By: Ravon Williams
Walk into almost any dispensary today and you’ll see shelves full of infused pre-rolls. Joints packed with kief, wax, hash, diamonds—you name it. They’ve become some of the most popular products on menus because they usually hit harder than your standard joint…or at least that’s how they’re advertised.
But not all infused pre-rolls are created equal. Different concentrates bring different levels of potency, flavor, and overall experience. Once you understand how they work—especially when paired with flower—you can not only shop smarter, you can also start rolling your own infused joints and blunts at home. And honestly, making your own infused smoke is a lot easier than people think.
Concentrates
Before we get into rolling your own infused joints or blunts, we should talk about the star of the show: concentrates. Concentrates are basically weed in a stronger, more concentrated form—things like wax, hash, rosin, and other extracts you’ll see on dispensary menus.
Most infused pre-rolls are just ground flower—in other words, shake and trim—combined with some form of concentrate. That extra layer boosts the potency and adds more flavor to the smoke.
But in my experience, a lot of people don’t really know which concentrate they’re getting in those pre-rolls. They know it’s infused with something and they know it’s supposed to hit harder, but the details usually stop there.
Is it hash? Is it wax? Is it hot dog water? And does that actually change the way the joint smokes or how the high feels? In my experience, customers don’t even care. They just see the word “infused” and their eyes light up.
There are a ton of different infusion styles on the market now, but just because a label highlights one doesn’t mean there’s much of it in the joint. A pre-roll could contain a tiny amount of wax and still be marketed as a “wax infused” joint.
Another thing people tend to notice right away is the flavor. A lot of infused pre-rolls have super strong fruity profiles—Blueberry Kush, Tropical Punch, Strawberry Lemonade—that jump out the moment you open the tube.
And for some reason, consumers seem to love them.
If you can’t tell by now, I’m heavily against these. If you’re buying a pre-roll with a name that you can’t buy as packaged flower anywhere, that’s a problem. But again, that’s just my opinion. Infused pre-rolls sell like hot cakes, so clearly I’m in the minority—nothing new for me.
But it’s worth knowing that those intense candy-like flavors aren’t coming from the flower itself. There isn’t a strain of weed out there—at least not on the legal Massachusetts market—naturally producing that kind of blueberry candy flavor. In most cases, those flavor profiles are coming from added botanical or reintroduced terpenes used during the infusion process. Sometimes the loudest thing in the joint isn’t the concentrate—it’s the gimmicky marketing.
Rolling Your Own
Once you understand what’s going into infused pre-rolls, making your own really isn’t that complicated. At the most basic level, it’s just flower plus concentrate. Grind your flower and start rolling like you normally would, then add a small amount of concentrate to the mix before you finish. Some people like to sprinkle wax into the flower, others prefer to roll a thin line of concentrate down the center of the joint. Either way, a little goes a long way.
If you want to take things a step further, you can try rolling a hash hole. These have gotten pretty popular over the last few years. Instead of mixing concentrate throughout the joint, a line of hash or rosin is placed directly in the center while rolling. As the joint burns, the concentrate melts and creates a small hole in the ash where the hash is burning. They definitely take a little practice to roll correctly, but when done right, they burn slowly, taste great, and hit noticeably harder than a regular joint.
At the end of the day, infused joints don’t have to come pre-made from a dispensary shelf. With a little flower and the right concentrate, you can easily make your own—and actually know what you’re smoking.