Ice-o-lator 45u or 120u: the finest mesh tests lowest

Ice-o-lator, or bubble hash, is a resin extracted with water and ice; the glossary entry ice-o-lator gives the full definition. Trichomes are the microscopic glands that cover the flower and hold its cannabinoids. Cold makes them brittle, and once stirred in ice water they break off. The suspension then passes through a stack of filter bags, widest first and finest last, and each bag holds back whatever is too large for its mesh. The hash micron tool places each of these bags on the 25 to 220 µm scale.

So a "120u" fraction holds particles that could not pass a 120 micron mesh yet were small enough to get through the bag above it, often a 160 micron one. A "45u" fraction is what passed the 73 micron bag and stopped at the 45.

That leaves the size of a gland itself. A Canadian team measured the trichomes of two varieties under the microscope and published the results in the Journal of Cannabis Research in 2023. Capitate-stalked trichomes carry most of the resin, and their heads measured 40 to 110 microns across. The heads grow during flowering while the stalk lengthens.

Set against those sizes, the diagram is easy to read. The 45 micron bag keeps the smallest heads, many of which had not finished growing. The 120 micron bag keeps the largest heads still attached to a piece of stalk, along with clumps of resin and some plant debris. Mid-sized heads end up in the 73 and 90 micron bags, and none of these three products comes from them.

The values below are the ones the product pages showed on 23 September 2026, next to the batch reference. The product titles give other figures ("45u CBD 12%", "120u CBD 18%"). This comparison uses only the reference profile, and as of 18 October 2026 no laboratory certificate is published for these batches.

You can open the three product pages: Ice-o-lator 45u, 120u and Caramelo 120u. Each recommends storing the resin between 10 and 20 °C.

Many buyers assume a finer mesh gives a purer resin, and so a richer one. These three batches contradict it. The 45u is the finest fraction and shows the lowest CBD level, with lower minor cannabinoids too: 0.9% CBG, against 1.3% in the 120u.

The 2023 measurements suggest one explanation. Some of the small heads caught at 45 microns are immature glands that had not reached their final size or resin load. The glossary entry 120u says the same: under 45 microns, a fraction fills with immature heads, trichome stalks and dust. The 45u sits just above that limit.

A mesh sorts by size and concentrates nothing. What a fraction contains depends first on the plant washed, how mature it was and how the wash was run. Two washes of one variety can produce two different profiles, so judge the batch analysis and leave the name aside.

The full melt grade, often associated with meshes of 73 to 90 microns, describes a resin that melts without leaving plant residue. It judges by eye how clean the sort was; no lab measurement is involved.

The 120u and the Caramelo 120u share a method and a mesh, and their CBD levels sit 0.4 points apart (15.9% and 15.5%). The main difference is the hemp variety washed, which sets the aroma.

The 120u's description is floral and herbal, dominated by linalool and α-pinene, two terpenes that lavender and conifers also contain. The Caramelo is described as peppery and dry, dominated by α-pinene and β-caryophyllene, which black pepper also contains. The choice between them is a matter of taste. Our article on hemp terpenes explains where these aroma compounds come from and how they are measured.

Price per gram is a fair comparison only between resins of equal content. To set 14.8% against 15.9%, divide the price of a gram by the milligrams of CBD it holds and multiply by 100. For the 45u at the 2 g tier, that gives €8.45 per gram for 148 mg of CBD, or €5.71 per 100 mg.

The 45u costs more per gram and holds less CBD. Per milligram of CBD, it is 14% dearer than the 120u at the 2 g and 100 g tiers, and 29% dearer at the 10 g tier, where its discount is smaller. Quantity counts for more than mesh: between the 2 g and the 100 g tier, the price of every product falls by 76%. The guide to hash price per gram runs the same calculation on other products. Prices and levels were recorded on 23 September 2026, and a new batch may show a different profile.

A "45u" or "120u" label guarantees neither a content nor legal compliance. For that, read four lines of the analysis.

• The dominant cannabinoid and its percentage: here, CBD at three levels between 14.8 and 15.9%.
• Δ⁹-THC, which the reference profile shows at 0.2% for all three batches. The French order of 30 December 2021 caps the Δ⁹-THC content of hemp extracts, and of products containing them (resins included), at 0.30%. The same order banned the sale of raw flowers and leaves, a ban the Conseil d'État struck down on 29 December 2022.
• The batch number, which must match the one printed on the pouch. Without a traceable number, an analysis proves nothing about the product you bought.
• Terpenes, the line that separates two batches of the same mesh such as the 120u and the Caramelo.

Our guide to reading a certificate of analysis covers the other blocks of a certificate (pesticides, heavy metals, solvents), and so does our laboratory page. The frozen, piatella, 120u and static comparison runs the same grid over other methods. The products are listed in the CBD resins and hash category and are sold to adults only.