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Rosin: a new 100% natural concentrate
Reading time ⌛ 4 min
Have you ever heard of Rosin? It's an extraction technique that gave its name to the product it creates, a bit like ice-o-lator.
This famous product is a concentrate of cannabinoids, terpenes and flavonoids of a new kind: totally natural, extracted without any solvents.
Want to learn more? Here's our presentation!
What is Rosin?
This is a concentrate harvested by pressing. The process uses heat combined with mechanical pressure to extract the elements of interest from buds, hash, or any plant material.
Depending on the raw material used, the resulting concentrate has the appearance of a paste, oil, or honey. The taste and smell remain unchanged; they are also a concentrate of the base product.
How is Rosin extracted?
The technique is very simple and versatile. You can create rosin from buds, any resin, or even pruning waste, and it's so simple that you can reproduce it at home with very little equipment.
To reproduce this method, simply take your CBD bud or resin and press it at a temperature between 160°C and 200°C. Many people use a hair straightener for this. Simply place your raw material on a sheet of parchment paper, position it between the straightener's clamps, and press firmly for 5 to 10 minutes.
Under the combined action of heat and pressure, a translucent liquid resembling oil or resin is released from your flower or hash; this is the cannabinoids. This is how Rosin is created.
It can be made this way as a DIY project, but it is also manufactured industrially for commercial sale. In these cases, machines press and harvest the rosin. By varying the pressure, temperature, and base product, different types of rosin with varying textures and concentrations are obtained.
The advantages and disadvantages of Rosin
The technique has many advantages:
- It can be used interchangeably on flowers, trimmings, hash, pollen, ice-o-lator.
- It is very simple to implement and you can do it yourself
- But the biggest advantage is that the technique uses no solvents to extract the product. If the base product is of good quality, there is no chance of chemical residues ending up in the final product.
On the downside, there aren't really any. Even the pressed material can be reused. After extracting the rosin, some people use the remaining flowers or hash for vaporization, cooking, or infusions, even though most of the active compounds have been extracted.
The Story of Rosin
We are starting to get used to it, as with the creation of Moonrock, the development of the ice-o-Lator, or even that of the CRD, the history of this extraction technique is a little unclear.
From what we know, it is quite recent, even more recent than the cryogenic drying technique.
In the 2000s, a user named Compashon shared a tutorial on ICMag, a popular American forum.
Initially a well-kept secret, the technique gained traction when it was presented more widely. In 2015, Phil “Soilgrown” Salazar, a dispensary manager in the United States, conducted several experiments, documenting them with photos and sharing them online.
In the years that followed, the technique attracted increasing interest from specialists, including major retailers who adopted it. Today, Rosin can be found in most CBD shops.
Rosin or Live Rosin?
There is indeed a difference between the two: Rosin is extracted from the buds as they are found in stores, after drying and curing. Live rosin is extracted from freshly cut, not dried, flowers.
The temperature used to extract Live Rosin is lower; it must not exceed 90°C.
The difference between the two is significant. Live Rosin generally produces a thicker, more waxy product, more like wax than oil.
The final product is also more flavorful because certain terpenes, such as monoterpenes, which are normally lost during drying, are present in Live Rosin. And above all, the product is even more concentrated than regular Rosin.
For a more abundant extraction with even more terpenes, the fresh flowers can be frozen directly after picking. They are then pressed as is with a press at 85°C. The result is even better!
How to consume Rosin
As a concentrate, rosin can be used in the same way as most waxes. It can be used in cooking or as an herbal tea. And by infusing your rosin in oil at 105-115°C for 30 to 60 minutes, you can create your own CBD oil, or oil of any other derivative.
But the method that is generally recommended is vaporization, as it allows you to absorb more than 90% of the compounds present while fully enjoying the taste of your Rosin.
Now that you know about this new flavorful and 100% natural concentrate, all you have to do is try it and tell us what you think!
And as always, feel free to explore our blog to continue learning new things about the exciting world of CBD!
