THREE LIVE RESIN CANNABIS EXTRACTS YOU SHOULD TRY

If there's one cannabis concentrate that stands out as among the most popular, it's undoubtedly live resin, which continues to take the lion's share of sales.

Live resin is one of the higher-end cannabis concentrates due to its richness in potency, flavor, and aroma. Cannabis products made from live resin concentrates include sauce, diamonds, budder, and pods.

The reason why live resin is among the most popular concentrates is that for starters, it's live.

Cured resin and live resin

The most common form of making concentrates entails extracting the plant's trichomes from dried and cured cannabis buds. Trichomes, of course, are what imbue the plant with its unique range of flavors and aromas, along with the compounds that induce a variety of psychoactive sensations in users. 

The process relies on solvents such as butane or alcohol to flush out the concentrated trichomes, and it's simply not to be done at home—ever. Licensed labs use sophisticated equipment to extract the buds' trichomes and then purge the resulting solution, which will later be used to make concentrates.

The difference with live resin is that upon harvest, the cannabis flower is flash-frozen instead of dried and cured. 

Why does that matter? When you dry and cure cannabis buds, you lose some of its compounds, such as the THC that gets you high and the terpenes imbuing the flower with its particular fragrance.

Using freshly frozen cannabis flower during the process of extraction allows producers to retain more of the plant's natural essence or chemical signature. 

Experiencing the full range of a cannabis plant's properties gives users what is known as the “entourage effect.” Because the best live resin cannabis products so efficiently capture each cannabis plant's profile of cannabinoids and terpenes,  users can count on enjoying some of the richest entourage effects cannabis can provide. 

Now, when you walk into a dispensary and see cannabis products derived from the live resin concentrate, you know you're in for a treat. 

But what's the difference between each live resin product?

Live resin products

As one would expect, how live resin is consumed is yet another variable influencing the overall experience. Different consistencies require different methods of consumption.  

Vaping and dabbing are the most common ways, but you'll find prerolled joints infused with live resin as well.

Live resin pods

While live resin is made using a variety of solvents, butane is the most common. The oil in live resin pods is extracted from frozen flower using butane, hence the name, butane hash oil, or BHO. 

As with vaping other concentrates, part of the appeal of vaping live resin is convenience. A portable pen is much more discrete and easier to use on the go than, say, a bulky dab ring! You also don't have to use a blow torch to heat the concentrate. Enough said.

Live resin sauce

These terpene-rich sauces come mixed with grain-sized, sugar-like crystals of THC. The sugary sauce combines aroma and flavor with extremely high potency, and the method of consumption is via dabbing.  

Curated live resin sauces are among the best live resin concentrates in the cannabis industry. But then you have live resin diamonds.

Live resin diamonds 

One of the most attractive looking cannabis products, it's also among the most potent. The impact on your eyes is as powerful as its effects on your mind and body.

As you would expect, the name of the concentrate describes its look and consistency: the THC crystals are allowed to grow into large rocks that look like diamonds.

Like live resin diamonds, curated live resin sauces are among the best live resin concentrates out there.

The potency of live resin diamonds is not to be underestimated. We're talking up to 90% THC. 

The thing is, usually, you don't see diamonds sold on their own, because otherwise, they'd lack the flavor and aroma so cherished by most cannabis users. 

As with the curated live resin sauce with the sugary grain of THC, live resin diamonds will also come in a terpene-rich sauce, giving users the desired entourage effect when dabbed. 

Dabbing live resin sauce and live resin diamonds

There's a reason why live resin diamonds and curated live resin sauce don't come in pods or cartridges. 

For starters, with regards to live resin diamonds, the logistics of getting a diamond to burn correctly inside a vape pen, let alone fitting them in there in the first place, would be a nightmare. So if they are vaped, they'd come in a liquified form.

One of the many intricacies in the art of producing and consuming cannabis concentrates like live resin is that temperature is everything. Too hot, flavor gets lost. Not hot enough, the psychoactive compounds aren't activated.

For curated live resin sauce and diamonds, dabbing is what does the trick. 

That said, you may find diamond sauce cartridges for vape pens, but that experience will likely be problematic when it comes to ensuring the live resin burns consistently.

The price of live resin concentrates

As one would imagine, several factors influence the quality and therefore the price of live resin concentrates like live resin pods, live resin diamonds, and live resin sauces.

The strain, the growers, and producers play a crucial role in determining the end product. Each type of live resin product within the same brand will likely have a similar price, regardless of the strain. 

In other words, the different flavored live resin pods being sold by the same brand will have a similar price. It's not just the product you're buying, but the brand.

That said, even within the same brand, if a particular live resin pod, for example, uses a special strain that can't produce as much as the other strains they use, then it will be more expensive. Basic law supply and demand right there.

Why some brands charge more has the same explanation in the world of cannabis as it does in any other industry. 

A brand with a reputation for quality will understandably charge more for their live resin pods, diamonds, and sauces. That means you'd expect a higher quantity of cannabinoids and terpenes in their live resin concentrates.

Single source brands that buy directly from the grower and manufacture their own products will offer products at a higher price as well, in the same way, that some farm-to-table restaurants do.

How much do live resin pods cost?

Price range: $15-$35/.5 grams.

How much do live resin sauces cost?

Price range: $30-50/g

How much do live resin diamonds cost?

Price range: $40-65/gram. 

The pros and cons of live resin concentrates

There's much debate about how live resin compares to other cannabis concentrates like live rosin. 

When properly extracted and purged of the solvents used to flush out the trichomes, live resin's capacity for containing a plant's full spectrum of cannabis compounds is hard to beat. 

The only drawback is their reliance on solvents. Some people will opt for the solventless method to avoid the risk of any chemical residues in the product. 

There's also the belief that live rosin products can match live resin in both potency, flavor, and aroma–but they're also generally more expensive. 

That said, purchasing from a licensed lab assures you that chemical residuals will have been properly purged, so you don't have to worry.

Using solvents with frozen flower to make live resin is also arguably more efficient at flushing out the cannabis plant's compounds. 

But it's an ongoing debate. What remains true is that products like live resin pods, live resin sauce, and resin diamonds offer some of the best cannabis experiences out there. 

At STIIIZY, we only use premium flowers for all of our cannabis concentrates, including live  resin pods,  curated live resin live resin diamonds , and much more. Explore all of STIIIZY's products  here.