Sometimes being a cannabis consultant means pouring through pages of local and State laws and checking them with an expensive attorney, medical research into cannabis treatments for specific diseases and ailments, or even advanced biochemistry on bleeding edge research – all in the name of understanding the product better and being able to give sound advice.

…But sometimes being a cannabis consultant means taking home $1000 worth of the latest vaping equipment and concentrates and having an epic smoke session.

Sure, there’s always using an oil pen or a different combustible gas for your torch. (I’m sure Hank Hill is somewhere sweating between recommending propane to an untapped market and being aghast at concentrated drug use.) But really this feels like the time to visit some electronic methods of heating and to see if they can upgrade my oil intake.

Truth be told, the more traditional e-nails scared me as they are constantly set to hundreds of degrees once switched on and given my penchant for clumsiness

The quartz nail and rig has been a personal favorite of mine for years. I know exactly how to consume low-temperature dabs.

So I went to visit DabCrate, the sesh experts for cannabis technology and told them my dilemma. They had more than a few recommendations and wanted me to try out a two of the most advanced options available.

Quite honestly, when DabCrate explained how to use these tools and told me a bit about how the technology worked, I felt overwhelmed. 

Do I click the button once or twice to go? How do I know if it got it all? How many hits will it take to fully breathe in a dab? How hot is too hot and how do I know? Can I burn myself somehow? It felt very much like learning to use a new iPhone after only having used a Jitterbug for a decade. 

There was a lot to remember just to get high!

I also want to touch upon the concentrates I purchased for this test. I wanted to make sure that I had a high quality product with intense terpenes – something that would have subtle notes as well as a clear flavor profile to experience.

It was a long night of testing, but I managed to get through it with manic energy… Most likely due to choosing multiple energizing concentrates. Honestly after 8 dabs of the Lemon Walker and Acapulco Gold, it felt like I got a lemon and coffee colonic and most of what I wrote down at the time is difficult to read. Thankfully, the CBD isolate helped bring me back down to Earth long enough to decipher my thoughts and give a clear write-up.

The PuffCo, while resembling a traditional bong, still requires some know-how with turning it on for a hit correctly. Supposively, it would offer the most mild learning curve… But if you don’t put the glass “tube” onto the silicone/tech body of the PuffCo, you can spill water and potential break the electronics inside.

Ultimately, the Peak impressed me the most out of any device. If you try to take a dab at too low of a temperature and it’s not hitting you hard enough, it’s easy to quickly change the temperature higher and finish it off. Just like a classic rig, I can look down into the chamber to see what type of mess I’m leaving behind and I can even quickly change out internal quartz with the silicone carbide just 30 seconds after any dab.

It performed best with the Panda Styx isolate – CBD is best vaped at low temperatures over a longer period of time and the Peak delivered for it. The PuffCo needed only one side of a q-tip to clean up after ~5 hits and would go from cold to ready in about 15 seconds. 

The only real downside was having to double check the temperature versus the color coding. There’s lots of info and recommendations for using the PuffCo, but I also don’t understand when companies make expensive products that boast precise controls with a nebulous display system. 

Other than that… I think I might be a PuffCo convert. I used it a few more times in the limited days I still had with it before I returned the Peak to DabCrate. It rips or sips depending on your preference – this was definitely the winner in my eyes.

In 2008, wax budder concentrate was a new – unheard of revelation. Then people loved shatter, rosin, then “live” extracts and now hash rosin diamonds. HPS growers eventually had to give way for CMH and LED light fixtures. If you’re a purist lover of heady glass for taking dabs, you really need to consider trying out a PuffCo Peak or a Loto Legend (it’s not like it’s more expensive than American blown glass). It might just completely change how you medicate – for the better.

The bottom line is that the technology for taking dabs has massively improved over the last couple of years. We’ve come a long way from ruining kitchen knives on a stove to magnetic induction. It feels very much in line with the entire cannabis industry; dynamically growing and revealing “the new way” to do things… And stoners need to stay open minded on this ever-changing landscape.