A Beginner's Guide to Live Resin Cannabis Concentrates
Everything old is new again. Live resin cannabis concentrates were once the go-to option for many cannabis users. Going way back, you can imagine shamans searching it out for fun, medicine, and mystery.
People today, looking for new experiences, have been looking into concentrates for convenience, potency, and use other than smoking in this pandemic age.
What are we talking about?
You must remember that cannabis is a woody shrub containing nutritious juices. It is similar to but not the same as sap. Where tree sap is liquid and rich in sugars, the Resin is crystalline. In the case of cannabis, the Resin holds the terpenes that give your cannabis strain its unique aroma and flavor.
Growers cure and dry cannabis after the harvest, seeking to produce a leaf that can be flaked into smokable tobacco-like debris for joints, blunts, and pipes. However, a large percentage of the terpenes will be lost in this process. Trichomes are the little "purses" you can see under magnification. They hold the cannabis plant's terpenes or essential oils associated with the strain just as they account for the smell of a rose. But they will give up their contents to a large degree as they dry.
Capturing and processing that Resin produces a wax or shatter favored by many experienced with cannabis. This is not for smokers, and it provides an option for those concerned about inhaling cannabis. Similar to sap produced by trees, cannabis resin is a gooey plant byproduct.
Producers find Resin throughout the plant, but they concentrate on products processed from unpollinated female flowers developed and bred for their resin content. In its natural form, Resin serves many purposes in the cannabis plant's environment. The aromas it exudes attract or repel pests and pollinators. But it also holds the chemical keys to psychoactive recreational cannabis use and the calming catalysts for medical cannabis benefits.
Resin, Rosin, and Live Resin
Woody plants contain a system that circulates values throughout the plants. Resin is that sticky ooze that plants use and exude in different ways. It contains the active chemistry that identifies the plant, differentiates it from others, and circulates the valued cannabinoids. You find this Resin sticking to your fingers when you handle or farm a cannabis plant. This byproduct, kief, can be gathered to make hash.
Cannabis Rosin is produced under pressure. Heat and physical pressure are applied to dried buds between sheets of parchment paper. This procedure melts and squeezes the trichomes like a grilled cheese sandwich. The result is scraped off the paper; as it cools, it becomes a honey-colored shatter.
Live Resin, however, is the product of freezing at -300°F. Harvested buds flash freeze immediately before the elements start to degrade through air drying. The result is a product with more cannabinoids, terpenes, and flavonoids in a concentrated form. Because producers may use solvents to make Live Resin, some of its natural ingredients will be lost. Because the process is complicated and risky, amateurs are discouraged from creating their own Live Resin.
Why bother?
Live Resin concentrates the cannabis' THC and CBD into a product for dabbing. Because the processing eliminates most of the plant's material, the results are stronger, cleaner, and purer.
Dabbing—You must store Live Resin in airtight containers in a cool, preferably refrigerated, place. To dab, you must apply a small scoop of Live Resin to a dabbing nail. You cannot handle the Live Resin by hand, or the body heat will melt it. A small spoon-like dabber tool applies the shatter to the heated nail. Heated to 500°F, this produces smoke you inhale through the dabbing rig.
Rigs can cost hundreds of dollars. You can find them for less than $75, but you should consider the quality and elegance of a $250 model like Pulsar's RoK, with its handsome design, ceramic and glass construction, and three temperature settings. The 6.75" model is sturdy, portable, and ready to use in 30 seconds.
Vaping – Using a Dap Pen to vape the Live Resin requires less experience, equipment, and complication. A Dap Pen does away with the cartridges used in most vaping pens. It is a variation on the vape pen placing a ceramic bowl and coil on a vape pen. The pen produces the heat necessary for melting the Live Resin. It also can change temperatures as needed. These extras make Dap Pens slightly more extensive and cumbersome than usual vape pens. However, dabbing this way is more convenient and discrete than using rigs.
Other Dap Pens use miniature convection ovens to "bake" the Resin. They have more temperature options and may produce a cleaner, more potent smoke. The Yucan Regen is a handsome, moderately priced item with quartz coils and three temperature settings powered by a rechargeable 1000aMh battery.
To wrap it up
Well-raised and monitored cannabis plants are packed with beneficial elements. Whether you want a brain event or body response, it makes sense to pursue an unadulterated product. Smoking cannabis through joints, blunts, or pipes will deliver the experiences you want.
The broad category of "concentrates" includes budder, kief, oil, hashish, and other forms. However, Live Resin results from a purification process. Cryogenic freezing approaches risk dangers in using complicated equipment and liquid nitrogen. Nonetheless, they will produce highly potent cannabis brittle with minimal plant material or solvent traces. However, you should not try to make Live Resin at home. Most people do not have the tools or talent to do it correctly.
Purchased at a dispensary or online, Live Resin can provide the recreational experience or medical benefits you want. However, you should read the label to identify the potency and ingredients. Lab-tested products offer more security without compromising the power.
