Live resins usually have a more complex terpene profile and can deliver a more complex experience.
What is live resin?
Cannabis concentrates are often named or described by their textures or consistencies: some are hard and brittle, like shatter; some waxy; some thick and gooey, like batter; and some like sauce. By definition, live resin is a more malleable concentrate, sitting somewhere between a wax and a sauce—not quite like taffy yet not too wet.
It is typically dark yellow in color but can vary from light yellow to white. Like all cannabis concentrates, it is extremely sticky, so you’ll need a dab tool to handle it.
Live resins tend to be potent with a lot of THC, and consumers love it because of its intense flavors and aromas which carry over from the original plant.
How to make live resin
Live resin distinguishes itself from other types of cannabis concentrates because it is created with fresh frozen cannabis—plants that are frozen immediately after being cut down at harvest. These plants are kept frozen throughout the extraction process and skip the drying, curing, and trimming phases of harvesting.
The drying and curing processes that cannabis plants usually go through can have a devastating impact on terpenes, the plant’s flavor and aroma compounds. Terpenes are present in trichomes, which cover buds and surrounding foliage.
During drying and curing, moisture and chlorophyll leave the plant. This can expose trichomes to heat, oxygen, and light, all of which can degrade terpenes. Trichomes also tend to break off a plant as it is handled and moved around during harvesting.
By freezing the plant immediately after harvest, trichomes are preserved in live resin and the cannabis plant retains its valuable terpene profile, original flavor, and fragrance throughout the extraction process and into the final product.
After harvesting, frozen plants are put through a solvent extraction process, using butane, propane, or another solvent.
After harvest, here are the steps for creating live resin:
- Freeze plants/plant matter
- Extract the oil
- Process into live resin
Plants are kept at below freezing temperatures throughout the extraction process. After extraction, live resin is often heated in a vacuum oven. It can be packaged as is, or added to carts for vape pens.
Live Resin
Cured resin vs. live resin
The difference between these two concentrates is mainly in starting material: Cured resin is made from dried plant material, whereas live resin is made from frozen plant material that is kept frozen throughout the extraction process.
Cured resin is also more of a general term for an extraction from dried cannabis that will be turned into shatter, wax, batter, or various other types of concentrates.
Live resin vs. live rosin
Live resin is created by putting frozen cannabis plants through a solvent extraction, which uses a chemical such as butane or propane. Live rosin is solventless—it uses heat and pressure to remove trichomes from the plant, usually through a press. Both extracts are “live” because they both use frozen cannabis plants as source material. Simple resins and rosins exist, which use dried plants, not frozen ones, and which also use solvent and solventless extraction processes, respectively.Live resin vs. distillateDistillate is a cannabis oil that is created when a resin is refined, either to remove impurities or to isolate a specific compound. It does not use frozen cannabis plants as its source material as live resin does . When distillate is processed, it usually lacks terpenes, and therefore smell, taste, and flavor. Some consumers may prefer this neutral flavor in a vape cart, but it is quite different than the flavorful, terpy live resin.