I remember like it was yesterday, my first introduction to Rosin. This was in Humboldt county around 2014-2015, when I was working in a restaurant in Garberville.
A Chef who I worked alongside came in very excited one day and explained to me the Solventlessness involved in the process, knowing my spiritually-vested interest in high quality, organic, non-GMO food and such matters.
The concepts had never crossed my mind – only heat and pressure, as opposed to what? Butane? Oh! I had never pictured it so primitive and un-ideal when you could do it with only pressure and heat – the thought never occurred when it came to butane and dabbing. At that time I had only briefly rubbed shoulders with the goddess hashish and had little understanding of her divine alchemy.
He showed me a small piece they had experimented with and we smoked some. I was again overwhelmed with new information and the amazing floral experience – I had yet to understand what I had experienced. Compared to other dabs I had tried which were orange or amber and hardly resembled anything one would assume came from a green plant without chemistry, this looked and smelled vibrantly earthy.
It’s important to note that at this time people were mainly making flower rosin which is awesome and can be used to make top-shelf rosin, but squishing whole flower is nearly primitive technology when compared to HashRosin, or rosin made from Squishing Ice Water Hashish while it is still in sand form.
We (HellaDank.co) were invited to an event with Solful Dispensary in Sebastopol, Sonoma County California (where we are based) where we were able to bring our PurePressure Longs Peak Rosin Press and do a live press of Rosin on the spot! AlpenGlow Farms (@alpenglowfarms707) had some premium Biodynamically Grown Orange M-Con “Grown in Hugel Style beds, Living Soil, No Till, Full-Season Sungrown from Seed” that was harvested 10 days before Starshine, and our Rosinmaster had the privilege to put it between two heatplates.Now that was extremely aromatic and unbelievable aesthetically, so I wanted to tell that tale as to be fair to Flower Rosin. Not in every instance is there such a gorgeous specimen to squishify.
I have bought flower rosin made by Honey Butter Rosin Co. that was also an artisan masterpiece. I won’t knock flower rosin other than the fact that you can take it one step further, wash that flower, and get yourself an even cleaner end result.Flower rosin, I can only imagine from the concept, would limit your input greatly because flower takes up more space than hash, and the hash is far more potent.
Anyway back to today’s Story.
The divine alchemy from the hashish is what makes the rosin so spectacular. A few years ago the stigma about rosin was that it would be dark and gooey, stick to everything and overall, not as good in terms of quality as wax and other available forms of dabbery.
People would not sacrifice the best part of their crop to attempt to make the best rosin because it seemed more than likely that one element or another would fuck up the entire batch.
Something happened in the waves of the ocean cracking repeatedly up against the shore of the inner skull/consciousness of some stoners and someone recognized that the sieving process in all its glory separates the very components you would want to remove before refining using heat and pressure. Let me break that down.1) The stoners already had the sacred rituals of solventless sieving separation… the lazy wooks of the United States try to skate by ignoring this great truth and in doing so stubbed their toes on the 180 degree turn-around while they all run back to mesh bubble bags and rowing Oars as quickly as they ran from them…2) When you put something underneath heat plates (especially valuable cannabis) you better be 100% sure that what is in there is what you want to be in there.
The combination of the heat and the pressure really breaks down particles and foreign matter if they are not separated from your trichomes. If you put all of the screens from your hash pulls (25-220) you will make complete garbage.
Only upon further refining will you be doing what you set out to do.Rosin is Solventless Hash Oil in other words, as I have spoken about in my past articles, isolating the oils definitely has an effect on the metaphysical aspects as well as the medicinal.
This is especially relevant when talking about solvent extracts as the result is far from the organic input. With HashRosin you are specifically removing the parts that are not potent as to isolate the oils – in doing so, some of the high that is contributed to hash is lost.
Frenchy Cannoli speaks of some kind of alchemy when pressing the fragile in-tact trichome head.He says that it is the skin of the trichome head blended with the oils that makes the distinct glorious resin we have come to know and love as hashish.
So, in the HashRosin process, you are specifically putting the in-tact trichomes into yet another mesh micron bag, this time squishing it with dry hot plates that will cause the oils to come out from the trichome skin. Left inside of this micron bag is what I would imagine is a main part of that skin and oil blend that Frenchy alluded to.
This is where the holy question lies with rosin: with a market demanding the lightest blonde and white rosins, how do we stay as true to the plant as possible and still make a medicinally potent product at an affordable price?
You can use the surefire way to succeed in one of these pathways…. You can isolate the (73u or)90u-159u where all of the cleanest, biggest trichome heads (usually) but this is going to greatly affect your yield and reduce the medicinal/metaphysical aspects of the high. The use of all vital components from your Ice Water Hash Wash, is the way to pay respect to the farmer who worked with that very plant 200 times longer than you did as a hashmaker.
This is called “Full Spectrum” which usually (debatably) refers to 45u-159u micron screens being used all together. One has many decisions with this path. It is more work but the way I recommend to get the absolute best result from cured material (hash or hash specifically to press into rosin) is to pull all of the bags in between this large gap (the 45u, the 73u, the 90u, the 120u and the 160u).
When using cured material, sometimes the 45u bag is gorgeous enough to be called full-melt but it usually has a lot more particles because it is the smaller micron on the spectrum and with that it catches more of the dust and plant matter.
That being said the first second and third pull are the most likely stages where this will happen, but after that point you will see that there is not quality hash coming out of this screen (most likely and most often this is the case, but there are plants that produce amazing material – also, fresh frozen is completely different and I am about to go into that). As far as the 120u goes this is very similar to the 45u but in my short experience (2.5 years of 5 days a week, production and working with hash) it is substantially more rare to see a full melt 120 pull come from cured material.
If you are making hash to smoke traditionally with fire this 120 screen and 45 screen both have heavy medicinal qualities. In this modern era, the 20 year old canna-seurs who think they know everything in one sense: their parent’s money plays a major voice in the market.
These kids want to dab. It’s not something I want to say, particularly, but it is apparent to me that it is particularly rare, beyond all things in this cannabis world, to see a full spectrum hash be dabbable. I want to take this opportunity to state the impeccable legacy of quality that is Bon Vivant Farms in Mendocino County. The first time I saw their Strawberry Banana was before I ever considered my path further in Cannabis. I was at the Hopland Hop, Harvest and Music Festival at the Solar Living Institute in Hopland California in 2017 and they were selling some of the first jarred weed I have ever bought with a label on it. I never forgot that Strawberry Banana.
When I went on a small hash-induced road-trip, 4 hours in each direction, to buy Frenchy Cannoli’s (Full Spectrum) Temple Balls for last year’s drop, I was so excited to see that one on the list, that I got two of that one before I even knew how ridiculously awesome it was. After this experience with the flower and the pressed hash, I couldn’t possibly be more impressed, could I? The plant and this community are full of surprises.
I had been on the tale of another company with wholesome values and passion beyond belief, aforementioned in this article, Honey Butter Rosin Co. So when I saw Bon Vivant’s gorgeous logo, I recognized it and for the first time in my life knew I was accessing the same dankness from multiple dealers across the state of California. This is one of the few times I have felt I have benefited from the retail end of the legal Cannabis market. This product was literally just the sand form of hash.
Not pressed and further activated into its full melt form, this is just the unpressed trichome heads, and also Full Spectrum. Some of the cleanest Hash I have seen in the black market or the retail market since the dawn of my ability to recognize anything worth recognizing. I bought the store out of them at full price as I wanted to show the store and their distribution that this is what the people want. Back to what I was talking about: Most cured material will not produce a dab-able full-melt if you do not isolate screens.
This has created a culture of people flaunting what micron screen their hash and rosin are made with in the title e.g. “Wedding Cake 90u-119u Ice Water Hash” Instead of just saying “Wedding Cake Ice Water Hash”. I understand it and I like it because it is direct and clarifies to me what I am buying.
I am also the person who reads all of the ingredients on stuff at the grocery store, there aren’t that many of us. In my opinion, this is almost as misleading as THC percentage being important. Nonetheless, in the market that is developing there are high standards.Many times, “Full Spectrum” will not work for cured material because of, sadly, the 120u, the 45u…or even….The 73u…. It’s really sad to me because isolating only the 90u to many people means ignoring or not collecting the other bags at all, or majorly prioritizing the crema. The other material is not your 6-star hash or your boutique rosin, but it’s perfect for topicals, edibles and the likes…but you have to actually hook your friends up and pair the products with their missing main course: the 90u you isolated to smoke…If you can utilize the entire trichome, you have succeeded.
But, if you are working with cured material and want to get the best you possibly can, I recommend taking the extra step and separating every component of it, to lower your risk of contamination. If you are washing specifically to make hash this may not be what you want to hear… you want to put cured bud or trim in water, pull three bags and be done with it. It is not that easy if you are dedicated to a cleaner product that you want to be able to dab leaving minimal residuals in your banger.
With the introduction of Fresh Frozen Whole Plant Medicine, the opportunity to even further perfect the craft arose. Now entering the playing field is a new contender: far more expensive input but arguably the best in the game when it comes to preserving terpenes and the full-on whole plant flavor experience. Obviously the hash is far better, and easier, when using fresh frozen. Not easier in regards of making it, as Fresh Frozen hash is stickier and needs to be worked with in a very cold condition to have success moving it from the wet phase out of the bags.
All of the hash that is currently on the market in California made from Fresh Frozen material is very expensive and flies off the shelves.In quite possibly the greatest competition deemed a “cup”, definitely on this planet, The Emerald Cup in Northern California, one of the most highly recognized awards in this Cannabis Community, the Rosin category is one for the books. In years prior many dabs entered but only a few left with prizes. Now with less entries than in prior years the stakes are still high as passion is poured into every entry from all levels. In his own words, Brett Byrd, stated that he did not think he would win when aesthetically looking at his competition. He entered Mango AF, Tangie AF, Donkey Butter and Ice Cream Cake.
All Full Spectrum. When Byrd was learning his craft he took Frenchy’s Class, twice. Frenchy instilled upon him the importance of the quality being passed down from the farmer and to respect that as much as possible. Byrd won with a full spectrum Bubble Hash Rosin, he won with the Ice Cream Cake.
Byrd’s Story is the love story and the story of triumph.When I heard him speak about his experience in mechanics to me it felt like where my experience in the food industry lead me: burned out by the limitations of the industrial vampirism/the corporate infiltration of everything. Two years ago, Rosin was not recognized for its potential and seen for its glory as it is now. Byrd was 2 steps from turning back to mechanic work just to be able to support his passion.
Literally he was two steps, he had driven there and was outside of the facility to get his old job back when he called his wife. Prior to this moment I intentionally left his wife and her significance out of the picture (for dramatic emphasis). My prior articles and my series is aptly named “The Grower and the Hashmaker” a phrase I heard uttered by one of my heroes of this Agricultural Marketplace we all call home: Sunshine Johnson of Sunboldt Grown based in Humboldt county.
She emphasized the importance of this bond as the “industry” rears its ugly head, and her gentle voice and strong comprehension of where things were headed, stuck with me. Byrd’s wife, LadyByrd, is the Grower in this equation.
She heads her father’s Cultivation team at Healing Herb Farms in Mendocino. The passion pouring into those plants, and the alchemical bond between her and Mr. Byrd create a standalone product that represents the Cannabis Community in the furthest expression of its potential on this earth as we know it. Let’s rewind.Byrd was outside of the mechanic shop about to get back on the old horse, but LadyByrd talked him out of it.
In the early days. Before things made sense, before the rosin was coming out gold, before winning first place was even a thought or a goal, when just making rosin and making it sustainable was his goal, he had the insight and the support of Ladybyrd who saw the potential his passion yielded. Many people may have skipped that part of the Titanic and jumped right to the explosion and the part where the cool stuff happens and gold comes out of some otherwise ordinary material on the rosin press.
To me this is the alchemical divinity we all need to capture during the process of breathing and really understand instead of just letting it pass through us like every other everyday occurrence. There are factors that lead to success and or happiness. Love is a major factor. She loves the plants, he loves her, she loves him. They love the people that the end result is intended to go to. It’s the Circle of Dank.
Written and Published By Frank La Froscia In Weed World Magazine Issue 147
Instagram: frank_at_dank