Grower / Processor: Parea Biosciences
Breeder: The Source Genetics
Here, KCRA shines a spotlight on Parea’s Chem Face Off Live Diamonds and Sauce. We sat down with Parea Bioscience’s Directors of Extraction Abe Crowe and Chris Davila to learn more about their recently launched concentrate products and gain insight into the extraction process for the Chem Face Off before providing our own take on these beautiful live diamonds.
If you want to learn about concentrate products and have a better understanding of the different medical marijuana concentrate products available to patients, visit our Concentrate Product Page.
The Process of Forming Live Diamonds
Chris: "The reason why we end up creating a diamonds and sauce is generally based off of two things; terpene content and the consistency of the concentrate itself. The aroma, as well as the consistency of the crude oil coming out of the machine during extraction is a great telltale sign of if it's going to become diamonds or not."
"Live product and fresh frozen material are a lot better for diamonds. Most of the time, if we do a live concentrate product, we're going try to at least put some live material towards diamonds because the crystal itself is going be a lot clearer. Whenever you have fresh frozen material, it's always going to be a clearer crystal because there's no time for that milkiness in the trichome node to develop during cure. So, with live starting material you just end up with more appealing diamonds overall. "
Abe: “So we just left these guys to cure in the jar for six weeks to create the half gram diamond sizes and we did very, very, little burping, low pressure, low temperature. We kept the whole entire concentrate under 70 degrees and just allowed for a slow build on the crystals. You can tell that the molecules are laying down in that lattice fashion when you get the ability to refract light through your diamond. That gives it that pure clarity. We don't want to do any agitation. Any agitation will cause nucleation and nucleation is where the THCA will combine with the oil. So, if you have a completely stable substrate then you know that all nucleation will happen within the lattice. If you start to get bubbles and then start having nucleation happen around those bubbles, that's when you get sugars.”
Appearance
These Chem Face Off Live Diamonds are an impressive product from Parea. When you open up the package patients can expect to see exactly what is on the label. Large, clear diamonds, and drippy, oily sauce. Off the appearance alone you will be able to tell that Parea takes pride in quality and consistency. Huge chunks of pure, clear, translucent THCa crystals are swimming in an absolute pool of thin, clear-amber, terpene rich sauce. You will most likely have close to half gram size, glasslike chunks of diamonds that need to be broken up and dragged through this oily, terpy sauce for use.
Check the label and do some quick math and you’ll see there are only TWO things in the product after processing that make up 99.99% of the product's weight: cannabinoids (95.536%) and terpenes (4.459%)!
Abe: “When the Chem Face Off was run, we brought it out and it was super syrupy. Even after a day of sitting, it did not crash. That means it had a much higher terpene level inside of that oil than it had THCA. So, what we did with that reduced amount of THCA is create super fine THC facets and create those huge clear diamonds.”
Chris: "I think an important aspect with the live diamonds is puck appeal when patients open up that puck and see those crystals and seeing those bigger chunks of diamonds. I think that's part of what makes us keep doing what we're doing with those diamonds because it is nice opening up a puck and being like, wow, this is a crazy concentrate."
Aroma / Taste
Not much is going to be able to distract away from the sight of these chunks of THCa, but the aroma might.
The first thing that hits your nose is the pungent, sour lemon, grapefruit scents that combine with notes of fuel and aromas reminiscent of cleaning solutions that are sure to tingle the nostrils. You are not smelling the diamonds, which are odorless and contain no terpenes. It’s all the sauce that stinks in the best way possible! The myrcene (1.452%), caryophyllene (0.466%) and pinene (0.395%) terps give off some musky, sweet and spicy, wet rotting wood undertones that pair with a cool, crisp, menthol finish from the low levels of the rarer camphene (0.074%).
The Chem Face Off Live Diamonds and Sauce allows the patients to somewhat choose the “taste” level of this product. Pull a large diamond chunk out without too much sauce on it and get ready for a nice tasting but powerful experience. But drag a smaller piece through a large goop of sauce and prepare for a multidimensional taste with a profile that has heavy, spicy, piney, citrusy, diesel and sour fruit flavors.
Abe: “For these diamonds, we took a lot of time processing them and they came out super terpy. When we added it into a jar, it would just rinse around the jar, kind of like thick Kool-Aid that you just put a little bit of water in, and it would stick to the sides of the jar. It was a gorgeous smelling product right out of the machine, and it just screamed diamonds.”
Effects / Experience
The effects can be best described on a scale depending on how you are dosing the Chem Face Off Live Diamonds and Sauce. We would recommend smaller doses throughout usage to get comfortable with this product as it can be strong. Too large of a dose can pack a punch for even the most experienced patients and bring on more intense effects, but there are no two ways around it, small doses or larger ones, this one is going to “chem-your-face-off.” These potent effects have an almost instant onset after use and bring on some chill and relaxing vibes while maintaining a comfortable, warm and inviting feeling.
These can be great for the end of the day, sitting down to decompress, and putting on some music after dinner to chillout for the night. Just don't forget some additional snacks in case hunger sets in because whether it is a large dose or a small one, you might be getting comfortable somewhere for a while after using these diamonds and sauce.
Chris: “When I first started processing sugars and diamonds, and started supervising the process a little bit more, I kind of laughed at myself. My biggest thing when I create sugars and diamonds is I try to get as close to VVS diamond standards as possible. With the diamonds clarity as well as size. Those details are big for us here inside Parea’s extraction operations.”
"From a patient perspective, the reason why we make the diamonds we make, and why we try to separate the sauce as much as possible and keep the diamonds intact is so that patients can dose properly. Homogenizing your product and making sure that you're getting a consistent dose is tough with separated products like diamonds and sauce. But if you know 0.1 grams of diamonds and a small bit of sauce on there is a good dose to the visual eye, patients can kind of recreate that consistent dabbing experience of a homogenized product with our separated products as well."
