Small pieces of cannabis flower that were once part of larger buds. Shake usually falls off buds when handling them or when they get jostled around in packaging. It can be used by producers to make pre-rolled joints.
The pros and cons of shake
Shake is cannabis flower that has naturally broken down through handling. It’s small parts that have come off of larger buds. For the average consumer, shake collects at the bottom of your stash, which you can also use to make joints. Convenience is the real benefit of shake—you can put it in a joint without having to grind it down. However, it is thought to be lower in quality.
If shake includes kief that also fell off of buds then the shake will likely be potent. Shake is usually of lower quality because it’s the last to go from your stash and has had the longest time to dry out and degrade.
Difference between shake and trim
Trim is what gets trimmed off cannabis buds after harvesting—it is mainly the resinous tips of buds, but sugar leaves, stems, and some chunks of flower might make their way into trim depending on how it was trimmed.
Shake is what falls off in your jar or bag after buds have been handled over time.
How much is shake?
You won’t often find shake on dispensary shelves, but most cannabis shops hold on to the unseemly trimmings to maximize their profits. Depending on the laws in their state, some dispensaries throw all of their shake into a large, grab-bag container and use it to roll their in-house joints. These can be a fun, surprise smoking experience but tread with caution — you never know quite what strain you’re puffing with a shake-filled joint. When in doubt, ask your budtender for more details.
Dispensaries typically will also sell different amounts of shake for far cheaper than the flower on their shelves. Some shops in legalized states will sell an ounce of shake for as little as . In a pinch, shake is cheaper, looks exactly like pre-ground bud, and it’s just as smokeable.
What is weed shake used for?
Once you move past the lack of glamour, shake is an excellent substitute for full, fluffy buds.
Shake essentially is pre-ground flower, ready to pack in a bowl or fill out the empty space in a large joint or blunt. When crafting edibles, too, one needn’t worry about the look of one’s buds — they’re all about to be mixed into your recipe. You only need pretty flower to use as a garnish.
Some cannabis consumers create tinctures using their leftover shake. As long as you have enough shake by weight for your recipe, the alcohol in the tincture recipe will properly strip all the THC-goodness from your trim.
Occasionally, cannabis extractors will use shake to make concentrates, though many in the industry prefer to use flower, ensuring a higher quality end product.
Is weed shake bad?
Whether shake is bad or not really depends on individual preference.
There are some cons to smoking shake. Sometimes shake is rife with unsmokable cannabis trimmings such as stems and seeds, which can be a pain to remove. Dispensary-bought shake defies identification, too, as most bags are a mix of cannabis genetics and won’t provide a reliable psychoactive experience every time. Shake also dries out quickly, so you’ll want to smoke it fast before its condition worsens.
The Pros And Cons Of Marijuana Shake
After reading the above and knowing the answer to the question “what is marijuana shake”, you’ve probably come to a crossroads—is marijuana shake a good thing, or a bad thing?
The short answer is both.
One of the pros of shake, is, again, it’s cheaper than nugs. If you’re going to be using it for rolling a bunch of joints, or even making edibles, where the consistency of the bud doesn’t really matter for extraction purposes, you might as well get the best bang for your buck.
There’s also an off chance that some of your shake is extra potent. If it’s sitting at the bottom of a vacuum-sealed bag for some time, it could accumulate some kief on top, making it stronger than regular weed. But if it hasn’t been in storage long enough to make that happen, then it’s less than likely that your shake is as strong as a regular nug.
Some shake might come complete with trimmings—something you most definitely do not want. One of the most aggravating parts about smoking is removing the stems and seeds, yet you may find yourself with a surplus of them if your shake contains plant trimmings.
Secondly, it’s hard to identify shake. It could be a mixture of leftovers from different strains, so there’s no real telling what you’re going to get. So if you’re using the herb for medicinal purposes, or you just prefer a certain strain, getting pre-rolled joints or buying shake, in general, may not be your best bet.
And an obvious flaw, of course, is that shake tends to be dried out. If you do purchase marijuana shake, you’re either going to want to use it quickly, or store it in a jar before its condition worsens.
Alternative Uses for Marijuana Shake
Of course, there are other ways to maximize the potency of marijuana shake. If you don’t want to smoke leftover shake because you don’t think it will get you high or you consider yourself “weed snob,” and prefer to smoke fresh buds, you can always utilize it for non-smoking methods of ingesting THC.
If you’re of the holistic sort, you can opt to put some marijuana shake in your tea. This method won’t get you high, but if you were already under the pretense that shake wouldn’t get you high enough anyway, there’s no harm in putting it in your hot beverage. This method allows you to unlock some of the potent, non-psychoactive effects of CBD.
Another great way to utilize shake—again, without actually getting stoned—is using it to make CBD-derived skin topicals. This method is a bit more time consuming, but it’s well worth the wait, especially with a “burning” passion for natural self care methods.
For skin topicals, decarb your weed into a fine powder. The extracted plant material is already rich in essential oils, but combining it with other all natural oils like lavender, lemon, and rosemary can be incredibly effective in improving the condition of your skin. Once you mix the oils with the extracted cannabinoids, cooke them, and then let the concoction sit for a few hours, feel free to apply it to any blemishes, dry skin patches, or scars. Regular application of this simple topical can improve the condition of your skin slowly, but surely.
On the other hand, you might be somebody who likes to get the best bang for their buck out of their weed, and that’s ok, too. Maximizing the THC in your shake is certainly one way to do just that.
Using the remnants of your marijuana shake to make edibles is perhaps the best way to do just that. This way, you’re extracting all of the remaining THC from your flower and maximizing its potency in a highly-condensed form. We’d suggest making cannabutter out of your shake, as it’s a simple and relatively fast process that will certainly get you stoned…to say the absolute least.
Vaporizing your marijuana shake is another way you can get the most out of your cannabis flower. While smoking it in a bowl, bong, or joint might not be the most enjoyable form of consumption, at least taste-wise, vaporizing the shake will better maximize the remaining THC while tasting the same as, well, any other time you vaped your weed.
How much weight do I lose from using this because im pretty sure some nugs gets broken down to shake in the process. Lmk whats your input because i hand trimmed and used the bag.