Know Your Grower-- Constellation Cannabis

By Rachel Hantula, customer & product manager

Get to Know Constellation Cannabis

We’ve got a fun feature for you this week to help celebrate Women’s Equality Day! We are featuring one of our woman owned partners: Constellation Cannabis.

I have been a huge fan of Constellation longer than they’ve even been on Hashtag’s shelves. When I learned we were bringing them on as a partner earlier this year, I (along with the rest of our staff) was HYPED!

Back in February, I was invited to tour Constellation’s facility. I saw, smelt and learned a lot, so I am here to share it with you all!

Who is Constellation Cannabis?

Constellation Cannabis is woman owned and has been family run since they were founded in 2018. A recreational company born from a need for quality and value reminiscent of the medical era.

source: Constellation Cannabis

Constellation produces a rotating variety of high-quality, all natural cannabis products such as top shelf flower, solventless & hydrocarbon extracts, solventless vapes, infused pre rolls & solventless capslules!

Looking for ease & discretion? Go for their solventless “Snake Oil” vape cartridges, full of flavor & potency.

Need long-lasting relief? Their solventless space capsules provide all the best full-spectrum edible feels and have been known to incite the giggles among some of our staff!

If convenience is the name of the game, Constellations hash infused, full flower pre rolls are supremely effective & smooth with a beautiful burn.

If you consider yourself a connoisseur, indulge in some of the finest solventless hash oil that WA has to offer.

So… what’s with the logo?

Constellation’s logo begins to make sense once you have an understanding of what they represent and hope to bring to Washington’s cannabis market.

They selected the Serpens constellation as their symbol for two reasons- First, it’s the constellation associated with the Greek god of medicine Asclepius. Through this symbol, they want to convey to their customers that they are doing everything in their power to bring clean and high-quality cannabis to the market.

Second, it’s the only modern constellation split into two — east and west. They believe the cannabis market is also split into two with medical and recreational customers. They are a recreational company born out of the medical cannabis movement.

All of Constellation’s products start from the same place- the garden.

Constellation cares for the plants and select phenos that they enjoy growing for ice hash, flower, and prerolls. 

The key to high quality hash, concentrates or any processed cannabis product is in the quality of the flower it started with. As the saying goes-

“Fire in, Fire out”

The reason Constellation loves hash so much is because it reminds them of the flower just before harvest — there’s nothing like the aroma and vibes of a healthy and successful flower run.

Constellation is dedicated to all natural, pesticide free growing practices in their garden. They grow under HPS and LED lights in soil pots at their indoor flower farm in Arlington, WA.

Pre Harvest-

Just look at this gorgeous garden shot of Constellation’s Purple Pineapple Express!

Post Harvest-

Flower not getting processed into oil gets will be “cured”(dried). Constellation has recently revamped their curing process to ensure their customers are getting the stickiest of the ickiest, fresh cannabis buds! This photo is Constellation’s Purple Pineapple Express once it has been harvested, cured and trimmed!

Alright, so it’s time to talk “solventless”

You may have noticed and will continue to notice the word “solventless” when discussing Constellation’s products. That’s because for the majority, all of their processed products are made using cannabis oil that has been procured through solventless means, with no chemical extraction required.

Constellation is specifically known for, among connoisseurs, their solventless hash. They start with their high quality, resinous, top shelf flower. They wash this material and then press it on a rosin press, with love. They are able to capture the complete essence of a cannabis flower strain in a tiny jar of oil and sometimes, if we’re lucky, pure unadulterated trichome heads (full melt 6* hash).

Wash?! Press?! What does it all mean?!

Let’s break it down!

First- they start with high quality, fresh frozen cannabis flower, grown in their garden

Second- that flower is submerged in an ice bath (literally… a giant bucket of ice water) and stirred by hand to agitate the trichome “heads”, essentially knocking them off their “stalks” (see picture below, the glandular trichome heads form at the end of a cylindrical stalk). This leaves the trichome heads to sink to the bottom of the bucket in the ice water solution to be collected.

Close up trichome heads

Photo credit: Free The Tree

Third- The trichome heads are collected through a series of mesh bubble bags to filter out the water, ice & any other contaminates or plant matter. The end product is referred to as “bubble hash”. Constellation uses bubble hash, without any further processing, to infuse their pre rolled joints!

But…If the bubble hash comes out at a high enough quality to fully melt upon exposure to heat, it is packaged up as 6* full melt hash. This is a rare occurence, and all the right conditions need to be met. This is why the 6* only makes its through shops periodically.

Bubble Hash being sieved

Photo Credit: Ganjapreneur

Some of this bubble hash will be “pressed” into an oil or “hash rosin”.

Photo Credit: Ganjapreneur

This is done by placing the dried collected trichome heads (in a micron bag) between two metal plates which will gently heat and squish the trichome heads until all the cannabinoids and terpenes ooze out.

Hash oil is then used to fill Constellation’s vape carts and capsules or solventless hash oil gram jars for dabbable consumption.

Something important to remember, through all of Constellation’s solventless extracting procedures…

everything is done individually, BY HAND!

There is all sorts of fun technology available in today’s market, but Constellation chooses to go slow and prioritize craft, quality product over quantity. If you want the absolute cream of the crop for hash, hand washing and pressing with care preserves the fragile, easily ruptured trichome heads and in turn, terpene profiles!

Still confused about solventless extraction?

Think of an apple tree-

You can walk up, shake the tree, and a juicy, fresh apple falls off. You can eat the apple as is, or squeeze it for its juice. This is a great analogy to use when thinking about solventless concentrates. The apples represent trichome heads and the tree represents the cannabis plant as a whole. You can consume trichome heads as they are by themselves (like an apple) or press them on a rosin press to get the juices within (apple juice).

Constellation’s hash lab

…and let’s not forget about their Stardust hydrocarbon concentrate line!

Stardust BHO (butane hash oil)

At its core, Constellation is a solventless hash company, however, they do see the value in hydrocarbon extracts in today’s cannabis market. This is why they choose to partner with local extractors (such as Alpenglow Extracts).

Not all flower is destined for bubble hash, so outsourcing to companies that uphold Constellation’s incredibly high & strict standards allows their customers to experience a larger variety of strains that are not always available or meant to be made into their solventless hash oil.

In our apple tree metaphor, hydrocarbon extracts would result from taking the entire tree and blasting it with butane or propane gas to chemically extract the “apple juice”. The "tree comes into contact with the hydrocarbon gas, a chemical reaction occurs and apple juice is produced.

Constellation’s stardust line always looks stunning and tastes incredible! They require any processor they work with to fall in line with the standards once upheld in Washington’s medical era.

To sum it all up…

The folks at Constellation Cannabis are incredibly passionate about what they do. Every single person I came across during my visit had a smile on their face and were excited to be able to share their knowledge and help educate. Their dedication to a clean, high quality product shines throughout their entire facility.

See what Constellation Cannabis offers at either Hashtag location today!

On sale through Monday 08.30.21!