A Guide To Understanding Cannabis Concentrates
August 13, 2020

Live resin has gained large popularity in recent years, and you’ve probably seen it or heard of it before! But what exactly is live resin and how does it differ from other cannabis concentrates like shatter or glass? Read on to find out!

Cannabis Concentrates: Shatter and Wax

While both options offer roughly 60% higher concentration than traditional cannabis options, their appearance and texture vary significantly.

The texture of wax is almost like a butter or very thick oil. After extraction, the liquid that will become wax looks like what will become shatter, but the final product is a yellow-brown color.

Shatter has a much harder texture than wax. In fact, it is comparable to rock candy or caramelized sugar. Rather than being thick and opaque like wax, shatter is transparent because the tightly packed molecules allow light to pierce through it. Shatter is also a more pure shade of amber.

While both shatter and wax offer the same benefits, the difference between using them boils down to preference. Wax is softer, and therefore less stable, and will need to be used up more quickly. Shatter is stronger and offers a longer shelf life, but the strength from shatter also means you experience a weaker aroma and flavor profile than you would with wax.

Live Resin

There are many different ways to extract the desired components of cannabis. When it comes to concentrates, butane hash-oil (BHO) is the most common form. Live resin is actually a form of BHO, but more of a connoisseur grade that focuses on maintaining a strong and pure flavour profile. While the production process of BHO is relatively simple, producing live resin is much more complex.

Simply put, live resin is produced similarly to BHO, but using fresh, flash frozen flower, instead of flower that has been dried and cured.

Freezing freshly picked buds immediately after harvesting preserves the full flavor profile and helps extract a wider range of cannabinoids and terpenes. 

Although live resin is an amazing cannabis product for medicinal users to try, it requires very specialist equipment to make, and it best left up to the experts – it is seriously next-level extraction!

Since live resin has more terpenes, it has more flavor and aromas. Terpenes work with your body when you smell and inhale them. These terpenes actually modulate the effects of THC, so they are your key to knowing if a particular strain is right for you. All other concentrates are made from dried cured flower, so they will be flavorful, but the flavor is muted in comparison since the full terpene profile is not preserved after the curing process. Live resin is the purest terpene profile you can find in a cannabis plant.

Contact Our Missouri Medical Marijuana Dispensaries!

At Flora Farms, we’re dedicated to providing the best overall customer experience to medical marijuana patients in Missouri. That’s why we’ve meticulously gathered the most trusted resources to help make everything from applying for your medical card to understanding dosage and consumption methods to the overall benefits of marijuana. Flora Farms cultivation facility and dispensaries are coming to Neosho, Humansville, and Springfield MO in Fall 2020. Connect with us today!