Why Settle for Frozen When Fresh Cannabis is Available?
As the global cannabis industry develops, patients and adult-use consumers are increasingly demanding the purest, most potent, and highest quality products available. For licensed producers that want to differentiate and succeed against their competitors, this means utilizing best-in-class technology that produces these superior products.
At Herbolea, we have observed that many cannabis cultivators are shifting from air-drying their biomass to fresh-frozen processing. This is because air-drying loses many of the valuable terpenes and partially converts the cannabinoids that make a high-quality product, while the fresh-frozen process stops the degradation. But why settle for products that have been frozen for months, instead of utilizing fresh biomass?
The fresh-frozen processing method removes the branches and stems of the plant, and freezes the product in vacuum sealed bags for months. This process preserves the valuable terpenes and cannabinoids, but only if carried out effectively. If done incorrectly, mold and other microbes may contaminate the plant, leaving the biomass useless. Additionally, if the plant gets freezer burn, it is rendered un-recoverable. The quality and efficiency of the terpenes are also diminished through the freezing process. Whilst fresh-frozen has the advantage of terpene preservation, the method is inconsistent, time consuming, and risky.
We believe that the future industry standard of extraction comes from utilizing processing technology that is able to create extracts starting from fresh, wet biomass, without the need to freeze or dry the plant beforehand. This is because using fresh biomass results in 2.5x times more terpenes than when the same plant is dried (see chart) and because after months in a freezer, plant material is not the same as when harvested. Imagine the smell and taste of an orange or lettuce after 4 months in a freezer.
At Herbolea, we have developed technology that makes this future standard, a reality, today. With our Fresh-never-Frozen solventless extraction process we do not compromise on quality, allowing to quickly process fresh material into the most consistent and faithful extracts.
Compared to CO2, Ethanol, Butane, or Ice water extraction, which have varying degrees of efficiency, scalability, terpene and cannabinoid preservation, our Bio-Herbolysis method processes the entire flower and leaf, providing full cannabinoid preservation. We do not lose any trichomes during handling, bagging, freezing, and trimming, unlike current standard processing methods. By utilizing fresh, wet biomass, Herbolea’s extraction process is the only technology that allows cannabis manufacturers to faithfully reproduce the plant’s phyto-complex in an extract, whilst creating the highest quality product. Furthermore, by using fresh plant material, our methods do not incur any additional drying or freezing infrastructure and equipment costs. This results in the most efficient, scalable, and replicable extraction method in the globe.
Not only does Herbolea’s technology preserve the terpenes and cannabinoids from the original plant material, but it also allows processors to fractionate the two components for greater flexibility in product formulation; for instance, allowing decarboxylation of cannabinoids separately from terpenes. When creating edibles, we can also eliminate the grassy taste that many consumers dislike in products such as gummies and chocolate.
Herbolea’s patented technology is revolutionizing the cannabis industry with unmatched extraction methods. We create higher quality products than any fresh-frozen process, while utilizing fresh, wet biomass. Herbolea’s technologies create industry leading products, with the most efficient and scalable technology available.