An Extractor's Guide to 7/10!

Concentrate connoisseurs, dabbers, and oil novices — we’ve got a special surprise for all of you this Oil Day in Massachusetts. It’s actually Dab Day all month long at our stores!

Joe Rosenthal, the Extractions Process Specialist at our Worcester production facility, and our entire production team have been hard at work whipping up high testing live resin for those with a fondness for concentrates — just in time for Oil Day on 7/10.

Our extractor used a few strains to create CORE Concentrates that are some of the highest testing oil we’ve seen (we’re talking over 90% THC and TAC, people!). Choose from:

• Ice Cream Cake, an indica cross between Wedding Cake with Gelato #33
• MAC1, a hybrid child from Alien Cookies F2 and Miracle 15

Not equipped with a dab rig? Don’t worry — Just pick up a banger at any Temescal Wellness dispensary while supplies last, and convert your bong into a rig! During the month of July, we’re offering 30% off all dab accessories too!

And if you liked packing your bowl with these strains, get your nail ready. We’ve got two bundles being released Friday, July 8th - ahead of the 7/10 weekend. Score one (or both!) of our concentrate bundles: 

• A 3.5g Baller Jar of MAC1 with a banger, or 
• 1g of Ice Cream Cake Live Resin with a dab tool

You can also jazz up your joints, bowls, or blunts by adding a little live resin, shatter, or wax to your flower. Or, make it easy and purchase a SIRA Naturals Boomstick (i.e. a wax infused PRJ). Starting Friday, July 1 you can even get 2 for $50. The choice is yours.

Want to know more about the extraction process that’s elevating your favorite strains from flower to concentrate this Oil Day? We thought so. 

Joe was kind enough to sit down with us to shed some light on the extraction process, and how Temescal Wellness ended up with some of the highest quality, top testing live resin from the Berkshires, to the Pioneer Valley, to Boston. Read our interview with Joe below.

Take us through the extraction process, step by step.

Joe Rosenthal: Producing our Live Resin products starts with harvesting our cannabis plants which are immediately sealed into a vacuum bag and placed into one of our cryo freezers that freeze the material down to -80℃. Once all of the material is nice and frozen, it is packed into one or more material columns to run on our Precision X10 MSE (Multi Solvent Extractor).

After the material columns are loaded up with material, they are placed back into the cryo freezers and cooled back down to -80℃. Next, the columns are installed into the X10 MSE and soaked with a solvent. At Temescal Wellness, we utilize butane as our solvent of choice to strip the fresh frozen cannabis of its active cannabinoids, flavonoids, and terpenes.

After the cannabis has been soaked, we begin the most important step of processing with solvents, dewax. The dewax column is used to pull out any residual plant waxes and lipids from the extract. This is a critical step as it has a direct impact on the overall quality and potency of the finished product. The goal with dewaxing is to remove as many impurities as possible before moving on to the next step, recovery.

Recovery is simply the process of separating the butane from the concentrate using light heat and a molecular sieve to re-distill the butane from a gas back into a liquid form. This process allows us to use the same butane multiple times which is great for sustainability. Once the majority of butane has been recovered, the extract is ready to be poured.  

Depending on what type of finished product we are looking to achieve, the extract can be poured as a slab for shatter or into a pyrex dish and whipped to make all sorts of great consistencies such as budder, badder, sugar, and crumble.      

What is live resin and why is it special? How is it different from more commonly available concentrates?

JR: Live Resin are concentrates that are made using freshly frozen cannabis flower that is frozen immediately upon harvest rather than extracting dry/cured flower. What makes live products so special is the lighter terpenes and flavonoids we are able to capture that would typically be lost during the dry cure process. This leads to a much higher terpene content than your normal concentrate and occasionally produces a layer of what’s known as “sauce.” Since we are able to capture all of these light volatiles, most consumers can expect to enjoy a more robust entourage effect as well as tastes and smells that would not have been present in a regular concentrate derived from dry/cured flower. 

What’s special about the live resin Temescal Wellness has available for Oil Day on 7/10?

JR: There are a few things this year that are making this 7/10 a special one for Temescal Wellness. This is the first time we will be selling our live resin in 1 gram units instead of the normal half gram which is amazing in and of itself.  Second is what I find most exciting. We’ve also increased our offerings beyond a single gram and are proud to introduce our largest single unit of live resin, a 3.5 gram baller jar. No need to worry about running out of dabs with one of these baller jars in your stash. Now for what everyone is waiting for, the THC and total active cannabinoids (TAC). My personal favorite, Ice Cream Cake came in at a staggering 92.3% THC and 96.1% Total Active Cannabinoids!   

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Can you tell us a typical THC concentration on these extracts?

JR: Live resin products average around 75% THC but have a higher TAC compared to a regular, non-live extract. A lot of potency relies on the fresh frozen flower that is extracted. Each strain tends to have different characteristics as an extract just like while they are plants. Some strains produce a super potent, 90%THC extract but have a much lower terpene content while others produce a less potent 75%THC but have a much higher amount of terpenes and flavonoids. At Temescal Wellness, we strive to bring a wide variety of products ranging in THC potency from the low 70’s all the way to the mid 90’s to truly encapsulate our “something for everyone” vibe.

Are oil and dabs just for heavy cannabis users? How would you recommend a newbie get into oil?

JR: Extracts or concentrates are not just for heavy cannabis users as some people tend to think. The only difference between a heavy user and a newbie using concentrates is that a tiny amount will go a long way for the newbie while the heavy user will tend to use more. For anyone who has never experienced concentrates before, you’re in for one heck of a treat compared to your everyday flower. A newbie to dabbing should start slow and only have to use about a half grain of rice-sized piece of concentrate. The best part about being new to dabbing will be how long a small amount of concentrate will last as compared with a heavy user.

What’s the best vaporizer for concentrate?

JR: If you are indeed looking to try your first dab, I would highly suggest purchasing one of our Puffco Plus vaporizers to have the best experience. I have one of these and it works great. The Puffco Plus is a handheld pen that allows you to unscrew the concentrate chamber and thread on a regular 510 thread vape cart.  As you gain experience you might want to consider investing in the Puffco Peak or the newer Puffco Peak Pro which is an electric dab rig that offers unparalleled performance for dabbing. The best part of the Puffco Peak has to be the portability of the rig itself. It is spill proof for traveling which makes life much easier and also prevents the accidental spillage of water  from the chamber so you don’t have to worry about it leaking in your backpack or while you are carrying it around.

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Do you have a personal favorite product on Temescal Wellness's menu?

JR: One of my favorite products that we carry on our menu, but only at very limited times, has to be the Ekto Kooler VSPR distillate cartridge and disposable vape. It tastes exactly like the nostalgic drink which brings me back to my childhood. Not to mention it's also wonderfully refreshing during the summer.

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Want to learn more? Head over to our Concentrates 101 blog to learn the basics, or ask any of our friendly associates at our Massachusetts dispensaries to help you make the best oil selection for 7/10 and beyond.