Kief is the fine, resin-rich powder of trichomes that falls away from dried cannabis flower when it is sieved or ground. Moon rocks are cannabis buds coated in oil or concentrate and then rolled in kief, which makes them much stronger than flower on its own.
This guide covers how each is made, how they differ from each other and from hash, how they are usually enjoyed and how to keep them at their best.
What is kief?
Kief is a collection of trichomes, the tiny resin glands that give cannabis flower its frosty, crystal-like coating. These glands hold the cannabinoids and aromatic terpenes that give a strain its strength and scent, so kief is far more concentrated than the flower it came from. Our guide to cannabis terpenes covers the scent side in more detail.
Up close it looks like finely milled sugar. Clean, fresh kief is pale gold or creamy off-white, while a green tinge means more plant material has slipped through.
The name comes from the Arabic kayf, meaning pleasure. In Morocco, kif is also the local name for cannabis itself.
How is kief made?
Kief is collected by sieving. Dried flower is rubbed or shaken over fine mesh screens, and the resin glands fall through while most of the plant material stays behind. Each finer screen gives a cleaner result.
At home, the most common source is a grinder with a kief catcher. In a three- or four-piece grinder, a mesh screen sits above a bottom chamber, and the trichomes that break away as the flower is ground collect there over time.
Sifted kief is also called dry sift, and it is the raw material for sieved hash, including double and triple filtered hash.
What are moon rocks?
Moon rocks are buds of cannabis flower coated in oil or concentrate and then rolled in kief. The result is a dense, sticky nugget with a dusty coat of crystals, somewhere between ordinary weed and a concentrate.
Stacking three forms of cannabis into one bud makes moon rocks much stronger than flower on its own, and slower to burn. The name is usually put down to their look, as the kief coating gives each bud a rough, sandy surface not unlike a lump of lunar rock.
How are moon rocks made?
- A dense bud of dried flower is chosen, as it holds its shape best.
- The bud is dipped in or coated with oil or concentrate.
- It is rolled in kief, which sticks to the coating and forms the outer shell.
- The finished rock is left to dry.
Any strain can be used at the centre, and the coating can vary too, so no two batches of moon rocks are quite the same.
What is the difference between moon rocks and kief?
Kief is a single ingredient: loose resin glands with no flower attached. Moon rocks combine three things in one nugget: flower, oil or concentrate, and kief.
They also handle very differently. Kief is a dry powder that can be sprinkled or pressed, while moon rocks are sticky and dense, and easier to pull apart than to grind.
What is the difference between kief and hash?
Kief is loose. Hash is resin that has been pressed or worked into a solid, and sieved hash is simply kief that has been compressed with heat and pressure.
Pressing darkens the colour and turns the powder into a block that is easier to keep, which is why kief was traditionally pressed into hash for storage. Not all hash starts as kief, though: charas is rubbed from living plants by hand, and bubble hash is washed out in ice water.
Our guide to the types of hash covers each style, and our hash range is the place to look if you prefer a solid block.
How do kief, moon rocks and hash compare?
| At a glance | Kief | Moon rocks | Hash |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Loose resin glands | Flower coated in oil or concentrate, then rolled in kief | Resin pressed or worked into a solid |
| How it is made | Sieved over screens or caught in a grinder | Coated, rolled and left to dry | Sieved and pressed, rubbed by hand or washed in ice water |
| Look and feel | Fine, dry, pale gold powder | Dense, sticky nuggets with a dusty shell | Firm to soft, light brown to near black |
| Pressed into a block | No | No | Usually, or worked by hand |
How are moon rocks and kief usually enjoyed?
Kief works a little like a seasoning. It is most often sprinkled over ground flower in a joint or bowl, used to coat moon rocks, or pressed into hash.
Moon rocks are too sticky for a grinder, so they are usually pulled apart by hand. They are often enjoyed in a pipe or bong, or crumbled into ground flower. The coating makes them harder to light and slower to burn, and mixing them with flower helps them stay lit.
How should you store moon rocks and kief?
Keep both in an airtight container, ideally glass, somewhere cool, dry and dark, and out of the reach of children and pets.
Kief is fine and porous, so damp makes it clump, while air and light slowly darken it. If your grinder has a kief catcher, tip the kief into a jar now and then instead of leaving it there, and move it with a clean scoop, not your fingers.
Moon rocks need a cool spot most of all, because warmth can start to melt the coating.
Common questions
What are moon rocks made of?
Three things: a bud of cannabis flower, a coating of oil or concentrate, and an outer layer of kief.
Are moon rocks stronger than flower?
Yes. Layering flower, concentrate and kief makes moon rocks much stronger than flower on its own.
Is kief the same as dry sift or pollen?
Largely, yes. Dry sift is sifted kief, often refined through finer screens, and pollen is a nickname for it, even though it contains no actual pollen. Pollen is also the name of a soft, lightly pressed hash, covered in our guide to types of hash.
Can you put moon rocks in a grinder?
It is best not to. The sticky coating does not grind cleanly, so moon rocks are usually pulled apart by hand instead.
Do moon rocks and kief have a strain type?
They can. Moon rocks take the type of the flower at their centre, and kief takes the type of the plant it was sieved from. Our guide to indica, sativa and hybrid labels explains what each type means.
Ready for a closer look? Browse our kief and moon rocks.
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