Let's Be Blunt with Boris: Terpenes

Let's Be Blunt with Boris - Terpenes - Episode 1 transcription

That's really good, too. What's up? What's up? Weedmaps world, I'm Boris, the hash guy, and if you're still shopping for weed by looking at THC percentage, you're doing it wrong.

THC is really only one component of the cannabis plant, and it's not even the most important one that matters when you're shopping for flower or trying to pick the right flower for you. So let's go ahead and break down the different components of what you should be looking for to really get the best experience from your cannabis.

Terpenes are the molecules responsible for the flavor and aroma of cannabis, so THC and CBD, they don't have a smell. And that's why old weed smells like old weed, it smells like hay, right? Because you're just smelling the plant material.

The terpenes are really why, if you open the jar, you're like, "Whoa." That's from terpenes. That's not from THC or CBD. Has nothing to do with THC percentage.

And there are over 150 different terpenes that this plant can produce, so you know, there's a very famous one, Myrcene, Limonene, Beta-caryophyllene. Myrcene Beta-caryophyllene, they're gonna make sort of that more sedative feeling of cannabis.

If you have something like a Limonene, a Pinene, or a Terpinolene, think Jack Herer. If you ever hear these things, those are gonna be the ones are gonna be a little bit more uplifting.

Terpenes are very volatile chemicals. So what does that mean? That means at room temperature, they want to evaporate. They don't want to stay in liquid form. They want to stay in solid form. And so because of that, the way you cure your cannabis, the way you store it, the way it's sealed and packaged, and the way you ultimately package it at home, is also super, super important. So how can you make sure that you have a high terpene concentration in your flower.

Well, when you're shopping for flower, if they're listing the terpene content on there, that's great. Okay, that's a step in the right direction, at least. You know that there's something in there. Typically, flower should have a few percentage points of terpenes in there. If it's higher than, you know, 2.5% or 3%, you're getting a really great terpene experience, right? But numbers also can be misleading. So, I would also look at the cannabinoid-to-terpene ratio. So if you look at the total cannabinoids in there might be 15 to 20 percent, 25 percent, you divide that by the terpene percentage, you're going to get your cannabinoid-to-terpene ratio. Anything within a three-to-one, a four-to-one is fantastic.

So that's the easiest thing to look for, and it's a simple math calculation you can do on the back if they're listing their terpenes.

Now, those are all really good points, but there's a crucial thing that when you're out to shop, you should always look at, make sure you're looking at the harvest date. The harvest date is incredibly important, because if it was harvested last year and it's in the Mylar bag, chances are you might not be in a great place, because terpenes do degrade.

So if that product isn't packaged well, you're going to be in a bad space too. So usually the best packaging is going to be glass in an airtight container that's in the dark, usually. Over time, sunlight will get into that jar even, and it's going to degrade that THC into CBN and other components.

And if you've ever had old weed, you know it's sleepy time weed, right? You can smoke it, you'll feel something, but then you're going to be groggy pretty quickly. That's because that THC converts it to CBN. And CBN is basically sleepy time weed. So it's in a lot of the sleep gummies out there in the cannabis world, CBN is used as an input material to put you to sleep.

So really, at the end here, I hope you understand that you know, shouldn't just be looking at THC percentage to pick your weed. Should be looking at terpene content. You should be looking at the package date.

You should be making sure it's as fresh as possible. And we have all the information. The batch label will tell us how to do that. Good luck out there. Keep smoking. I'm Boris, the hash guy with Weedmaps. Thanks for tuning in.