Moon rocks have been getting a lot of attention in the past couple of years, mostly for their potency punch that can launch you to the moon. Composed of bud, dipped or rolled in a cannabis concentrate like hash oil, then rolled in kief (a powdery combination of cannabinoids, trichomes, and terpenes), moon rocks are very potent, typically upward of 50% THC.

They’re not just potent though — they are often quite pretty to look at, too; they have been hashtagged on Instagram more than 500,000 times. But this prettiness and potency does belie some moon rock consumption challenges. They are very sticky and will quickly mess up your grinder, they can’t be rolled into joints, and they don’t light well. Best case scenario: you cut the moon rock with scissors into small enough pieces to add to a joint, or smoke moon rocks from a glass piece or bong. 

Moon rocks are very popular among those looking for more potent cannabis. photo credit

So the potency and prettiness comes with a couple of trade-offs — convenience and efficiency. You could also add cost as a moon rock trade-off. Moon rocks can be purchased at some dispensaries, but the cost is often pretty steep, typically starting around $30 a gram. So it begs the question: is it cheaper to make your own moon rocks? 

Is it Cheaper to Make Your Own Moon Rocks?

Let’s break down the constituent ingredients: bud, concentrate oil, and kief. You’ll also need a few tools that you probably already have around the house, like a grinder, tweezers, and a dropper (like the ones included with cannabis tinctures). 

• Bud: the cost of cannabis flower varies from state-to-state and even city-to-city, so for the sake of this exercise, let’s pretend that we live in Colorado. For one ounce of high-quality cannabis the Centennial State, expect to pay anywhere from $80-200.
• Concentrate: yet again at the whim of the locale, the price on concentrates is wide-ranging and depends on purity and quality. The price of concentrate in Colorado ranges between $30-40 a gram. Cannabis tinctures can range in price from $45-120+. 
• Kief: you can get kief for free by saving the powdery substance that accumulates in your grinder. But if you need to buy it, check in at your local dispensary

Speaking of local dispensaries, before you start your moon rock-making adventure, check in at your favorite spot to get a more precise cost estimate. 

As with all things moon rocks, a little goes a long way. If you take a nice chunk of bud, a dropper full of concentrate, and a dusting of kief, that’s more than enough to send you on a very potent journey. 

So let’s experiment. We’ll put our hypothetical moon rocks together with bud costing $100 an ounce, and a 30 ml THC tincture at $75. The kief will be no cost since we’ve gathered it from our grinder. We also have at the ready tweezers (used to hold the bud and avoid getting sticky concentrate all over our fingers) which we grabbed from the medicine cabinet. 

• One good-sized bud is about 1 gram of cannabis, and 28 grams is approximately one ounce. By using 1 gram per moon rock, you get 28 moon rock buds for $100, or around $3.50 per bud
• By using 1 ml of a 30 ml tincture bottle, we get 30 uses for one bottle. At $75 for a tincture, that’s about $2.50 per coating
• In this case, kief is free, so we’re not adding that cost here
• Grand total per moon rock (for this particular scenario): $6

It’s clearly no contest. If you have the time, ingredients and tools ready to go, making your own moon rocks is indisputably more affordable than purchasing them. However, it’s difficult to quantify convenience. Though moon rocks are relatively inexpensive to make, they are also very sticky and messy. Having someone else do the dirty work might be a better fit for you.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock