Live Resin

Fresh flower is used to produce resin rather than dried and cured buds when making live resin. Terpenes are preserved during the drying and curing process because they were maintained in this way. Live resin, as a high-quality, connoisseur-level product, is due to the fact that flavorful terpenes remain intact.

Its name is derived from the freshness of the cannabis plant matter from which it’s manufactured.

What is live resin?

Freshness is the term used to describe a cannabis concentrate manufactured from freshly harvested cannabis plant material. Unlike other cannabis products, live resin is created using fresh plant matter that has not been dried or cured. Fresh flower buds and sugar leaves are used in the manufacturing of live resin, whereas large fan leaves and stems are discarded. The technique of flash-freezing is beneficial to the preservation of live resin. It appeals to dab enthusiasts since it preserves the important elements while maintaining the complete flavor of the cannabis plant.

To arrive at this, the objective is to preserve the living essence and fragrance of cannabis. The live resin production process, which entails flash-freezing the plant material and then extracting components from it, results in high-quality and delicious concentrates. Bypassing the conventional drying and curing procedure allows for a greater concentration of active components. Terpenes (often known as “essential oils”) are chemical compounds that give marijuana its unique taste and odor.

What does live resin look and feel like?

It’s available in a variety of colors and forms. The cultivar, or strain, utilized to make the concentrate has an impact on many of the chemical and physical properties of the extract. Live resin is high in terpenes in comparison to other concentrates. Because there are additional essential oils, the consistency is usually looser than other concentrates. The more terpenes present, the runnier and softer the concentrate becomes. Sap, sugar, hell/heller (hell), and sauce are among the most popular consistencies of live resin.

Another frequent and popular marijuana concentrate is shatter. However, if you can find it, live resin in the form of shatter is very difficult to come by. Shatter is characterized by its brittle texture, which isn’t easy to achieve with the live resin technique since terpenes’ liquidity prevents the concentrate from hardening and solidifying.

What’s the difference between live resin and sauce?

It is determined by the plant source whether it’s sauce. Fresh weed plants are flash-frozen and processed to produce live resin. In contrast, cured bud may begin with fresh plant material or dried cannabis. The high quantities of terpenes present in live resin are missing from cured plant matter. Examine the container and labeling of the sauce to determine if it’s nug sauce or live resin sauce.

Is live resin considered a ‘full spectrum extract?’

The long answer is that it depends. Full-spectrum extracts are concentrates that attempt to preserve as much of the real cannabis plant’s complete cannabinoid and terpene profile as possible. Live resin can be considered a full-spectrum extract depending on how the plant is processed. However, not all complete cannabinoids come from fresh or frozen plant material, such as kief, which is a full spectrum concentrate although it starts with cured rather than fresh or frozen cannabis.

How to store live resin

Avoid heat, light, moisture, and open air to keep the potency and quality. To help maintain the texture and consistency as well as safeguard the cannabis compounds from degradation, use an airtight and lightproof container. If you want containers, look for silicone or glass concentrate storage jars. Silicone has one more benefit: it’s easier to extract clumped concentrates out of it.

Excessive heat and light can accelerate the degradation of your resin. Keep it in a cool 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 in the open exposes it to deterioration, which may result in a color, texture, and flavor change.

Ways to consume live resin

Dabbing is another method for ingesting live resin. It employs a form of water pipe called a dab rig, as well as a flat bowl known as a nail. Nails are produced from materials that can withstand hotter temperatures than flower-smoking glass bowls.

A modest amount of live resin may also be sprinkled on a potted plant in a glass pipe or wrapped around a joint or blunt. You’ll have a greater experience and enhanced taste when you combine cured flower with live resin extract.

Can you vape live resin?

Yes, you may use a nectar collector to vape live resin by dabbing, as described above, or hitting a live resin vape pen, as described below. You are simply vaporizing and inhaling the cannabis and terpene-rich vapors in each of these instances.

Dabbing is the most time-consuming of the three methods of cannabis consumption, since it necessitates more equipment and work. If you want an easier method to use live resin, consider utilizing a nectar collector, which is a less complex, portable version of a dab rig.

The easiest way to enjoy cannabis with a vape pen is to use a live resin cartridge. Simply purchase a live resin cart, attach it to your battery, and you’re ready on your way.

What are live resin carts?

In the cannabis world, carts are pre-filled vape batteries that connect to a vaporizer battery. Live resin carts are vape oil cartridges containing live resin rather than cannabis concentrate. Simply attach the cartridge to a battery, switch on the heating element, and breathe through the mouthpiece as you would with any other cartridge.

How much does live resin cost?

In general, real resin should be more costly than other types of concentrates. Difficulties in identifying a precise price due to variations in locales and market conditions have made it impossible to nail down an exact cost. Higher-end live resin costs around $100 per gram and up, while the typical national price range is between $35 and $80 per gram.

How is live resin made?

Many people would call live resin a type of butane hash oil (BHO) because it is produced using liquefied petroleum gas, such as butane or propane, as a solvent. Although ethanol and carbon dioxide (CO2) are used to make extracts in lesser amounts, they are still utilized.

Cannabis is rapidly frozen after being cut. The ice-water mixture or dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) is used to flash-freeze the plant material. Cannabis is placed in a tank within a closed-loop system that’s solely used to store it during the process. Before the butane or other solvent is fed through it, the tank must be purged of any remaining oxygen to avoid explosions and excessive pressure.

The solvent is cooled, then the starting material is filtered through it, removing the trichomes from the plant matter. To remove the solvent, heat is applied to the combined cannabis and solvent solution, causing the liquid to transform into a vapor and rise into the column. It’s then cooled and returned to a liquid state.

Extractors must always be aware of the temperature. A severe rise in temperature can cause extraction failure. Heat causes the volatile terpenes to evaporate, causing decarboxylation and turning the concentrate translucent.

Extract production should be left to specialists due to the nature of safety precautions and equipment necessary precision and accuracy.

Extract production should be handled by experts since the safety measures and equipment need precision and accuracy.

History of live resin

William “Kind Bill” Fenger, founder and CEO of EmoTek Labs, and Jason “Giddy Up” Emo, the company’s creator and cannabis entrepreneur, are credited with the invention of the current live resin production technique in 2013.

In the summer of 2010, Fenger began Colorado’s first legal crop operation dedicated exclusively to producing concentrates. He considered the possible results of extracting cannabis extracts from plants he was actively trimming during a harvest. He assumed that the fragrances emanating from freshly harvested plants were more complex and appealing than cured buds. He figured if he could capture the terpenes at their apex (before they are dried and cured), he might create a concentrate with the same pungent aroma as the live plant.

He tried his hand at live resin production with the Original Diesel cultivar, sometimes known as Daywrecker Diesel or Underdawg. He used it to make BHO after freezing the plant material. Though flavorful and fragrant, the extract was dangerous to create, had a little output, and was unappealing in appearance. During this era, shatter reigned supreme. “If it doesn’t shatter, it doesn’t matter,” the typical thinking went. While he discovered live-plant BHO to be one of the most delectable cannabis extracts he’d ever had, there wasn’t yet a way to increase yields or enhance production safety.

In September 2013, Emo invested in an extraction system for A Cut Above, a medical marijuana dispensary in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The OBE-Dos model from EmoTek Labs was a closed-loop extraction machine made for commercial producers producing high-quality wax and shatter that was used at the production facility for A Cut Above.

Fenger was confident that the technology would enable him to develop an efficient extraction procedure after meeting Emo and seeing the OBE-Dos device. They worked on the extraction process for more than a month, experimenting with various strains and methods.

The team was successful in producing a good batch from a 24-hour extraction session, using whole cannabis plants that had been flash-frozen. The Fenger staff deemed the sample yield to be fragrant and tasty. He went through both the extraction process and the resulting live resin extract.

The current live resin production process was created by William “Kind Bill” Fenger and EmoTek Labs’ founder, Jason “Giddy Up” Emo.

Why does live resin skip the drying and curing process?

The basic method for preparing marijuana for extraction entails drying or curing the raw plant material. Fresh cannabis does not make you high. The moisture removed by drying the harvested cannabis is retained without changing or evaporating terpenes.

The disadvantage of drying and curing is that you will undoubtedly lose some terpenes during the process. During the curing process, when cannabis is left to dry for an average of seven to ten days, the most volatile terpenes evaporate, altering the flavor profile of the flower. Researchers at the University of Mississippi discovered that a plant’s terpene profile changed significantly after it was dried for a week at room temperature.

Fresh cannabis plant material, which has an ideal terpene profile and is made using resin that is produced from fresh cannabis plant matter, provides a dabbing experience with more floral, fruity, and spicy tastes than concentrates created via nug run or trim run cannabis.

How Do Live Resins Differ From One Another?

Live resins differ from one another in two distinct ways:

• Terpene profile
• Viscosity

We’ll examine each individually in the sections below.

Terpene Profile

The strain of live resin is, to a large extent, determined by the original strain used in the extraction procedure. More precisely, it is determined by the live plant’s terpene profile. As a result, live resin produced from a Cherry OG variety will be different from that produced from a Sour Diesel variety.

Even strains have different terpene profiles. The live resin produced by one batch (or even a single plant) of Yoda OG will not be the same as that produced by another batch.

Viscosity

There are many types of resin available (e.g., soft or hard, and everything in between). The following is a list of the most common viscosities:

• Sap
• Jelly
• Butter
• Shatter

Terpenes are chemicals, and they may have an impact on the viscosity of extracted live resin. However, most of the time, the more liquid living resins will be altered after harvesting.

Live resins with a higher proportion of “sappy” (as in sap-like, not overly sentimental) live resins, on the other hand, are more difficult to store and transport. As a result, manufacturers will modify the live resin juice into a more manageable form.

Because extracting live resin is so complex, it is frequently more expensive than regular concentrates. Live resins may actually sell for over $100 per gram, which stings.

Bottom line

While Fenger was harvesting his plants in the early 2010s, he had no doubt that capturing the fragrance and taste of fresh flower would be a good idea. The testimony is in the resin. Live resin’s potency, terpene composition, and flavorful richness have made it a sought-after and highly desired concentrate.