Excellence at hand rolling a joint is a coveted skill in the weed world, but it’s not a requirement for entry. The rise of retail cannabis makes it easy for beginners to get, er, rolling, as pre-rolled joints are commonly sold next to the edibles, vapes, and flower. But rolling your own is a ritual unto itself, and can even earn you the first taste during a smoking session—sometimes called roller’s rights—so you might as well learn.
Rolling is a skill that can also provide employment: Some people actually have jobs as professional joint rollers for celebrities and businesses, or do the work freelancer like any other creative skill.
What kinds of papers are best for rolling joints?
A joint’s papers can be made from rice, hemp, or other fibers, and people also use hemp ‘blunt’ wraps, tobacco cigars (aka blunts), or a tobacco leaf (aka fronto) to roll up. Still others sprinkle fronto inside their joints (a classic NYC move) or add tobacco from a cigarette or pouch to make an old-school spliff. You can choose from pre-made cones, crystal clear rolling papers, papers made from gold, or, in a pinch, pages from the good ol’ hotel bible (it’s gross, but it works).
Everything you need to roll a perfect joint (except the weed)
Doing it for yourself is not only satisfying—it allows you to control the experience. You’ll select the contents, the volume, and other custom elements that a pre rolled joint can’t always provide. Plus, some less-scrupulous vendors stick their worst product in pre rolls, and you have to be very selective if you can’t see what’s inside.
With all that said, let’s talk about how to get started building your rolling skills. You can’t be good at something if you never try it, so try it.
How much weed should you put in a joint?
The first time out, try using what’s called a crutch—a rolled up tube of thin cardboard that keeps the weed far away from the lips of the smoker, kind of like a cigarette’s filter, which some people also use when consuming combustible weed. Filters and crutches aren’t necessary for rolling a good joint, but can be helpful to newbies. Pre-manufactured cones come with these built-in.
After paper selection comes what goes inside: the weed itself. While joints can hold grams on grams of weed, .3 of a gram is a good starting point for a beginner in rolling, and a beginner at smoking, too. Grinding your flower is a personal preference; some like it chunky while others like it really finely ground. As long as it tubes up in the paper when you twist it, it’s probably gonna work. Medium grind is the most reliable, as finer can burn too quickly or launch into your mouth when you inhale, and chunky grinds can fizzle out or start “canoeing,” where the joint burns too quickly on one side.
How to actually roll a joint
- With one hand, hold a rolling paper in your fingertips with your palms turned upwards. The glue strip should be facing you at the top and the paper lightly creased so two-thirds of the underside is also facing you, like a cresting wave.
- Sprinkle in the weed with your other hand, then use your thumbs to gently pinching the paper’s edge above the weed to create a sort of canoe or tube.
- Now with your thumbs securing the tube, use a folding, upward twisting motion to roll it up towards the top of the paper.
- Continue rolling up to the top, twisting the tube toward the glue.
- Quickly and lightly moisten the glue before rolling to the end to seal.
(Confused? Here’s a video that might help illustrate the process.)
We asked Dawn Doan, CEO of Luxe Rolls and a professional creative roller, what it takes to roll better. Her joints are literal art, and she’s sculpted pieces that contain more weed than some people would smoke in a lifetime. (One of them looks like a life-sized Wall-E.)
It all starts with good papers, she says; those made by Raw are among the most used, and Doan’s first recommendation. They come in sheets, rolls, and cones in all sizes, from tiny to gargantuan. She also vibes with Elements papers, which are super-thin rice papers that allow the ouid’s flavors to shine through.
Doan’s best piece of advice for beginners: grab a pile of well-ground material and a stack of papers and just practice. “Have fun rolling and give it time,” she says. “It takes time to learn anything new.”
The right way to fill a cone
Filling a cone is usually easier than rolling; as long the weed is well-ground and you have an implement to push down the flower gently, you can make a great cone.
Doan’s tips: “Pack semi-firmly at the base, and most importantly, rotate the cone as you fill and pack so one side doesn’t receive all the tension. Check the draw half way through filling to ensure it’s pulling well.”
Cones can hold a ton of weed and are great for sharing, while hand rolling is good for smaller, independent joints. Chunky grinds don’t work great with cones, as they can burn unevenly. And how you light the joint, no matter how it’s rolled, is a crucial step in the process.
“Be sure to light the joint evenly from the beginning,” she says. “The crown should have an even burn line from the get go.”
How to add concentrates to your joint
If one joint isn’t enough, you might wanna try adding concentrates to your roll up. This means hash, wax, budder, oil, sugar, kief, or any of your fav concentrate forms can get sprinkled, spatula’d or dolloped into (or onto) your joint for a super potent punch.
Hoppa gave thistip, “Inside the paper will work best. Try to not place the concentrates too far down towards the crutch/smoking end as the oils may clog a tight cone.“
Start really small unless you are a heavy hitter, concentrates are very strong and beginners probably don’t want to mess with them too much until they get their weed legs.
The high-tech solution to rolling a joint
The lowest effort way to roll your own? Have a robot do it. The Beed rolling machine is the Nespresso of weed, delivering nitro-packed, individual serving pods of fine, aromatic product. It works reliably (you can see it in action on my Instagram here), the pods are recyclable, and the makers plan to collaborate with flower brands to bring super fresh, machine-filled cones to deliveries around California.
The sealed pods purport to keep weed fresh up to three times longer than the average preroll, and the pricing isn’t bad (about $4.10 per .5g pod, much cheaper than your average shop-bought weed at that weight). The Beed is pricey at $299, but if you can afford it, love weed, hate to roll it, and want to impress people on the internet, it could be a winner.
But even if you do buy a joint-rolling robot, you should definitely learn how to do it by hand, if only for your own edification as a weed consumer and connoisseur—what kind of pothead can’t roll a joint, right?