Ice-o-lator

The ice-o-lator (or bubble hash) is trichome separation in ice water: the cold stiffens them, agitation breaks them off, and filtration bags of decreasing mesh sort them by size.

The method was popularised in Amsterdam in the late 1990s — Ice-O-Lator was originally the brand of bags sold by Mila Jansen, since become a generic term. The principle is three gestures: stir the plant material in a mix of water and ice, let the stiffened trichomes break free, filter the suspension through bags graded in microns.

It is the method that made the micron scale famous and that produces the meltiest textures, up to full melt grade. Worked on fresh-frozen material (WPFF), it yields frozen hash and forms the base of piattella.

Its strength is also its limit: water extracts nothing chemically — no solvent, no transformation — so the quality of the result depends entirely on the starting material and on the rigour of the sorting. Our 120u comes from it: CBD measured at 15.9%, a floral opening on linalool.

Further reading.