CO? Oil vs. Distillates

Cannabis concentrates are becoming more popular with each new season. The cannabis industry has been providing concentrates of all kinds for nearly a decade. Despite this, many consumers still get confused among some of the available cannabis concentrates. This includes CO? oil and distillates. So what are they exactly?

CO? oil

CO? gets its name from the compound Carbon Dioxide. At room temperature and with little-to-no pressure, CO? exists in its gassy state. This helps things like balance the temperature of the planet's surface via the Greenhouse Effect. Carbon Dioxide is used by plants to make carbs and is released as the oxygen we all know and love. This compound also creates those effervescent bubbles that give your favorite drink that sense of crispiness and freshness. In our case, CO? can be used as a solvent, free of toxins, for extracting cannabinoids. 

Making CO? oil

Under intense pressure, CO? exists in liquid form. During CO? extraction, the liquid Carbon Dioxide dissolves and rinses the cannabinoids and terpenes away from the plant matter, creating a concentrated cannabinoid oil. Any remaining Carbon Dioxide in the cannabis oil swiftly evaporates; this produces a waxy, solventless cannabis concentrate. This form of cannabis concentrate can be consumed in this state. However, it is typically processed to rid plant waxes and fats that get stuck alongside the desired cannabinoids. 

During this process, ethanol is often used to rid the initial CO? oil. The ethanol-CO? combination is then placed in a freezer to chill the solution. The solution must reach sub-zero temperatures before proceeding. As the temperature decreases, waxes and fats stiffen and precipitate out via the ethanol solution. The precipitated fatty waxes can then be sifted away from the ethanol-CO? mixture. Ethanol is then siphoned from the CO? oil, creating a cannabis oil free of waxes or lipids. 

Distillates

Distillates are thick, opaque oils that have had waxes or unacceptable compounds from the cannabis plant. Distillates are a With the course of the sociopolitical furthering of cannabis and cannabis studies. Distillates have become quite popular due to their extreme level of potency as well as their fluidity. Distillates can be alongside a vape, as a dab, or even as an additional ingredient in edibles, topical creams, and other products that have been infused with cannabis. 

How distillates are made

These concentrates are produced with the help of a large-scale clarifying process that separates cannabinoids from plant matter. It is a fundamental process where cannabinoids such as THC and CBD are separated from the physical plant material. Oil extraction typically involves either a physical method of detachment or separation with the help of chemicals. Physical detachment methods tend to produce concentrates containing more plant contaminants than chemical-centric extraction processes such as BHO, Butane Hash Oil, or ultra-delicate fluid CO? extraction. Whether the cannabinoids are split via physical or chemical methods, the oil extract yielded often contains crude material that must be separated before distillate use—individual cannabinoids such as THC and CBD.

Potatoes and Tomatoes

If you've made it this far, you will see that comparing CO? oil and distillates is less like apples and oranges but more like potatoes and tomatoes. This means the two cannabis concentrates are very similar as well as very different. Both CO? oil and distillates have very similar extraction processes featuring winterization. CO? oil yields cannabis concentrates that range from 45% to 75% purity. Conversely, distillates bring in around 85% to a massive 95% purity. The extraction process for CO? oil does a better job of stripping unwanted plant matter from cannabis. Distillates ofter retain more cannabis plant material. Nevertheless, both distillates and CO? oil are good cannabis concentrates that all consumers should try at least once in their lives.