If you haven’t heard the phrase “live resin” yet, brace yourself because you will soon. It brings the hemp plant closer to “as nature intended” than ever before, with fresher, brighter terpene and flavonoid profiles that make a significant impact on how we enjoy our favorite products like live vape carts, live dabs, and other live resin products.

So, What Exactly Is Live Resin?

In essence, the living resin is a form of extract created from fresher plant material than we are accustomed to. You may not realize it, but the hemp extracts used in our vapes, gummies, tinctures, and other products are traditionally made from dry-cured plant material that is, raw hemp flower that has been kept in the dark, dry, and cool place to dehydrate just enough to no longer be at risk of accumulating mold and other pathogens. Dry-curing is fantastic for selling flowers, but it dries off the lovely, sticky crystals known as trichomes that cover the flower buds.

Trichomes are critical to hemp value because they contain a treasure trove of terpenes and flavonoids, which significantly dictate the characteristics we acquire from the plant, while terpenes also affect the color, taste, and perfume of each strain. We’re not obtaining the full breadth of what we’re capable of if we dry these trichomes out before extraction.

But then there’s the live resin. Live resin is an extract prepared from fresh, flash-frozen hemp as opposed to dry-cured hemp. By flash-freezing newly farmed hemp flower, you wonderfully retain its trichomes, allowing larger quantities of ultra-fresh terpenes and flavonoids to find their way into the ultimate product. This results in a richer, darker extract with more taste, fragrance, and effects—basically, more of everything we love about hemp in the first place.

What Are the Advantages of Living Resin?

Live resins are higher-quality items that provide the complete scent and flavor of a certain cannabis type. Furthermore, this kind of substance allows for the entourage effect or the synergistic activity of all cannabis components. Anti-inflammatory qualities, pain reduction, and reduced anxiety are among the possible medicinal benefits of cannabis extracts. THC-8 is not as powerful as THC-9, but the benefits are equivalent, with the former generating fewer unwanted psychotropic symptoms than the latter. Furthermore, living resins containing THC-8 are legal and simpler to get than other types of THC-9 products.

What Exactly Is Live Resin Extraction?

Cannabis is dried and often heated during conventional extraction, resulting in the destruction of various thermolabile components such as terpenes. Instead, live resin extraction focuses on freezing the plant material immediately after harvesting and extracting it using cold solvents to retain the plant composition as near to its natural condition as possible.

How Does Live Resin Extraction Work?

Live resin extraction is difficult, but not much more difficult than traditional extraction processes. Once collected, the biomass is promptly frozen to maintain the plant’s original chemical makeup. The extraction procedure then proceeds as usual, with the solvents preferably cooled around -40 °C / -70 °C depending on the type employed and the available equipment. Winterization is no longer required since the solution is already stored at sub-zero temperatures. The extracted material may then be processed to create a broad range of delta-8 products.