Shelf Life of Cannabis Concentrates

Trying Cannabis Concentrate in the form of crumble for the first time is an amazing experience.  The extremeness of the moment, the flavor of the vaporized oil, the brand new glass object you've never seen before, the heat from a small blow torch and nail, and finally the exhale and the high.  You get blasted into outer space; you get so high that you leave the shatter in the back pocket of some jeans and leave it behind.  You forget that you have more of this shatter in between a piece of parchment paper in your jeans.  Some time goes by and You find it again over a year later.  But is this shatter still good?  How long is it good for? 

The good news is there's nothing growing from the old piece of parchment paper , the bad news is it's no longer the golden color, not sticky, and gives off none of that gassy smell it once did.  Is this shatter beat or can you still torch it?  The shelf life of concentrated ganja, depends on a few obvious factors, and some not so obvious factors.  Probably the biggest factor is the quality and composition of the initial material.  Was it originally top shelf clean indoor buds or some shwaggy outdoor with tons of pesticides?  Other significant factors include packaging, what temperature and humidity the concentrate was exposed to, exposure to sun and even the strain of weed that was originally used to create the concentrate.  Ultimately, Some extracts and distillates have a very short shelf life and will go bad in a matter of days, while some others actually have an indefinite shelf life, meaning if properly stored, will last forever. You can tell if your concentrate is no longer good if it has a sugary/granular consistency, has lost its smell as well as color. 

Terpenes are generally lost completely in many concentrate extraction methods, and this ultimately will effect the high if they are not later added back.  Other products such as shatter or crumble use methods that preserve terpenes during extraction.  Other extraction methods such as those used for tinctures,edibles, or rubs, may not necessarily want or need terpenes preserved.  Ultimately, if you store your concentrated cannabis in a place that is relatively cool, moderately humid, and dark, almost all cannabis concentrates will last a very very long time.  This includes, oil in vapes, shatter, butters, crumble, liquid distillate, CBD distillate, and hash oils and kief.   They all mostly share one thing in common; a very stable molecular state which allows for a very very long shelf life.  For optimal storage, refrigerators are best, then freezers, then finally dark storage cabinets.