Don’t be misled by the name – live resin isn’t the Frankenstein monster of the cannabis concentrate world. Instead, it’s just a novel cannabis concentrate that’s becoming increasingly popular due to its special qualities and production method!
Unlike other conventional concentrates, live resin is not made with cured and dried cannabis. Instead, manufacturers flash freeze cannabis flower and make concentrates out of the flash-frozen cannabis buds!
Why does this matter and what’s the difference between live resin and other kinds of concentrates? We’re going to get into exactly that in this all-inclusive guide to live resin!
What’s the Difference Between Resin and Live Resin?
When it comes to “resin,” there’s a lot of co-opting of the term to describe more than one thing.
Resin can refer to the black, sticky tar that collects in a bong or pipe chamber after hitting a bowl. More commonly. resin refers to the fine dusting of crystals found on cannabis buds.
This resin is actually the plant’s trichomes, crystals that are responsible for providing the psychoactive high of weed!
People consider live resin to be “live” because they flash-freeze the weed flower before processing it.
For conventional cannabis concentrates such as shatter, distillate, and wax, they have to properly dry and cure the cannabis buds first.
Curing cannabis is essential if you want to have a smooth, flavourful, and potent experience, but it also eliminates some of the terpenes and cannabinoids in weed.
The community calls it a “live” concentrate because the flower to produce this resin doesn’t go through a curing and drying process.
What’s so Special About Live Resin?
When talking about live resin, the word we’re going to have to pay attention to is “live.” What makes live resin “live” anyway?
Is it actually alive?
Live resin isn’t actually a living, breathing thing, but once we explain how it’s made you’ll come to appreciate the name!
Where other concentrates require dried and cured bud, live resin utilizes freshly harvested cannabis flower which is then flash-frozen.
This provides many benefits.
The plant’s terpenes, the compounds that provide cannabis plant’s with their unique flavour, aroma and effects, become lost and denatured during the drying and curing process.
What this means is that dried cannabis or concentrates made with dried cannabis lack the full spectrum of flavour. As well as, active compounds that “fresh” cannabis will have.
However, it’s impossible to smoke freshly harvested cannabis due to its high moisture content.
How do we enjoy all the benefits, flavors, and aromas of fresh cannabis while acknowledging that we cannot smoke it?
The answer is live resin.
Flash-freezing weed as soon as it’s harvested preserves all of the plant’s original flavor, aromas, and active compounds. That means that you’re going to be consuming a concentrate that has the flavour, aroma and effect of fresh cannabis.
Is Live Resin Better Than Distillate?
If flavour, aroma and a more nuanced psychoactive high are things you look for in a concentrate, then this concentrate is the way to go.
Unlike distillate, “living” Resin has all of its original plant compounds still intact. There’s no purging of terpenes, flavonoids or other cannabinoids in its production process so you’ll be experiencing an overall tastier and more aromatic concentrate when compared to distillate.
At the same time, distillate is much more potent than resin because we remove all of the plant’s undesirable compounds, leaving nothing but pure THC.
Where the THC level of this “living” concentrate can range from 30 to 70% depending on the quality of the starting material and the manufacturer, distillate’s THC Level routinely ranges from 60%-95%.
Live resin vs shatter, comparatively, tends to have less THC content but more terpenes. Thus, making live resin the more flavourful choice.
At the end of the day, it boils down to consumer preference and what you’re looking for in a cannabis concentrate.
Want something tasty and aromatic that’s also able to provide a unique high? Go with live resin. Just want to get high off of something potent? Go with the distillate.
How is Live Resin Consumed?
The most popular way to consume live resin is through dabbing. What is dabbing? Don’t be afraid of the jargon; dabbing is just vaporizing a cannabis concentrate through a dab rig.
You can purchase dab rigs at any local head shop or even online, and it’s simple to learn and use.
If you’ve been involved in the cannabis scene recently, you might have also heard of distillate vape pens.
These vape pens usually only vaporize cartridges of distillate, but many manufacturers have come out with “live resin” cartridges to meet consumer demand.
Consuming this concentrate in a joint, bowl or bong is possible. But, we don’t reccomend due to the difficulty in properly heating it up enough to smoke.
If you’re up for the task, you can put a bit in your bong bowl or down the length of your joint on a bed of cannabis flower before smoking up. The lower heat might waste a lot of your concentrate product and could cause a mess so be careful!
How is it Made?
Individuals with proper lab-grade equipment should make live resin, as the process is otherwise dangerous.
- Flash freeze freshly harvested buds as immediately as possible
- Using lab-grade extraction equipment, fill chamber one with butane.
- After a few hours or overnight freezing, buds are removed and packed tightly into the second chamber which is then blasted with the butane from chamber one.
- The mixture is collected into chamber three that filters the mixture to remove any plant material, fats and lipids.
- Chamber 4 is then used to slightly heat the mixture with water until all of the solvents have evaporated and the concentrate has crystallized.
Concluding Thoughts on the Living Concentrate
Due to the difficult chemical processes and materials to produce live resin. We reccomend that everyone purchase their live resin instead of opting to produce it at home.
Working with butane at the temperature required to produce live resin is very dangerous, so professionals should handle it.
If you’ve ever wanted to experience the flavor, aroma, and effects of freshly harvested cannabis. Then, we highly recommend trying live resin.
Purchase some for yourself and try it out!