What’s the Difference Between Rosin and Resin?

what is the difference between rosin and resin

With all the cannabis terminology out there, it’s easy to get confused.

But when you end up at a dispensary, you don’t want to confuse rosin and resin. These are two kinds of high THC cannabis concentrates that are popular nowadays, but there’s so much more to the name, and they each have unique properties.

Let’s get to know them a little bit more.

Live Resin

Live resin is famous for its tasty flavor, as well as its high THC content. It is easily the best-tasting out of all kinds of cannabis concentrates, since it’s made using a distinct process that is designed to keep more of those fragrant, delicious terpenes. And that’s why live resin has so much pure cannabis and tons of flavor and aroma.

In order to produce live resin, cannabis is freshly harvested and then flash-frozen, exposed to temperatures of almost -300F. The extraction then takes place, but since the temperatures are so low, it doesn’t burn off the valuable terpenes of the cannabis plant. However, the process to make live resin can be pretty complicated so it’s a bit more difficult to find. It can only be made by highly trained lab technicians who have access to specialized equipment.

Just so you know, concentrates with the term “live” attached to it means that it’s been extracted from freshly harvested cannabis. This would be the opposite of other concentrates such as shatter or wax, which are extracted from cannabis that has been dried then cured prior to processing.

Live Rosin

Rosin doesn’t just refer to a concentrate; it’s also a means of extracting the cannabinoid and terpene content to create a concentrate but without the use of hydrocarbon extraction. Extracting rosin doesn’t need to use any chemicals or solvents but it’s extracted from the plant through pressure and heat. This method allows producers to immediately extract a strong sap from dried cannabis matter, but it can also be extracted from kief and hash.

The resulting gooey sap is thick, and it doesn’t need to be cleaned since unlike other kinds of concentrates, no chemicals need to be removed. For this reason, health-conscious connoisseurs tend to prefer live rosin; it’s also beneficial for health because it’s rich in terpenes and cannabinoids for an added boost. Rosin is extremely popular among cannabis consumers since it’s full-spectrum and free of chemicals.

Resin

Resin comes in many forms, though in general it’s the brown, sticky matter that you find on the exterior of the cannabis flower. It’s derived from the trichomes of the plant, which also produce the highest amounts of CBD, THC, and other valuable cannabinoids. That’s why when resin is extracted, it’s the most potent part of the entire cannabis plant, giving you a very strong high with a little amount.

Resin can be made in a variety of ways, you can even extract it yourself simply by rubbing the trichomes against your hand, then pressing all the resin together. It’s the easiest type of extract to come across since you can also get it yourself. You can also collect resin just by using your grinder; the more you grind it, the more you’re left with little sand-like particles on the bottom of the grinder – which are known as kief. When you sprinkle them on your bowl or press them together, you can

But the resin you buy in dispensaries is made using more complex, professional methods. The process to make it is similar to that of making hash in the sense that they are both compressed, but there are also other ways to make it. Other common ways of producing resin involve rubbing large portions of weed over a thin mesh; the resin eventually slips through the mesh and once collected will be used to make resin-based products or hash. But if it’s hash you’re after, you’ll need additional equipment.

What’s interesting about resin is that it’s produced naturally by the plant as a means of protecting itself, thanks to evolution. The presence of resin on the cannabis trichomes serves an important function of deterring pests and protecting it from harsh ultraviolet rays from the sun. However, resin is so sought after because it’s responsible for the medicinal as well as psychoactive effects of the plant.

You can enjoy the benefits of the resin whenever you smoke or vape cannabis, but you also consume the plant’s other parts. For this reason, many people prefer to consume it separately through its highly concentrated form.

Rosin

Rosin is a type of extraction process for producing potent extracts that have a similar look and feel to shatter. But while live resin uses frozen cannabis material, the Rosin process uses extremely high heat to extract the resin from cannabis. As a result, the concentrates that are made from Rosin looks like an amber substance resembling budder and shatter.

Rosin is a solvent-less process that exposes cannabis to pressure and high heat in order to separate it from the rest of the cannabis plant. Many think of it as a way to produce shatter without having to clean the end product of any solvents that may have stayed. Though it’s fairly easy to make simple Rosin, the high-quality products you see in dispensaries require some high-tech equipment. But you can make it at home with hair straightening irons and other similar tools to expose cannabis to high pressure and heat.

Bottom Line

Live resin and live rosin vary greatly in their purity as well as method of extraction. Live resin is made from solvents while live rosin is free of solvents. Live resin is also made from flash-frozen cannabis using BHO as well as closed-loop recapture methods but live rosin requires more processing through full-melt bubble hash extracted from the plant matter before it’s finally pressed into the end product.

Rosin and resin are equally unique concentrates as well, which are worth trying out. They will all give you varied effects that are intense, though the products are easy to use. The best one for you all depends on your preferences, so if you have access to all of them, why not give them a try?