Rosin is a solventless cannabis concentrate created using heat and pressure to remove trichomes from cannabis plant matter. Rosin is commonly consumed with a dab rig, but can also come in vape cartridges. Rosin is considered by many to be the purest form of cannabis concentrate because it’s not made with chemicals, and is also considered to be high quality.
“This rosin is so clean and pure!”
“I’m stoked that rosin is starting to show up in vape carts.”
How to make rosin
All cannabis extraction methods remove trichomes, which hold all of the cannabinoids and terpenes, from the rest of the plant. Rosin does so using heat and pressure. Large-scale rosin production involves a hydraulic press with heated plates, and you can make rosin at home with a rosin press or even a hair straightener.
To make rosin, cannabis flower is placed in a nylon mesh bag—the bag acts as a filter, keeping plant material inside the bag and allowing oil from the trichome glands to seep out. The bag with flower is placed between two heated plates, and the plates are pressed together. The oil that seeps out is rosin.
The highest quality rosin is hash rosin. Instead of starting with cannabis flower, the starting material is hash, either dry sift or water hash. Because hash is already refined, less plant matter goes into the rosin press and less plant matter comes out.
Live rosin is another form of rosin that uses fresh plant material instead of buds that have been dried and cured. This produces a rosin with a higher terpene content, which is more flavorful.
Benefits of rosin
The process of creating rosin is much simpler than creating solvent-based extracts—you can make rosin at home, but it is not recommended to make solvent-based extractions.
Solvent-based extraction methods can be a harsh process for the compounds in cannabis. Rosin retains those compounds, offering the consumer a concentrate that is the closest thing to the plant, minus the plant material.