With so many ways to smoke cannabis these days, it can be easy to get lost in the sauce when it comes to extracts. From concentrates like shatter, wax, crumble, and budder, it’s no wonder it can be confusing selecting the best quality extracts. Perhaps one of the less common – yet most desirable – forms of cannabis extract is live resin.
You might be wondering, what is live resin and how is it different from all the other smokable and dabbable products on the market? Simply put, live resin is made with fresh cannabis flowers and is bursting with flavor. Let’s explore how live resin is made and why its distinguishing features make it the most delicious way to experience cannabis.
What is Live Resin?
Live resin is a cannabis extract made by freezing the cannabis plant immediately after harvest to capture the terpenes while still alive (hence the name). This process maintains the plant’s original terpene profile, producing authentic taste and effects.
This process differs from the usual drying and curing process that cannabis plants normally undergo, which causes the plant to release a large amount of the moisture it typically retains, damaging the trichomes and wreaking havoc on the terpenes. By skipping this step entirely, live resin producers end up with a finished product that more closely resembles the original strain’s natural flavors and effect.
Other types of extracts are typically made with flowers that have been dried and cured or even more commonly made with the trim leftover from manicuring smokable buds. This method damages the trichomes, which in turn alters the flavor and abundance of terpenes. Live resin is an artform of extraction, producing perhaps the most flavorful and terpene-rich smokable and dabbable extract available.
More Than a Trend
In addition to the enhanced taste and effects that live resin offers, the extract has become more widely available and is now offered in various consumption methods. In previous years, live resin extract required a ‘dab setup’ to consume. These setups can be being costly like the concentrate itself. You can now find live resin in many different vape cartridges, at more affordable prices, making the extract more available and easier to consume.
Cannabis consumers were already flocking to vapes for the ease and discrete nature of cartridges, but finding one that offered a real cannabis experience previously proved hard to find. That changed with live resin cartridges, which offer an authentic, potent experience made more affordable and portable. The continuous sales and high quality products seem to prove that live resin is more than just a trend
How is Live Resin Made?
BLOOM specializes in live resin and takes the process to another level. Our method creates an intensely flavorful and effective live resin. You can taste the terpenes bursting on the inhale and soothing your system on the exhale. Our terpenes are truly alive.
Our process begins with a selection of curated strains from licensed growers throughout California. Rather than flash-freezing the cannabis, we head straight back to the extraction lab and process the fresh flowers within 24 hours after harvest. This method protects the precious trichomes and preserves a wide range of live cannabinoids and terpenes, hence the name. From there, we like to continue doing things a little differently.
Solvent
While many other brands use hydrocarbons like butane or propane to make their extracts, we use ethanol. Depending on the genetics, we can retain up to 95% of the original terpene profile with this extraction method. Not to mention it’s gentler on the plants, and the planet. It’s also the reason why we can preserve such a high percentage of terpenes. While hydrocarbon extraction does retain terpenes, ethanol extraction contributes to a higher concentration.
Distillation
Live resin is not a viscous liquid, and to make it thin enough to put into a vape cartridge, it requires cutting agents that act as thinners. BLOOM does not use any additives, but rather, we create a distillate to start as our base. Distillation is the process of applying heat, pressure, and humidity to the cannabis plant to remove any impurities. It also removes the terpenes and flavonoids, which are set aside to be used in the next step.
Combination
Once the extract has been triple distilled and tested for purity, we combine the water-distilled terpenes with the highly concentrated cannabinoids. BLOOM’s proprietary formula has been perfected using a strain fingerprinting technique. Our team is able to break down strains at the molecular level to perform a chemical analysis of each strain profile. We then create a fingerprint of those strains and recreate each profile in our oil that is as close to the original strain as possible. This results in a flavorful, highly potent, terpene-rich live resin with flavor true to the strain every time.
Live Resin Features
Live resin has grown in popularity immensely in recent years. From novice users to cannabis connoisseurs, there is plenty of appeal.
Rich Flavors
Live resin has a broad terpene profile with higher percentages of terpenes than other extracts. The flavor is almost ‘juicy’ when inhaled, awakening the senses. With such a high concentration of terpenes, flavonoids, and cannabinoids, live resin engages the entourage effect. This term describes how these compounds naturally found in the cannabis plant come together to work synergistically, enhancing each other’s benefits. More terpenes means more flavor, but it also means more potent effects.
High Potency
Live resin is potent across the board. BLOOM live resin begins with a distillate which contains higher percentages of THC and other cannabinoids. Then, the curated selection of terpenes is perfectly blended to work in harmony with the cannabinoids. The added convenience of vaping live resin has added significant appeal to many smokers. Previously, you needed a dab rig to vape live resin due to its thick consistency. Rigs are relatively expensive and require other tools like a torch, nail, and carb cap to work effectively. It’s not precise, and you often end up burning up more live resin than you smoke. With BLOOM live resin cartridges, you get the same potent effects without all the hassle.
Strong Strain-Specific Effects
Terpenes are what determine much of the effects of a particular strain. But with hydrocarbon extraction methods, much of the natural terpenes are lost in the process. They are simply too delicate to survive. That’s why BLOOM uses gentle harvest and extraction methods, preserves terpenes through distillation, and customizes standardized terpene formulas for each vape cartridge. This hefty dose of terpenes brings forth the true essence of the original strain.
Possible Side Effects
As with smoking or vaping any kind of product, it’s good to know the potential side effects. Live resin is a very potent product, and even just a few puffs or dabs can result in an uncomfortable high for the novice user. Start out slowly and see how one hit affects you before taking another one.
Having a tolerance before trying out dabbing is highly recommended. But don’t worry – if you happen to get a little too high, just relax, sip some water, and listen to some relaxing music. We don’t recommend mixing cannabis and alcohol. It can make you nauseous and no one wants to get sick from smoking weed! Just remember to start low, and go slow.
BLOOM Live
Our strict sourcing process and unique, eco-friendly extraction method help us achieve the bold, strain-specific taste and effects that set BLOOM Live apart from other live resin vapes. Our goal is simple; find the best fresh flower California offers and use our platform to showcase it. We carefully select outstanding small batches of flower in various strains from growers throughout California from Humboldt to Santa Barbara.
Made with Subcritical H2O Extraction.
BLOOM Live is made using the only extraction method gentle enough to extract up to ~95% of the full terpene profile, including flavonoids, the most delicate terpenes. Using this process, we can maintain each strain’s authentic taste and effects for a real, full cannabis high.
Unlike many other live resin vapes, our live resin products are made with fresh live resin terpenes extracted directly from the plant within 24h after harvest. The terpenes are never frozen. We do this to preserve the terpenes for extraction when they are at their freshest peak. Our subcritical water extraction process allows us to extract up to 95% of the complete terpene profile (which is unheard of in this industry). This method retains up to ~200 terpenes, including monoterpenes and flavonoids, the most gentle and lightweight terpenes.
What sets Bloom Live Resin apart from other live resin vapes?
Our process and craft batches. When creating BLOOM Live, our team needed to implement a process that would preserve as many of the original plant characteristics possible, allowing us to deliver a true to strain high and experience. We created strict procedures to ensure each step of the process is carefully and correctly executed. This is essential in creating top-shelf live resin––we can no longer control the consistency of the strains. Still, we can control the consistency of the quality.
