Concentrates
New Year’s Resolution: Give Rosin Another Chance
This new year, one writer resolves to appreciate rosin, the dabbable extract made from applying heat and pressure (often with a hair straightener) directly on cannabis flower or hash, a little bit more.
I have a confession to make, and I know it’s one that’s going to cost me some support in the cannabis community, but I cannot in good conscience conceal such a central part of my identity any longer: I’m Greg Zeman, and I’m a straight-up rosin hater.
I can feel the collective snapping of a million hair straightening irons in anger at those words, and I totally understand. In the eyes of countless rosin tech devotees, I am a heretic rejecting the redeeming gospel of solventless dabs. It’s true, it’s simple and safe to make rosin because it doesn’t require any solvents for extraction like other concentrates such as BHO require. This article isn’t intended to stir up a BHO versus solventless debate, I’m merely here to say that this year I want to understand both sides of the argument.
Full disclosure: I consider properly purged BHO to be a relatively safe (and exceptionally enjoyable) product, which is why I consume it regularly. I think when the potential risks of inhaling minuscule amounts of residual solvent are balanced against some of the physical limitations of “rosin tech” when it comes to removing potentially harmful waxes and lipids and heightened risks associated with microbial contamination, the two final products are roughly equal in terms of potential for harm.
Ultimately, both count on a person who knows what they’re doing to correctly process clean, quality material for a clean, quality final product, because none of this is magic — it’s basic organic chemistry.
So to my mind, the decision to dab rosin, BHO or some other form of concentrate really comes down to personal preference. I mean, that’s what my more or less rational mind says… but my heart? Well, that brings us back to my deep, gnawing personal issues with rosin. Not with all solventless extracts per se, because I love hash — the issue is just with rosin.
The truth is I’ve had the opportunity to try some of the best rosin out there. I’m not naming any names, because the point of this article is not to criticize people who make or enjoy rosin. Because they aren’t the problem, I am. But I can almost guarantee you this; that name you’re thinking of right now? That absolute top-shelf offering from the undisputed royalty of rosin tech? Whatever name that is, I’ve probably dabbed that too.
And I’m telling you, it was wasted on me. They rarely gave me the clean, concentrated burst of terpenes and cannabinoids I was looking for, and when they did, I found excuses to hate them too — because that’s what rosin haters do.
One doesn’t become a rosin hater overnight: Once upon a time I wrote glowing articles about the potential of rosin tech. So at first I still didn’t want to believe I was a rosin hater; not me, I’m a tolerant guy — some of my best friends dab rosin! I was hell bent on hiding from the hydrocarbon-rich darkness inside of me, but when I honestly searched my soul it hit me. I realized that anybody who responds to a hit of fire hash rosin by saying the hash was probably already good enough to dab needs to just be quiet and enjoy his dab. This is precisely what I resolve to do in 2018.
I certainly won’t be giving up BHO, but I resolve to give the “rosin revolution” another chance. That means revisiting some of the rosin I’ve had already — this time with an open mind — and trying some things I’ve been deliberately avoiding, but it also means breaking out the ceramic flat-iron and squishing some nugs.
And maybe it means liking fewer mean-spirited rosin hate memes on Instagram, but you know how resolutions go, so no promises whatsoever.
TELL US, what rosin should a self-proclaimed rosin hater try first?
