Higher Concentraion of THC

Think of ice water hash like skimming the cream off milk - you’re not making more THC, you’re just keeping the parts of the plant that already have it and ditching the rest. When you run cold water hash, you’re basically knocking off the trichome heads (where the good stuff lives) and leaving behind a lot of junk: plant fibers, chlorophyll, sugars, and most of the leafy material. That alone is why hash hits stronger than flower - it’s cleaner by default. When people talk about “refining it more,” what they really mean is cleaning it up, not boosting THC out of nowhere. You’re removing leftover bits like broken stalks, tiny plant fragments, and heavy waxes. As you get pickier, the percentage of THC goes up because there’s less non-resin weight in the mix. The trade-off is you lose some material along the way - higher quality, smaller pile. Also worth knowing: most of what’s in hash is THCA, not THC. Heat turns it into THC, but refinement alone doesn’t change that - it just makes the resin purer. That’s why some stuff tests higher or melts better even though it came from the same plant. So the advice I’d give a friend: don’t chase numbers too hard. Clean, intact trichome heads with good flavor usually beat slightly higher THC that lost all its character. If it melts clean, tastes good, and does what you want, you already did it right.