Thermal desorption is the future of personal Homeopathy and the Herbalizer has just opened the gateway for consumer level exploration of herbal home remedies using thousands of years worth of human information sharing and feedback. Vaporization is a very useful tool for a wide range of applications and Canna Clatch is happy to be writing a review on such a ground breaking product that will have widespread impact on markets yet unpenetrated by a vaporization devices, and offers a new genre of high tech lifestyle device.
The first smart device tied to a vaporization mechanism that offers virtually instantaneous heat up time no matter where you set the temperature dial, the "Herbie" creates a daily mechanism to bring Homeopathy and Naturopathy to everyday ailments, for everyday people. Herbie will undoubtedly make waves in the cannabis and aromatherapy markets first, being adopted by people already familiar with vaporization and it's money saving capabilities over combustion, candles, air fresheners, and incense. I feel the specific markets that will be impacted most by this product are the cannabis connoisseurs and high volume cannabis combustion users. The truly remarkable aspect of this product is that it has the usability and capability to be useful to a wide range of people who are not aware of the benefits of homeopathy, vaporization, and are using other techniques to deal with their symptoms - and know even less what it can do with cannabis in very small amounts, to very great effect. Who are these people? Virtually anyone who uses internal medicine to mitigate everyday issues like headaches, fatigue, anxiety, addiction, asthma, chronic pain and a list of human suffering that goes on and on. Natural remedies are there for everything we ail from.
First Impression - How it Looks
This review starts with the aesthetics of this product. It is small, weighs about the same as a travel laptop and has a rounded ergonomic profile that slides in and out of carrying cases easily. While closed on a coffee table, the Herbie looks like a wifi station or speaker orb - which is to say unassuming to what it is and it’s purpose. The outer shell is a hard smooth plastic given a metallic tone. The device opens up like clam shell from the front and reveals a white instrument panel and digital screen. At first impression, the Herbie comes off as simplistic and easy to familiarize quickly - a major feature for people not comfortable with sophisticated user interfaces. A handful of accessories are included in what has been dubbed the "mezzanine storage" within the cover of the Herbie. Most customers will be pleased that their 700$+ device comes with a card grinder, stash container, essential oil, peppermint herbs, and two extra screens that can be carried along in the mezzanine compartment. There's space for additional items to be stored, given they are not sensitive to the residual heat that will stay within after use and storage.
The color digital screen gives the temperature in degrees or Celsius. The readout offers a fresh greeting each time the device is opened. This offers a personalized touch from a small startup company and many of the messages are helpful. Two mode buttons, a temp +/- bar, and a fan toggle are all that is needed to operate a device that can work with essential oil, dried herbs, concentrates, or any combination thereof. Any person who has operated a toaster, will have no "ramp-up" time getting familiar with how the Herbie operates - however there will be a lifetime of exploration of how to apply the Herbie to one's lifestyle.
Around the outer edge of the user interface, the silicon tube known as a "whip" can be stored and transported. This area is also useful for storing items as you use the device - it's a "catchall" when the whip is removed. When you first open the Herbalizer and observe its hinge mechanism, one immediately notices that the research and development around the cover and latching of the device was not fully explored. The device's cover does not securely latch to the base, and although sturdy, does not initially feel so for a 700 dollar piece of electronics. This is a minor negative that has no impact on the efficiency of the product in its usability - and I suspect that several users have found their own DIY fix with the implementation of a rubber seal and magnets.
Major Positive Attributes
The Herbalizer's most obvious selling points are it’s unrivaled heat-up speed and temperature accuracy. These two combination of features are pivotal for a quick and efficient vaporization session for a daily user, and the Herbalizer is breaking new ground on both of these fronts. Due to it’s ability to extract the active ingredients efficiently from the medium that you put in it, the Herbalizer allows people to use very little herbal medium to achieve relief that would normally only be associated with large volume smoking or concentrate dabbing. In short, vaporizing flowers medicates very similarly to smoking concentrates or large quantities of flower.
There is a whole list of positive attributes that surface with this product - many not being obvious until you've adopted it into your life and explored with a few things.
​ ​* Cannabis flowers medicate very powerfully - very little medium required
* Cannabis flowers can be tasted, smelled and felt more subtly at different temps
* Herbs and oils can be mixed and matched, along with concentrates of any form
* Aromatheraphy consumers are introduced to Vaportherapy and visa versa
* Inconspicuous profile allows consumers put off by smoking, drug-related paraphernalia to gain the benefits of herbs that are many times smoked, or even eaten
* Instantaneous heat-up creates ability to use in situations where time and need are very important. Time is always important and this machine can go from 0 to 445 degrees in less time than it takes to load the chamber with herbs
Within the context of applicational usefulness, the list could go on and on. The most spectacular selling point overall is for the high volume combustion cannabis users who have not found vaporization fulfilling for a range of reasons ie. medicated experience doesn't last, or the cough experience cannot be induced. This product reduces your consumption and pays for itself in very short order high volume users due to it’s ability to work at the higher temp ranges, and accommodate concentrates of any form. The efficiency of temperature, tied with the power-assist fan, allows "true-blood" cannabis and tobacco smokers to finally achieve that tussis reflex with vapor. To be clear, this machine, finally for many, allows you to deeply expand your lungs and capillaries, throat and esophagus so that the familiar and needed cough reflex is tripped. This cannot be said by utilizing bags and this is monumental for many because the cough reflex from a combustion situation with a bong or hand-pipe/joint is many times induced from agitation from the thickness of the combusted material in ratio to air. With vapor, the cough induction comes from the active ingredients absorbing into these tissues immediately and expanding them - much like a dab on a nail and dome setup with concentrates. The lungs and throat feel "tickled" as opposed to burned or scratched as is the case with milky bong hits or long draw joint hits.
The level of medicated-ness that can be achieved by working at specific temperatures that allow you to draw vapor-laden air into your lungs in successive breaths is akin to what it feels like to dab with concentrates on a heated element. This is hard to fathom, but when demonstrated by someone who's worked with the Herbalizer, it's apparent that long-time combustion users and dabbers will make the transition to start saving their pocket books on flower and concentrate, and saving their lungs from the combusted materials that comes from a butane flame.
On the other end of the spectrum, are people new to cannabis and with their low tolerance, need to be able to work with strains that pack a major wallop even when combusted in small quantities. The Herbie mitigates issues around THC tolerance and allows users to "expel" the active ingredients they don't feel are needed for their symptoms, and can utilize the cannabinoids that are specific to the situation. THC and it's ancillary cannabinoids are activated at lower temperatures within cannabis' spectrum, and with the Herbalizer, these ingredients can be removed from the medium with a "blow off session" where the vapor is not inhaled but expelled into the room or into a bag to be expelled outside. We are still learning what each cannabinoid does, and how it interacts with others, but with the Herbalizer, you work with each cannabinoid specifically so that your medications are more effective and specialized for your symptoms and circumstance. The effective increase in your flower’s potency cannot be overstated, it's actually amazing, but micro-dosing is very easy with the Herbalizer.
In simple terms, this device can medicate you more fully than combustion of cannabis, or it can medicate you more specifically than combustion of cannabis. Also, compared to ingesting cannabis, the Herbalizer gives an unprecedented way to mitigate different drawbacks that can surface when using certain strains of cannabis. What are these? Fatigue and paranoia/anxiety are the two primary challenges to low tolerance cannabis users. By working with specific temperatures, you'll be able to remove these issues so that the effective nature of your medicine works on your symptoms.
Homeopathy meets Vaportherapy meets Aromatherapy
Herbalizer, due to it’s design, is able to run the medium between air freshener, aromatherapy device, medication station, and vaportherapy machine. This means that people unfamiliar with electronics will find themselves potential buyers due to it’s money saving capabilities over time, for so many things! Candles, incense, air fresheners, potpourri bags, aerosol cans, nasal sprays, infusers, diffusers can all be replaced with simple, inexpensive herbs and oils that allow your body to absorb the active ingredients within the vapor and gain the positive effects. This is Homeopathy meets Vaportherapy.
Tobacco smokers, prescription pain users attempting to ween, and heavy cannabis combustion smokers will also be unknowing possible customers because of the ability of the Herbie to work with high potency concentrates that are many times required for long time, high tolerance cannabis users. The Herbie makes cannabis flowers medicate like concentrates, making this product almost unbelievable to users who are high volume concentrate "dabbers". Business professionals and serious athletes will also find this product extremely adaptable to their lifestyle as it offers a discreet means to work with herbal remedies within any environment without the penalty of "smoking pot", "smelling like burnt herbs", "having a user reputation". The vaportherapy aspect of this product is tremendous for office and professional use - a quick vapor session with ginger and peppermint right after lunch, before an important presentation is given during a time when fatigue and mental fog usually set in would be a very preferable means to what most people use a red bull, or coffee for today - with the inevitable crash.
One of the most interesting areas of impact the Herbalizer could have is on the cannabis connoisseur industry and how humans decide to "grade" attributes that we many times deem as favorable or useful. The recreational market is always contrasted from the medical market and connoisseur-ing cannabis requires that you overlap both of these areas. With a high degree of temperature accuracy and efficiency of activation of the cannabinoids, humans will expand their ability to describe what the strains will taste like, smell like, medicate like at specific temperatures and true connoisseurs will need to become intimately familiar with what occurs when a specific cannabinoid volitates and becomes vapor to be absorbed in to our bodies, what it does to the flavor and aroma of the medium, and how these cannabinoids can interact with each other by activating them in specific order.
Cannabinoids are just part of the picture. Flavonoids, terpenoids, esters and terpenes also are major components in how a cannabis strain interacts with our palate, our endo cannabinoid system, and whether we deem strains characteristics as favorable. We're finding that these sub-components of cannabis have a synergistic affect and ingesting "whole plant extracts" has a very different effect on our systems than if "single component extracts" are used. All of these sub-components have their own specific temperatures at which they activate, and can be worked with individually to gain a desired outcome in taste or effect. We're also discovering that this "Entourage or Synergistic Effect" of the components cannot be overlooked, and prioritizing one cannabinoid over another is not useful or scientific by cannabis users or governments and governing bodies.
Control is the key ingredient and when combustion is compared to vaporization within a degree of accuracy, there is no comparison between these two methods of activating cannabis' ingredients. With widespread adaptation to vaporization, the cannabis markets will morph to supply the new demand. Smokers will eventually be the minority (just like tobacco users) and individuals who attempt to speak to the properties of their medications after combusting it, will lose their relevancy to people who are interfacing with individual cannabinoids, terpenes, and flavinoids, and mixing their cannabis with the greater world of Homeopathy.
Recreational cannabis users, and social smokers are also going to be extremely strong potential customers of the Herbalizer. The concept that someone could bring their Herbalizer to a party, with the bags, and whip, and other guests can take turns trying each other's strains at different temperatures, different ratio of mixtures and combo'ing concentrates and flower mediums together within the same inhalation offers a very exciting new area of social cannabis use. Experienced Herbalizer users can offer suggestions on what herbs are practical to mix with cannabis strains and some extremely interesting effects and tastes can be had by exploring with essential oils and the two functional modes the Herbalizer offers.
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Usage & Experience
Aromatherapy
Aromatherapy is the most straightforward setting and method of using the Herbalizer. A drop of oil is added to the metal gauze, the device is set to the appropriate mode, and the timer is set to shut the unit off. The device is closed, the fan and timer starts, and the oil is dispersed. This mode has two fan settings and multiple timer options.
Vaportherapy
Vaportherapy is the mode where you're using the temperature setting and assisted fan to extract the active ingredients of an herb either into a bag, through the whip, or straight into the room (freestyle).
Combo
With the gauze pad, any number of combinations of oils, herbs, and mediums can be brought into the chamber at specific temperatures and then blown into the room, into a bag, or into your mouth through the whip. This is the truly the versatile side to this device as it allows you to take Homeopathy to new areas by experimenting with the various potencies of oil vs herbs, herbs mixed with oils, herbs mixed with cannabis, and so on and so forth. The combinations become infinite and human endeavor and creativity can unfold.
Whip
The silicon whip is going to be the tool of choice for high tolerance combustion users and people looking to induce their cough reflex. With the fan assist, a very calm, but steady stream of vapor is pushed into your lungs so that no suction is required on your part. This allows users to breathe with a "cyclical method" that draws through the mouth, and expels through the nose. At lower temperatures, all users can cycle their breathing for unlimited breaths. At higher temperatures above approximately 385 degrees, many users will find their cough reflex "tickled" after a few successive deep breaths and if held momentarily, a very severe cough reaction is induced with vapor that has zero combustion elements in it - something very rare for a vaporizer and is the clincher for long time combustion users and dabbers.
The whip is also useful for casual vaping where your own suction is used. This is very useful for "tasting" what is coming out and penetrating into the layers of taste that can many times be perceived with many herbs, cannabis, and flowers. Using the whip in this method feels like a hookah, and can be a very relaxing means to medicate, but can also be a tricky way to "over-medicate" if a user forgets how long they've been drawing casually while focusing on other things.
The whip is also going to be the method of choice for many multi-user sessions where the Herbalizer is used much like a social Hookah. The research and development on the whip attachment comes up short when using the Herbalizer in this context, but a bit of DIY experimentation fixes this and the whip works well enough straight out of the box.
Bag
The Herbalizer comes with multiple bags. The bag nozzle functions by squeezing and comes off as a simplistic design that was not given full research and development. The usability of the bags is still very high and will be the method choice for Herbie users who need to have some portability while drawing vapor. The nozzle with use, will fail to create a seal on the chamber orifice, and the Herbie user will have to decide to hold the seal tight or allow streams of vapor to leak out as the bag fills. Again, I'm sure some clever DIY fixes are available and the bags work very well right out of the box.
Freestyle
The Herbalizer can also be used in freestyle mode - which implies that neither a whip nor a bag is placed over the chamber orifice and the vapor is allowed to be expelled straight into the room, or straight into the face of the user - as is effective when using highly concentrated mediums like essential oils and cannabis extracts. The freestyle offers the explorative nature of Homeopathy as you can mix a chamber of endless variations of herbs and extracts and blowthem in the room that you're operating in. This is a hands free method that is not invasive, disturbing or overpowering like many candles, air fresheners and infusers.
Where the Magic Happens - The Herbalizer Chamber
The Herbalizer chamber and chamber assembly is where the research and development shines. The chamber itself is two pieces that screw together and have a rubber sheath so that working with the chamber while using the device is a thing of ease. The chamber has a magnetized bottom and is securely held to the base, only coming off when the user tips the chamber to the side to remove. The top of the chamber has a protrusion with a orifice and it's tempting to wonder why the top of the chamber was not designed to integrate a magnetic seal for the whip and bags that suffer slightly from incomplete design.
The first thing that is apparent to long-time, high volume combustion users is the small size of the chamber. Not much medium is needed to fill, let alone half fill the chamber so that air can contact as much surface area as possible. The amount of medium in the chamber for a legitimate vape session might be two chambers worth of loosely piled flower medium. This will be different for everyone, but the reality is you can get significant medicine to be extracted from the amount of flower medium most smokers wipe off the table after loading a bowl, or rolling a joint/blunt. The Herbalizer can take the amount of flower that is normally used to roll a pinner joint, and get 4-5 fresh chamber-fills from it. This is significant as 1-2 chambers is all that is required to have a very powerful medicating session.
Preparing any medium for the chamber consists of making sure it's ground up, with all the fragments being roughly the same size, shape and mass so that heat works on it evenly. A hand grinder made by a quality manufacturer is going to be a mandatory accessory for all serious Herbalizer users. When your vapor becomes thin, a technique of agitating the medium can be used to extract more medicine from the areas of the flower material that were not evenly contacted by heat. Stirring, shaking, or pouring out and mixing the medium and putting it back in at a slightly or much higher temperature will allow you to medicate more fully, and extract the active ingredients more fully from your flowers.
The chamber is easy to clean as it has a very fine screen on the top and bottom that can be popped in and out. With use, the chamber nozzle can become coated with residue and taste, efficiency and usability can all be impacted. A Q-tip and some 99% iso alcohol can clean the chamber with very little effort and when compared to combustion usage of any kind, the clean up is quick, simple, and a relatively "unmessy" process.
The chamber is lined with stainless steel and when you open it to remove the contents, being that everything is extremely dry, the contents fall right out and only a superficial brushing with the included brush is needed. Flower and herb medium can be pulled to the top screen where it resides until you brush it off. Herbie users have found DIY tricks utilizing an additional conical gauze to mitigate the rising of the material as the air from the assisted fan pushes it up.
The top nozzle of the chamber was not well developed and many Herbie users create their own methods of directing the vapor to their mouths. This is especially true for Herbie users who need to pass the whip often in social settings. The Whip - Inhale with diaphragm power or with Herbie power The whip also has a few annoying aspects to it. Its surface, when dry, is very sticky and when in use, attached to the Herbie as it gets warm, can flop over and kink unless held or positioned attentively by the user. The whip is rather short and the mouth piece shaped so that you have to hold it with your hand and not your lips. I suspect that a hookah hose, with a modified attachment will be a very clever upgrade that will allow passing, non-kinking, no flopping out, and can be held to the mouth without hands.
The Bag - Press the Active Ingredients in to Your Body
The bag with the Herbalizer is a fantastic way to mix and match herbs at different temps and then sit back and enjoy your creative handy work. With the fan, they fill up within 30 seconds and depending on your starting and ending temperatures, you can get two to four bags of consistent vapor from a 1/2 chamber of flower material if you're willing to agitate the material in the chamber in between fills and make sure your grinding job is consistent. Bags are great for low tolerance cannabis users who want to "nip" on the vapor as they do other things, mix several herbs together in layers, or fill only half a bag. One interesting and fun way to use the bag is to fill it up with your preferred vapor and put the nozzle up to your lips, squeeze to open it and instead of suctioning with your diaphragm, you accordion the bag towards your face so that the vapor is forced in large lung fulls. A man-sized lung capacity is still going to need 2-3 full inhalations to empty a bag. This will lead to some interesting new social dynamics as people mix herbs together for each other, and explore who can finish the bag first. It can offer a shamanic experience of euphoria and slight hyperventilation if that's what you're seeking, and when oils and concentrates are added to the combinations - this will be a very surprising venue of exploration.
Wrap Up and Overview
The Herbalizer only competes with a few other products on the market currently, and this is only at first glance. Once any amount of investigation is done, there is no current product that allows such dynamic use of thermal desorption to such a wide-spread demographic. Due to it’s size, shape, and discreet profile, it cannot be categorized with specialty vapor devices for niche cannabis users. Due to it’s ability to work with any medium whether dried or oily or in-between, it cannot compare to most standard stationary vaporizers.
The Herbalizer opens up the world of thermal desorption to a wide demographic, and it’s high price will turn away only the most superficial consumers, as the cost savings is evident within almost every market that it applies to over time.
Negative Takeaways
This machine was well developed by ex-NASA engineers from a functionality standpoint. It heats up immediately, stays accurate throughout the session, and the halogen bulbs have been tested for durability so that this machine can be a daily, frequent-use-device.
With that being said, a few negative takeaways can easily be pointed out. None of these impacts the effectiveness of the device and these takeaways are limited to how the user operates their machine.
A. The lid to the Herbalizer is loose, flimsy feeling and does not clasp or seal to the base. This is not acceptable for a high-end device and many people may be turned off thinking this level of engineering was used throughout the product. There's no seal or lock when it's shut which is not useful if a person is using the mezzanine storage for actual storage.
B. The chamber nozzle is not magnetized and therefore does not interface with the bag and whip effectively.
1. The bags form an inefficient seal over the nozzle with use, and hand pressure is needed to keep vapor from escaping as the bag fills and pressure builds.
2. The whip, while in use will not stay in the chamber orifice and will flop out when you're passing, moving or in mid- inhale.
C. The silicon whip in it's dry state, is extremely sticky and will pick up hair, debris, and dust from anything that it comes into contact with. With use, you will find the outside of the whip becomes coated with everything, and storing in a ziplock bag when not in use is pragmatic.
D. The fan assist does not stop when bags are full. This vaporizer is dubbed as the world's first smart vape however, it does not have the ability to sense the pressure build up of when a bag is full, and toggle the fan assist off so that a user can mount a bag, start the fan and leave unattended.
1. A remote control would have also been an inexpensive and easy to implement feature that would allow people with physical issues an added means to toggle temperature variation, and the fan assist on/off while having the mezzanine cover down and the screen darkened/covered would have been an added feature.
F. The digital screen is slightly blurry and flickers when viewed from certain angles. This may be a symptom of the type of technology within the screen, but seeing as there's no manual off switch for the screen while in use, a higher quality readout could have been implemented.
G. There is no straightforward means to authenticate the temperature accuracy of your machine for locational variations. With the high cost of this device, a simple thermometer accessory could have been implemented to allow a Herbie user to calibrate their machine before starting their session. This would be practical for Herbie users who travel often, or are constantly using their device in different atmospheric environments where temperature, relative humidity, and pressure are all going to vary from session to session. With a digital thermometer accessory that could interface with the chamber to give an accurate reading of the air passing through the middle of the chamber, a Herbie user is offered a guarantee that he/she is putting heat through their materials at the specific temperature that is needed to boil the active ingredients.
Overview
Clearly this review was not created to compare the Herbalizer to the existing market of personal static vaporization devices. This review is a tool for people to understand the widespread benefit of implementing homeopathy and vaportherapy to mitigate a wide range of human symptoms and how we can work with herbs and oils to replace expensive and unhealthy consumer habits that we probably don't examine very often. This review also should serve as an honest representation of what accurate temperature control can mean for the vaporization community and it’s widespread adaptation of Homeopathy and Naturopathy as people share information regarding their experience blending herbs, spices, oils, flowers and other mediums, cannabis notwithstanding. At $729.00, it will be seen as a "high end consumer toy" at first glance. However, as information disseminates by Herbalizer users, the cost savings will be understood by the larger combustion, aromatherapy, homeopathic community and Vaporization will continue to gain awareness in the minds of humans who value their health and understand that natural remedies are all around us. For many high volume cannabis users, the device will pay for itself in a few months.
Big Pharma has a lot to lose from the expansion of this type of human awareness and devices such as the Herbalizer will allow people to take greater responsibility for their health, creating freedom from dependency and habituation. Many people will be expanding into Homeopathy as health care continues to cost more, with less accessibility and less availability of resources and Herbalizer is giving people a means to do just that.
