How to Roll the Perfect Joint

People have been smoking joints for a long time. The first rolling papers surfaced around the early 1500s in Alcoy, Spain. These weren’t like the rolling papers we know today though. To start, these papers were intended for tobacco, not cannabis. They were made of hemp along with other textiles and lacked an adhesive gum strip. These papers were sold in sheets that required cutting them to size.

It wasn’t until 1850, that the first recorded use of cannabis in the form of a joint happened in Mexico. There, a pharmacist witnessed field workers mixing tobacco and cannabis together. Of course, that probably means Natives in the area were mixing tobacco and cannabis together many years before.

Now that you know a little bit about the history of joints, let’s jump into the topic at hand. Today’s blog will show you how to roll the perfect joint.

Pick the Perfect Cannabis

You can’t roll the perfect joint without the perfect cannabis. This is where a little research comes into play. You’ll want to determine whether Indica, Sativa, or hybrid cannabis strains are best for you. Start sampling cannabis strains until you find one that demonstrates your desired qualities. The perfect cannabis should taste amazing and provide potent effects.

The amount of research required to choose this strain of cannabis could take hours, days, weeks, months, or years. It all depends on how long you want to drag this out. Once you’ve found that perfect strain of cannabis, it’s time to move on to the next step: breaking up your cannabis.

Break Your Cannabis Up

You must make sure that you not only break your cannabis up thoroughly but that it is also free of stems or seeds. There are a couple of different methods and tools you can use to break up your cannabis. Here’s a breakdown of some of the most popular options:

• Breaking Up Cannabis By Hand: Breaking up cannabis by hand is time-consuming. You want to make sure to have your material evenly broken up. You don’t want to leave big chunks as they can cause a joint to burn improperly.
• Breaking Up Cannabis With A Grinder: Using a grinder to break up cannabis is efficient but comes at a slight cost. That kief catcher in your grinder that holds all those beautiful trichomes gets them from your cannabis. This means you have lost flavor and cannabinoids to your grinder. To make it worse, they begin to degrade as they sit in your grinder exposed to air.
• Breaking Up Cannabis With A Coffee Grinder: This is a super-fast way to get a very even grind to your cannabis. Before you put your bud into a coffee grinder, you must ensure all stems and seeds have been removed. This means it’s a good idea to break your bud up by hand before slapping it in the coffee grinder. You must also be mindful not to overgrind the plant material.

The coffee grinder will give you the finest grind of all these methods. However, the finest grind isn’t always the secret to a perfect joint. In fact, sometimes, it can cause issues such as uneven burning and poor taste. We’ve all gone to a dispensary and bought one of those pre-rolls that taste horrible and won’t burn. When you break it open, it’s like cannabis dust inside.

All that being said, using a coffee grinder is still the most effective grind for the delivery of cannabinoids.

Choose the Rolling Paper or Cone That Suits You Best

Once you have the perfect cannabis and that cannabis is perfectly broken up, it’s time for the perfect paper. Here are some key questions you’ll want to ask yourself before choosing a cone or paper material that best fits your needs:

• Do you choose to roll by hand or are you using a rolling machine? There’s no wrong answer here, we all have different skill levels and needs.
• Are you looking for convenience? If so, cones are your best choice!
• Looking for something a little fancier? Check out gold rolling papers, flavored rolling papers, or cones with decorative patterns.

Once you choose the cone or rolling paper that’s right for you, it’s time to fill it with that perfect cannabis you so carefully ground.

Steps to Roll a Perfect Joint

1. Purchase your preferred cannabis.
2. Grind your cannabis in your preferred method.
3. Prepare your paper (add a crutch or filter if desired).
4. Add ground cannabis to the paper in an evenly distributed line from end to end.
5. Start rolling the paper back and forth between your fingers until it forms the correct shape.
   • Try to refrain from rolling it super tight or leaving the outer paper extremely loose.
6. Lick the gum/glue on the paper and press it against the rolled paper to form a seal.

Steps to Pack the Perfect Cone

1. Purchase your preferred cannabis.
2. Grind your cannabis in your preferred method.
3. Grab your cone.
4. Add small amounts of ground cannabis to the cone at a time and then use the stick provided to push the cannabis down toward the filter evenly. You can also tap the cone a few times on a hard surface to pack the cannabis into place as well.
5. Repeat step 4 until your cone is your desired size and then twist the tip to ensure the cannabis does not fall out.

You’ll know you have the perfect joint when it burns slow and beautifully, tastes amazing, and provides the potent effects you desire. However, your perfect joint may be different than what science has to say about the perfect joint.

What Science Says About the Perfect Joint

A recent article in Scientific American on how to roll the perfect joint says:

“The amount of THC and CBD delivered by each joint suggested particle size does matter for intensity. For both cannabis strains, the 1-mm particle size delivered the most cannabinoids per puff, while the 5-mm size was less intense but led to longer-lasting joints. Smaller chunks exposed a greater surface area to the flame more quickly, providing a faster and more efficient burn. Regardless of particle size, the highest concentration of cannabinoids per puff came toward the end of the joint. Meanwhile, more terpenes, chemicals in cannabis that contribute to flavor but not active drug concentration, came out of the plant at the beginning of the joint. This suggests that a joint will provide the best flavor at the beginning and deliver the strongest concentration of cannabinoids at the end.”

This research is believed to help pre-roll manufacturers produce a better product. If that’s the case, I support science because most pre-rolled joints are just downright nasty, in this writer’s opinion. Grinding them fine isn’t going to help them any. Companies need to quit using substandard cannabis and mass-producing prerolled joints where they sit in tubes on shelves for weeks at a time or longer.

When it comes to rolling the perfect joint yourself, remember, the more you practice, the better your chance will be at always rolling the perfect joint.