With the legalization of marijuana, the growing number of ways to consume cannabis and the lexicon of words to describe these has grown exponentially. There are plenty of ways to consume cannabis, bongs, blunts, pipes, joints, oil rigs, vapes, dab pen, etc.
Each offers a slightly different experience and impacts the high you will feel.
One of the more recent developments is dab pens.
These are a type of vape pen designed for dabbing cannabis extracts, specifically wax, rosin, bubble hash, and the like.
Before dab pens, cannabis aficionados would use a type of water pipe called a dab rig or wax rig. This is similar to a bong, but rather than putting the dry marijuana flower in the bowl and consuming it through combustion, the dabber would heat a nail or banger to a specific temperature then place a wax-like cannabis concentrate into this, which would vaporize and could be inhaled through suckling on the dab rig, pulling the vapor through water for an added cooling effect.
A dab pen is a more compact and precise way to vaporize concentrates without the need for a wax rig or blow torch and all the other accouterments that made dabbing a niche for the more dedicated consumers.
The Seahorse Pro from Lookah is one of many such dab pen devices on the market today. It has a unique coil that, when heated, can be placed directly in contact with the wax concentrates. As the wax vaporizes, the user can inhale the vapor through the mouthpiece. It has been likened to an electronic nectar collector because of this ease of use.
Advantages of Vaping With a Dab Pen
Taste
One of the reasons dab pens have become so popular is because vaping concentrates is often much more flavorsome than smoking through combustion, such as bongs, joints, and pipes. Combustion involves a high temperature, which destroys many of the plant’s terpenes, which are responsible for much of the flavor.
As vaping is at lower temperatures, these terpenes are released into the vapor rather than consumed by flame. The result is a richly thick vapor cloud with a fuller range of tastes preserved, allowing discerning users to tase the differences between strains and concentrates. Also, cannabis concentrates consist solely of the trichomes from the strain, so there is no excess material to taint the taste.
Portability
Dab Pens are the ultimate when it comes to portable vaping. These pocket-size vapes allow you to take dabs on the go. You can take hits in just about any environment as all you need is your pen and a favorite wax, shatter, or rosin to enjoy a heady vape session.
Temperature Control
Dab Pens use a battery to heat the coil electronically. This allows for a high degree of accuracy when setting the temperature. If dabbing with a wax rig, the user would often heat the banger nor nail using a butane torch. This takes some trial and error to get the right temperature and makes temperature control either a guessing game or a trail of heating and constant checking with a heat gun. Both can be a laborious task which many smokers don’t have the time for. In contrast, the dab pen allows you to set the temperature to a specific point or range and take the guesswork out of dabbing. The ability to have such accurate temperature controls allows uses to explore dabs at different temperatures across a range of concentrate like oil, rosin, wax, crumble and seek out the most flavorsome and potent hits for each.
Ease of Use
As we touched on before, a dab pen is not only small, but it’s also easy to use. Most pens can turn on by pressing the power button five times. With preset temperature, indicator lights tell you when tye are ready and replaceable coils, they are perhaps the simplest way to vape dabs and ideally suited to beginners.
What is a Dab Pen High Like?
When dabbing, it’s important to understand that cannabis concentrates are much more potent than smoking the dry marijuana plant. Concentrate3s typically contain 30 to 60% THC, with some more potent ones over 80%. This is much higher than flower, which ranges between 10-25% THC
The higher levels of THC can lead to a heady rush much more quickly than if you smoked a bowl or two of weed. Taking it slow and waiting for a little before hits to check how you feel is a good approach when new to dabbing concentrates.
Conclusion
If you want to try the growing range of different concentrates and don’t want to invest heavily in a wax rig, banger, butane torch just to experiment, then a dab pen is an ideal way to go. Dab pens can be bought for under $50 and allow you to experiment with different flavors and highs. A good option in the Seahorse Pro Dab Pen from Lookah. But there are countless other options on the market you can check out at your local or online headshop.