Live resin is a weed concentrate that is jam-packed with cannabinoids and natural flavours. Many cannabis connoisseurs prefer it because the instant preservation and extraction make live resin one of the purest, most flavourful concentrates available on the market.
What makes live resin different from other concentrates – and how is it made in the first place?
What Is A Live Resin Concentrate?
When a producer harvests cannabis for making extracts, preparing the plant can significantly change the flavour and natural terpene profile. Terpenes are the fragrant oils found in plants that give them unique aromas and flavours; in the cannabis world, enthusiasts prize them for the experience they impart. However, before the extraction of concentrates starts, the oils that create the desired tastes and smells may begin to degrade; the curing process itself destroys as much as 60% of the natural terpenes.
Live resin is a product that seeks to preserve these terpenes as much as possible. It’s different from other concentrates because the production uses fresh cannabis flower rather than dried and cured buds. It’s hailed as a way of retaining more of the terpenes that would be lost during drying and curing.
How Is Live Resin Made?
Live resin successfully preserves the terpenes, giving it a high-quality taste and smell. Conserving as much of its natural terpenes as possible means flash freezing the plant matter right after harvest. It stays frozen right up until the producer is ready to extract the resin.
Once the extractor thaws the plant material, making live resin is similar to the processes that make most other concentrates. The producers pass the cannabis material through a special closed loop butane extractor and solvent; to extract a quality live resin product, they cool the solvent to -40℃, a much lower temperature than when making other concentrates.
The liquid butane will contain all the top terpenes and cannabinoids from the plant, and it passes into a special dewax chamber to purify the extraction, removing the fats and waxes. Finally, the solution goes into the collection chamber, where light heat boils off the butane. The product is now fit for consumption!
The resulting product is a resinous liquid, much like sap from a maple tree. A few grams of live resin capture the full spectrum of terpenes from a freshly harvested plant.
How Can I Find Live Resin, And How Do I Use It?
Live resin concentrates are often sold under a name reflecting their viscosity and form. You can find live resin sold under names like sap, sauce, shatter, jelly, and badder. Make sure to look for the words live resin because products like sauce and shatter can be made with fresh weed plants, but these concentrate products can also come from cured cannabis. Most people prefer to dab or vape live concentrates, as these consumption methods allow for better enjoyment of the concentrate’s terpenes.
Enthusiasts will be quick to point out that smoking live resin out of a bowl or joint can be a wasteful enterprise. Many of the terpenes carefully preserved in this concentrated would be destroyed immediately by high heat. You’d be paying more money for an experience you wouldn’t get!
In some corners of the cannabis market, live resin is a gourmet product, and it’s quickly becoming a favourite for vaping and dabbing. If you’re looking to enhance your enjoyment of cannabis, live resin is one you won’t regret!