Lightshade Doesn’t Allow Grow Facility Tours. We Explain Why.

“Can I tour your grow facility?“ It’s one of our most frequently asked questions. And while we hate to say “no” (we don’t want to disappoint our customers!), our no public tours policy directly benefits you; we promise! One of Lightshade’s grow managers, Kevin, sheds light on our policy and the benefits we’re passing onto our valued patients and customers.

The marijuana industry is growing every day. The competitive nature of the market is driving businesses to try and stay one step ahead of the curve by doing whatever they can to ensure that they’re the best. As one of the best marijuana dispensaries in Denver, one way Lightshade does this is by not allowing open tours throughout its grow facilities. By preventing tours, Lightshade can ensure a higher product integrity while making sure our proprietary grow methods and technologies are not available to the public.

Lightshade prides itself on having the best marijuana product on the market. In order to keep the plants free from cultural issues, Lightshade must continually work toward not only keeping the product as clean as possible, but the environment as well. While other Colorado marijuana dispensaries are capitalizing on marijuana tourism by offering cannabis tours to the public, this negates one of the key controls they have inside their grow facilities and could lead to a lower quality of product. Just think of the potential contamination that could occur if someone who had previously visited another grow facility wanted a tour at Lightshade. They might not know it, but their clothing could be contaminated with spores of powdery mildew, spider mites, or other microscopic, yet unsanitary materials that could severely impact what we have going on inside our walls. Lightshade has decided that the best way we can maintain our product’s integrity is by not allowing tours of our grow facilities.

Lightshade also incorporates tried and true growing methods that are bundled together with some of the most innovative equipment to run their facilities. By keeping these behind closed doors, Lightshade can not only thrive, but we can stay ahead of the competition. If people were free to tour our facilities, the intellectual property of the grow operations themselves would almost be worthless. A competitor working for another Colorado marijuana dispensary could tour the grow, take a mental snapshot of what Lightshade is doing, and put that memory into action at their own facility in order to improve their product quality, quantity and facility’s overall efficiency.

So, while it might be disappointing not to be able to tour our grow facilities, it’s for good reasons! Allowing tours of the grow facilities can put our cannabis product’s health and quality at risk—and that’s not a risk we’re willing to pass onto our patients and customers. Lightshade also runs the risk of letting people know how and why we’re staying ahead of the industry’s competition. As one of the best marijuana dispensaries in Denver, these are things we need to keep under our control to ensure that our patients and customers are walking out the door with a high-quality product every time. As one of Lightshade’s grow managers, I can say that I’m proud of the product’s quality from start to finish—and I’m happy that I get to share that quality with the consumer.

If the suspense of not seeing what goes on behind the scenes is still too much to handle, come visit the Lightshade Holly location—you can check out our viewing window into our professional, high-end marijuana grow facility from our lobby while you wait to shop our premium selection of marijuana flower, edibles, concentrates, tinctures, topicals and accessories. Visit Lightshade today to see why the difference is night and day!


Solvent-Free and Solvent-Less Marijuana Concentrates

Lightshade carries many different types of marijuana concentrates, and two customer favorites include solvent-free and solvent-less options. Who better to explain these options than our inventory and control manager, Brianne?! Read on to learn more about the unique features and processes of solvent-free and solvent-less marijuana concentrates!

Solvent-free marijuana concentrates

The solvent-free concentrate is referred to as a “distillate.” Other companies have patented this process with the name “The Clear.” Both of these terms are synonymous, and refer to the process of refining and distilling the cannabis product to separate the molecules and contaminants. The end goal is to extract cannabinoids, such as THC molecules, CBD and terpenes, to re-infuse into the concentrates and cartridges to yield a pure and potent product. The process first includes extracting the plant material with a hydrocarbon, such as CO2 or butane. Next, the product is heated up and vaporized. Lastly, the vapor consolidates through a cooling system and separates into beakers. This process is repeated multiple times to ensure pure cannabinoids are refined and distilled.

Lightshade offers distillates in 500mg cartridges and 1-gram concentrates for dabbing. The consistency of the products is quite viscous and increases in viscosity with increased heat. Both of these products have a “raw” option, where cannabis terpenes are re-introduced into the distillate. The raw option gives the taste of pure activated THC, while other added flavors—such as Lemon Haze, OG Kush and Granddaddy Purps—give the taste of these strains to the distillate.

Solvent-less marijuana concentrates

Solvent-less concentrates are made without any hydrocarbons. These products include fullmelt, fullmelt rosin and flower rosin. Fullmelt is extracted through ice and water. At harvest, the full plant is chopped down and immediately frozen. Next, the product is “washed” either in a washing machine made for hash or hand stirred; this process is done to extract all of the trichomes from the plant. The hash is then dried by hand through micro-planning or with a freeze dryer.

Fullmelt can be packaged and sold in multiple different ways. The most common way is by micron, which is when the product is separated by bubble bags and sold by the size of the trichome head; it’s essentially a filtering system by size. Lightshade sells fullmelt by the star system, which allows the customer to know how much the concentrate will melt while dabbing, which helps educate our customers. We specifically only carry 5* and 6* fullmelt concentrate products. The 5* solvent-less fullmelt products will melt 90%, while 6* products will melt 95%. With ice water fullmelt extraction, there will always be plant matter left on the nail (the leftover 5% to 10% of the hash), and we highly recommend not dabbing on a red-hot nail due to taste. The leftover plant matter can give an unpleasant taste if it is not dabbed at the right temperature. When extracting with hydrocarbons, the solvent will destroy the cell wall to extract only the essential oils. This is why customers do not have this problem with butane, propane or CO2 extraction with shatter and wax. Anything that is a 4* melt or lower will be pressed into fullmelt rosin, meaning the melt is below 85% with 15% of plant matter left over.

The texture of ice water fullmelt is a white powdery consistency when refrigerated, but once it is put in a warmer place, the hash literally melts and turns into a gooey form. The product can be dabbed in either form, but personally I like to have mine melt. I feel this enhances the terpene profile and gives the customer a much better taste and experience. Fullmelt and both rosins are temperature sensitive due to the extraction process and terpene enhancement.

Rosin is made through heat and pressure; no solvent is used of any kind, and it is often referred as SHO (solvent-less hash oil). Fullmelt rosin is first extracted through ice and water, then any of the “no melt” hash is pressed into rosin by heat and pressure. By doing this, the essential oils are pushed through the trichome head cell walls into an oil, a shatter or a sap-like consistency, depending on temperature. The difference between rosin and shatter also has to do with temperature. The product has to be refrigerated to ensure no auto-buddering occurs, and again extracted with no hydrocarbons, unlike shatter or wax. Flower rosin is made with only heat and pressure—usually with a large T-Shirt press or rosin press. This solvent-less marijuana concentrate extraction process does not require any type of solvent extraction, unlike the fullmelt rosin, which uses water.

For more information or to try one of Lightshade’s solvent-free or solvent-less marijuana concentrates, visit one of our five marijuana dispensaries in Denver!


Lightshade 6th Ave Location Now Open

Lightshade is excited to announce that our newest Colorado recreational marijuana dispensary location is now open! The Lightshade 6th Ave location is one of the best marijuana dispensaries in Denver, serving recreational customers ages 21+. Established in 2011, Lightshade continues to expand, with 6th Ave marking the fifth Lightshade dispensary in the Denver metro area.

Our newest location continues to uphold Lightshade’s reputation for growing the best quality genetics in Colorado. Our 6th Ave location—along with our other four Denver and Aurora marijuana dispensaries—offers a huge selection of marijuana products, including flower, edibles, concentrates, tinctures, topicals, merchandise and apparel.

Lightshade 6th Ave is conveniently located at 745 E. 6th Ave., just west of Clarkson Street on 6th Avenue in central Denver, 24 miles from Denver International Airport (DIA), 2 miles from downtown Denver, 21 miles from Aurora and 1.5 – 2 hours from the major Colorado ski resorts, including Vail, Beaver Creek, Copper Mountain, Breckenridge and Winter Park. If you are looking for a high-end marijuana dispensary in Denver, visit us at the Lightshade 6th Ave location today to see why the difference is night and day!