Live rosin is a gourmet cannabis concentrate that has been popular in dispensaries for the last several years alongside live resin. Live rosin represents an upgrade over live resin because the inputs are guaranteed to be higher quality; you can blast low-quality fresh frozen material into live resin but you can’t wash low-quality fresh frozen cannabis and get live rosin that will pass quality testing.
The potential for flavorful terpene profiles and higher price points makes live rosin a cannabis product that is of interest to extraction companies wanting to maximize their product quality and profit margins. It’s important to become informed about live rosin because with the right extraction equipment, expanding your product range to include this premium solventless product can enable you to reap a range of benefits.
What Is Live Rosin?
Live rosin is a solventless extract that’s made by separating the trichomes from fresh frozen cannabis plants via ice water extraction and then pressing the freeze dried full-melt live bubble hash into rosin at low temperatures on a rosin press.
Live rosin has a slightly waxy texture and can be vaped, dabbed, or processed into cartridges. Due to the product’s purity and the cold extraction process, live rosin typically has an off-white to yellow color.
How to Make Live Rosin
To make live rosin:
- Freeze your freshly harvested cannabis buds upright in turkey bags.
- Use ice water extraction to separate the trichomes. One of the best features of The Original Resinator is how well it washes bubble hash. Simply fill the chamber with cold water and ice and run our recommended bubble hash cycle.
- Collect the trichome heads in bubble bags with varying pore sizes. The highest-quality trichome heads for bubble hash are generally found in the 73µm to 120µm range.
- Dry the wet bubble hash in a freeze dryer.
- Press the dried bubble hash in a rosin press at temperatures between 180 and 200 °F.
- Cold cure the live rosin (optional).
- Send the live rosin to the lab for testing, gramming out, packaging, and distribution. Be sure to keep it cold during transportation and instruct dispensaries to display it in a fridge rather than on the shelf.
Benefits of Live Rosin
Cannabis connoisseurs appreciate live rosin for its purity, potency, and complex flavors.
Purity
Rosin is made using a solventless extraction process that uses heat and pressure to separate the active compounds rather than chemical solvents like butane or propane. Live rosin, like regular rosin, is perceived as being “pure” because no solvents are used.
Potency
As far as potency, live rosin has been known to test at 60 to 90% cannabinoids and 3 to 10% terpenes. The cannabinoid percentage is comparable to regular rosin. However, the terpene percentage is usually considerably higher.
Complex Flavors
As the plant matter is kept cold from harvest, the full terpene spectrum is maintained and the resulting live rosin is considered to be more true to the plant than concentrates made from dried and cured cannabis flower. More than 150 terpenes have been identified in cannabis plants, and if you’ve ever consumed live rosin, you’ll attest to the fact that the flavor is second to none.
Factors that Affect the Quality of Live Rosin
Several factors go into making premium live rosin that cannabis users will love.
Quality Starting Material
Live rosin provides a faithful replication of the original cannabis plant at the point of harvest. Fragrant, trichome-rich flowers that are harvested at the point of peak maturity will produce a fragrant, full-bodied concentrate. Likewise, stunted or moldy flowers will produce sub-par, moldy rosin. Invest in top-notch flower if you want to create top-notch live rosin.
Professional Extraction Equipment
The right extraction equipment will not only take your extracts further but will save you a significant amount of time and money. Our affordable Resinator OG Base Model is geared specifically for making great ice water hash. Simply choose the “Ice Water Wash” option from the drop-down menu when placing your order.
You’ll also need a professional freeze dryer and rosin press to make top-shelf live rosin. Our live rosin bundle offers additional savings when you purchase a Resinator, freeze dryer, and rosin press as a set (order yours today!).
Maintain the Cold Chain
The value of live extracts lies in their terpene content, and this content should be preserved at all costs for a concentrate that consumers will love. After making live rosin from fresh frozen, freeze dried bubble hash, it’s essential to store the final product in sealed containers at low temperatures, such as in a freezer or fridge.
Extractors also have the option of selling their live rosin as “fresh press” or letting it cold cure for several weeks after pressing. Curing live rosin at low temperatures results in a final product that’s more shelf-stable than fresh press live rosin and could lead to subtle changes in the flavor profile, as well.
Live Rosin vs Live Resin
Live rosin and live resin are often compared because they are both “live” concentrates and both offer a complex flavor profile. Both live resin and live rosin are sold in the form of concentrates for dabbing and cannabis oil for vaping applications.
The main difference between live rosin and live resin is that live rosin is extracted with heat and pressure, resulting in a similar cannabinoid and terpene ratio to the original plant. Live resin is made using chemical solvents to dissolve the desired compounds from cannabis flower and the solvent is later purged from the extract.
Differences between live rosin and live resin for extractors:
- Live rosin is a small-batch artisan extract that takes time and manpower to make. Live resin, in contrast, can be made efficiently and in larger quantities using a closed-loop extraction system.
- Live rosin can be made with solventless extraction equipment. This makes it more accessible to small and home-based extractors. Live resin requires a C1D1 room and special licenses to make.
- Live rosin products fetch a higher price in dispensaries because of the increased time and effort that goes into making them.
Differences between live rosin and live resin for consumers:
- Live rosin is generally waxier whereas live resin is rougher in texture. However, this also depends on the post-extraction methods used.
- Live rosin is a direct reflection of the quality of the starting material, so consumers can be confident that the original flower was top quality if the extract passed safety testing. Due to its solvent-based extraction process, live resin provides no such guarantee.
- Live rosin is considered “cleaner” than live resin because no chemical solvents are used in the extraction process. While live resin is purged effectively these days and shouldn’t have much (if any) residual solvent, solventless products are still perceived as being cleaner and more natural in the eyes of health-conscious consumers.
- Live rosin tends to have a more nuanced flavor profile than live resin and is smoother when consumed.
Learn more in our guide Live Rosin VS Live Resin.
Achieve Top Flavors With Live Rosin
Live rosin takes several steps to make. However, the flavors and profit potential make it well worth the effort. This cannabis concentrate is esteemed very highly by cannabis connoisseurs and devotees are happy to pay the price.
If you’d like to add live rosin to your product offerings, invest in cold-processing equipment that offers excellent terpene retention. Our equipment enables you to produce commercial quantities of premium live rosin with consistent results. Upgrade your extraction operation with our live rosin bundle and start making this fabulous extract today!
