MJBiz - July 2023 - 40

Manufacturing
Milestones
" Those things get taken out three times during
the curing phase, bounced around, repowdered
and resituated; parchment paper is changed out.
The number of touch points with Rose Delights is
extremely high. "
Even though 30% to 40% of the recipes call for fruit,
Rose Delights are extremely shelf-stable because they
are suspended in sugar, which acts as a preservative.
Cozzolino said the delights can be good for up to
three or four years. " Preserved fruits can age a long
time, even at room temperature, " he said.
The Fruit Decides
How the Rose team makes each recipe changes
with every batch because the fruit used is different
every time. So, Rose' chefs chart their culinary
course according to each new batch of fruit and its
characteristics.
The brand's many methods include poaching fruit
before pureeing, using an immersion blender or a
tabletop blender. Sometimes the Delights are heated
with an induction cooker; other times, employees use
kettle cookers. On some occasions, the team handcuts
fruit; other times, it goes through a confectionary
depositor or a confectionery cutter.
" That's also unique about our recipes: They're not
stagnant; they're always changing, depending on the
fruit. Fruit preservers, jam-makers, they start with the
produce; then, they build around that, " Collozino said.
Paraphrasing a lesson he learned in a class with
master jam-maker June Taylor, he added: " You
have a relationship with your farmers who have a
relationship with your produce. And then everything
stems from there. "
" There's an improvisational element. And I
think that doesn't often happen with edibles
manufacturing. Everything is about standardized
SOPs. And you know, we have SOPs that we follow, but
there is always a component of improvisation with the
production of Rose Delights. "
Rose recently opened a rosin-pressing and kitchen
facility in Albany, New York, where Collozino hopes
to replicate the success that his company has had in
California. The press cost $150,000.
" With low amounts of equipment, we can really
cover a lot of ground and produce at a pretty high rate,
considering the style of products that we're making
using seasonal produce, " Cozzolino said.
" I think we've surprised everybody and proven
that you can design something like this and have a
direct connection to an agricultural network and
produce at scale. "
40 July 2023 | MJBizMagazine
CO2 extraction
requires more
equipment.
Photo by Phil Donley
Cannabis Extraction Methods
Cannabis companies can use numerous methods to manufacture concentrates
and extracts, but generally they are broken down into two categories:
solvent-based and solventless.
In solvent-based extraction, chemicals (or solvents) such as butane, CO2
and
ethanol are used to separate trichomes containing cannabinoids, terpenes
and other desirable compounds from the plant material to produce a concentrated
cannabis oil. After separation, the remaining solvent is removed from
the oil using a purging process. The final result is a concentrated product free
of plant material.
Solvent-based extraction can be used to make whole-plant products such
as badder, budder and crumble as well as non-whole-plant products such as
distillate and shatter.
In solventless extraction, trichomes are separated from plant material through
agitation or heat and pressure, rather than chemicals.
Solventless products include hash, bubble hash, ice-water hash, kief and rosin.
The most common solvent-based extraction methods are:
* Hydrocarbon extraction: Hydrocarbons such as butane or propane
are used. This method is considered to be extremely time and cost
efficient, creating whole-plant products with a robust cannabinoid and
terpene profile. Despite advances in purging hydrocarbon solvents,
solvent-based concentrates and extracts are not considered as clean as
those made from CO2
or solventless extraction.
* CO2 extraction: Extraction using liquid-gaseous CO2
CO2
, or supercritical
, takes more time and requires more expensive equipment than
other extraction methods, but the final products are considered cleaner
than those manufactured with alcohol or hydrocarbon extraction.
* Alcohol or ethanol extraction: Like hydrocarbon extraction, alcohol
or ethanol extraction is considered efficient but not as clean as CO2
extraction.
The most common solventless extraction methods are:
* Dry-sift agitation: When flower is rubbed again mesh screens or sieves so
that trichomes are separated from plant material, the collected kief can be
consumed or turned into hash.
* Ice-water agitation: Flower is put into special bags and submerged and
agitated in ice water, separating trichomes from the rest of the plant
material. Those collected trichomes are then processed into hash.
* Heat and pressure: Rosin presses are used to press plant material and
squeeze out the oil, or rosin.
- Omar Sacirbey
MJBiz - July 2023

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