Trulieve/Blue River Rosin Cart Review: Paradise Waits (Hybrid)

The day that this product became available (04.30.2020) was a day that has been long-awaited and highly anticipated by many Florida medical cannabis patients. Rosin Carts (or Rosin “Sauce” cart) are a top-tier medical cannabis product that uses solventless extraction and proprietary refining methods to produce one of the most flavorful cannabis vape carts in existence. From Trulieve’s website:

Blue River™ Rosin Cart offers consumers a safe, convenient, and controlled way to vaporize strain-specific solvent-less hash oil. Using advanced mechanical separation techniques, Blue River™ is able to naturally preserve a higher concentration of full-spectrum cannabinoids and terpenes without the use of water, chemical solvents, or other additives. Also, due to the proprietary extraction process, the Blue River™ Rosin Cart offers one of the most flavorful, terpene-rich experiences available in a cartridge.

Trulieve Rosin Cart Product Page

Basically, this is rosin in a vape cart – but with less THC, and more terpenes.

Quick Facts:

Paradise Waits (Hybrid)

Price at time of review: $60/half gram

Lineage: Scarlet Fire x Harlequin

Batch/Harvest Number: BCHO-RC-.5G-H-35-PK-3

Cannabinoids

THCa: 5.2%

THC: 47.5%

CBD: 0.5%

THCV: 0.6%

CBG: 6.0%

Total Cannabinoids: 59.6%

Terpenes

Alpha-Bisabolol: 0.129%

Beta-Myrcene: 1.691%

Linalool: 0.669%

Terpineol: 0.645%

Trans-Carophyllene: 5.192%

R-Limonene: 3.336%

Valencene: 0.277%

Fenchol: 0.836%

Alpha-Humulene: 0.734%

Carophyllene Oxide: 0.166%

Borneol: 0.125%

Alpha-Pinene: 0.507%

Camphene: 0.141%

Cis-Nerolidol: 0.241%

Total Terpenes: 13.275% 

Taste

I’ll start this section off with a rather blunt statement: This vape cart changes the playing field for how I rate the taste of vape carts from this moment forward.

Before, I always said that distillate carts with cannabis-derived terpenes (rather than plant-derived terpenes) taste the best, for a number of factors; the main reason being that the nature of the extraction method for cannabis-derived terpenes ensures that all of the terpenes (including ones we haven’t been able to identify yet) are included in the product. With botanical or plant-derived terpenes, someone is adding a list of terpenes and rationing them based on the expected terpene profile for a given strain. But these often don’t taste exactly like the strain truly does (and consequently feel like the strain is supposed to feel), because they don’t account for all the unidentified terpenes in a strain.

Rosin carts are on a different level entirely, because they are derived from rosin, which is one of the most pure (and solventless) forms of concentrated cannabis. If you’ve ever vaporized rosin before, these cart taste almost exactly the same – but even more flavorful.

Take a look at the terpene percentages above: ~13% terpenes is insane in comparison to anything else currently available in Florida. For reference, most flower strains I’ve tried average somewhere between 1 and 2 percent terpenes. TruWax and other concentrates like crumble and shatter are somewhere around 4 to 5 percent, and rosin being the old top position at around 8 percent.

This vape cart actually smelled loud when I opened the canister – not unlike opening up a gram of rosin, or even a container of flower. I’ve never had a vape cart that actually smelled like raw cannabis material before. That being said, these also tend to smell more, so exercise extra caution if using them outside your home.

The rosin cart tastes a lot like Paradise Waits flower smells, but obviously more concentrated. The flavor is very piney, sweet, citrusy, with a hint of fuel and skunk on the exhale. I also find that the taste seems to linger on my tongue for some time after I’ve vaped it.

Again, there are no other vape carts in Florida that taste as flavorful as these rosin carts – though I haven’t tried Curaleaf’s “Live Resin Carts” yet, so maybe those are in the same league? If you’ve tried it, definitely drop a comment once you’re done reading, and let me know how the rosin carts compare to it!

If you’re a “flavor chaser” with vape carts, you absolutely have to try one of these.

Taste Rating: 9.50/10.00

Product Quality

Trulieve’s product page for the rosin cart describes its design:

The Blue River™ Rosin Cart packages the solventless hash oil in an AVD cartridge specifically made to handle thinner oils. Its design combines glass casings, a unique ceramic bullet mouthpiece, and a custom low temperature ceramic core vaporizer. This results in an effective, clean, and controlled experience with smooth, robust flavors.

Trulieve Rosin Cart Product Page

I included the instructions for using the cart in the last image above, both for your reference, and in case I lose the box and can’t remember what the voltages are.

The cart itself seems sturdy and resembles a CCell cartridge, but is designed to handle thinner oils such as rosin sauce.

The specially-designed AVD battery works well for me, and seems to produce the best results on the lower voltage setting. I normally hit my other vape carts for a 2-second draw for most dosages, but with the lower voltage and lower THC in these carts, I find myself taking a couple of 4 or 5-second draws to get the same dosage.

The battery does not have an on/off switch; instead, it is activated when you take a draw. Be advised that the battery vibrates while you’re hitting it to let you know that it is working, so don’t be alarmed. I probably would have freaked out and thrown mine across the room if I hadn’t gotten a heads-up from someone on Reddit.

I’ve seen a few people have issues with leaking cartridges, and a few more issues with burnt-tasting oil. I haven’t had either of these problems, fortunately. The oil does taste a bit burnt if I use the higher voltage or if I hit it on low voltage for too long, but this seems to resolve after a few hits if it happens.

The product seems to function as intended for me, but I will leave some room in this category to account for somewhat repeated issues of leaking and burning, until we know for sure that these issues are either outliers or have been resolved.

Product Quality Rating: 7.50/10.00

Effects/Medical Use

Paradise Waits has always been one of my favorite hybrid strains, and the rosin cart captures its essence very well. I find this to be a sativa-dominant hybrid that works well for both depression and anxiety, but it also has an appreciable relaxation component as well, and it can make me sleepy at the end of the night if I use it before bed.

I medicated before taking a long walk in the sun this morning, and it felt like this was the perfect strain and product to do so with. I think the combination of relatively low THC for a vape cart, coupled with very high terpenes, helps to produce a more complete entourage effect that seems medicinally “whole”.

I’m able to hit this pen over and over again, and though I become more and more medicated, I never seem to hit the threshold for anxiety; this would not be the case with a distillate vape cart, and I would probably have a panic attack after just a few big hits. This doesn’t seem to be the case with the rosin carts, at least with the Paradise Waits strain.

The effects of rosin seem to be “clean” and pure, smooth on onset, and closer to what flower feels like than any other concentrates. The same seems to be true with rosin carts as well.

I saw a few patients complaining of getting headaches more than once after medicating with the rosin carts (including this strain), but I have not had that happen to me yet.

The effects feel nice, but my concern is that the smoothness of them coupled with the amazing taste, means that I will go through these carts very quickly. I suppose we’ll see!

Possibly good for treating

• Depression 
• Anxiety
• ADD/ADHD
• Minor to moderate aches and pains
• Headaches
• Lack of motivation (in lower doses)
• General relaxation/relief 
• Relief of nausea and other gastrointestinal symptoms
• May ease insomnia in high doses
• Generally versatile strain

I’m definitely no medical doctor, so please take the preceding conditions only as my own personal observations from using this strain and having experience with a multitude of different cannabis strains. Every body is different, and every body reacts different to various medications. 

Effects Rating: 9.00/10.00

Overall Rating: 8.66/10.00

Overall, I would best describe this Paradise Waits rosin cart as an “excellent quality” product from Trulieve.

Trulieve continues to offer the most options of cannabis medication in Florida, and these rosin carts make an excellent addition to their product lineup. I think these carts are best suited for patients who want the best tasting vape carts possible, or for patients who want to experiment with the medicinal benefits of higher terpene concetrations.

I’ll absolutely be trying different strains in the rosin carts in the future, so stay tuned for more reviews coming soon!

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