Live rosin cartridges are a premium SKU that will set your brand apart from competitors in dispensaries. Not only are live rosin vape carts extremely flavorful thanks to their high terpene content, but they are a significantly better product overall compared to other kinds of vape cartridges and sell at a higher price point.
There are a few ways to prepare your live rosin for injection into vape carts and each has its pros and cons. Preserving terpenes and maintaining the high quality of this premium product should be your top priorities when developing a method for manufacturing live rosin vape carts.
How to Make Live Rosin Carts Step by Step
A premium-grade live rosin cartridge starts with premium cannabis plant material that is treated with the utmost care and kept cold from harvest to vape. This is our recommended process for making live rosin cartridges, with several options for the liquefying stage.
1. Fresh Freeze Your Harvested Cannabis
The “live” in live rosin vape carts refers to the fact that the cannabis plants are frozen at the time of harvest. Once frozen, the terpenes and cannabinoids aren’t subject to the normal degradation process that occurs at room temperature; they remain “frozen in time.”
To freeze the harvested flowers, remove the fan leaves and buck the buds. Then, place the buds upright in turkey bags in the freezer. They should ideally be frozen for 6-8 hours before proceeding to step 2.
2. Make Live Bubble Hash
When you are ready, wash the fresh frozen cannabis buds in ice water to get live bubble hash. The Original Resinator excels as a bubble hash machine and allows for easy clean-up at the end.
After washing, dry the live bubble hash in a freeze dryer to keep the material cold for maximum terpene preservation. Then, store it in airtight containers in the freezer. Our live rosin bundle includes all the equipment you need for steps 1-3.
3. Press the Live Bubble Hash
We have a detailed guide on how to press bubble hash into rosin. However, basically, you will need a commercial-grade rosin press—such as the Lowtemp V2 All In One Rosin Press—that you can program to achieve very specific temperatures and pressures. For live rosin intended for vape cartridges, put the bubble hash in a 25μm or 36μm bag and press it at temperatures between 140°F and 200°F until the rosin stops flowing out. Store the resulting rosin in a mason jar in the freezer or fridge.
4. Liquefy the Rosin
Live rosin that is fresh off the press is too thick (“viscous”) to pour directly into a vape cart. Before you can fill your cartridges, you will need to make the rosin runny enough to flow down and reach the heating coil inside the cart. For a great vaping experience, it is also essential to homogenize the rosin so that the potency and flavor are consistent from one hit to the next.
There are four ways to reduce the viscosity of rosin (i.e. make it runnier):
- Jar Tech
- Press Terpene Separation
- Terpenes
- Liquifiers
It is also possible to use a combination of strategies to create live rosin cartridges. Experiment until you find a technique that creates the right consistency along with great flavors, aromas, and effects.
Jar Tech
Applying heat is the simplest way to make rosin runny. The main issue here is that heat can cause terpenes to degrade and evaporate, so you will want to be very careful with temperatures and heating times if you want to sell “live rosin” vape carts as opposed to non-live rosin vape carts.
To alter the consistency of rosin using heat:
- Seal the jar.
- Place it in an oven or on a heating pad at 90℉ to around 115℉ (max 130℉). Bubbles should start to form inside the jar.
- When bubbles stop forming and the rosin flows like water, remove the jar from the heat source. The entire process could take anywhere from a few hours to a day or two (it will take longer if lower temperatures are used). Allow the rosin to cool completely before opening the jar.
Please note: It is essential to keep the lid on the jar when heating rosin. This will prevent terpenes from evaporating off the top of the rosin and escaping into the air.
Press Terpene Separation
Press terpene separation can be achieved by pressing five or six-star bubble hash slowly at very low temperatures in a rosin press as demonstrated in this video. The high-terpene solventless hash oil (HTSHO) that flows out of the press has a liquid consistency.
After pressing, the THC that remains in the separated terpenes will need to be nucleated (crystalized) and removed. This happens naturally over time once the mechanically separated terpenes have been jarred. The separated terpenes can then be reintroduced to the hash rosin after decarboxylation.
Terpenes
Adding external-source terpenes to achieve a liquid consistency is especially suited to live rosin applications as only low temperatures are used for mixing. You can buy terpenes that are extracted from cannabis and are formulated to match the terpene profile of a specific strain. This helps to keep the taste and aroma consistent.
Please note: In order for it to remain a true live rosin cartridge, the terpenes you use must have been solventlessly extracted, which can be achieved with steam distillation or the Jar Tech pour-off method. Cheap terpenes you can buy online will not give you a premium solventless cartridge.
To add terpenes:
- Take 1 gram of rosin and use a hot plate to heat it slightly to 90℉.
- Add 1-3 drops of terpenes and stir the mixture using a dabbing tool until it is consistent throughout. You are aiming for a texture that flows easily.
- Dab a tiny bit of the mixture to test the flavor. If the flavor is not quite right, try adding a different terpene to the rosin in your next 1-gram test.
- Once you find the right flavor and consistency, multiply the formula to find the number of drops of terpenes you would need to liquefy the entire batch of rosin. Then, add the terpenes slowly, stirring as you go. You may find that you don’t need the full amount. It’s far easier to add more terpenes than it is to take them out after the fact.
Liquidizers
This is the easiest technique but the least preferred among solventless purists. You can buy liquidizers made from vegetable glycerin (VG) and propylene glycol (PG) that you simply mix with your live rosin to turn it into a liquid.
- One of the main benefits of liquidizers is that they work predictably. You simply follow the prescribed formula and your rosin should reach the perfect consistency for vape cartridges.
- The main drawback is that introducing foreign material into your premium live rosin essentially defeats the purpose of making live rosin carts; connoisseurs buy live rosin products because they want the “bee’s knees”: a premium, ultra-pure, and ultra-flavorful “clean” product. Once you introduce VG or PG, your products join the ranks of other VG and PG vapes.
5. Fill Your Vape Cartridges
Once you have turned your rosin into an oil that flows easily, you can fill your empty vape cartridges. AVD and Greentank cartridges work very well. It is preferable to use a cartridge that has ceramic as the heating element for a rosin cart to have the best flavor. You will also need a syringe with a blunt-tip needle.
- Unscrew the mouthpieces from the cartridges.
- Heat the liquid rosin slightly using a heating pad on the lowest setting to make it even runnier for filling. This step is optional and shouldn’t be relied on as your rosin should already be the perfect consistency for pouring.
- Take the syringe with the blunt-tip needle attached and fill it with the right amount of rosin for one cartridge. Place the needle inside the cartridge and push the plunger to release the contents into the cart. Be careful not to overfill the cartridge, even if it means keeping some rosin in the syringe.
- Screw the mouthpiece back onto the cartridge.
Tip: For commercial production, use a vape filler from Thompson Duke or Vape-Jet to save time. Hand-filling is extremely time-consuming for any kind of real volume.
Delight Your Customers With Premium Live Rosin Vapes
A well-made live rosin vape cart is a hard thing to beat. When done correctly, each hit should deliver mouthwatering flavors and aromas along with the assurance of an extremely high-quality product.
When choosing a method for liquefying the rosin, keep your target audience’s priorities at the forefront of your mind. Heat alone (at low temperatures) is the most popular method for making live rosin runny enough for injecting into vape carts. Press Terpene Separation is another excellent method you can use. Experiment until you find the method that produces the best results and keeps your loyal customers coming back for more.
