Wu Tang Afghan BC Hash

Sold as Afghan hash, Wu Tang Afghan BC Hash is a resin concentrate offered by weight, starting at 1 g and going up to 28 g.

The Black Afghan account

In its Hash 101 guide, Sensi Seeds uses Black Afghan as a market name for Afghan dry-sift hash and describes how it is made by farmers in Balkh, Kandahar and other provinces. The harvest comes late, and the plants dry in the sun where they grew. Next, in the shade of mudbrick houses, whole plants are beaten and trampled into a dry mulch; sifting that through cloth leaves a fine golden powder, which is compressed into hard bricks for transport. The first batch is regarded as the purest.

Softened by a match

A second account, on Sensi Seeds’ Afghanistan page, has dried flowers and leaves threshed and sieved into garda, which is sorted into three grades: the first has the highest ratio of resin to leaf, and the lower grades carry many more impurities. Hash makers buy that garda, warm a palmful with a lit match until it softens, and roll it into a dark, sticky ball.

Sensi Seeds sets this against Moroccan hash, which it says is normally dry-sieved and pressed with no heat applied. A 2009 UNODC survey of cannabis in Afghanistan makes a related point: Afghan and Moroccan sifted powders may be different products, because processing, plant varieties and climate differ.

Chars, hookahs and hash dens

Naming varies too. Sensi Seeds gives chars as the name for dry-sift hash in Afghanistan and neighbouring areas, while the UNODC survey records both hashish and charas as local names, varying with the processing method. Sensi Seeds adds a social detail from rural districts: older men tend to gather in public hash dens and smoke through water-filtered hookahs, while younger people would rather smoke cigarettes in private. For hash making in general, see our guide to how hash is made and what it does.