Hasheesh Eaters & Candy
In 1857, Fitz Hugh Ludlow published The Hasheesh Eater, documenting his cannabis resin experiments. Around the same time, New York’s Gunjah Wallah Company sold Hasheesh Candy, marking America’s first recorded encounter with hash—nearly 80 years before prohibition.
1960s Return Wave
As the counterculture bloomed, hippies brought home Red Lebanese, Afghani Black, and Nepalese Temple Balls from their travels. The Brotherhood of Eternal Love scaled imports into a full psychedelic supply chain—moving hash bricks by the ton and using profits to fund their spiritual and social movement.
1973 Exposure
Senate hearings in 1973 exposed the Brotherhood’s operations, unveiling hash routes that stretched from Asia to California. A year later, High Times Magazine launched and kept hash alive with smuggler stories, centerfolds, and coverage of global hash cups.
Late ’70s–’80s Shift
Domestic cultivation surged as Afghan indica genetics hit U.S. grow rooms. With imports drying up, growers began dry-sifting trim and pressing kief bricks—creating the first American homegrown hash scene and shifting from smuggling to self-sufficiency.
If It Don’t Bubble, It Ain’t Worth the Trouble
In 1980s California, Skunkman Sam (Sadu Sam) introduced cold-water separation, teaching hashmakers to stir bud in ice water and let trichome heads sink—a breakthrough in clean, solventless extraction. His 1987 mailer became gospel, and the “bubble test” was born.
’90s Innovations
Mila “Hash Queen” Jansen invented the Pollinator and later Ice-O-Lator bags, while Adam Dunn laminated hash into early “hash wraps.” Bubbleman’s Bubble Bags popularized micron grading, and **Robert Connell Clarke’s 1998 book Hashish! ** gave makers shared technical language—introducing terms like 73µ and “full melt.”
2000s Melt Race
Hashmakers like Matt Rize refined micron science, defining melt grades and purity scales. Oakland’s Brain Taffy crew helped codify the 1–6 star melt system, while Frenchy Cannoli brought old-world temple-ball craftsmanship into California’s bubble hash culture.
Comphashon & Soilgrown
In 2006, ICmag user Chadwick Basstardo documented the first “cannabis rosin,” heating hash to sweat out oil. Nikka T coined solventless in 2010, and by 2015, Soilgrown Solventless pressed hash in a hair straightener—creating modern rosin tech, the foundation of today’s solventless movement.
Modern Era
From live rosin and hash holes to hash bars, today’s scene stands on over 150 years of innovation. What began with Hasheesh Candy evolved through water, mesh, and pressure—proof that every step, from brick to bubble to rosin, tells the story of American hashcraft.
YOUTUBE VIDEO
— Nugg Notes
sources:
• Ludlow, Fitz Hugh. The Hasheesh Eater: Being Passages from the Life of a Pythagorean. Rutgers University Press, 2006.
• Hobbs, Cedar. “Boards of Infamy.” The Surfer’s Journal, 2024, surfersjournal.com/editorial/drug-smuggling-boards-of-infamy/.
• “500 Issues of High Times: A History of the World’s Most Notorious Magazine.” High Times, 30 Aug. 2017, hightimes.com/culture/500-issues-of-high-times-a-history-of-the-worlds-most-notorious-magazine/.
• Rosenthal, Ed. “The History of Ice Water Hash.” EdRosenthal.com, 31 Jan. 2024, edrosenthal.com/the-history-of-ice-water-hash.
• “The History of Bubble Hash – Told by the Bubbleman.” Whistler Technologies, whistlertechnologies.ca/blogs/news/the-history-of-bubble-hash-told-by-the-bubbleman.
• Clarke, Robert Connell. Hashish!. Red Eye Press, 1998.
• Philips, Todde. “The History of Rosin.” The Press Club, 7 Sept. 2025, thepressclub.co/blogs/learn/the-history-of-rosin.
• “Hash History: Legalization and the Resurgence of Solventless.” Dialed In Gummies, 22 Aug. 2025, dialedingummies.com/missouri/hash-history-legalization-and-the-resurgence-of-solventless/.
• Tanem, Nick (Nikka T). “Nick aka Nikka-T from Essential Extracts (N. California).” The Hashish Inn, episode 16, 20 Apr. 2020, thehashishinn.podbean.com/e/the-hashish-inn-episode-16-nick-aka-nikkat-from-essential-extracts-n-california/.
• Potter, Nicole. “Simply Solventless.” High Times, 16 July 2022, hightimes.com/dabs/simply-solventless/.
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