How To Improve Rosin Clarity
Todde Philips
🇺🇸 Retired veteran, father, rock-climbing expert & rosin connoisseur
✅ Updated 1/7/21
What do you look for when selecting top-shelf rosin? Most rosin connoisseurs will seek out rosin that’s light in color and high in clarity. The perception is that lighter rosin represents a fresher, purer product than darker rosin, which can result from pressing with material that’s past its prime. Additionally, most consumers are willing to pay a premium for rosin that rates highly in clarity and seems to exude a magical golden glow.
Striving to improve your rosin clarity is a worthy pursuit. In this quick guide, we’ll give you some ideas to consider on the path to increasing the appeal and overall quality of your rosin.
So what are the variables that impact the clarity of rosin? The two main factors to consider are 1) your source material, including quality and freshness, and 2) the temperature at which you’re pressing the material.
Freshness
It’s important to use material that has been recently dried and cured. The flowers should be dried and only slightly cured, just to get the moisture level in the flowers to be around 62% relative humidity. An extended dry and cure can lead to excessive oxidation, which will result in darker color.
You can check the moisture content of buds by placing them in sealed glass jars with a digital hygrometer.
Flowers that have been sitting on the shelf for several months, even if they’ve been sealed in glass jars, will have undergone more oxidation than fresh flowers. As trichomes oxidize they become darker in color, and this translates into darker rosin.
Pressing Temperature
The other main factor for rosin clarity is pressing temperature. Higher temperatures often result in darker rosin. As a rule of thumb, pressing at lower temps will help increase rosin clarity, with a tradeoff of slightly decreased yields. If you want to increase yields with higher temps, plan on seeing a slightly darker product.
Bubble Hash Drying Method for Hash Rosin
Finally, when bubble hash is dried in a freeze dryer, it generally maintains a lighter color than when it's left to air dry. Therefore, hash rosin made from freeze-dried bubble hash is normally a lighter color.
Here are the temperature guidelines for different source material:
Flower: 180-220 degrees Fahrenheit
Bubble Hash: 140-200 degrees Fahrenheit
Dry Sift: 140-200 degrees Fahrenheit
Although there’s nothing wrong with darker rosin and it can still be an exceptionally high quality product, lighter rosin has the perception of being a fresher and better cannabis concentrate. Keep in mind the freshness of the source material and the temperature during extraction and you can optimize for clarity in your rosin.
Happy pressing!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Does light color mean good quality?
Color can be an indication of quality, but it doesn't tell the whole story. Quality can't be judged by color alone.
What does color mean in rosin?
Color can indicate the freshness of starting material, method of drying, and temperature used for extraction.
Is dark rosin bad?
Dark rosin is not necessarily bad. Sometimes, darker rosin is the result of using starting material that's been slightly oxidized. For example, bubble hash that's air dried will normally be a bit darker, but it can still be of very high quality.
What is the best way to lighten the color of rosin?
The best way to lighten color is to use fresh starting material, press with low temps, and in the case of bubble hash rosin, dry the bubble hash in a freeze dryer.
What causes rosin to be dark?
Oxidation of starting material is one of the main causes of darker rosin.
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