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what is live resin

Exploring Live Resin: The Ultimate Guide

As the popularity of live resin increases, numerous companies use the concentrate to create different exciting products. The hype around the extract makes more people curious about its uses, benefits, and potential adverse effects.

Several consumers believe resin provides a better euphoric feeling and has more balanced effects than other cannabis concentrates. Are these claims true, and what’s special about this extract?

Learn about the meaning, production process, consumption methods, and other aspects of this cannabis extract.

What is live resin?

Before learning how to make it, knowing what live resin is can help you understand all its vital aspects. It’s a unique cannabis extract produced from fresh, live weed plants, then frozen after harvest.

Resin has a stronger aroma and flavor, boasting an abundance of terpenes compared to other concentrates. Also known as fresh frozen, this extract doesn’t require you to dry or cure it, as it’s suitable for consumption in its original form.

Live resin comes in different forms, as its specific consistency and texture depend on the kind and quantity of terpenes it contains. While the extract may be sticky and soft like butter, it may also appear as a liquid, such as sauce or oil.

How is live resin made?

The cannabis plant goes through a complex process to create fresh frozen products. The procedure for making this unique concentrate requires expertise and special tools. It isn’t recommended for regular users to try it at home.

The procedure involves freezing, extraction, and solvent processing, as seen in the steps below explaining how live resin is made:

Freezing the plant

The operation starts with harvesting cannabis buds and flash-freezing them immediately before they’re dried or cured. Use dry ice (liquid nitrogen) to cool and freeze the plant material before extraction. 

Complete the freezing process quickly, as any delay may lead to the formation of ice crystals around the plant matter. This issue can make it difficult for you to extract the terpenes and cannabinoids inside.

Freezing weed

Extraction

Add cryoprotectants to maintain and prepare the plant matter for the next phase. During live resin extraction, store in a regular freezer or flash freeze with dry ice as it’s safer and readily available

Although there are various ways to remove the extract from weed, hydrocarbon extraction is one of the most common options to use.

The process involves putting your frozen weed inside a machine filled with butane, propane, or another solvent. It dissolves the terpenes, cannabinoids, and other compounds in the material. Remove the substances from the product, and your live resin is ready.

Although this method is effective for making live resin, note that butane or propane is volatile. The chemical can cause death or explosion and is most suitable for use in laboratories where experts follow due procedures.

Residual processing

After extracting terpenes and cannabinoids from the crop, the plant matter produces oil, which is heated. Keep the temperature around 105°F or less to purge the extract and ensure the product is chemical-free.

After following the steps above, you’ve created liquid live resin.

Types of live resin products

Fresh frozen has different types depending on its viscosity, texture, and terpene composition. The most common products include:

  • Sauce: Live resin sauce is a sticky fresh frozen product with a notable liquid consistency. It features a high quantity of terpenes, and users often consume it through dabbing.
  • Shatter: This product appears solid and is one of the rarest types of resin. Since the terpenes are usually liquid, manufacturers often struggle to create the extract in brittle and hard forms, such as shatter.
  • Sugar: It boasts a sugar-like consistency and look and contains an abundance of terpenes and appears amber or yellow. Consume the product by using it as a joint or topping up a bong bowl.
  • Crumble: Unlike other liquid-like resin products, this type is dry and resembles crumbs. Crumbles are almost the same color as resin sugar and contain many terpenes.
live resin

The benefits of cannabis live resin

If you want to use live resin, you may wonder how the product can benefit you. There are several advantages of the extract, including:

The entourage effect

This phenomenon refers to how other cannabis compounds, besides THC, work together to heighten the plant’s psychoactive impacts on the body. Since there’s a high level of terpenes and other cannabinoids in live resin extract, the concentrate produces the entourage effect.

Although taking terpenes alone doesn’t make you feel high, its combination with other compounds in the extract may produce exceptional euphoria. Many people use the product to experience this effect.

More research is required to fully understand the entourage effect that may influence other benefits of the extract.

Medical benefits

While research hasn’t established the health benefits of this concentrate, anecdotal evidence claims it could improve your overall well-being. Many believe resin has anti-inflammatory properties and might relieve soreness, swelling, and redness.

Cannabis live resin may also possess anti-anxiety abilities. It could alleviate various symptoms, such as fear, restlessness, and muscle tightness.

Another medical benefit of the extract is its antiplasmodial activity, which could relieve malaria. It may potentially treat viral infections, diabetes, and cancer.

live resin on buds

High potency and quality

The high terpene composition makes this form more potent than other concentrates. Excellent live resin potency ensures users experience the desired effects even if they only take a small amount.

Numerous people choose resin because of its high quality. Since the product isn’t dried or cured, it retains its terpenes and other components. As a result, the concentrate has a better flavor and aroma profile than similar cannabis extracts.

Versatility

Another advantage of live resin over other products is its versatility. It has many consumption methods, such as dabbing, smoking, and vaping.

The drawbacks of live resin

Despite the extract’s benefits, it has certain downsides. The most notable drawbacks of this concentrate are:

Cost and accessibility

Fresh frozen is more expensive than other concentrates. A low-priced product costs at least $20 per gram, whereas a pricier one can go above $50. This issue makes the extract inaccessible to some users.

Possible side effects

Live resin may cause sore throat, breathing problems, or frequent headaches. Although many believe the extract could improve your mental health, others claim it may increase the risk of feeling sad and uneasy.

This concentrate may also irritate your lungs but isn’t associated with further damage to the respiratory organs.

Overconsumption of the product is the primary cause of these adverse impacts. Moderate, controlled use may prevent or reduce the potential side effects.

what is live resin

Although cannabis is legal in the US, some states don’t permit its recreational use. Consuming or selling related products, including resin extract, is illegal in such areas.

Even in states where marijuana is lawful for medical and recreational purposes, live resin weed is still subject to legal problems. Many regions prohibit the consumption and commercialization of these non-standardized products and other concentrates.

The disparity in the concentrate’s legality poses a threat to many users and affects its accessibility. Before buying and using this extract, understand what the law says about it in your state.

How to consume live resin

There are many ways to use resin, including the popular options below:

Dabbing

Dabbing is a typical method for consuming this concentrate, particularly when it’s solid. Live resin dabs involve inhaling small amounts of the product using a dab rig water pipe, nail, or torch. This technique enables you to regulate the extract’s temperature and quantity.

Vaping

Vaping is the practice of using a dab pen to consume the resin. It enables you to manage the temperature of the product and is one of the easiest methods.

Adding to edibles

If you don’t like dabbing or vaping, add the extract to your meals. Live resin edibles are easy to use and don’t require any special tool.

Note that overheating may disrupt the chemical composition of the resin. The concentrate may not be suitable for foods made at higher temperatures if you want to preserve its terpenes and other components.

Smoking

Smoking is another common way of using this concentrate. Mix the extract with dried marijuana and roll or sprinkle it in a bowl. You may also master how to smoke live resin with a pipe or bong.

How to store live resin

Since humidity, heat, and light affect the quality and potency of the extract, refrigerate the product. A medical-grade silicone jar or glass container is ideal for storing it.

Ensure the package is airtight and upright before putting it in a cold room or refrigerator. After scooping out the extract for use, close the container immediately and store it again. This process helps to maintain live resin color, flavor, and texture.

cannabis live resin

How is live resin different from other cannabis extracts?

Resin (both live and cured) has certain distinguishing features compared to wax, rosin, shatter, and other extracts. Here are the noteworthy differences between fresh frozen and selected concentrates:

  • Live resin vs. rosin: Although both extracts are from fresh cannabis flowers, rosin relies on pressure and heat alone for extraction, whereas you make resin with chemical solvents.
  • Live resin vs. shatter: Shatter has a fainter aroma and fewer terpenes, while resin smells potent and is more flavorful.
  • Live resin vs. distillate: Resin is rich in THC and cannabinoids, while distillate is almost pure THC, with all terpenes and other cannabinoids removed.
  • Live resin vs. resin: Live resin is made with fresh frozen cannabis, whereas dried cured cannabis is used for making resin.

Live resin’s flavor, cost, and characteristics differentiate it from other concentrates. These distinctions don’t make one extract better than the other; it comes down to personal preference.

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