Browne's new competition, the Hash-Off, pitted sixteen Denver concentrate-makers against each other, giving each team two pounds of the same strain: Toxic Kool Aid. The companies were then able to use any extraction method they wanted, with potency, terpenes and yield all measured to determine winners for each category. Browne sent each sample to cannabis testing lab TEQ Analytical for scientific judging, but consumers will have a chance to judge online as well.
Browne co-founded the Grow-Off in 2016, giving fifty Colorado commercial cannabis growers the same Race Fuel OG genetics and awarding the top three in potency, terpenes and yields. As with the Grow-Off, Browne wanted a strain for the Hash-Off that was unfamiliar to the dispensary scene. Toxic Kool Aid, a hybrid of Amnesia Haze and the White, is relatively new to Denver. "We wanted to find some flower that not a lot of teams had experience extracting," he explains.
Oasis Cannabis Superstore at 6359 East Evans Avenue will sell sample boxes for $200 that have a quarter-gram of each entrant, ranging from live sugar to THC crystals. "There's a little bit of everything under the sun," says Browne. "I think dabs get a bad reputation, because there's a lot of people who try too much on their first time. With these quarter-gram samplers, people can try just a little bit."
Here are the concentrate-makers that competed:
- Bonfire Cannabis
- Cannabis Maximus, LLC
- Concentrate Remedies
- Concentrate Supply Co.
- Connoisseurs Genetics and Concentrates
- Dabs Labs
- Denver Dab Co.
- EndoCanna
- Kush Masters LLC
- Mahatma
- NuVue
- Quest Concentrates
- Rockin' Extracts
- The Lab Infused Products
- TR Concentrates
- Yeti Farms
Potency (cannabinoids)
1. The Lab: 77.589 percent
2. Dabs Labs: 76.5 percent
3 TR Concentrates: 74.69 percent
Terpenes
1. Rockin' Extracts: 7.2 percent
2. Mahatma: 6 percent
3. Cannabis Maximus: 5.7 percent
Yield
1. The Lab
2. Yeti Farms
3. Bonfire Cannabis
Soft crystal wax resulted in the highest yield, with each top-three entrant blasting that variety. The terpene-category winners were all in the form of terpene sauce and THC crystals.
According to dispensary data analysis firm BDS Analytics, concentrates have been responsible for 26 percent of dispensary sales so far in 2017. That's quite a jump from the 15 percent they were responsible for in 2014, when retail sales first began.
Oasis will be selling the Hash-Off sample boxes on a first come, first served basis, though half-grams and grams of the participating concentrates will also be for sale. "This gives you the opportunity to check out a new concentrate company," Browne says. "If you wanted to go out and try each one by buying grams, it could cost hundreds or thousands of dollars."
