Learn the distinctions between live resin vs rosin vs distillate and how the different types of cannabis resins impact sourcing supply chain, manufacturing and sales.
by Jeff Wu - July 3, 2024
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Cannabis vape businesses often try to make products without understanding sourcing, facility needs, and barriers of entry for different types of resin.

Some resins are easy to source, while other resins are nearly impossible to make profitable given the state of the market and regulations.

This article focuses on the 4 main types of resin available to manufacturing companies: distillate, live or cured resin, rosin, hemp/CBD conversions (D8/D10/THCP, etc…) and covers the advantages and disadvantages of each product type.

Distillate

Distillate is the primary psychoactive material in Cannabis. Distillate carts are the most common on the market and the easiest to formulate.

Things to watch for:

Many new supplier entrants to the market do not understand how to color remediate and are still using basic sort paths for production. The combination of high temperature and lack of in-line analytics (HPLC/MS) cause quality to vary widely.
Suppliers should be able to explain how they color/pH remediate and have distillation equipment like wipe films or falling films.
The best D9 THC is manufactured by decarboxylating crystalized THCA and is not available on the open market – most of the material is going into live resin production or dab concentrates.

Distillate
Advantages Ready source – in many states many companies have a readily available supply distillate at scale

Relative quality – high grade consistent material is available albeit usually at a slight premium
Disadvantages Commodity pricing tends to swing wildly based on market conditions.

Quality issues in color and D9 percentage still exist in the lower price points.

 

Live/Cured Resin

Live/cured resin premium full spectrum cannabis extract extracted with butane and propane. Live/cured resin is challenging to make well due to the need to preserve plant material from farm to extraction.

Things to watch for:

Extraction at incorrect temperature: green extract (chlorophyll) or waxy extract means that the extraction column was at too high of a temperature.

Manual vs Automated BHO extraction systems: use of last-gen manual extraction systems versus automated systems like LUNA or Precision Extraction. There are over 10 variables extraction technicians have to monitor and automation resolves many of those issues.

Pesticides Concentration – the BHO extraction process concentrates pesticides from undetectable amounts to failing regulations; trace amounts in flower or raw plant materials  can be multiplied by 50X. This adds numerous complications in farming (spray timing) and extraction.

Live / Cured Resin
Advantages High customer demand

Easy to fill into carts – live resin has easy viscosity characteristics that allow for low effort filling

Easier to grow product without pesticides – BHO extraction process removes insects like mites and aphids

Can utilize heavy metal tainted farm land and heavy metal tainted plant material – BHO processes strips out heavy metals for live and cured resins
Disadvantages Temperature sensitive – cold storage and proper mixing, warming and cart filling systems are required to handle live /cured resin without degradation.

No bulk supply – at this moment, no market has a stable supply of bulk live or cured resin ready for purchase.

Requires direct farm support – all live resin production requires a partner farm to supply raw plant material

Cold chain requirements – raw fresh frozen plant material needs to be frozen which requires cold chain transport and cold storage.

Physical storage volume – fresh frozen plant material takes up significant space compared to dried and cured product which can be partly compressed.

 

Rosin

Rosin is a pressed premium full-spectrum cannabis extract made similar to how cold-pressed olive oil. However, very few strains can yield large amounts of sifted or washed trichomes, making this product a niche batch product.

Things to watch for:

Champagning effects – cause leaks in carts – require – very careful preparation before cart filling to degas, with precise temperature-controlled vacuum oven to perform the process.
Potential for crystallization in carts without prior decarbing – rosin has unpredictable crystallization behavior that clogs carts, leading to the need to at least partly decarb the THCA before filling into vapes.

Rosin
Advantages Very high customer demand

No extraction equipment is necessary

Licensing is easy to obtain to make Rosin

More friendly on pesticides and herbicide usage – even if trace amounts are detected in flower many times due to the press process vs hydrocarbon wash, pesticides are not concentrated in rosin extract.
Disadvantages Very very low supply – Usually made from kief from trimming lines – therefore supply is very limited.

Very Temperature sensitive – browns very easily, cold storage and proper mixing, warming and cart filling systems are required to handle rosin without degradation.

Champagning effects – cause leaks in carts

Limited strains for only rosin – only a handful of strains have trichome structures that are susceptible to be cold washed and sifted. A lot of material is wasted if leftover plant matter is not further extracted.

Difficult to fill into carts without specialized equipment like the Xylem X4 – rosin temperatures need to be low to prevent browning or off-gassing

Lots of wax in final product can impact mouthfeel

 

CBD / Hemp conversions (D8,D9, D10 etc..)

CBD to THC conversion is very easy to perform, usually with PTSA (D8), Aluminum trichloride (D9), or BF3 etherate (Mixture). However, the quality and quantity of this opaque market add to the risk when making these products. Additionally, there are very difficult regulatory climates, along with federal rules being made.

Things to watch for:

Purple vapes – which can be corrected by smart pH balancing or buying color-remediated inputs.
The market moves faster than cannabis with lots of cross-over into E-cigs.

CBD / Hemp Conversions
Advantages Ready Supply

Easy to make from CBD – with 2 reactors and simple distillation equipment

Licensing is easy to obtain and interstate transport (for the most part)

No issues with pesticides and herbicides
Disadvantages Very few suppliers perform color and pH remediation – leading to brown and purple resins.

Market is flooded and competitive knock off vapes – while there is no Federal enforcement & no Federal Protection for trademarks by the USPTO leading to difficulty in branding and intellectual property enforcement.

Very uncertain regulatory climate

 

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Jeff Wu

Technical Director
Investor & entrepreneur, bringing a unique blend of scientific knowledge and hands-on experience in pharma, laboratory, manufacturing, and cannabis. Deep understanding of chemistry, electronics manufacturing, automation, and cannabis processing.