I have an infused preroll client who has a line of Live Resin prerolls we are trying to launch for them. I am not in the extraction space deeply enough to know if what they are asking for is realistic for live resin specs, or what the issue really is. We have been attempting to source passable LR for 3 months to no avail.
The qualifications they ask for are:
10 - 12% Terpenes
+75% THC
Liquid / runny consistency, NOT sugared.
So my question is, are these numbers difficult / realistic to obtain from LR extraction? It may also be the material commonly used in OK is just low grade and already lost too many terps, or the fact our labs are too trash to provide accurate specs.
That said - If any oklahomies have some resin that passes these qualifications, drop me a line!
It sounds like they either don’t know what they’re asking for or you don’t know what they’re asking. Live resin (if any good at all) is super duper not about high potency. It’s all about terpenes. Basically if it’s over 50% cannabinoids it wasn’t extracted properly.
They might be asking for distillate infusion with live resin terps, where the distillate would be 85-90% and then like 10% LR terp sauce, and added to the joint material at something like a 10-25% add rate.
The consistency they want makes this a weird ask. I would just take your live resin and decarb it, then check your terpene/cannabinoid potency again. Low and slow on the decarb with no vacuum to preserve the terps!
10-12% terps is going to require some really good input material, though.
Separate them first and just decarb the noids so it doesn’t taste like a fat man that never brushes his teeth or flosses and only chews on watermelon ice breakers
In an ideal world, sure. but there are ways to decarb live resin and make a great product. plus its going into infused prerolls so it’s not like you’ll taste all the nuances
I would argue that if your live resin concentrate is not over 50% cannabinoids prior to any separation then it wasn’t extracted properly… what would the other 50% be? All terpenes? There is a much higher ratio of cannabinoids to terpenes in frozen cannabis than 1:1
I completely agree. if anything poured out of my system at less than 50% thca i would be VERY worried… it would also be very obvious something went wrong like you completely thawed your frozen bag and poured out a few kilos of water lol.
My major thought here is that an expectation of net <15% undesirables (i.e. not THC or terps) seems potentially unrealistic to obtain by the standard Live BHO method, or to have a THC % in that range and it not sugaring. I am no expert here, moreso I am framing it as it has been framed to me to get community thoughts.
I think @reactoroperator and @moveweight are right on the money. I actually intentionally didnt say that to put the thought in anyones head, but I have been thinking this. In fact, I even asked the client for COAs for LR their other partners sourced out of state to check myself between D9 and THCA since I know what I am looking for, and was told that “the license holder in that state is very restrictive about their COAs” and never received any … I have had a feeling that was the most likely option but wanted to ask in a neutal way what everyone thought before pretending to be an expert to the client. But it seems based on these answers those numbers are in fact more likely from a disty+terp combo.
I do also appreciate all the advice on decarbing LR! We have actually done that in a few formulations, similar to liquid diamond tek, but even with a more expansive list of LR options considering texture it is still seeming unrealistic to in our market to hit +10% terps and 75% THC. I suppose if we really want to stick with the LR route, we could search for more in the HTE range, but would it be possible to regularly source HTE of >75% THC?
No. If it still has that many cannabinoids, it is not HTE. 30% or lower is what I would expect. What makes HTE HTE is the removal of a vast majority of the THCa from the crude oleoresin. People crash out as much of the THCa as possible and remove it. What is not crashed (and is then subsequently purged of remaining solvent) is the HTE; it is the mother liquor that allowed the precipitation of the THCa as either sugar or diamonds.
Also, by removing the THCa, one thereby increases the concentration of the terpenes, giving much higher ratio of terpenes to cannabinoids. It is also likely that one will see greater concentrations of minor cannabinoids, as they tend not to precipitate as easily as THCa.
Also, I’m pretty sure you meant THCa and not (D9)THC. If you are looking for decarbed live resin that is greater than 75%, that is possible but won’t be easily to source without it being wrecked by the processor. That’s not as easy of a trick to do right or consistently for most.
Also no. The higher the cannabinoid content, the higher the viscosity, especially when decarbed. If you want something low viscosity that will not sugar, that requires removing a majority of the cannabinoids via mechanical (precipitation and filtration) or phase change (distillation) separation. Distilled terpenes are not, however, HTE. They are just terpenes (unless someone messed up the distillation). HTE still has some cannabinoids and other knowns/unknowns (possibly including but not limited to: pigments, tannins, lipids, sugars, chlorophyll, plant oils, esters, keytones, etc).
Hope that answers your questions and helps you understand a bit more about what it is you are looking for. Pardon the unnecessarily long-winded response. I do suggest doing some more reading here to try and educate yourself on what exactly you are trying to do/find. The search bar here is an invaluable tool (with the right query).
No my man, this is perfect! Specifics are exactly what I am looking for and extremely helpful. I should clarify though - I am asking here to sanity check my clients sourcing request and assure my intuitions are correct about what they are asking for, NOT to determine a suitable approach for developing the product for them or solving the issue just yet. Like I said in the first post, they have specific qualifications we are expected to source, to match what the other CM in a different market is supposedly sourcing. MSO brands wanting consistent product across states means attempting to match everything perfectly. So instead of wasting my time searching for a leprechaun, I am asking the community if they exist first, so to speak. Like I said, I think they are getting terped distillate and the CM in that state (only one currently producing the sku) is lying to them, and now they expect us to be able to source the impossible. They think that since the other CM is supposedly sourcing it, we should be able to as well. So specifics on how and why this is unrealistic to source is what I am looking for to more effectively communicate to the client since my live BHO knowledge is to limited to explain.
I would be going about this in en entirely different way if it was up to me - but I am a service business.
No from this I meant I wanted to see the COAs from the other manufacturer to determine if they were getting terped disty or actual live resin, since the client likely wouldnt be able to tell the difference from the COA. If it was purely D9 with no THCA, then it would likely be disty (unless they decarbed extremely well with great terp retention I guess) - but as you mentioned, this doesnt seem to be something you just pick up from your guy, but more of an edge case that you would likely have to have made for you if even possible.
This is an excellent and interesting point! Since the crystillization is purifying the THCA and removing it the minors would have to increase in percentage. This is a really interesting side note to ponder on.
I have had a feeling that was the most likely option but wanted to ask in a neutal way what everyone thought before pretending to be an expert to the client. But it seems based on these answers those numbers are in fact more likely from a disty+terp combo.
