[heading style=”1″]Which Hash[/heading]
Which hash: Afghani:
Production: The plants which are used for Hash production are very small and bushy Indicas. In Afghanistan Hashish is pressed by hand under addition of a small quantity of tea or water. The Hashish is worked on until it becomes highly elastic and has a strong aromatic smell. In Afghanistan the product is stored in the form of Hash-Balls (because a round ball has the less contact with air), however, before being shipped, the Hash is pressed in 100g slabs. Good qualities of Afghani are signed with the stem of the producing family. Sometimes Hash of this kind is sold as Royal Afghani.
Color: Black on the outside, dark greenish or brown inside. Can sometimes look kind of grayish on the outside when left in contact with the air.
Smell: Spicy to very spicy.
Taste: Very spicy, somewhat harsh on the throat. Afghani can induce lots of coughing in inexperienced users.
Consistency: Soft, can be kneaded very easily.
Effect: Almost narcotic, produces a very physical and stony high.
Potency: Potent, sometimes very potent. It’s easy to underestimate the potency of Afghani since the high takes about 5 minutes to reach it’s full potential. (1.7%-6.5% THC)
Which hash: Moroccan: (pollen)
Cultivation: Cannabis is cultivated in the Northern regions, especially in the province of Ketama. In 1992 Morocco cultivated at least 30’000 acres of Cannabis. This produces about 15’000 tons of Hashish, which are exported to Europe (especially Spain, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Switzerland and Italy).
Color: Greenish to brown. Due to the relatively short growing season the plants retain a quite green color at harvest.
Smell: Lightly aromatic, not spicy.
Taste: Compared to other kinds of Hash the taste is very mild. Personally speaking the taste of Morocco is one of my favorites, it’s very soft on the throat (especially in good varieties like Pollen or Zero-Zero) and reminds of Weed.
Consistency: Quite variable, however generally quite hard. Usually Morocco is sold in 0,5 – 1,5cm thick slabs. Pollen is less pressed than normal Morocco, ZeroZero is very soft, almost like Afghani.
Effect: Compared to other kinds of Hash it produces a quite cerebral and active high.
Potency: Light to medium, only rarely potent. Even very good Morocco can’t be called particularly strong. (0.9%-10% THC)
Availability: Moroccan is the most common kind of Hash on the European market, only recently it became possible for the average consumer to find other kinds of Hash on the street. Morocco is sold under many names: Standard, Melange, Premier, Zero, Zero-Zero, Sputnik, Pollen, Chocolate and probably many others. Unfortunately these names aren’t very useful, dealers sell everything which is slightly better than Standard under a variety of names. Real Pollen is light-brown in color, sold in thick, lightly compressed slabs. When heated it expands much more than other Moroccan’s.
Which hash: Nepalese (Nepal)
Cultivation: There are small Cannabis cultivations everywhere in the Highlands of Nepal.
Production: The resin is collected by carefully rubbing the buds between both hands. Later the collected resin is pressed to homogenous Hash-Balls (Temple Balls). Before shipment these balls are pressed in slabs.
Color: Black on the outside, dark-brown inside.
Smell: The aroma is very spicy, heavy and quite sweet. It is particularly potent if a piece of Hash is broken-up.
Taste: Highly aromatic and sweet, more so than Afghani but still less harsh on the throat.
Consistency: Usually somewhat harder than Afghani but still soft enough to be kneaded at body temperature.
Effect: Very physical and stony high.
Potency: Potent to very potent.(11%-15% THC)
Sonstiges: The best Hash comes from Nepal. This stuff is simply the best – if it really is Nepalese and not some Afghani sold as Nepalese. Usually Nepalese is very expensive, in Amsterdam the best Hash in many Coffee-Shops is nothing else than Nepalese. Personally I think it’s always worth the money, at least if you like the stony high it produces.
Which hash: Kashmiri: (pollem)
Production: Kashmir is the only Moslem country where Hashish is produced by hand like in Nepal and Afghanistan. Usually the producers in Kashmir aren’t able to press the slabs decently.
Color: Black on the outside, brown-greenish inside. White lines usually present.
Smell: Very spicy and aromatic.
Taste: Quite an acquired taste, however not harsh on the throat.
Consistency: Somewhat harder than Afghani with less resin content. Natural oils are often added to render the Hash soft.
Effect: Physical and stony high.
Potency: Potent to very potent. (10-12% THC)
Which hash: Lebanon:
Cultivation: The most important Cannabis-Fields are located in the valley of Baalbek. The fields are cultivated on very large scale, many of them using modern machinery. The production is very industrially oriented, tradition is not very involved in the Hash-Business.
Production: The Cannabis-Plants are left on the field until they are nearly dry. By this time they will have acquired a brown-reddish color (some Chlorophyll is destroyed by the UV-Rays of the Sun). Finally the plants are brought in a barn to be dried completely.
Hashish is produced in the same way as in Morocco, basically the buds are carefully rubbed over a fine silk-cloth, the resulting powder can be pressed together. Than finer the mesh used, than better the resulting Hashish.
The Hash-Powder is stored inside 35kg plastic bags, in this form it can be kept for a long time without losing much potency (because the resin glands are still closed).
In the winter months the pressing begins. Hash powder is filled in linen or cotton bag and pressed under great pressure. On the surface of the Hashish the structure of the tissue which was used can be clearly seen. Usually the Hash is pressed in slabs of 100g, 200g (usually) or 1000g (1kg).
There is some Hash which is pressed by hand like in Afghanistan, unfortunately it’s usually not exported.
Color: There are two kinds of Lebanese-Hash: Yellow Lebanese, which is yellowish and Red Lebanese which is reddish-brown (very similar to standard Morocco in color). The Red-Lebanese is made from riper plants.
Smell: Spicy to very spicy, refreshing smell.
Taste: Very spicy, harsher than Turk or Morocco. Some Lebanese-Hash is harsher than Afghani, especially when smoked in a Bong. Lebanese is quite an acquired taste.
Consistency: Usually the slabs are very thick (about 2-3cm) and not elastic. However when you cut it, you can clearly see that it contains big quantities of resin and that it can be cut easily. Some kinds of
Lebanese, like Afghani have the family stem on them. Very good Lebanese can be re-pressed by hand like Afghani due to it’s high resin-content.
Effect: Compared to most other Hash varieties the High is quite cerebral, however more stony than Morocco or Turk. Of course, the yellow kind produces a more cerebral high than the red kind (which is riper and contains more CBN than THC).
Potency: Usually not very strong, somewhat stronger than Morocco. However there are also very good varieties of Lebanon which are very strong. As already mentioned the high resin content of the better varieties can be clearly seen and it can be re-pressed by hand. (1.0%-18% THC)
Which hash: Nether-Dope:
Cultivation: This Hash is produced from Cannabis plants grown in the Netherlands. Plants are usually cultivated Indoors but there are also small Outdoors and Greenhouse cultivations.
Production: The manufacture method varies with the producer. Most of the Hash is produced thru screening like in Morocco, however there is also a small quantity of hand-rubbed Hash produced using the Afghani method (which of course is much better). However only a very small quantity of the Weed is transformed in Hashish.
Color: Usually quite green, however this varies with the kind of Weed used and the producer.
Smell: Usually quite grass or skunk – like, but depends from the kind of Weed.
Taste: Same as above.
Consistency: A lot of the Dutch Hashish is not pressed correctly (that’s an art) and usually beaks apart too easily. However recently the consistency improved, they seem to learn quickly. The above of course doesn’t refer to hand-rubbed Hash which is very soft like Afghani. Often the hash is simply the female heads crushed and pressed under huge weights to form a solid lump which very easily powders up.
Effect: The kind of High depends from the strain of Weed which was used, however usually the high is quite active and cerebral.
Potency: Potent to very potent, this stuff is better than any other kind of Hash available to the average user. It even beats most Nepali’s and nearly every kind Afghan. (Up to 59% THC)
Sonstiges: The quality varies widely however the price is always high. There isn’t any standard denomination for the Dutch Hash. High quality powder can come under the name Sensi-Hash which is simply highly compressed THC crystals.
