How to Make Solventless Diamonds
Solventless diamonds represent a huge step forward for the solventless extraction industry. Previously, these highly-prized THCA crystals could only be made using closed-loop solvent extraction or crystallization using a solvent combined with heat and pressure. Now, hashmakers have worked out how to make rosin diamonds using rosin with a waxy or stiff budder texture and a rosin press.
What Are Solventless Diamonds?
Solventless diamonds are clear-colored chunks of crystallized THCA that are extracted without the use of solvents. THCA, or tetrahydrocannabinolic acid, is the "raw" precursor to THC. This acidic cannabinoid is converted into THC when heated—a process referred to as decarboxylation.
How Are Solventless Diamonds Used?
THCA diamonds are typically dabbed (the heat generated in the vaporization process converts the THCA into THC) or decarbed and incorporated into edibles and tinctures. Alternatively, the THCA can be placed directly into tinctures or capsules to maximize the therapeutic benefits of THCA, which include possible anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective properties, as well as potential benefits for colitis, IBS, and seizure disorders.
Pro tip: The purity of THCA diamonds (they are almost pure THCA) makes it easier to achieve fairly precise dosing with edibles, tinctures, and capsules. However, you should always send the final product for lab testing before labeling it and distributing the packaged version to dispensaries for sale.
How to Make Solventless Diamonds
Solventless techniques for THCA separation involve repressing rosin with a waxy or stiff budder texture at low pressures and low temperatures. This process causes the waxes, lipids, terpenes, and other cannabinoids to flow out of the rosin bag, leaving the white THCA behind.
What You Need to Make Solventless Diamonds
Gather the following materials to make solventless diamonds:
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Cold cured rosin with a waxy or stiff budder texture. Live rosin pressed from fresh frozen bubble hash is ideal for separating terpenes from THCA. Note: You can convert fresh pressed rosin into a cold cure by sealing it in a jar at room temperature for 2-3 days and then whipping it up.
- A 25µm rosin bag
- A 220µm rosin bag
- Food-grade parchment paper
- A rosin press—preferably used with our LT3 Heat and Pressure Controller for greater precision
Steps
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Bag your rosin. Fold your cold cured rosin into a square about 1/8"-1/4" thick. Place it inside the 25µm rosin bag and fold over the end. Sleeve a 220µm rosin bag over the first bag for structural support.
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Sleeve the rosin bags inside folded parchment paper. We explain parchment paper folding techniques in our article on directional flow. The Boat Tech fold is ideal for THCA separation.
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Press at 105°F. Place the rosin parcel between the plates of the rosin press and heat the plates to 105°F. This low temp will be enough to get the terpenes flowing while the THCA stays behind in the bag. Wait until the entire seam is wet before increasing pressure. Then, slowly increase the pressure until terp sauce starts to flow out of the bags and down the parchment paper. Apply just enough pressure to get the terpenes flowing from the bag. Maintain this pressure for about 10 minutes or until the terpenes stop flowing from the bag. You can collect this sauce and recombine it with the diamonds later on to make sauce and diamonds.
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Press at 115°F. Increase the temperature to 115°F and repeat the process.
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Press at 125°F. Increase the temperature to 125°F and repeat the process.
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Melt the THCA to make diamonds. The THCA will be left behind in the rosin bag. If you want to change it from a chalky look to clear glass, you can melt it down on a sheet of parchment and a heating plate until it becomes clear. You can then let it cool and break it into pieces.
How to Make Solventless Diamonds and Sauce
Making diamonds and sauce recombines the high THC diamonds with the sauce you separated earlier on.
This sauce has a deliciously high terpene content. Rosin jam comes close to this composition but the diamonds are less defined.
To make solventless THCA diamonds and sauce:
- Melt down the THCA as described above, allow it to cool, and cut it into small pieces.
- Recombine the diamonds with the terpene sauce.
Delight Your Customers with Solventless Diamonds
Solventless products continue to grow in both quality and diversity, and can rival even the best solvent-based extracts. Solventless diamonds are a testament to the fact that equivalents of most solvent-based concentrates can be produced solventlessly—it just takes a bit of experimentation.
After producing your very own THCA diamonds (or diamonds and sauce), you can dab your masterpiece or gram it out, send it for testing, and package it for sale in dispensaries. The sight, taste, and experience of dabbing solventless diamonds and sauce are hard to beat!