Dry, Fresh or Frozen? The best trimmings for Bubble Bags.

Since the beginning of time, or at least since bubble bags became the method for extracting treasures from your herbs and flowers – people have asked the question; dry, fresh or frozen?

Before we get to the point, we need to ask ourselves; what do we mean by best?

If you’re like me, the answer to that is QUALITY & QUANTITY.

Let’s talk about quality. (of course this depends on what plants and herbs you are bagging). The question to ask here is – do any of these methods destroy or degrade the microscopic crystals and herbs? (aka the good stuff).

It’s fair to say, there is no reason to believe that using fresh (still slightly moist) or dried herbs will have any nutritional degradation upon performing bubble bagging, unless the drying process was done in a ‘forced’ manner eg using excess heat.

So. Does freezing your herbs degrade the goodness?

This is where I would love to provide you with a scientific answer. Once again, this is all dependent on what plants you are working with, as each fruit, nut or flower has a different chemical makeup. My experience comes from anecdotal evidence, from bubble bag aficionados in New Zealand and users across the world, searching through hundreds of testimonies. In terms of quality, quite simply – there is no difference.

What about quantity? 

Which of these methods provide the most herbal extract from the plant material? 

Again, the answer to this is based purely on anecdotal evidence. While the general consensus is that there is no noticeable difference in the quantity produced. It would be wise to take a look at the key differences and advantages/disadvantages of each version, because comparing each for quantity would be like comparing chalk and cheese.

FRESH herbs could be considered the most ‘natural’ unadulterated version, and therefore it has the least chance of any nutritional loss.

DRIED herbs ‘may’ lose nutritional value during the drying process, especially when using excessive heat to speed up the drying process.

FROZEN herbs ‘may’ lose nutritional value during the freezing process especially if ‘snap’ freezing techniques are used.

With this in mind, we can come to the conclusion that fresh herbs offer the greatest chance of a high yield. Or can we?

While fresh herbs will have the best chance of entering the bags with the highest possible nutritional value, there are more questions to ponder over the differences in fresh, dried or frozen herbs, when it comes to the efficiency of the ice-water in pulling crystals away from the herbs. This is a whole different discussion for another day!

With what we have covered here, the key points to take are:

1. All methods (fresh, dried or frozen) are completely fine for extraction of many herbal extracts.
2. Fresh herbs will provide the greatest chance of higher nutritional value (or lowest nutritional loss) – though this may not necessarily lead to greater quantity.

As you can imagine, many who get into using bubble hash bags find the process to be as much of an art form as it is a science. With practical experience you will develop your own preferences and style of performing the fun and rewarding ice water extraction ritual.