Yocan is a brand that is continuously expanding its domain. Not only is the Chinese vaporizer brand known for making affordable but high-quality dry herb vapes, wax vapes, and oil vapes, it has also worked in branching out into making various sub-brands that focus on the different needs of its customers — one of which is grinders.
Today we’re going to take a look at some of the best grinders under the Yocan brand to help pick the right product that can help you improve your vaping experience, especially when you are dealing with various dry herb strains.
Before we check out these products, let us first take a brief look into what grinders are and what role they play in how you can make the most of your select botanical plant matter.
What are grinders?
Grinders or herb grinders are tools that help dry herb consumers cut down their materials into smaller pieces.
Why do they do that you might ask? Well, cutting down herbs into finer particles help in ensuring that they are properly heated and that none of the herbs goes to waste. See, if you cram all of the herbs in a bowl or an herb chamber (if you are using a vaporizer), there is a good chance that parts of the herbs will get burnt while some of its parts will remain unconsumed. When this happens, you do not get all of the active ingredients that should have been extracted through the smoke or through the vapor.
On that note, consumers of old have devised a way of shredding and slashing their herbs before smoking or vaping.
Prior to the popularity of modern-day grinders, herb consumers used to cut the herbs by hand. It was counterproductive since the pollen in the plant matter usually gets in their fingers and they lose a good amount of the potency offered by their materials.
Next, they used knives and scissors even, but these too often led to the loss of the active ingredients or in some cases — if they use blades that are rusted — lead to the contamination of their products. And we can all agree that it leads to a sad story.
Finally, someone along the way developed an enclosed case that kept all the materials inside. Fitted it with fixed blades, and the ability to twist (either in one way or both ways) to cut the herbs without wasting the materials.
Types of grinders
Grinders come in different shapes and sizes, and we will get to all of them in a few.
To start off our classification journey, we first delve into the number of compartments a grinder has to offer. As one would imagine, we begin with the basic setup — a two-piece grinder.
Two-piece grinders
As the name suggests, two-piece grinders are made up of two pieces. Both the top part and the bottom part typically come with fixed blades and the herb grinder can be twisted in both directions. The operation is as simple as it sounds. You simply load herbs in the chamber, give it a couple turns, and your ground material should come out done.
The challenge here is getting the herbs out of the chamber as they can sometimes get stuck in the cracks and crevices of the grinder. Grinding some juicy flowers can also be challenging using this tool.
Three-piece grinders
In an effort to make things easy for consumers, the three-piece grinder has been developed with an herb hatch under the tool. It still has fixed blades on the top and second layer, but the latter now has holes that let in small herbs when they have been cut down to the proper size.
What’s good about it is that it also traps stalks and stems that you might not want get mixed in your spliff or your bowl. It eliminates other unnecessary particles that might get in the blend.
Further, it makes collecting the ground herbs easier — and less messy — as you will only have to open the hatch and toss its contents into a jar or a container rather than having to tap the entire chamber and get small herbs fly all over the place.
Four-piece grinders
Those who made four-piece grinders realized that pollen from the herbs that are ground to small pieces are lost in the process. They either get stuck on the corners of the grinder or maybe scatter around the chamber when the dry herbs are cut.
So, they added a fine filter to sieve the pollen where they can conveniently be collected.
With a four-piece grinder, you can literally save the pollen and add it to spice up your sessions like by sprinkling some on your bowl, mixing a dash into your beverages, medicating your food, and so much more. It literally adds some layer of flexibility to your consumption practices.
Kinds of grinders (what they’re made out of)
Apart from the number of compartments, herb grinders can also be classified through the type of material used to make them. You might be surprised about the variety of raw materials that have been used to make these tools.
Let’s start with the most rudimentary one — wood.
Wood grinders
Wood grinders are made of wood and using the said material comes with its pros and cons. The people who use these grinders are the type who value sustainability more than the overall result of the grinding process as compared to herb grinders made from other materials, they grind poor (we’ll get to this in a few).
To put things into perspective, a wood grinder is pretty much like any wooden tool. It naturally has grooves that could accumulate residue from the herbs overtime. And since they’re wood, they can harbor microorganisms that may end up to be harmful if you are not careful with it.
So, it definitely looks beautiful but wood grinders need a good amount of care and maintenance.
Plastic grinders
Some herb grinders are made out of plastic. Don’t worry though, they are food-grade plastic — at least the ones made by trusted brands.
Being made out of a malleable material, they can be shaped and formed in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and colors. They are also easy to clean and maintain as they can be washed or smothered with cleaning materials like alcohol.
So, plastic grinders are no brainers and because of that, they are the topmost choice of beginners. Since they are also relatively cheap, owners will not bat an eye when they need to dump an old plastic grinder and upgrade to a more professional-level tool.
Which brings us to...
Metal grinders
Metal grinders are some of the most durable and trustworthy grinders on the market today. They don’t bend easily, they don’t crack easily, and they also are quite easy to clean and maintain. Plus, they also are great storage options as many metal grinders are fitted with good sealing components that can help keep the herbs fresh as long as you keep them inside.
Metal grinders are also made with some of the best blades the industry has to offer as the blades are more often than not made with the same reliable metal.
Now that you know the types of materials used to build and make herb grinders, let’s look into the actual component that gets into contact with your herbs — the blades.
Common herb grinder blades
The blades of an herb grinder are responsible for cutting the herbs into small pieces and really slashing them into particles that can easily be vaporized or smoked. The quality of your blade will also determine the quality of your herbs.
Here are some of the most common types of blades found on a wide variety of herb grinders today.
Pole-type blades
Well, we shouldn’t really call them blades as these are poles that help sort of pick the herbs apart instead of really cutting them into pieces. These — as we briefly mentioned earlier — are found usually on wooden herb grinders.
Be careful when using these as they could just roll the herbs into small balls, so proceed with caution.
Pyramid-type blades
Pyramid-type blades are usually seen on plastic herb grinders. They are often molded into the actual grinder and the pyramids have sharp edges that kind of crush the herbs. Compared to the abovementioned pole-type blades, these do a better job of picking your herbs apart.
Diamond-type blades
These types of blades have diamond-shaped poles that reach both ends of the grinding chamber. With four sides having sharp corners, they ensure better cutting and slashing capabilities to grind the herbs. Plus, since they are strong (because they are made out of metal), they can handle tougher and more stubborn strains so you can grind with confidence.
Grinder operation
We can also classify grinders based on their means of operation, which basically falls into two categories:
- Manual grinders
- Electric grinders
Under manual grinders, these tools can further be sub-divided into two parts. One is the grinder that use knurled edges (to aid twisting and add grip) at the top of the lid while the other one uses a crank. The former is simpler and more straightforward as you would pretty much be twisting the top part like you would open a bottle cap. However, it could be challenging for people with medical conditions such as rheumatism or arthritis as these consumers might have difficulty twisting the top part.
On that note, the crank-operated herb grinder works to allow these consumers to easily grind their herbs without much hassle. Crank grinders are also great for making batches for when one needs to portion their materials for convenience.
As for electric herb grinders, they are considered a smarter way of chopping down herbs as almost no physical action is needed. These grinders use electric motors powered by rechargeable batteries to easily cut down herbs. Since they are machine operated, they are also more precise.
Yocan grinders
Thanks to the aforementioned crash course in herb grinders, you may now consider yourself knowledgeable in these herb consumption tools. Equipped with the right knowledge, you can now see how advanced Yocan’s herb grinder offerings are.
Let’s dive in and see the future of herb grinding.
Yocan Draco Herb Grinder
The Yocan Draco Herb Grinder is an advanced solution to cutting your herbs with ease. As we’ve discussed earlier, electric grinders use powerful motors to slash stubborn herbs and uniformly cut them into vape-friendly pieces.
With just a press of a button, you can easily cut down your herbs and conveniently stow them in your storage jars.
To help you better understand how much value the Yocan Draco Herb Grinder offers, here’s a quick look at its features:
- 650 mAh battery capacity
- USB type-C charging technology
- Powerful electric motor
- Six-part stainless steel blade
- Two grinding modes
- Metallic body with borosilicate glass
Arguably the most striking feature of the Yocan Draco Herb Grinder is its six-part stainless steel blade. That’s because no one else has designed their grinding blades like this. It is sub-divided into two sections that covers both the top and bottom part of the grinder so no herb will go out of the Yocan Graco Herb Grinder that is not uniformly cut.
You can even see the herbs being ground inside thanks to its metallic body with Pyrex glass. The use of lab-quality glass is a great choice for Yocan since this type of glass does not have an immediate chemical reaction on the herbs so you can be sure that their overall qualities are faithfully preserved.
Grinding your herbs using the Yocan Draco Herb Grinder means that you will get the best results every time.
Yocan Whirly Herb Grinder
The Yocan Whirly Herb Grinder is a manual herb grinder that has been built with ergonomics in mind. We have briefly covered before that manual grinders might be difficult to use for patients suffering from constant pain. In some cases, other patients who also suffer from different medical conditions — such as those with carpal tunnel syndrome — might also have a hard time using a manual herb grinder.
So, the Yocan Whirly Herb Grinder has been designed and engineered to have contours at the middle to make it easier to hold. Likewise, the angles give way for easier grip when twisting and turning the herb grinder.
Aside from the above-mentioned, here are other notable features you might love with the Yocan Whirly Herb Grinder.
- Four-piece design
- Magnetic connections
- Diamond-shaped blades
- With pollen collector
- With pollen scraper
What we loved about the Yocan Whirly Herb Grinder is that it has magnetic links. Using magnets further make the grinder’s use and operation easy and even makes the cleaning and maintenance a breeze. One of the problems using a threaded design is that residue can get into the cracks and crevices of the threaded links. Without them, cleaning only requires owners to give the Yocan Whirly Herb Grinder a quick wipe.
Also, the Yocan Whirly Herb Grinder has a pollen catcher so you can retain the potency of the dry herb strains you are grinding. As we have mentioned, you can use the pollen to dress your joints or crown your bowls. You can even use it to cook edibles, which makes consumption a whole lot fun.
Where to get Yocan griders?
You can get your Yocan grinders here at Yocan Vaporizer, the home of authentic and original Yocan products.
We get our items straight from the source, so you can be sure about the overall quality of the products you are getting. We’re all about making sure that you get your money’s worth so we ensure satisfaction with the Yocan grinders you buy.
And while you’re at it, we recommend trying out the Yocan Hit 2 Dry Herb Vaporizer as your main means of consuming the botanical plant matter you slashed and crushed with these Yocan grinders.
