What Is Live Rosin? | Pittsburgh City Paper

Even for those on the outskirts of the cannabis community, it’s clear that today’s market and products are far different than those of years past — even as recent as a few years ago!

Cannabis concentrates have surged in popularity, with producers continuing to discover new, innovative ways to produce concentrated cannabis products. Among them is a still somewhat new, but increasingly popular option: live rosin.

The product is growing in popularity, and consumers can even enjoy the many terpenes and potential effects in edible products like gummies. Among the many new innovations the industry has to offer, it’s often hard to keep track of them all.

However, if you’ve ever been curious about live rosin or trying it for yourself, you’re in the right place! Keep reading to learn all the ins and outs of live rosin.

What Is Live Rosin?

Let’s tackle the question at hand, shall we? Live rosin is a solventless concentrate, meaning it is extracted without using chemical solvents often used to create other cannabis concentrates. This also applies to just rosin, though live rosin (like live resin) contains more terpenes, which not only offers more flavor but also can enhance effects as they interact with other cannabis compounds.

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What’s the Difference Between Live Resin and Live Rosin?

Live resin is another popular cannabis extract.

A couple key differences between live resin and live rosin:

- The main distinction is that live resin is made using chemical solvents, like ethanol and carbon dioxide. As mentioned, Live rosin is solventless.

- Live resin often contains more THC, and its extraction process is a bit more intensive and difficult than that of live rosin. That often leaves the price of live resin even higher than live rosin.

If you’re wondering how to smoke live rosin or live resin, it’s consumed similarly to other concentrates. While it can be “smoked” when added to a bowl of flower or joint, most users generally vaporize a small dollop with a nectar collector or dab rig.

How is Live Rosin Made?

Like live resin, live resin is made by first freezing freshly harvested product — no drying or curing, just removing the fan leaves, cutting the stocks, and putting the buds inside a moisture-resistant bag and freezing. The fresh freezing ensures the rosin is “live”, meaning it maintains more of its original compounds like terpenes.

Live rosin is made with bubble hash, mixing ice, water, and cannabis material (after freezing and ready for processing) and agitating inside a series of mesh bags. This allows trichomes to become brittle, break off, and fall to the bottom of the bags. Producers then collect kief, hand-press it into ice water hash, then mechanically press it into live rosin using high heat and pressure, effectively separating the extract from the rest of the plant.

What is Live Resin?

Live resin is another sticky, potent concentrate that has skyrocketed over the years to become one of the most popular concentrate products among cannabis users. Like live rosin, live resin maintains most of the valuable trichomes, cannabinoids, and terpenes in the original crop, which creates a more potent and flavorful product.

How is Live Resin Made?

Like live rosin, live resin involves immediately harvesting and freezing crops to maintain the precious cannabis compounds and enhance the overall experience and effects. Extractors then use a solvent to separate these compounds from the plant matter, and the resulting live resin oil is then purged of residual solvents.

Closing Thoughts

Many cannabis connoisseurs are steadily embracing live rosin as an ideal concentrate option, given its superior flavor profile, enhanced effects, and solventless extraction process.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s So Special About Live Rosin?

Part of the mystique surrounding live rosin is simply that’s a newer development within the broader cannabis market. New products often create a certain level of hype, and while live rosin has been around for some time, it’s still one of the more recent developments within the concentrate space. Some producers are even using it to make edibles and other products.

While live resin does remove solvents after the fact, many concentrate lovers have turned to rosin and live rosin simply because there are no solvents involved whatsoever. Generally, many consumers may just want to avoid the potential for residual solvents by opting for rosin. However, live rosin still offers many of the same perks that live resin has, namely the enhanced flavor profile and plentiful compounds the original crop has to offer.

Is Live Rosin Better Than Live Resin?

There’s no real objective way to answer this question, unfortunately. It’s all up to what you value as a consumer. Both products offer more flavor and the potential for enhanced effects due to its fresh frozen extraction.

However, some consumers will argue that live rosin is superior due to its lack of solvent use, essentially keeping the product free of chemicals throughout the extraction process. Those looking for higher potency and more cannabinoids may contest that live resin is superior, offering a more potent high.

Ultimately, these products are very similar with a few key differences. It’s up to the consumer to decide what’s most important when it comes to the specifics!

Why is Live Rosin So Expensive?

The often hefty price tag on the concentrate may leave some wondering, is live rosin worth it? Live resin and live rosin tend to be more expensive than concentrates like wax and shatter simply because they are more complex and labor intensive to produce. Many live rosin producers also stick with small-batch artisanal models, creating a more exclusive demand around their products and ultimately driving the price.