Cannabuzz: Weed Reads
What to Read Before—and After—You Get High
Cannabuzz: Just Don't Call It a Bud and Breakfast
A Look at the Cannabis-Friendly North Fork 53 Homestead
Read the 2016 Oregon Cannabis Guide!
Your Annual Mini-Magazine About All Things Weed Has Arrived
That Show About the Weed Guy
Web Series High Maintenance Makes a Successful Transition to HBO
Cannabuzz: How to Make “So Damn Strong” Canna Cookies
You’re Welcome
Weed Begins at 40
How I Got Back into the Pot Game
Ask a Pot Lawyer: How to Get Your Weed Worker Permit
It’s Not Hard, But You’ll Need to Study Up—and Pony Up
Ask a Pot Lawyer: CBD Pet Treats Are a Thing?
Yep, They Are.
Ask a Pot Lawyer: Are We Headed Toward "Big Canna"?
Are Giant Marijuana Companies on the Way?
It’s Like a Humidor for Your Weed
We Tried Out the Cannador Storage System
My Roommate, the Weed Chemist
A Conversation with Green Leaf Lab About Canna Science
The Future of Oregon's Weed Industry
Our Cannabis Programs Are the Best in the Country
Roll Away the Stone: Great Stoner Albums You Need to Hear
More Than 100 Albums to Pack Your Bowl To
The Stoner Games
Perfect Summer Games to Play Under the Influence of Weed
How to be High in Public
(Don't Actually Do Any of These Things)
HOW DO YOU store your weed?
Please don’t say in a Ziploc sandwich baggie. And one of those old-school film canisters isn’t much better—plus the millennial budtender who sold you your flower probably has no idea what “film” even means.
Cannabis is an agricultural product, and as such, it has enemies to keeping it fresh—light, heat, and air. That’s assuming you’re storing cannabis that has been properly cured, meaning the ratio of moisture is correct, and has been removed in a slow, steady manner, so as to maximize the THC and those taste- and scent-giving terpenes. Dry those buds too fast, you will have a crumbly, tissue-like consistency that burns fast and hot, and tastes like lawn clippings. Go too slow, and you can get moldy buds, evidenced by a rich cat-urine-like aroma. (And no, “Hazy OG Cat Piss” isn’t a thing.)
So proper storage counts, and for the canna connoisseur in your life (or, as my lovely girlfriend calls them, “canna connoi-snores”), consider the Cannador (cannador.com).
The Cannador is a cannabis storage system housed in a box that is the tricked-out weed equivalent of a humidor for cigars. My review model was a heavy and highly polished wooden box, with a cherry wood exterior and an interior of solid mahogany. A hinged lid opens to reveal four round glass containers, each fitted with a plastic lid topped with an adjustable dial to allow air flow, or to lock it out. Each rests in its own slot, alongside a lidded side-compartment storage space “nook,” perfect for papers, tips, and so on. There’s enough room in each jar for a quarter ounce of bud, or a half ounce if you pre-grind your flower. Cannador offers different sized boxes as well, and for the budget-minded, boxes made of different materials. There is also a travel-sized unit.
The inside of the box lid features a small round steel plate, to which you magnetically attach a disc filled with beads that the website describes as “a rechargeable bead system made of medical grade silica which are impregnated with a salt based formula. The beads have micropores for excess moisture absorption to give precise humidity control.” You soak the disc of beads in distilled water until clear, then click it onto the plate.
By twisting the lids of the weed jars, you can regulate the airflow. And with those fancy moisturized beads, you can control the relative humidity, which does not mean your sweaty Uncle Larry. A relative humidity level of 55-62 percent is ideal for keeping your cannabis at that Goldilocks “just right” level, offering a smooth smoke or vape.
The beads are also great for rehydrating weed that, due to age or improper storage, has gotten too dry. I placed some nine-month-old strains into the jars, and was pleasantly surprised with the results—the flower emerged with a renewed smoothness that was evident both to the naked eye and upon vaping.
As with anything geared to a “connoisseur class” of buyers, quality has its price. Cannador’s desktop home models start at $99 for a three-jar triangle box version, and go up to $249 for a six-jar, 1.5-ounce storage system. Add an additional $10-20 for the humidity bead system, and you can easily spend as much on one as you would for an ounce of a pure fire strain.
I took the box to a wedding recently where I had set up a vape bar. Everyone complimented the beauty and ingenuity of the system, and it was a substantial upgrade from my standard method of storage and transport: mason jars with humidity packets of moisture beads attached to the inside of the lids. Those glass jars let in light, and you haven’t really heard an anguished scream of loss until one drops onto the concrete. However, I frequently like to have more than four strains on hand for special events, so I would need multiple Cannadors. There are five- ands six-jar versions available, a small improvement; meanwhile, the travel-friendly stainless steel dual-chamber storage cylinders runs $69, but don’t offer you the ability to manage the relative humidity.
With all this in consideration, a Cannador would be a welcome holiday gift for the stoner in your life who has been particularly good this year and likes to be organized.