Cold Cure Labs’ Panda Punch Live Rosin Review

If you’re the kind of cannabis consumer who likes their dabs on the more active side but without any anxiety, Cold Cure Labs’ Panda Punch live rosin is a great choice that is going to be among the most affordable solventless options on shelves. Its earthy-funk-mild cheese aroma morphs into a slightly sweet, “hey is that an orange or something?” flavor profile that kept us guessing. It's a good clean hash that is best enjoyed in small to medium quantities for maximum utility, so if you get a chance and want to try something new, grab a gram for your stash. 

Like all of Cold Cure Labs’ live hash rosin, the Panda Punch came in their simple signature white glass push-twist jar which has some kind of gasket built into the lid that provides a seemingly tight seal for freshness. The rosin itself, which was carefully grammed out into a tight ball by the packaging team, offers an interesting antique gold sort of color which isn’t terribly common in our experience. Upon a close inspection as you’ll see in the pre-stirred pictures, it has a very slightly crystalline surface with a beautiful, faintly wet terpene sheen. It’s nice and baddery which made it easy to work with and once it’s been mixed up with a dab tool, it resembles that chunky, classic cold cure rosin batter so many of us know and love these days.

Given the lack of any discernible information about its genetics (we’ve reached out to Cold Cure Labs at the time of writing to confirm), I went into this review completely blind. The Panda Punch has a very earthy and funky aroma that has little hints of aged cheese woven together with that distinct floral essence so many live rosins possess. The scent is strangely muted when it’s been refrigerated but becomes much more pungent when left out of cold storage for a while. It’s certainly not the loudest in the jar (I’d put it at a 5 out of 10 tops in that department) it does have a curious smell that invites you to give it a sniff just to check every time you get into it.

Like all of the rosin I dab, I like to mix it up and do some through my rig in the low 500°F range and some through my Puffco Peak Pro at a comparable temperature setting. I ended up smoking more of the Panda Punch through my Puffco though because as you’ll read shortly in the following two sections, it’s a more active strain and one that doesn’t carry a ton of delicate flavors that need to be teased out with a proper cold start dab. Nope, it turns out this Panda Punch is a very utilitarian extract so a quick puff through the e-rig made for easy dabbing through the majority of the gram we received.

The flavor profile here is not at all what I was expecting based on the aroma, but was surprised to find that it smokes much closer to a varietal of the many Tropicana Cookies strains that are making the rounds now and perhaps forever. Upfront on my tongue it’s loamy and earthy like the scent alluded to but then quickly is overridden by a faintly sweet orange citrus flavor. It isn’t super strong in flavor but is easy to smoke and has a sort of typical cannabis zestiness to it that most dabbers would find enjoyable. It dabs cleanly at lower temperatures but is best accompanied with something to drink unless you’re doing micro dabs.