WHAT ARE INFUSED PRE-ROLLS?

If you can’t roll joints or want to try a bunch of different strains without committing to buying a full eighth, pre-rolls are a good way to go. If you want to take that pre-roll experience to the next level, then it may be time to give infused pre-rolls a try.

Infused pre-rolls are joints that combine cannabis flower and concentrates. If you’ve been feeling like your smoke needs more punch, here’s a guide on why infused pre-rolls might be your next favorite purchase.

What types of infused pre-rolls are there?

Infused pre-rolls are pre-packed joints made with the addition of cannabis concentrates, which are derived from extracted cannabis trichomes.

Manufacturers can use a range of methods to create a variety of concentrates with which pre-rolls can be infused.

People smoke infused joints for more potent products that will get them extremely high. It’s that simple.

Sometimes your tolerance is so high because your body has gotten used to consuming cannabis on a frequent basis. So you need a smoke with a little more hmph. Infused pre-rolls give you that hmph.

Some of the most common ways to infuse pre-rolls are with the use of distillates, THCA diamonds, live resin, hash rosin, and kief. These concentrates are put inside or on the outside of the joint paper for added potency, and a mixture of flavors, depending on the type of extract used.

Pre-rolls infused with distillate

A distillate is essentially pure THC oil. It is made by removing every compound from the extract except THC, resulting in a highly potent concentrate that can push your joint’s high to the max.

The pros of distillate are that it is cheaper than the other options here, and if you want higher potency, it will deliver. The cons of distillate is that, with it being 99% THC, there are no other compounds present. No terpenes and no flavonoids mean that distillate is completely flavorless and odorless.

As we’ve learned, the combination of cannabinoids and terpenes promotes a full cannabis experience called the entourage effect. So full-spectrum concentrates will always be a better smoking experience than distillate.

Because distillate has no taste, companies that infuse joints with it also use terpene additives as flavor enhancements.

All terpene additives are not the same. There are cannabis-derived terpenes, botanical terpenes, or artificial terpenes.

Artificial terpenes tend to have super strong flavors that can also be a little off-putting. Focus on infused joints that contain cannabis-derived terpenes and you’ll get better quality.

Pre-rolls infused with THCa diamonds

THCa is the precursor cannabinoid to THC, which we all know gets us high. THCA converts into THC through heat. So when you burn an infused pre-roll made with THCa diamonds, as soon as you light, the THC content skyrockets.

Like distillate, THCa diamonds have virtually no taste, so if you want a good joint made with diamonds, it better also be made with some premium flower. This is why you often see joints infused with THCa diamonds also infused with live resin. It gets both the potency and flavor that connoisseurs desire.

Pre-rolls infused with live resin

Live resin is a pretty hot concentrate right now. Using it for vape pens is increasingly popular, as well as for joint infusions.

Live resin is made by washing plants in hydrocarbon solvents like butane and ethanol then processing the separated trichomes into a high-quality extract.

The quality of live resin revolves around the starting plant material, which is flash frozen immediately after harvest to lock in the strain’s terpene profile. Cured resin uses dried and cured plants as starting material.

Live resin is an excellent way to boost both potency and flavor with infused pre-rolls. Saucy live resin is full of cannabinoids and tasty terps.

The cons of it are that it is indeed a solvent-based product, and there is a chance that residual solvents may affect the original plant’s chemical profile. This is why it’s so important to only consume solvent-based extracts that have been properly purged. 

Have you tried STIIIZY's pre-rolls infused with live resin?

Pre-rolls infused with rosin

Rosin is a solventless chemical made by extracting the plant’s trichomes with ice water, then pressing them into hash with heat and pressure. Live rosin is the same, but the process starts with fresh frozen flower, versus dried and cured plants.

Joints made with rosin are the most popular types of infused pre-rolls for connoisseurs right now.

It is believed that because no solvents are used during extraction, live rosin concentrates may do a better job maintaining the original profile of the strains they came from.

The live resin vs live rosin debate is ongoing (solvent-based vs solventless extraction). As of now, we can’t confirm which one offers greater fragrance and potency.

But natural doesn’t necessarily mean more terpenes and cannabinoids, it just means unaltered.

There’s a newly popular type of infused joint called a hash hole. It uses rolled-up hash rosin as the middle of infused joints, causing them to burn with a hole in the middle of the flower.

Hash holes are also called donut hotels and snake holes. Donut holes because of how they burn; snake holes because of the way you roll the rosin into a long sliver.

The pros of consuming pre-rolls infused with rosin boil down to the big-time flavor you get from the extract. Combine it with some premium flower and you’re sure to have an incredible smoking experience. The cons are that joints infused with ice water hash tend to be the most expensive. 

Pre-rolls infused with kief

Kief is the powder at the bottom of your grinder. It is made up of trichomes that fell from the plant.

Kief can be extracted from plants through dry sifting. Dry sifting rubs cannabis plants across mesh screens to separate the trichomes. Kief is used on/in joints for added potency.

The pro of kief is that it is as solventless as a concentrate can be. You get a neutral plant product that also gets you blitzed when added to bowls, blunts, and joints. The con of kief is that it can be really harsh and make you cough.

How are infused pre-rolls made?

There are multiple ways to infuse cannabis flower with concentrates. Some manufacturers just spray THC oil on flower and call it a day. Others do careful chemical infusions to make sure the quality of their infused joints is up to standard.

Unlike non-infused pre-rolls, most infused joints are hand-made, sometimes with the aid of mixing equipment. Companies employ entire teams of people that just sit and make infused joints all day long.

There are cannabis pre-roll injection machines that inject concentrates into pre-rolled joints too. They claim to roll up to 800 infused joints per hour and are still growing in popularity at this time.

How to tell if an infused pre-roll has been done right

Infused pre-rolls can vary greatly in quality. It depends on the company that made them and the standard of inputs they used.

In general, infused joints made with full-flower are worlds better than infused joints made with trim and shake. Joints infused with premium live resin or rosin are also much better than joints made with distillates and poor-quality waxes.

The type of extracts used to make infused joints are called out on the packaging. The type of flower used will usually only be called out if the company used full flower.

Full flower refers to plant material that came from buds. There’s trim, which is clipped away from those buds as trash. Then you’ve got what are essentially bottom-of-the-bag weed flakes called shake.

Unfortunately, there is no way to eyeball an infused pre-roll and know its quality (excluding joints that look disgustingly brown and old). You’d have to smoke it and assess the experience.

So focus on shopping with companies that you associate with premium products and trust to prioritize people over profit.

How should you smoke an infused pre-roll?

When you smoke infused pre-rolls, approach them with respect. It’s a more potent product, and as such, you will get a lot higher, for a lot longer.

If you have a low level of tolerance, go ahead and clear your schedule before smoking a joint full of diamonds and live resin.

Also, because they contain oils, hit infused pre-rolls slowly and steadily. Smoking them too fast will cause the joints to canoe, i.e. burn unevenly on one side of the joint, and the smoking experience will dwindle greatly.

To smoke an infused pre-roll, simply buy one, light it with a flame, then inhale and enjoy.

Regular pre-rolls vs infused pre-rolls: final thoughts.

In the end, both regular pre-rolls and infused pre-rolls are great ways to consume cannabis. 

The more weed you smoke, the more your body builds a tolerance to the plant’s compounds. At a certain point, you may become interested in getting some added potency. Or you might simply want a mix of various terpenes in one product. 

That’s where infused pre-roll come into play.

Infused pre-rolls are obviously more expensive than regular pre-rolls because they combine multiple cannabis products into one. The more expensive the inputs, like rosin vs distillates, the more it will cost you in the end. 

For the most part, you can expect to pay $10-$20 for a single infused pre-roll, and $30-$50 for an infused pre-roll pack of 5-7 joints.