What Is Live Rosin and How Is It Different?

After the 2010 High Times Cannabis Cup debuted hash oil and changed the cannabis world forever, cannabis concentrates have become exceedingly popular. An array of modern concentrates have gained serious attention amongst veteran cannabis connoisseurs and newbies alike. Live rosin is one of these cannabis concentrates. 

Live rosin is a solventless concentrate created from fresh-frozen cannabis plants. Solventless means no solvents are used in extraction, only heat and pressure. This ensures a pure, clean product. And using fresh-frozen plants helps preserve trichomes, ensuring high terpene and cannabinoid content.

Live rosin is different from other types of rosin. It’s also different from live resin. Here, we’ll take a deeper look at live rosin.

Live Rosin 101:

How Is Live Rosin Different Than Other Cannabis Concentrates? 

The sheer number of cannabis concentrates is enough to confuse even the most experienced cannabis consumer. 

Rosin is one of these concentrates, available in a few different types, including general, flower, hash, and live rosin.

Rosin resembles whipped honey. It is a type of cannabis concentrate created by applying high heat and pressure to harvested marijuana plant matter. Because it doesn’t involve the use of any solvents, rosin is considered one of the purest cannabis concentrates there is. 

The heat and pressure used in the rosin extraction process squeeze out the oil from the plant material, resulting in an almost instantaneous concentrate packed with terpenes and cannabinoids. Because it’s solvent-free, rosin is simple to make and safe to consume. 

As mentioned, there are different types of rosin. Following is a bit more information about each. 

Flower Rosin

As its name suggests, flower rosin is made from the flowers (or buds) of cannabis. Once flowers are dried and cured, they are broken down into even-sized pieces before being pressed. 

When pressed, the fats, oils, and lipids (along with terpenes and cannabinoids) are integrated with the rosin itself. This results in a more robust flavor profile than other types of rosin, as pressing whole flowers brings out the complexity of cannabis flavors.

Flower rosin is popular with cannabis consumers who want to make their concentrates, as flower is typically easier to source than hash. 

Hash Rosin

Hash rosin is made from ice water hash (or bubble hash) and offers a more refined concentrate than flower rosin.

Before extraction with a rosin press, the cannabis flower goes through an initial ice-water extraction. Ice water hash is made by agitating dried and cured cannabis flowers in ice water to remove trichome stalks and heads. The trichomes are then filtered from the water with various screens before being collected and formed into the hash. 

Compared to flower rosin, hash rosin offers a cleaner flavor and typically has a more prominent effect. 

Live Rosin

Live rosin is created from fresh frozen cannabis flowers. Fresh frozen cannabis refers to plant material that’s frozen immediately after harvest. 

Fan leaves, branches, and stems are removed before freezing, but the plant material is not dried, trimmed, or cured. Since it hasn’t been dried or cured, the fresh frozen cannabis used to make live rosin contains optimal terpene and cannabinoid levels. 

Since fresh frozen cannabis also contains all the moisture present in the plant material, it must be properly prepared before pressing. 

To make live rosin, fresh frozen cannabis goes through the ice-water extraction method mentioned above to create bubble hash. The live rosin is then extracted from the hash. 

Live Rosin vs. Live Resin:

What’s The Difference?

Although they sound very similar, live rosin is not to be confused with live resin. 

Cannabis concentrates are typically made from dried and cured cannabis flower and trim. While this is good for reducing moisture and unwanted compounds like chlorophyll, starches, and sugars, drying and curing cannabis can also result in a substantial loss of terpenes, which are extremely sensitive to temperature. 

Live concentrates are different. 

When making live resin or live rosin, the drying and curing process is eliminated. Instead, plant material is frozen immediately after harvest. This helps preserve the precious trichomes that contain cannabinoids and terpenes. 

The biggest difference between live rosin and live resin is the extraction process itself. 

• Live resin is extracted from fresh frozen cannabis flowers using solvents like hydrocarbon or butane. 
• Live rosin uses a solventless extraction process where heat and pressure are used to expel resinous material. Because of this, live rosin is typically favored by health-conscious cannabis consumers. 

There’s another significant distinction between the two.

Live resin is created directly from the frozen, fresh cannabis plant material using solvents for the extraction process. 

Live rosin is also made with fresh frozen cannabis but requires an extra step.

Because of the moisture contained in the fresh frozen flower, live rosin can’t be pressed directly from the fresh frozen material. If the plant material were pressed, the high temperatures and pressure would produce steam and water because of the moisture in it. Ultimately, the water from the fresh frozen material contaminates the extracted rosin.

This is why live rosin is made from bubble hash instead. 

How Do You Make Live Rosin? 

For those interested in making cannabis concentrates, live rosin is an excellent choice. Not only can it easily be extracted on a commercial scale, it doesn’t involve using any potentially dangerous solvents.

This relatively simple 3-step process involves the following: 

1. Freeze freshly harvested cannabis flowers.

Harvest cannabis at the best time for maximum cannabinoid content. Then, remove the fan leaves and freeze the fresh flowers immediately before the plant can dry.

2. Make bubble hash.

Wash the fresh frozen plant material in ice water to remove trichomes. Filter the resulting bubble hash and freeze-dry.

3. Press the bubble hash. 

After the fresh frozen bubble hash has been freeze-dried, press it in a rosin press to create live rosin. 

While there’s a learning curve in making live rosin, it’s a fairly straightforward process once you’ve got the basics down. 

Not only is making live rosin reasonably straightforward, but investing in a live rosin press can potentially increase profit and return on investment for commercial growers.

How Do You Use Live Rosin? 

When most people think of rosin, dabbing is the first thing that comes to mind when it comes to consumption. While dabbing live rosin is certainly an option, not every cannabis consumer finds dabbing enjoyable. 

Following are a few different ways to use live rosin:

Dabbing

Dabbing is the most popular way to use live rosin, which is done with a smoking device known as a dab rig. A small dollop of the live resin is placed on the nail of the dab rig, which is then heated with a torch that creates a vapor you inhale.

Dabbing highlights the cannabinoid and terpene profiles of the live rosin, accentuating the flavor, fragrance, and effects for a unique smoking experience with effects that come on quickly and strongly. 

Vaping

Live rosin can also be used in a vaporizer designed for concentrates. Simply drop a glob into the vape chamber, and you’re good to go.

It’s important to ensure your vape is designed to be used with concentrates as using a dry herb vaporizer with concentrates will quickly damage the vape.

Pipe or Bong

One of the easiest ways to use live rosin is to simply add it to the bowl of your pipe or bong. 

This is done by adding a small dollop of live rosin on top of a bowl packed with ground flower. When the bowl is lit, the heat will melt the live rosin into the flower and significantly boost the potency of the experience. 

Joints or Blunts

There are a few different options for adding live rosin to your joints or blunts.

Live rosin can be dried out, crushed up, and sprinkled on top of ground flower in a joint or blunt. Live rosin can also be heated to create a more liquid consistency, which can then be applied to the paper with an application tool.

Another option is to roll live rosin out in a piece of parchment paper to create a string-like roll that can then be wrapped around the outside of rolled joints or blunts.

Edibles

For those who prefer edibles to inhaling vapor or smoke, live rosin can also be used in baking or cooking. It can be added directly to your favorite recipes or cooking oil. 

To achieve the full effects of liver rosin in edibles, many people find decarboxylating the live rosin first fully activates cannabinoids. 

Last Thoughts On Live Rosin

Whether you’re a commercial grower interested in expanding your product line or simply want to make solventless concentrates for personal use, Triminator’s Rosin Press can help you create outstanding live rosin that can be used in a variety of ways.

Built for professional extraction technicians, the Rosin TRP Stack is easy to use and can press large live rosin batches with higher pressure and lower temperatures that preserve valuable terpene content. The result? A solventless and pure live rosin that is widely considered the crème de la crème of cannabis concentrates.

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