What Is Hash? Hashish Explained by Hash Makers

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What hash is made of

Hash is made of trichome heads, the tiny resin glands that cover cannabis flowers and the sugar leaves around them. Everything people grow the plant for, the cannabinoids like THC and the terpenes that carry its smell and flavor, is made in those heads. Separate them from the plant and what you hold is hash.

How hash is made

Hash is made by getting the resin heads off the plant and leaving the plant behind, and there are only a few ways to do it:

• Sifting dried flowers over fine screens, which gives kief and dry sift.
• Washing fresh frozen or dried plants in ice water, which gives bubble hash.
• Rubbing living flowers between the palms, which gives charas.
• Pressing sifted resin with warmth into balls and bricks, which gives traditional hash like temple balls.
• Heat and pressure on hash or flower, which gives rosin.

Bubbleman’s methods for each are in how to make hash.

Types of hash

Types of hash are named for how they were made and where they come from. Moroccan hash is sieved and pressed; Lebanese hash is known by its blonde and red colors; Afghan hash is dark and soft. Bubbleman’s own flight of hash puts a blonde and a red Lebanese style next to a black Afghan style. The rest are in types of hash.

How strong is hash?

Hash is roughly twice as strong as the flower it comes from, on average. In the EU drugs agency’s latest figures, seized hash averaged 23 percent THC in 2023, while herbal cannabis has hovered around 11 percent for years. Good hash runs higher: Bubbleman puts the traditional hash he makes at around 30 to 40 percent THC and his pure hash joints at about 35, and he has described the old 73 micron full melt testing at over 70 percent THCA.

What does hash do?

Hash does what cannabis does, with more of it in every hit: the effects come from the same cannabinoids and terpenes, concentrated. That makes it easy to overdo, so start with less than you would with flower and give it a few minutes. Bubbleman has talked hash with the people who make it live every Sunday since 2014, and the Hash Church episodes are the place to hear it from them.

How to tell good hash

Good hash is mostly resin heads, and the cleaner it is, the better it melts. Hash makers judge it by smell, by feel and above all by heat: a small piece that bubbles and turns to liquid is clean, one that chars and leaves ash still has plant in it. They grade it on a scale of one to six stars and call the cleanest full melt; both are explained in the guides below.

Hashish: where the word comes from

Hashish, the full name for hash, was borrowed into English from Arabic, where ḥashīsh means hay or dried herb. The short form hash is what most hash makers say today.

Hash 101 guides

Hash 101 guides, from what hash is to how to smoke it:

• Hash vs weedStrength, high and how they differComparison
• Hash vs kiefLoose resin or worked resinComparison
• How to smoke hashSix ways, from joints to dabsHow to
• How to smoke bubble hashAnd how to dab it rightHow to
• Hash holeWhat it is and how to roll oneExplainer
• Full melt hashWhat makes hash melt completelyExplainer
• 6 star hashThe hash star rating, star by starExplainer

Questions about hash

Questions about hash, answered short:

Sources for this guide to hash

Sources for this guide to hash:

1. European Drug Report 2025: cannabis, with the potency of resin and herbal cannabis, European Union Drugs Agency
2. hashish: where the word comes from, Wiktionary
3. Hash Church Season 12, Episode 19: Bubbleman’s pure hash joints at about 35 percent THC, Buzzsprout
4. Hash Church Season 12, Episode 15: the old 73 micron full melt at over 70 percent THCA, Buzzsprout
5. Hash Church Season 12, Episode 30: Bubbleman’s flight of blonde, red and black hash, Buzzsprout
6. Red Lebanese hashish, Bubbleman’s World on YouTube