As retail cannabis continues its expansion and legalization across the United States, many cannabis consumers are developing preferences for the type of cannabis products they like best. A rising star in the cannabis product space is live resin, touted for its affordable price, top-notch flavor, and live plant qualities it is taking the recreational cannabis market by storm right now. However, while many seasoned cannabis consumers are aware of the qualities that live resin possesses, making it such a unique extract, others may not be quite as familiar or are just looking for clarification about their favorite type of cannabis extract.
What is Live Resin?
Live resin is a cannabis extract commonly found for purchase and consumption at recreational cannabis retail spaces. The extract is most often dabbed or vaped. However, it can also be mixed in joints and blunts or topped on a bowl for a little extra boost to your cannabis flowers. One of the most common questions concerning live resin is what exactly makes the extract a “live” resin versus a standard resin or wax?
The major distinction that gives live resin its name is the step that happens to the cannabis flowers before they are processed for extraction. After harvest, the flower is flash-frozen fresh to a deep freeze to help preserve all the beautiful (and beneficial) cannabinoids and terpenes lost during the cure or drying process. This freezing process aids in protecting the terpenes and cannabinoids throughout the extraction process, yielding a much more flavorful and potent live cannabis extract.
How is Live Resin Made?
Live resin should ALWAYS be left to professional extractors and not be attempted at home. However, for those curious about the steps taken to get that final product to the local dispensary, the process starts with flash-freezing freshly harvested cannabis flowers, often using liquid nitrogen or dry ice. This first and most crucial step giving live resin its title helps to preserve the cannabis flowers’ natural terpene and cannabinoid content throughout the extraction process.
Next, the fresh frozen cannabis buds go into a closed-loop extraction system that is often chilled to help keep the temperature low throughout the process and cycle through the extractor’s solvent of choice. Most extractors prefer butane or supercritical CO2. Once the solvent has removed the cannabis plant material of its cannabinoids and terpene content, the oil it creates is heated to evaporate any remaining solvent. The resulting product is what we all have come to know and love as live resin.
Live Resin vs Distillate
The main difference between live resin and distillate is the temperatures of their respective extraction processes. Live resin is extracted at a much lower temperature than distillate. Furthermore, distillate is typically a more refined extraction consisting of a single cannabinoid where the terpenes are removed from the product.
Live resin has multiple cannabinoids in its final extracted state, as well as a plethora of delicious natural cannabis terpenes for consumers to enjoy, thanks to the frozen fresh flowers and cold temperature extraction process.
How to Smoke Live Resin
Live resin can be smoked or vaped via a few different methods. Starting with the most popular method, dabbing is the process of using a small glass rig and quartz banger which is heated using a torch or electronic nail setup. Another popular way to conveniently consume live resin is using a dab pen or electronic dab rig system.
Both of these methods, when done at proper temperatures (below 600F), are technically vaporization and not combustion, more commonly referred to as smoking. Live resin can also be rolled inside or coated outside blunts or joints. It even makes an excellent topper for bowls of pipes or bongs, adding an extra dash or two of THC content.
Live Resin Cartridges
One of the most, if not the most, convenient ways to consume live resin extracts are in pre-filled vape cartridges that are connected to a small battery system for power and heat. These cartridges are great because they offer delicious live resin vaporization at the push of a button or the start of an inhale. In addition, these devices are often pocketable, allowing consumers to bring their favorite strains with them on the go throughout their daily routine.
Live Resin Dabs
Dabbing live resin is a great way to get the most out of the product allowing the consumer to fully experience what the extract offers for THC and terpene content. By heating up a quartz banger attached to a dab rig (small bong) with a torch to the desired temperature between 500 and 600 degrees Fahrenheit, ideally below 550 degrees, and dropping a small amount of live resin into the banger cannabis consumers can enjoy the percolated terpene rich vapors of live resin.
Buy the Best Live Resin at WOX
With the sheer amount of options available at cannabis retail dispensaries, it can be challenging for consumers to find a reliable brand to get behind and regularly use. A great option for someone who hasn’t found “their brand” yet is the live resin products that WOX Extracts offers for their valued customers. Using 100% Humboldt cannabis, WOX offers premium small-batch live resin products for all to enjoy. The live resin diamond sauce cartridges and live resin grams are some of the best in their price bracket, punching way above their weight class.
