The concentrate sector of cannabusiness has been growing in leaps and bounds with a plethora of extraction methods and just as many resulting concoctions. But your favorite waxes, shatters and oils may be taking a back seat to the latest craze in cannabis extraction. A dizzying carousel of names swirl around this marijuana extract including marijuana sauce, terp sauce, dab sauce, and terp juice. Some producers are touting it as the most potent extract yet and 2017 has seen interest in the mysterious sauce skyrocket. But what makes marijuana sauce so interesting is the sheer concentration of plant molecules rich with flavorful terpenes, contributing to not just the substance’s potency but the overall associated experience.
Not to Be Confused with the Nucleated Shatter Marijuana Extract
There are plenty of misunderstandings when it comes to marijuana sauce but one of the most common is the tendency to mislabel other extracts as sauce. Besides live resin, the most common extract to be mistaken for marijuana sauce is probably nucleated shatter. Nucleated shatter is a process that occurs when, with time, the solid and liquid aspects of shatter start to separate. This adds more distinction to the terpenes, evidenced by a more complex flavor profile. While nucleated shatter may be tasty, it’s not officially marijuana sauce.
And Not to Be Mistaken for Live Resin
Likewise, live resin is not marijuana sauce. While live resin boasts heightened flavor when compared to other extracts, marijuana sauce hits new levels of terpene saturation. In most cases, the type of live resin being mistaken for marijuana sauce is called full spectrum extracts. These high-terpene full spectrum extracts resemble crystals ranging in color from almost clear to yellow, situated in a soup of amber liquid. In the process of creating full spectrum extracts, the substance is stripped of excess ingredients that could lead to a harsher vaping experience while retaining the valuable terpenes. However, some full spectrum extracts sacrifice terpenes in favor of more cannabinoids.
So What is Marijuana Sauce?
Now that we’ve identified what isn’t marijuana sauce, it’s time to analyze what constitutes real deal sauce. Most of this comes down to the process of creation. Some producers swear by taking only fresh clippings and putting them directly into the extraction machine or freezing the fresh clippings until this can be done. Other producers disagree with this method. Instead, after typical BHO extraction processes are employed, they let the resulting product age for nucleation to take place. Then, the crystals are removed from the terp soup and this liquid is run through the extraction process again. The result can pack an intense 60% more flavor molecules than other concentrates on the market. In fact, some producers have even had to scale back because the resulting burst of terpenes was considered too strong to be pleasurable. Potency is heightened by the increased cannabinoid content as well. You’re no doubt starting to see why marijuana sauce is such a celebrated addition to the market.
Marijuana sauce typically comes with a hefty price tag so you’ll want to make sure you’re getting real terp juice and not live resin or nucleated shatter under a mistaken name. Unfortunately, it’s hard to verify this without lab testing and with regulations still being pretty lax, it can be a bit of trial-and-error. But when you’re hit with the flavor explosion, it’s unmistakable.
