All retail CBD products begin with hemp, and an extraction process that takes the CBD oil from the hemp plant. The oil is then further processed into retail products. The cheapest and easiest method, and therefore by far the most common, uses ethanol, often denatured.¹ The hemp is exposed to this volatile solvent to force the CBD and other products from the hemp plant. At Utopia CBD we do not use a drop of this type of CBD in any of our products.

The other method, much rarer and much more time consuming and expensive, uses carbon dioxide in its liquid state, sometimes called “supercritical CO2”, to extract CBD from hemp. The lengthy process requires accurate regulation of temperature and pressure to obtain the highest quality CBD. CO2 equipment costs much more than the routine ethanol brands, and the process of CO2 extraction is much more selective taking much more time.

The most glaring benefit of CO2 extraction is that it is the most environmentally friendly type of extraction known. Supercritical CO2 extraction has a long history of safety, having been used in the food and herbal supplement industries since the 1990’s. CO2 extraction has been historically used to remove caffeine from coffee beans to make decaffeinated coffee, and in the production of essential oils. This long history of safe and effective extraction related to products to be placed in or on human bodies continues at Utopia CBD.

The vastly superior quality of CO2 CBD products make up a smaller portion of the retail offerings, and often are priced a bit higher. True quality takes time, and the slight increase in cost is justified. Benefits recognized about CO2 extraction include:

• CO2 extractions are pure and lack toxicity
• CO2 extraction uses non-hazardous environmentally friendly green technology and is
  considered a green solvent by the American Chemical Society.
• CO2 extraction has an incredibly low environmental impact
• CO2 extraction does not denature or otherwise harm the CBD extracted

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¹ Ethanol is denatured when something is added so that it is no longer consumable by humans without toxic effect.
Ethanol that is not denatured is often classified as drinking alcohol, with the attendant taxes, tariffs and
regulations.