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Cannabinoids, concentrates, carts, edibles and drinks. What the letters actually mean, how each format behaves, and how to read a label. Twenty-one and over. Scroll to learn something, or order THC and Hemp now and have it in hand momentarily.
This is the category where the vocabulary defeats people.
Walk into any shop and you will see delta-8, delta-9, delta-10, THCA, THCP, CBD, CBG, CBN, live resin, live rosin, badder, sauce, diamonds. Most of it is never explained, and most of what is explained is wrong.
There are really only two questions underneath all of it.
What cannabinoid is in it, which determines whether it does anything and roughly what kind of anything.
What format is it in, which determines how fast it arrives, how long it lasts, and how much control you have.
Everything below is one of those two. Cannabinoids first, then formats.
One thing to settle before any of it. Everything here is twenty-one and over, without exception, at the counter and at the door.
There is no botanical difference. Both are Cannabis sativa L. A laboratory cannot look at a plant and tell you which one it is. The difference is a number, not a species.
This is the single most common question we get, and the answer surprises people. The plant is the plant. What changes is how much of one particular compound is in it and what a lab reports when they measure.
Terpenes are the aromatic compounds that give cannabis its smell. They are not unique to cannabis and not remotely exotic. The same molecules are in pine trees, citrus peel, lavender and black pepper.
Several show up often enough to be worth knowing.
The entourage effect is the idea that terpenes and cannabinoids together do something cannabinoids alone do not. Plausible, widely repeated, and far less established than it sounds. Treat it as an open question.
What is not in dispute: terpenes are why two products with identical THC percentages smell, taste and are reported to feel different.
These words originally described plant shape. Indica plants were short and broad-leaved, sativa plants tall and narrow-leaved. The terms were about how the plant looked in a field, and they came from eighteenth and nineteenth century botany.
They were never about effects.
The indica equals relaxing, sativa equals energizing framework was built by the retail market, not by science. Studies comparing the labels against actual chemical profiles keep finding the names do not predict what is in the plant. Decades of crossbreeding mean nearly everything is a hybrid, and the same strain name from two growers can be chemically different.
The shorthand is not useless, just far weaker than it is sold as. Treat it as a starting point that is wrong often enough to matter.
What to look at instead: the cannabinoid content and the terpene profile on the certificate of analysis. Those describe what is actually in the product. The strain name describes what somebody decided to call it.
You will see certificates of analysis showing very small THC percentages on products that are clearly not weak. That is not a mistake and it is worth understanding.
Raw cannabis does not carry much THC. It carries THCA, which converts into THC the moment heat is applied. A lab measuring the raw material before conversion reports a small THC number, because at that moment the THC is not there yet.
Most reports therefore carry two lines. One for delta-9 THC as measured, and one for total THC, which accounts for the THCA converting.
Total THC is the number that describes what you actually get when you smoke or vape it. Delta-9 on its own describes the material sitting in the jar. If you are trying to judge a product, read the total THC line.
The one that explains the most.
Raw cannabis does not contain much THC. It contains THCA, tetrahydrocannabinolic acid, which is THC with a carboxyl group still attached. In that form it is not intoxicating. Eat raw cannabis flower and very little happens.
Apply heat and that carboxyl group detaches. This is decarboxylation, and it happens the instant you light a bowl, hit a vaporizer, or bake something in an oven. THCA becomes delta-9 THC in real time.
The conversion is not one for one. THCA is a heavier molecule and it sheds mass when the carboxyl group leaves. What remains is about 87.7 percent of the original weight, which is where the 0.877 figure on lab reports comes from.
The default. When anyone says THC without qualification, this is what they mean.
The most abundant intoxicating cannabinoid in the plant and the most studied. Everything else on this list gets described by comparison to it.
Hemp-derived delta-9 is real delta-9. In a heavy product like a gummy or a beverage, a small percentage of a large total weight is still a meaningful amount. That is what the entire hemp edible and beverage category is built on.
An isomer of delta-9. Same atoms, arranged slightly differently. A double bond sits on the eighth carbon of the chain instead of the ninth.
That shift changes how tightly it binds to the receptor. Users report it as milder and less mentally sharp than delta-9, though the evidence is mostly anecdotal.
Delta-8 occurs naturally, but in traces far too small to extract commercially. Essentially all of it on the market is made by converting hemp-derived CBD with an acid catalyst.
Another isomer, another double bond position. Rarer than delta-8 and made the same way, by conversion.
Reported as lighter and more alert, though the evidence is thinner still. Manufacturing is less consistent between producers, so two delta-10 products can behave quite differently.
Tetrahydrocannabiphorol, identified by Italian researchers in 2019.
THCP is structurally almost identical to delta-9 THC with one difference: the alkyl side chain is seven carbons long instead of five. That chain is what seats the molecule into the CB1 receptor, and a longer one seats more firmly.
In laboratory binding studies, THCP showed roughly thirty times the CB1 binding affinity of delta-9 THC.
That number gets misreported constantly. Binding affinity is not potency. It describes how readily a molecule attaches to a receptor in a lab, not how strong it feels. Treat any product claiming a precise potency multiple as marketing.
THCP appears in very small amounts in products that contain it and is meaningfully stronger than delta-9 by weight. How much stronger, nobody has established.
Cannabidiol. The second most abundant cannabinoid in most cannabis and the most studied after delta-9 THC.
CBD is not intoxicating. It does not bind the CB1 receptor the way THC does, so no amount of it produces the effect THC produces. People expect it to and are disappointed, or avoid it expecting an effect it cannot produce.
What it does do is complicated and unsettled. There is real research and a great deal of marketing that outruns it.
We are not going to tell you what CBD will do for you. Most of what you have read about it is a retailer guessing. If you are considering CBD for something specific, that conversation belongs with a doctor.
Full spectrum contains the plant's other cannabinoids including trace THC. Broad spectrum has the THC removed. Isolate is CBD alone, typically a white powder, and nothing else. If you are tested at work, that distinction is the one to pay attention to.
Cannabinol. Not something the plant sets out to make, but what THC becomes as it degrades. Exposure to oxygen, light and time breaks delta-9 THC down, and CBN is the result. Old cannabis is high in CBN for the same reason old wine is different from new wine.
It is mildly intoxicating, far less than THC, and it is marketed almost universally as the sleep cannabinoid.
The research behind that is thin and the studies are small. Some researchers argue the sedation people attribute to CBN comes from the aged material it turns up in rather than the CBN itself. It might do what it is sold as doing. It has not been shown.
Cannabigerol, called the mother cannabinoid, and the name is earned.
CBGA is the precursor to everything else. The plant produces CBGA first, then enzymes convert it into THCA, CBDA or CBCA depending on the plant's genetics. Whatever CBGA is left over becomes CBG.
Because most of it gets converted, finished plants hold very little, which made it expensive. Growers now breed strains that leave it unconverted.
Non-intoxicating. Early research, nothing established, same caution as CBD.
The cannabinoid determines what. The format determines how fast, how long, and how much control you have.
That second part matters more than people expect. The same compound in two formats produces genuinely different experiences, and not because one is stronger.
Ground plant material, the oldest format and the most self-regulating. Onset is close to immediate, effects taper within a couple of hours, and because feedback is instant you can stop precisely when you want to.
Flower carries its cannabinoids in raw acid form, which is why the THCA section above matters here more than anywhere else on this page. What a lab reports for flower and what you actually get when you light it are two different numbers, and the total THC line is the one that describes the second.
Ground flower rolled into a paper cone, ready to go. Same behavior as flower with the work already done.
The variable nobody discusses is the grind. A well-made preroll uses an even grind and a consistent pack. Too loose and it runs hot and burns down one side. Too tight and it will not draw. This is most of the difference between a good preroll and a bad one, and it has nothing to do with what is inside it.
A preroll with concentrate added. Three common builds, and they are not the same product.
All three are substantially stronger than a standard preroll. All three also burn differently, running hotter and often needing relighting, because concentrate and flower do not combust at the same rate. If you have had an infused preroll go out repeatedly, that is the format, not a defect.
Concentrate is the plant with the plant removed. Cannabinoids and terpenes extracted from the material and left behind as oil, wax or crystal.
The single most useful distinction is how the extraction was done, because it separates the entire category into two halves.
Solvent-based extraction dissolves the desired compounds using butane, propane or CO2, then purges the solvent off. Efficient, high-yielding, and the origin of most concentrate formats. Quality depends heavily on how thoroughly the solvent was removed, which is what a laboratory test confirms.
Solventless extraction uses only physical force: ice water, agitation, heat and pressure. Nothing is introduced that has to be removed. Lower yields, considerably more expensive, and generally regarded as the premium end.
Neither is inherently better made. A well-purged solvent extract is a clean product, and a badly made solventless one is still a badly made product. But it is the dividing line the industry organizes itself around, and it explains most of the price difference you will see.
Live means the plant was frozen immediately after harvest rather than dried and cured first.
Terpenes are volatile and a significant portion of them evaporate during drying. Freezing the material fresh preserves them. This is why live products taste dramatically more like the plant smelled growing, and it is a genuine difference rather than a marketing term.
Live resin is solvent-based from fresh-frozen material. Live rosin is solventless from fresh-frozen material. That is the whole distinction between those two names, and it accounts for the price gap between them.
Most of the names here describe texture, not potency or quality. Knowing that removes most of the mystery from a concentrate menu.
Texture tells you how it handles and how it was finished. It tells you nothing about strength or quality. The lab report does that.
A cartridge is a small tank of concentrate with a heating element, screwing onto a battery. The overwhelming majority use the 510 thread, an accidental industry standard that means almost any cart fits almost any battery.
What is inside is the real variable, and it sorts into three tiers that run cheapest to most expensive.
Distillate is the baseline. Refined down to near-pure cannabinoid, then flavored with terpenes added back afterward. Consistent, thin enough that it rarely clogs, and the least expensive.
Live resin is the middle tier. Solvent-extracted from fresh-frozen plant, so it carries the terpenes the plant actually produced rather than terpenes added later. Tastes substantially better. Also thicker, which makes it clog more readily.
Live rosin is the top tier. Same fresh-frozen starting material, extracted with heat and pressure instead of solvent. Lower yields and higher cost, which is why it sits at the top of the range.
The hardware matters more than people assume. Ceramic heating elements are the current standard and produce cleaner flavor than the cotton wick designs they replaced. A cheap cart with good oil in it will still perform badly.
Voltage is the setting most people get wrong. Lower voltage gives better flavor and a longer-lasting cart. Higher voltage gives more vapor and will scorch the oil. Start low. You cannot un-burn a coil.
Battery, cart and charger in one sealed unit. Nothing to screw together, nothing to match, and no separate purchase required.
The tradeoff is control. You cannot adjust voltage on most of them, you cannot swap the oil, and when the battery is done the whole thing is done regardless of what is left inside. Better disposables are now rechargeable, which addresses the worst version of that problem: a device dying with oil still in it.
Everything above is inhaled. This section is not, and that changes the mechanism entirely.
Inhaled THC reaches your bloodstream through the lungs almost immediately and travels largely unchanged. Onset is within minutes.
Swallowed THC goes through the digestive system and the liver first. The liver converts delta-9 THC into 11-hydroxy-THC, a different compound that crosses into the brain more readily than what you started with.
Two consequences follow, and they explain essentially every bad edible story ever told.
Onset is slow and variable. Thirty minutes to two hours, depending on what you ate, your metabolism, and the product. That window is long enough to convince people nothing is coming.
Duration is much longer. Four to eight hours, sometimes longer, against one to three for inhalation.
The classic mistake is taking more during the waiting period. Both amounts then arrive together. Wait the full two hours before concluding anything.
The dominant format for practical reasons rather than culinary ones. Cannabinoids are oil-soluble, and gummies hold oil evenly through shipping and shelf life.
The advantage is consistency: a well-made gummy contains what the label says, piece to piece.
The failure mode is manufacturing, not chemistry. Badly made gummies spread the oil unevenly across the tray, so one piece is stronger than the next from the same bag. That is why who made it matters.
Cocoa butter is fat, cannabinoids dissolve in fat, and chocolate masks the plant taste better than almost anything.
The problem is heat, which in Miami is not a small consideration. Chocolate that melts and resets can redistribute unevenly, so a bar meant to be four equal squares may no longer be. Keep it cool and be skeptical of anything that has visibly bloomed.
Hard candies dissolve in the mouth, so some absorption happens through the tissue there before the rest is swallowed. That produces a slightly faster and more layered onset than a gummy.
Baked goods behave like any other edible. They are also the least shelf-stable format in the category.
Cannabinoids do not dissolve in water. Left alone, cannabis oil in a beverage separates, sticks to the container, and delivers inconsistently.
Nanoemulsion solves it. The oil is broken into droplets small enough to stay suspended in water and to be absorbed far more directly than an edible.
The result is a different curve entirely.
Onset in roughly ten to twenty minutes rather than thirty to ninety. Some of it absorbs in the mouth and throat before it ever reaches the stomach.
Shorter duration, usually two to four hours rather than four to eight.
Far more predictable, because it depends less on digestion and on what you ate.
Faster on, faster off. That is the whole proposition, and it answers the most common complaint about edibles.
Carbonated, low calorie, sold in cans, and built to look like something else in your hand.
That is the point. A seltzer is the only format here that reads as completely normal at a dinner table, a barbecue or a pool. Nothing is burning, nothing smells, and there is nothing to explain.
For a lot of people that is not a small convenience. It is the difference between participating and not.
Shots are small-volume, higher-concentration versions. Some are meant to be taken straight, others mixed into something else. The mixing versions let you build a drink at whatever strength you want rather than accepting what a can was built at. The tradeoff is that you are now measuring for yourself.
Syrups are thick, sweet, and mixed into a drink. They behave like edibles rather than like nanoemulsified beverages unless specifically formulated otherwise.
Tinctures are dropper bottles, usually oil or alcohol based, held under the tongue. Held there long enough, some absorbs through the tissue directly and arrives faster than an edible. Swallowed immediately, it behaves like an edible. The technique changes the outcome, which is unusual in this category.
The single most useful skill in this category, and it takes about a minute.
Find the COA. A certificate of analysis is third-party laboratory testing of that specific batch. Look for a scannable QR code linking to it. A product with no COA is a product nobody has verified. This is the first thing to check and the fastest thing to check.
Match the batch number on the package to the batch number on the certificate. A COA for a different batch tells you about a different product.
Check the date. Testing is batch-specific and certificates age.
Read the cannabinoid panel, not the marketing on the front. The panel lists what is actually present and at what concentration. Find the total THC line, which accounts for THCA converting when heated, rather than reading the delta-9 line on its own.
Look for the contaminant panels. A full-panel test covers pesticides, heavy metals, residual solvents and microbials, not just potency. Potency-only testing is an incomplete picture, and residual solvents matter specifically for solvent-extracted concentrates.
Check the packaging itself. Child-resistant packaging and packaging that does not resemble candy or snacks aimed at children are requirements, not courtesies. A product that fails those is telling you something about the company that made it.
We deliver across Miami. Little River, Little Haiti, El Portal, Upper Eastside, Miami Shores, North Bay Village, Design District, Edgewater, Wynwood, Normandy Isles, North Miami, North Miami Beach, Buena Vista, Midtown, Allapattah, Downtown, Brickell, Little Havana, Miami Beach and Aventura.
Twenty-one and over, identification checked at handoff, every time.
They are the same molecule with a double bond in a different position. Delta-9 is the abundant one in the plant and the one people mean by THC. Delta-8 is present only in traces naturally and is commercially made by converting CBD. Users generally report delta-8 as milder.
Nothing much in its raw state. THCA is the acid form the plant actually produces, and it converts to delta-9 THC when heated. Smoking, vaping or baking triggers that conversion.
Botanically, yes. Same species. The difference is how much of one compound is in it, not what kind of plant it is.
No, and that claim is a misreading. Laboratory studies showed roughly thirty times the receptor binding affinity, which is not the same as thirty times the effect. The human research to establish actual potency has not been done.
No. CBD does not bind the receptor responsible for intoxication.
Thirty minutes to two hours, varying with your metabolism and what you have eaten. The most common mistake is taking more during that window. Wait the full two hours.
Nanoemulsion breaks the oil into droplets small enough to stay suspended in water and to be absorbed more directly. Onset is typically ten to twenty minutes and duration is shorter.
Not reliably. Those terms originally described plant shape, not effects, and chemical analysis does not support the effect-based version. The cannabinoid and terpene profile on the certificate of analysis is the better guide.
Both start with fresh-frozen plant material. Live resin uses a solvent for extraction. Live rosin uses only heat and pressure. Rosin costs more and yields less.
Yes, across Miami, twenty-one and over with identification checked at the door.
Brands rotate with what is in stock. Ask at the counter or call us if you are looking for something specific.
Mood. Sold by effect rather than by strain name, which is a more useful way to shop than indica and sativa and closer to how the plant actually works. Each strain is tagged with what it leans toward, and the lineage and terpene profile sit behind it.
Gold Spectrum. Indoor grown, sold in tiers, with full lab results published for every strain and batch. If you want to see the numbers before you buy, this is the line that publishes them.
Gold Spectrum prerolls. Ready to go, same strains and same published lab results as the loose flower. An even grind and a consistent pack, which is most of the difference between a preroll that draws well and one that runs hot down one side.
Cookies. All-in-one disposables in single and dual chamber builds, so one device can carry two different blends and let you switch between them. One of the most established names in the category, and the flavor range is why people ask for it by name.
Jelly. 510 thread cartridges that screw onto any standard battery, so you are not locked into one brand's hardware. If you already own a battery, start here.
Torch and Cookies. Canned, carbonated and measured, and the format that reads as completely normal anywhere you would hold a drink. Onset is typically ten to twenty minutes rather than the half hour to two hours an edible takes, and it clears faster on the back end.
If you have tried edibles and found the timing unpredictable, this is the format built to fix that.
Everything here is twenty-one and over. Lab results are available on every product we carry. Ask to see them.