not how; but WHY you choose to use a bleaching oil/clay.
I am NO where near an expert extractor, nor an expert in the oil game, but a humble student, I sincerely write this asking why sometimes I see a poorly filtered/winterized product/oil that can sometimes be bleached to appear to be a higher concentrated product - which in my opinion effects the retail consumer market - and bleaching low quality oils will lead to cannabis concentrate be considered equivalent to orange juice concentrate…aka the dirty rotten moldy leftovers that get ‘bleached’ to market.
Hmmm Well a producer Will produce an oil that is extremly rich in cannabinoids and clean of pesticides and other gunk
Making iT probably the cleanest pruduct on the market
As for color Allas somehow that is a refrence to quality now aday s that i personaly don t agree with
Kapitalism has entered the market making iT hard to say wel You know what Lets Trow away the clippings and only use prime Bud
Anyway If You trully understand making Distillate You would know that with passion and hard work the end product is the cleanest ever
I don’t usaully see bleached crude for sale on the consumer side, 99.9% of that material goes to distillation to make thc distillate. This is basically the “orange juice concentrate” of the industry that has already existed for years. Why is bleaching a negitive thing to you? Afterall there is plenty of black poop soup bho being sold every day without any refinement.
The only thing to do with crapy moldy shit is run it, process the hell out of it, then turn it into to high purity distillate. As far as concentrates go it is very simple, CRAP IN = CRAP OUT and bleaching won’t change that. Shitty tasting and smelling product will not suddenly smell and taste good because you bleach or scrub it. Color means nothing if the taste, smell, and experience isn’t on point.
bleaching a human consumable to make it marketable is done far more often that you know likely. I worked in a restaraunt and my pop owned one too. When the lettuce gets old and brown a product called “Spud White” is added to water and the brown gross lettuce is put into it. Ten minutes later fresh and crispy lettuce is served up to customers for their enjoyment lolz.
The question of course then is just exactly what is being bleach? Eh? I mean you cannot bleach THC into being a different color so what is being bleached or otherwise mitigated then is logically plant material albeit very tiny stuff. Here is a shot at 100X of some otherwise water gel clarity compount I ran.
There is a literring of cells, mostly more toward the red to red brown hue when seen under magnification with the naked eye instead of through a microscope reticle with my iPad camera. If my procedures had been sloppy there would be many more. My point is that IF in fact bleaching is taking place then it is jot removing the particulate and associated byproducts but rather altering and breaking down the color components.
Witness on IG multiple posts of so called Azulene or what is described as Smurf Juice. It is a starkly blue compound being produced and is used commonly in cosmetics but not in the US that I can see and is as a result of SOPs that utilize these bleaching protocols yet are reporteded by the same users to never occur when htose protocols are avoided. Whether Azulene by itself is harmful to humans has been studied but really as a cosmetic and certainly not as a compound meant to be vaporized and inhaled. It might be safe or it might not but the point is that bleaching does not necessarily remove anything but just changes it.
well thats my ultimate question, is bleaching done just to standardize a color throughout batch to batch - or is it being used to convince consumers it is of a higher quality.
reminds me of people who used to tell me they knew the difference between indoor and outdoor or hand trimmed vs machine trimmed.
yes i am talking about using bleaching clays in distillate. not selling crude. but what the consumer understands as what color standards they should expect to see in a retail packaged pen, and the wild sales tactics that lead to misunderstanding.
People want clear pens. Yes you can bleach trash distillate to make it look better but there is a difference between quality high testing water clear and water clear that just looks good.
The same rules apply to dark bho shatter that doesn’t look appealing, you can pull it apart like taffy and bring the golden color out of it to then make gold crumble that will sell better than dark shatter. Give the people what they want
Not at all. Just because you remove stuff to improve the clarity or color dose not mean it was low quality it means that you had some target compounds you wanted to remove. What we are all saying is that you can’t just bleach shitty oil and magically make it good. You can take an okay product and make it better but crap in = crap out. It’s that simple. It seems like you only equate quality to color which is ridiculous. Quality is measured based on color, clarity, smell, taste, high, smokability, strain and other factors.
which is why i give as clear as a product as i can to some customers - and to the others that want that amber/yellow hue, I dont bleach because they say they dont enjoy clear.
Of course but you didn’t ask about distillate. You very specifically made a statement about bleaching Oil
You mention oil twice and not once did you mention distillate. Distillate and oil are two very different products. The use of bleaching clays in distillate production helps strip away compounds to increase your ability to isolate THC. Using a bleaching clay to help increase a distillates purity is exactly what you should do if you didn’t get the clarity you desired from your run because the end goal is purity.
sorry but i feel a majority of your statements on both of your replies are just way off my original question and am having trouble following your responses.
i never questioned why/how clarity or color is improved by processes of extraction… and yes sir you are correct. we are trying to concentrate target compounds.
errm… ya man thats why i brought up the original question asking why people are bleaching their final product and if they felt bleaching was impacting how consumers viewed their oils quality.
can you explain how bleaching helps strip away and/or increase my ability to isolate THC
thanks for your time and input Jay.
edit: yes sorry i have been referring to the use of bleaching clays during the process of making distillate for a higher clarity of color, and asking if it can become misleading to consumers.
yes the ultimate experience of the product will tell all tale signs, but in smaller grey area markets its very scary looking.
sorry for the misunderstanding, i failed to use the term distillate assuming the process was done before or during distilling. thanks for your input Jay.
It’s all good. Sorry I though you were talking about oil! I’m not a fan of smoking distillate because of quality control issues with manufacturing. I’ve persoanlly never heard of someone bleaching a low quality distillate evaporating the solvent then selling it. I use bleaching clays before and between runs to help isolate canns during distillation. Using clays, carbon, and water washes help you remove unwanted compounds that clog/gunk up the reaction. When you remove these components you free up the process and get much better temp and vacuum control which ultimately means you have a much better chance of getting a super tight fraction.
FIt’s all good!! I realized I never answered the question. If and when I use bleaching clays it is to make water clear. And because the goal of distillation is extreme concentration of THC/CBD I do not think that using bleaching clay to improve the appearance (remove compounds and increase concentration) is misleading to consumers. I do however think that we need to do a much better job of explaining what distillate is and why it may or may not be better than oil in different circumstances. I personally don’t smoke the stuff. I’m a whole plant/full spectrum kind of guy for medicinal and a terp rich kind guy for getting stoned!!
