Few industries today are more exciting and ever-evolving than the current cannabis industry. From vape carts to pods, all-in-one devices to baller buckets, there’s a fresh product or twist on an old favorite nearly every time a consumer steps through a retailer’s door.
So, what should you know about the most popular concentrate types for extractors or consumers? Consider this as your guide to all things concentrates.
Here, we’ll cover all the basics of the best concentrate types, including live resin, rosin, wax, and budders. Keep reading to brush up on all the key differences, explore what’s new across the industry, or learn for the first time as a novice.
Getting To Know The Different Concentrate Types
At their core, concentrates refer to the extracted or “concentrated” oil from cannabis plants. The plant’s flowers are coated in trichomes, bulbous and resinous heads containing a concentrated amount of cannabis’ precious compounds – such as cannabinoids (like THC and CBD) and terpenes. This oil is extracted through various methods (which differ from concentrate types), resulting in varied end-products. Like the ones we’ll learn about next.
Types Of Concentrates
Concentrates provide consumers with a highly potent and premium product to enjoy. Various concentrate types allow consumers to pick and choose which best suits their unique preferences and routines.
Since the market shows no signs of slowing down, with the Brightfield Group, a cannabis analytics firm, projecting it to reach $3.2 billion in 2024 (up from $2.4 billion in 2022), it’s wise to learn as much as you can about extracts to capitalize on their growth.
To catch you up or clue you in, here are four of the most popular concentrate types in 2024.
Live Resin
The term “live” can be used with resin or rosins and refers to the flower material used for extraction. Rather than using dry, cured flower material post-harvest, the material is immediately frozen, capturing the plant’s essence at the peak of its freshness, hence its “live” nature.
The resin classification simply notes that the concentrate was extracted using solvent-based versus solventless methods. Live resin is most commonly extracted with CO2 or a hydrocarbon blend. Rest assured, the solvents are purged before the end product to ensure the extract is safe.
Live resins (and rosins) are most commonly strain-specific or made from one cannabis strain to provide the consumer with the purest form of enjoying the plant’s cannabinoids and terpenes.
Rosins
Conversely, rosins are solventless extracts that extract the trichomes from plant material using temperature and pressure. Rosin presses use heat to press flower material to separate and collect the oil from the flower without using solvents.
Because some solvents are used with solvent-based methods (like butane and ethanol), they are considered harmful, but rosin is considered the cleanest concentrate type overall.
Rosins can also be “live,” where the material is freshly frozen upon harvesting.
Wax
Wax refers to a concentrate type that is, no surprise, wax-like in consistency. It’s typically made with solvent-based extraction methods, like BHO, and has a soft, sticky texture that’s ideal for dab pens or dab rigs.
Budder
Again, like wax, budder refers to a concentrate’s end texture or consistency. It relates to concentrates that are more “buttery” or creamier versus other varying types, like shatter (which is translucent and pliable) or crumble (which is drier and more crumbly).
The key to the budder’s unique texture is the whipping process. After the solvent is purged, the extract is whipped at a specific temperature. This agitation incorporates air and changes the consistency to a creamy, buttery texture.
How To Use Them
As innovative as concentrates can be, so are the ways you can use them for consumption. Here are the top ways consumers today are using concentrate types.
Vape Pens or Devices
Piggybacking off of nicotine vape’s popularity are cannabis vapes. These vape devices, whether a 510 cart filled with concentrate, an all-in-one-device or a “disposable” vape, are the most popular with Gen Z and Millennial generations, who make up 70.8% of all vape pen sales based on data from Headset.
Dabs
Dabbing or dabs is the act of flash vaporizing cannabis concentrates with the use of a dab rig, an electronic rig, or a dab pen. With a dab rig, consumers light the “nail” or “banger” of the rig, and when heated to the desired temperature, drop the dab inside with a metal dabber tool and inhale through the rig’s mouthpiece.
The e-rigs work similarly but heat up electronically rather than using a torch to light the nail or banger. Dab pens contain a removable mouthpiece, where you can place the concentrate or “dab” inside, above the heating apparatus, and upon activating the pen to heat, inhale the vapor through its mouthpiece.
Infused Flower
Some consumers will use concentrate types to infuse their flower by adding them to their bowls, joints, or pre-roll cones, increasing overall strength.
Advantages
Cannabis concentrates offer consumers a few unique advantages, hence their growth in sales and popularity.
- Higher potency: Concentrates often contain much higher levels of THC or CBD compared to flower, which can provide a stronger and more immediate effect.
- Efficiency: Because of their potency, a smaller amount of concentrate is needed to achieve the desired effects, making it more efficient in consumption.
- Variety of consumption methods: Concentrates can be consumed in various ways, such as dabbing, vaping, adding to edibles, or even infusing flower or pre-rolls.
- Discretion: Concentrates can be more discreet due to less odor and the ability to consume smaller amounts.
- Medical benefits: For medical users, the higher potency and rapid onset of effects can be particularly beneficial for managing certain conditions.
Extraction Methods
While we briefly discussed various extraction methods in our concentrate types sections, let’s dive deeper to understand each individually.
Solvent-based extractions
- Butane Hash Oil (BHO): Butane strips cannabinoids and terpenes from plant material. The resulting product can be purged of residual butane to create various concentrates, such as shatter, wax, and crumble.
- CO2 Extraction: This method uses carbon dioxide under high pressure and low temperature to extract cannabinoids. It is considered safe and produces a clean product, often used for vape cartridges and oils.
- Ethanol Extraction: Ethanol is another solvent used to strip cannabinoids and terpenes and is often used to create tinctures and edibles.
Solventless extractions
- Rosin Press: This involves applying heat and pressure to cannabis flower or hash to squeeze out the resin. This method is popular for its purity and simplicity, producing rosin.
- Dry Sifting: Using fine screens to separate trichomes from the plant material, dry sifting produces the resulting product, kief, which can be further pressed into hash.
- Ice Water Extraction (Bubble Hash): Involves agitating cannabis in ice water to separate trichomes, which are then filtered through screens of varying sizes to produce bubble hash.
Hydrocarbon Extraction
- A combination of hydrocarbons (e.g., butane and propane) can be used to extract cannabinoids and terpenes. The process is similar to BHO, resulting in products like live resin.
Distillation
- Involves heating the cannabis extract to separate cannabinoids by their boiling points. This method produces highly pure and potent distillate, often used in vape cartridges and edibles.
Supercritical Fluid Extraction
- Supercritical extraction uses supercritical fluids (e.g., supercritical CO2) to dissolve and extract cannabinoids. This advanced and precise method is often used for high-quality extracts.
Choosing Concentrates
Choosing which concentrate type is best for you, consumption-wise will be subjective, based on your unique tastes, preferences, and needs. A few factors that may weigh in on your decision include –
- Medical or recreational use: This can help determine what type of cannabinoids to seek out, i.e., higher concentrations of CBD for certain conditions or higher concentrations of THC for recreational or social use.
- How you’ll consume: If you don’t have a dab rig or any flower to infuse, you’ll want to choose an all-in-one device that includes the heating apparatus required to consume.
- Your skill level: If you’re new to consuming, it’s best to go low and slow with concentrate types due to their potency. Since dabs require rigs or e-devices that are pretty costly, it might be best to stick to vapes until you’re ready to upgrade.
- Budget: Concentrate types can vary significantly in cost from market to market, brand to brand, and type to type. Ultimately, choosing the concentrate type that’s best for you might come down to what you can afford.
As for extractors, choosing the concentrates you produce will vary depending on the market in which you operate, the types of flower or strains you have access to, the equipment or extraction method you’ll use, and the type of end-product you plan to produce (dabs, versus carts, disposables, etc.).
Quality And Safety Considerations
When buying cannabis concentrates legally, the state’s testing requirements ensure the type is safe to consume. Every concentrate and cannabis product is subject to rigorous testing to ensure it is free of contaminants, pesticides, and other materials, like heavy metals, etc.
As for quality, research online reviews, ask a trusted budtender, or try the product to see if it meets your requirements (e.g., aroma, potency, consistency, etc.).
Final Thoughts About Concentrate Types
As you can see, concentrate types are ever-evolving and aren’t a fleeting trend. Dabbing and vaping are two of the most popular consumption methods, and the product category is expected to continue to grow. That means if you’re an extractor, competition will only continue to grow, too.
Optimizing your jar-filling and device-filling game will be crucial to standing out amongst the crowd with a premium, quality product and turning a profit by making your processes that much more efficient.
Cut down on product losses, preserve concentrate terpenes and cannabinoids, and fill better with Vape-Jet. Learn more about our collection of products that support various concentrate types and leading extractors across the US.
