What Are Live Resin Cannabis Concentrates?

By Author: Brad Hogg
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Live resin is quickly becoming one of the most sought after weed concentrates in Canada. Flash-freezing the harvested flower preserves the all-important terpene profile and leads to a potent concentrate with a notable taste.

What is Live Resin?
Live resin is different from other forms of cannabis concentrate. In an effort to preserve the vast array of plant compounds — terpenes, flavonoids, and minor cannabinoids — producers freeze the fresh flower immediately after harvest. The act of freezing helps preserve many of the compounds so often destroyed in the curing process.

With a starting material where the rich terpene profile is still intact, it enables producers to carefully extract the compounds in a closed-loop system and obtain a concentrate with a profile that closely matches the original plant.

This means that live resin can provide enhanced medicinal benefits by way of the entourage effect — where the different plant compounds all act synergistically — and it also means that recreational consumers obtain a flavorful extract thanks to the preservation of a terpene profile.

How ...
... Live Resin is Made?
The production of live resin involves using a solvent to extract the compounds from the cannabis flower. Butane is the preferred solvent, and the extraction process should always be carried out by trained professionals with specialized equipment due to the flammable nature of butane.

Due to the higher water content in fresh-frozen cannabis over cured flower, extraction requires low temperatures in the range of -50°C to -60°C. Extraction takes place in a closed-loop extraction system where chilled and pressurized butane passes through the packed fresh frozen flower inside of a chamber. The butane then strips the cannabis flower off the plant compounds and produces a yellow-coloured solution that accumulates in a collection chamber.

By applying heat to the collection chamber, it helps clarify the solution by removing impurities from the concentrate. Then, to ensure the purging of butane to safe levels, the solution is then placed in a vacuum oven for a period. This results in a dark yellow, honey-like substance rich in a high concentration of the plant’s essential compounds.

What is the Consistency of Live Resin Like?
The viscosity of live resin can vary between batches. Much of the variation comes down to the original plant material used and its cannabinoid and terpene profile. Also, there’s considerable variability in the efficiencies of the extraction techniques employed. As a result, the viscosity of live resin can fall anywhere between that of sap to butter and sometimes can even approach the solidity of shatter.

The Differences Between Live Resin and Other Concentrates
Live resin is very different from other forms of cannabis concentrates like shatter or rosin. This is mainly due to the high terpene content of live resin. Terpenes are extremely important when it comes to evaluating the effects of cannabis as there are countless synergies that play out between the cannabinoids and terpenes within the plant to modulate the effects.

It’s the preservation of these terpenes that make live resin an attractive concentrate for a wide variety of consumers who care about the end experience. Where many forms of concentrate contain huge amounts of THC and not much more, live resin tends to provide an extra punch by delivering more of the original plant spectrum to the consumer.

Whether you’re a medicinal consumer or a recreational one, there are a host of benefits to consuming a concentrate that preserves the full spectrum of compounds as nature intended.

How To Properly Store Live Resin
Light, heat, and oxygen are three things that will degrade any form of cannabis. For this reason, it’s essential to store your live resin in an airtight container, away from exposure to direct light or heat. Many keep it in the fridge to help further enhance the preservation of the terpene profile for a potent medicinal punch and also to help ensure it stays tasting and smelling great for longer.

By not keeping it in an airtight container away from the elements, your live resin will quickly degrade.

How to Consume Live Resin
There are different ways to consume live resin, the most popular of which is dabbing. To do so, you’ll need to obtain a dabbing rig. Start by using a small amount of live resin with a nail temperature of around 280°C. Dabbing at too high a temperature may contribute to the destruction of the delicate terpenes, meaning you’ll lose out on medicinal benefit while also generating harmful compounds best not inhaled.

Another common method of consuming Live Resin is by using a dab pen. Dab pens are very much like vape pens, but they allow consumers to place a small amount of live resin into the heating chamber rather than use a cartridge. Simply place some live resin inside and click the button to heat it to the desired temperature for a potent hit in a matter of seconds.

Cheers to the Increasing Popularity of Live Resin!
In its early days, live resin fetched premium prices on the market. It’s rarity, coupled with the complicated freezing and extraction process meant that it sometimes exceeded over $100 per gram.

In more recent times, the rise in popularity means that live resin is now much more accessible and comes at competitive prices. The demand for cannabis concentrates continues to thrive in a time of legalization, and live resin truly is one of the top extracts on the market.

Get em’ Here: Weed Concentrates in Canada
Live resin is becoming one of the most popular weed concentrates in Canada, and with good reason. By preserving much of the original plant profile, it packs a punch that exceeds that of many other competing concentrates that lack that all-important terpene profile.

Mark Smith is an experienced content writer with a passion for crafting engaging and informative articles. With a diverse background in various industries, he excels at creating compelling narratives that resonate with readers and drive results.