Marijuana terminology is a veritable path of wacky, near incomprehensible, verbiage. From Angola and airplane, to sticky icky and swag, there’s a secret language for near everything. Most are interchangeable according to mood, but some words are very specific and you should only use them in the correct circumstances.
Blunts and joints are one case in point. Although not the only ones, they are likely the most common terms in the marijuana dictionary. However, very few actually know the difference. Are you one of them? The answer may be very surprising. Potheads are among the most laidback of peoples, but using the wrong terminology may show your inexperience and lack of education.
Unsure what makes a blunt a blunt and a joint a joint? There are some distinct differences:
Understanding Joints
To know a joint from a blunt, it is important to focus on the details. What it contains inside, how it looks outside. What color is it? Does it have a specific taste, and what of its size? Every weed lover enjoys joints at many occasions in his or her smoking career, but are they actually joints or have you been getting it wrong all along?
· Inside a Joint
Joints contain cannabis, nothing else. There is no tobacco, no other substances at all. It can consist of any particular strain, but it does and always will contain cannabis exclusively. Let us look at the common spliff, as example: Although similar, some say identical, splits contain both weed and tobacco and, therefore, are not joints. The moment you mix your stash, you are morphing the joint into a spliff.
· Outside a Joint
The exterior of a joint is the main difference between joints and blunts. You roll joints, and in some type of cigarette or rolling paper. Such papers contain a wide array of materials, including hemp and classic wood pulp. All brands and rolling paper types have different properties, such as burn time, “rollability,” flavor, size, and thickness. Common brands include Zig-Zag, Rizla, Bambu, Randy’s Club, and NoGlu.
· Color of Joints
In the old days, joints were either light tan or white. Manufacturers used these colors exclusively to make rolling papers. Half a century later, we now have a myriad of colors. The classic white and light tan still exists, but you also get every psychedelic color of the rainbow that you can think of. You can now smoke gray, clear, gold, blue, purple, even polka-dotted joints.
· Size of Joints
The overwhelming majority of rolling papers measure around three inches in length. When you roll them, it is easy to mistake them for cigarettes, depending on your rolling skills, that is. Depending on the paper you use, and how much weed you pack inside, they can vary in thickness, but they will always be approximately three inches long, unless you cut them shorter, of course.
· Taste of Joints
Two factors influence how your joint will taste: The strain of cannabis you are rolling and the rolling papers themselves. Most papers are flavorless, so most joints will taste of whatever you weed you pack them with, but these days, you can find a variety of flavored papers that will affect the taste. Having said that, most joint smokers prefer the taste of weed to the taste of rolling papers.
Understanding Blunts
Blunts are very similar to joints in many ways, but alas, they are not the same and you should learn the difference before making yourself look inexperienced with too much confidence. Blunts are less common than joints, so you likely are safe to assume you have been passing joints around with friends. However, have you? Maybe, maybe not.
· Inside a Blunt
As with joints, blunts strictly contain only marijuana. The strain used to make the blunt has no effect on whether it is a blunt or a joint, just so long as weed alone packs it. The moment you mix a blunt with tobacco or anything else, just like joints, it becomes a spliff or a concoction of only you know what. If it contains any substance other than cannabis, then you can never call it a blunt.
· Outside a Blunt
Once again, how it looks on the outside is the primary difference between blunts and joints. You do not roll blunts; you fill them. An example of this is filling a piece of cleaned-out cigarette paper or cigar wrap with your preferred choice of weed. Having said that, blunts are typically machine-rolled, often with hemp-leaf wrappers. Most people just take the easy route of making machine-rolled blunts.
· Color of Blunts
Blunts are brown. They are not any other color. No funky prints or wacky colors, just the dull brown of mud or dirt. The brown wrapper looks especially good holding green ganja, and nobody complains about the lack of colors. It is rare to find a brown joint and even rarer to find a blunt that is gold, white, gray, or, heaven forbid, polka dot in color.
· Size of Blunts
As with joints, blunts range in size. The difference is that blunts frequently exceed three inches in length. Because they use cigar or hemp-leaf wraps, they are most often notably longer and thicker than your average joint. Like joints, blunts can vary in thickness according to how much weed you pack inside. Regardless, it is the use of tobacco paper or cigar wrap that differentiates joints from blunts.
· Taste of Blunts
The wrapping you use will have a huge effect on the way a blunt tastes. At its most basic, if you are using tobacco-leaf cigar wraps, your favorite strain will have a mild tobacco flavor. This can be either good or bad. You may need to experiment with strains and wrappers to find blunts that taste great, or you can just order flavorsome readymade blunts from a cannabis delivery service.
Joints vs. Blunts: How Do You Choose?
Consuming weed via joint or blunt is, as with deciding on which strain to buy, a very personal choice. Both are available when you order marijuana delivery, so the best thing to do is to try high-quality, pre-rolled versions of both to see which you prefer. Once you know which you like, then you can try rolling your own joints or filling your own blunts. The construction process itself may yet change your mind