Live resin is a type of cannabis concentrate made from fresh flower rather than dried and cured buds. The terpenes are preserved in this technique because they were lost during the drying and curing process. Because the flavorful terpenes remain, live resin is considered a high-quality, connoisseur-level product.
What is live resin?
Freshness is the distinguishing factor of live resin, which gets its name from the freshness of the cannabis plant from which it’s made. Live resin is created from plant material that has not been dried or cured, unlike most other cannabis goods. Fresh flower buds and sugar leaves are used to start live resin; fan leaves and stems are discarded. The flash-freezing process helps to preserve important compounds and preserve the entire flavor of the cannabis plant. The dabbing area is where concentrate enthusiasts congregate since it is more flavorful and aromatic.experience.
The primary objective of creating live resin is to capture the entire essence and fragrance of living cannabis. Extraction procedures, such as freezing the plant material and then extracting chemicals from it, are associated with high-quality and delicious concentrates. Bypassing the standard drying and curing process allows for a greater percentage of essential oils. Terpenes, technically known as essential oils, are responsible for the unique tastes and aromas in marijuana.
What does live resin look and feel like?
The extract is available in a number of hues and versions. The cultivar, or strain, used to make the concentrate has an impact on numerous chemical and physical properties of the extract. Live resin contains significantly higher levels of terpenes than other concentrates. In general, because of the additional essential oils, the consistency is usually looser than other concentrates. The more terpenes included, the runnier and more malleable the extract will be. Sap, sugar, badder/budder, and sauce are some of the most popular consistencies for live resin.
The Shatter variety of cannabis concentrate is another very popular and common type of marijuana extract. However, live resin in shatter form is extremely difficult to come by. Because the fluidity of terpenes prevents the concentrate from hardening and rigidifying, shatter is characterized by its brittle consistency, which is difficult to obtain with the live resin technique.
What’s the difference between live resin and sauce?
The plant origins determine whether it’s a sauce. Fresh weed plants are frozen for processing in order to create live resin. Fresh plant material or cured bud can start the process of making sauce. Cured plant material will not have as many terpenes as fresh resin does since it has been frozen and defrosted. Check the container and labels of the sauce to see if it’s nug sauce or live resin sauce; this may be important.
Is live resin considered a ‘full spectrum extract?’
The long and simple answer is “occasionally.” Full-spectrum extracts are concentrates that seek to preserve as much of the entire cannabinoid and terpene profile of the raw cannabis plant as possible. Live resin can be considered a full-spectrum extract depending on how the plant is processed. However, not all full-spectrum extracts are derived from fresh, frozen plant material. Kief, for example, is a full-spectrum concentrate because it starts with cured rather than fresh, frozen cannabis.
How to store live resin
Keep it cool, dark, dry, and free of air to keep its strength and quality. The best way to retain texture and consistency while also protecting the cannabinoids from deterioration and the terpenes from evaporation is to use an airtight and lightproof container. If you’re looking for containers, choose ones made of silicone or glass that are airtight. Silicone has one more benefit: it’s easier to scrape clinging concentrates out of it than polycarbonate.
Heat and light can accelerate the deterioration of your resin. Keep it in a cold place, such as the refrigerator, or even a chilly room. Make sure to properly close the live resin container after each usage. Leaving it out exposes it to the elements, making it susceptible to potency loss and resulting in color, texture, and flavor changes.
Ways to consume live resin
You may eat live resin by dabbing, which utilizes a type of water pipe called a dab rig as well as a flat bowl called a nail. Nails are produced of materials that can withstand higher temperatures than the glass bowls used for smoking flower.
Live resin may also be sprinkled on a filled flower bowl in a glass pipe, wrapped around a joint or blunt, or used as an additive. The combination of cured flower and live resin extract results in a greater experience as well as additional taste.
Can you vape live resin?
Yes, you may vape live resin by dabbing, as described above, hitting a live resin vape pen, as described below, or using a nectar collector. You’re simply vaporizing and breathing in the cannabinoid and terpene-rich vapors in each of these situations.
Dabbing is the most complicated of the three options since it necessitates the use of more equipment and work. If you want an easier method to enjoy live resin, a nectar collector, which is a simplified, portable version of a dab rig, may be worth considering.
The easiest way to utilize a vape pen is with a live resin cartridge. Simply purchase a live resin cart and connect it to your battery for immediate use.
What are live resin carts?
Carts are pre-filled vape cartridges that connect to a vape battery in the context of cannabis. Live resin carts are simply vape oil cartridges that have been filled with live resin rather than a cannabis concentrate. Simply screw the cartridge onto a battery, turn on the heating element, and breathe through the mouthpiece like you would with any other cartridge.
How much does live resin cost?
Live resin generally costs more than other types of concentrates. Because of differences in particular regions and market fluctuations, determining an exact price is difficult. Higher-end live resin can cost as much as $100 per gram and up, while the typical national range is between $35 and $80 per gram.
How is live resin made?
First, a precautionary note: because live resin and other cannabis concentrates are so hazardous to produce, only experts should undertake them.
Live resin is sometimes defined as a type of butane hash oil because it utilizes liquefied petroleum gas, such as butane or propane, as a solvent. Live resin is also regarded as a form of butane hash oil (BHO) since it employs ethanol or carbon dioxide (CO2) to extract cannabis plants. However, extracts are created using these gases to a lesser extent than with BHO.
The cannabis plant material is harvested and frozen as quickly as possible. Plant material is flash-frozen by dipping it in an insulated cylinder filled with liquid nitrogen or placing it in a cooler with dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) on the bottom. Extractors pack the cannabis into a tank within a closed-loop system dedicated to holding it throughout the process.
The solvent is cooled, then the starting material is passed through it, releasing the trichomes from the plant matter. To remove the solvent, the combined mixture of cannabis and solvent is heated, causing the solvent to transform into a vapor and rise into the solvent column. It’s cooled and condensed back into a liquid there before being sent on its way.
Extractors must pay close attention to the temperature while extracting. Heat may harm an extraction if it is not properly controlled. Heat evaporates the volatile terpenes and activates decarboxylation, which transforms the translucent concentrate into a darker oil.
Why does live resin skip the drying and curing process?
Drying or curing the raw plant material is usually how marijuana for extraction is produced. Ingesting fresh cannabis will not make you high. The moisture present in freshly harvested cannabis is removed without damaging or evaporating the terpenes during drying.
Drying and curing has one major disadvantage: some terpenes will inevitably be lost during the process. The most volatile terpenes evaporate during the curing process, altering the flavor profile of the flower as a whole. Researchers at the University of Mississippi compared fresh cannabis plants’ terpene levels to those that had been dried for different lengths of time in 1995. They discovered that drying a plant for a week at room temperature resulted in a 31% decrease in terpenes.
Fresh cannabis plant material is used to make live resin with an ideal terpene profile, giving dabs with more floral, fruity, and spicy notes than concentrates made from nug run or trim run cannabis.
Bottom line
When Fenger was harvesting his plants in the early 2010s, he thought it would be worthwhile to somehow capture the fragrance and taste of new flower. The evidence is in the resin. Live resin’s potency, terpene profile, and flavorful richness has made it a sought-after and highly desirable concentrate.