove the stems and carefully hand-packed.”

In addition to potency, hydration, and the absence of seeds and stems, milling quality is one of the most important factors to consider when evaluating quality, said Ryan Roche of Alberta. Lake City hemp.

“One of the biggest mistakes farmers make is that they deal with a very large fine initially,” he said. “You have to go with a coarse grind to get the best results out of it.”

Organigram’s Alicia Fernandez agreed. For Shred, the team tested different types of equipment with the goal of reproducing the quality of the hand mill on a larger scale.

“Organigram has tested many different types of milling equipment over the years, and now we have something that is scalable and consistent,” she said. “Everyone had their own mill to beat off the buildup of resin. Imagine this is a million times worse on our production scale.”