What is Rosin & Why Does it Matter?
In just a few years, rosin became one of the cannabis industry's most talked about products. With customers clamoring for cleaner, purer products that produce better highs, rosin made sense to many. Today, the rosin market is expanding. New products producing increasingly better yields are hitting the market.
What some once saw as a fad is now a potential market disruptor. Rosin has made a beloved product much more accessible. So much so that many in the market are evolving and taking more interest in high-yield rosin. Today, it matters what equipment you make your rosin with.
We’ll be sure to discuss your equipment as well as rosin’s origins more below. So let’s explore rosin and where it may soon be heading:
What is Rosin?
What was originally intended for violin products is now beloved by the cannabis community. In marijuana's case, rosin is an extraction method that releases resin from an array of marijuana products like:
Flower
Shake
Dry sift kief
Hash
The rosin process comes from combining high heat and immense pressure to produce a solvent-less hash oil (SHO) via a rosin press or homemade products. This method brings out your product's oil out from its trichome heads, resulting in a high-terpene, full-melt. When executed correctly, your rosin yield will be a golden yellow sap with high potency. Best of all, it only takes seconds.
These reasons have made rosin a well-known technique in DIY circles for years. Recently, however, technological advancements made it possible for a more sophisticated machine process.
Rosin’s potency has the potential of going above 90% while flower tops out at 30% at most. This is no surprise to any casual concentrate fan, though. What may be surprising, however, is rosin’s comparisons to other notable products on the market. Rosin ranks in the same potency levels as all other major offerings.
The marijuana market is constantly expanding in the age of legalization. The demand for cleaner, safer products is on the rise as more senior citizens, and health-centric individuals discover cannabis. While this has made many clamor for all things concentrates, not every product is equal.
Comparing Rosin to the Market
There are several kinds of concentrates on the market today. The product SHO get most compared to is butane hash oil (BHO). While both fall into the same family of cannabis products, their extraction process makes them vastly different.
What makes rosin stand out to so many customers is its solvent-free technique. As you would expect from its name, BHO is not solvent-free. Its use of butane strips the product by removing its cannabinoids. By eliminating the cannabinoids from the terpenes, you lose some of its effects, as some would argue. Additionally, in comparison to SHO’s near-instant process, BHO is a less timely method due to its backend where you have to purge the butane before your concentrate is consumable. This can take 24 hours or longer. While rosin or SHO is a more labor intensive process, BHO is often used for bulk production since so much can be run at a time. Rosin more often than not is a labor of love from artisanal extractors looking to make the best of the best.
Furthermore, a SHO process virtually requires you to use quality flower. If you want to pass microbial and contamination testing, you have to use top notch product. In a BHO process, you can make due with low-trichomes, subpar starting material. By allowing chemicals to be pumped into the process, you can get away with unappealing assets like moldy flower, cheap trim and other unwanted entities.
And that’s how you get bad shatter, which isn’t the only option you have!
Many incorrectly attribute BHO as the only source of shatter. However, rosin is used in shatter as well as other waxes, budder and other textures. This makes a solvent-free option accessible to the majority of the market. In turn, rosin grows while health risks decline.
When made correctly, rosin compares favorably to other concentrates and textures. This is a fact more users are beginning to see as they shift away from their DIY processes. Now, this isn’t meant to put down BHO or other concentrates and textures across the board. However, with health a growing concern, rosin finds itself in a very favorable light.
Why People Choose Rosin
People have been selecting rosin for years. And now, solvent-free rosin is gaining steam as each year passes. As we mentioned, rosin is changing the game. The bar is going higher for your flower and methods. However, the rise in tech hasn’t made it any harder to understand. Even today’s most complicated presses can be mastered in just an hour or two’s tutelage.
A lot of history has been made in the cannabis industry over the last few years. So it may not be a surprise that we aren’t giving rosin its fair distinction. That being said, rosin technology is doing just that. Its advancements brought a versatile concentrate to the market without the health risks.
Everything from the process to its end product is efficient. The results are telling, and the users are satisfied. When executed properly, rosin is meeting and exceeding potency bars of its counterparts. Furthermore, the costs are minimal on the back-end. After the initial purchase, the only other investment will be for refilling supplies. Couple this with the significantly cheaper setup cost that comes with rosin over BHO production and the cost benefits start to pile up quickly.
Today, rosin presses have the capabilities to produce industrial-sized yields with ease. These presses, as well as in-home machines, have the capabilities to give you complete control and better ROIs. For example at PurePressure, the Pikes Peak rosin press can process between 4 and 5lb of flower, or 8 to 12 lb of dry sift/kief or hash during an 8-hour shift. With two employees, this can go up even higher.
The Rise in Rosin
As previously mentioned, the rosin technique origin began in the DIY space. Today, users continue to use the basics to create their yields:
A hair straightener
Parchment paper
A collection tool
Heat-resistant gloves
This type accessibility made rosin a no-brainer for many in the community. Its simplicity and resulting yield combine for a streamlined process for customers. Furthermore, rosin helped break the wall down between the technical side of cannabis and their fandom. Those wanting to enter the field but unaware of the right steps now had an easy option to invest in.
By 2015, rosin started earning distinctions like “trend of the year” Dispensaries took notice soon enough. They began getting involved and selling rosin at their locations. Today, most legal marketplaces stock SHO due to its growing popularity among connoisseur dabbers. If your local dispensary doesn’t, make sure to demand that they do so you can try some!
Rosin was once the byproduct of the misuse of a hair straightener and other presses. Today, rosin presses are taking home industry awards and setting the standard for concentrates. In 2017, PurePressure’s Pikes Peak rosin press earned honors such as:
The Future of Rosin
The future of rosin appears bright and shows no signs of slowing. The potential health benefits of rosin make it a prime product for the health conscious. Meanwhile, its ease of use and minimal safety risk make it the sensible choice for small yields and at-home productions.
The next step for SHO is a legalized world is to tap into marketing. If buyers get educated to rosin, as it has been the case in the past few years, more will come over to its side. With equal potency at a much lower cost, the move only makes sense.
As the cannabis industry moves forward, rosin seems to be the horse it saddles up to. Its clear advantages for both home and business use makes it the prime option for virtually every customer in the space.
Gauging the next wave of the cannabis market is a risky move. That’s why the majority of businesses are penny stocks at the moment. However, if you wanted to make one bet, make it rosin. It’s sure to be part of the industry’s future for some time to come.
October 20, 2017 by Andrew Ward
Credit: https://gopurepressure.com/blogs/rosin-education/what-is-rosin-why-does-it-matter