Meet the co-author of my upcoming book ‘Beyond Buds, Next Generation’
Greg Zeman discusses what it’s like writing with the cannabis legend Ed Rosenthal, his favorite way to dab, and if rosin will ever become the primary concentrate consumed.
How did you come to the project and what made you sign on as co-author?
I first discovered Ed Rosenthal through the Ask Ed column in the early ‘00s, when it was running in Cannabis Culture Magazine. Like many cannabis enthusiasts who came of age before the Internet had fully evolved into the go-to informational resource, Ed’s numerous contributions to my early understanding of cannabis cultivation, consumption and law provided an invaluable compass for navigating what used to be a really confusing and largely opaque topic.
I mean, now you can just Google “how to grow weed” and get dozens of results — yes, many of them are links to inaccurate trash, but there’s also some excellent information floating around. What was always great about Ed’s work is it didn’t build up a phony pretense of illuminating esoteric secrets, it was just a smart, dedicated dude putting in long hours to know all there was to know about something most people just took for granted, then taking even more time to present it all as clearly as possible.
Ed Rosenthal in his office. Photo by Photo by Fred Morledge – Dabsel.com
What’s your favorite way to dab?
Greg Zeman
It’s hard to beat a low-temp dab of BHO shatter off a quartz banger with a directional carb cap, particularly with an e-nail set in the low 500’s: If that sentence seems like mostly gibberish, you should definitely read Beyond Buds Next Generation.
I’m still a sucker for an old school, low-temp torch dab — off of quartz of course — but when it comes to maximizing the balance between preserving the terpene profile and activating the cannabinoids, the precision of an e-nail is perfect for me. Because the temperature stays in the “Goldilocks zone,” you can puff until you’ve consumed all of your dab no matter how large it is with little to no flavor degradation. Frankly, I like to take a couple big dabs rather than a lot of little ones, but the e-nail is pretty much ideal for any dabbing style. It doesn’t have to be directional or anything fancy, but obviously a good carb cap is an absolute must if you want to properly enjoy a low-temp dab, which is to say properly enjoy a dab, period.
Not for nothing, hot dabs aren’t just gross and painful, they’re more dangerous in terms of exposure to carcinogenic chemicals like benzene. If you missed out on the “red means go” days of dabbing count yourself lucky.
Will rosin ever become the primary concentrate consumed?
Greg Zeman, Co-Author of ‘Beyond Buds, Next Generation: Marijuana Concentrates and Cannabis Infusions’
Absolutely not, at least not from a commercial perspective, but that doesn’t mean it’s going away either. Until the United States sees national legalization, people in prohibition states with restricted access to concentrates will continue to press rosin, because it’s incredibly affordable and can be scaled down to single servings.
If you pay too much attention to the inner-industry bickering around hydrocarbon extraction versus “solventless” methods, it’s easy to perceive the entire concentrate market as a big pissing contest for dominance, but it doesn’t work that way in reality.
It’s like asking if indoor or outdoor cultivation will ever become the primary form of raw cannabis consumed — consumed by who? There will always be demand for both indoor and outdoor cannabis, because the majority of consumers don’t actually have an exclusive preference. By that same token I think it’s fair to assume there will always be a demand for BHO, CO2, rosin and hash products; it’s really a matter of what those products look like and how they’re consumed. Most people I know who dab rosin will also happily dab BHO and vice-a-versa. So, as pervasive as it is, the assumption that concentrates operate on the Highlander principle of “there can be only one” is fundamentally false.
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