Pollen, dry sift, kief: three words for one product
In the trade, “pollen” and “dry sift” mean the same thing: the trichome heads of the plant, separated dry by sieving. The word “pollen” comes from the appearance — a sandy, blond to golden powder — and has nothing to do with botanical pollen. “Kief” refers to Moroccan kif, where the technique has long been documented.
This overlap of vocabulary has a very practical consequence when buying: two offers under different names may describe an identical product, while two offers under the same name may cover unrelated grades. What sets a batch apart is not its commercial label, it is its process and its analysis.
A process without water, heat or solvent
Dry sift is obtained by working dry plant material across a series of screens of decreasing mesh size. The trichome heads, denser and smaller than the rest, pass through; plant fragments stay above. No solvent, no water and no added heat is involved.
That is what makes it the concentrate closest to the plant it came from. Terpenes are volatile and heat-sensitive: they do not survive every method equally. A properly executed dry sift keeps the aromatic profile of the variety it comes from, in a way solvent extraction does not.
What mesh size determines
The fineness of the last screen decides the purity of the finished product. The finer the mesh, the richer the recovered fraction in trichome heads and the poorer in plant debris. Coarse sieving yields a greener, more crumbly powder that compacts badly; fine sieving yields a blond powder that takes shape under finger pressure.
A supplier unable to tell you the mesh size their batch was sieved at usually does not know. That generally points to resale rather than controlled production — which does not disqualify the offer, but rules out any reproducibility from one batch to the next.
What sets a premium batch apart
| Criterion | Ordinary batch | Premium batch |
|---|---|---|
| Colour | Green to brown | Blond to golden |
| Texture | Powdery, crumbly | Sandy, compacts under pressure |
| Plant matter | Visible to the eye | Absent or residual |
| Terpene profile | Weak or flat | Pronounced, recognisable |
| Reproducibility | Varies batch to batch | Consistent, documented mesh |
None of these criteria replaces an analysis. They let you rule out an offer quickly at first inspection; they do not let you approve a batch.
What to require before ordering
Three documents, every time.
A recent certificate of analysis specific to the batch — not to the product line, and not to the supplier. It must carry the batch number you will actually receive, and come from a laboratory whose accreditation can be verified. Our guide to reading a certificate of analysis goes through it line by line, including the distinction between total THC and delta-9, which is the most common source of error on import.
A compliance statement placing the batch below the applicable THC threshold. The European framework and its national transpositions are covered in our article on hemp regulation in Europe.
Upstream traceability going back at least to the raw material batch. Without it, a recall cannot be contained and a documentary check at the border becomes a gamble.
Packaging, storage and transport
Dry sift is more sensitive than flower on two counts: heat, which makes it clump and strips its terpenes, and oxygen, which degrades it over time.
We ship in 5 kg bags, packed in 25 kg cartons. That split is not arbitrary: it avoids opening and resealing the same container for months. You only expose to air the quantity you are actually about to use; the rest of the carton stays sealed.
Storage and transit conditions matter as much as final storage: a flawless batch that spends three days in an overheated cab arrives degraded. Our quality and traceability standards set out the conditions we apply between receipt and dispatch.
Buying in volume
Our entry threshold on dry sift is 50 kg per month. Pricing is tiered and set on quotation, according to volume and to how regular the commitment is: a buyer contracting a monthly rate is not in the same position as an occasional buyer, and the grid reflects that.
We sell wholesale only, to wholesalers and distributors: that is what makes these formats and this price structure possible. This minimum rate is therefore not a commercial barrier, it is a condition of consistency. Below it, material comes from batches too heterogeneous to guarantee, month after month, the profile you approved.
Articles on this blog are published in French and English. Some are available in French only.