Terpenes and the Cannabis Experience

Hey folks! It’s time again for another educational rip around the cannabis world with Cobourg’s one and only homegrown, locally owned cannabis retailer! We’ve talked about terpenes before. In fact, a couple of years ago I wrote a whole batch of blogs covering the terpenes you’re most likely to encounter when shopping cannabis these days.

Back then, people were still getting used to being able to buy cannabis legally and weren’t at the point where they had developed a connoisseur level of taste when it came to their cannabis selection. They mostly just aimed for what they knew or asked about the THC levels, which (as we know) is not generally the best way to pick the right strain for the effect you’re looking to achieve. For that, you also need to consider the terpenes.

                Now that some time has passed and our beloved customers have started to become more specific in their cannabis tastes, I feel it’s a good time to do a terpene roundup and talk about some of the terps you should be on the lookout for to get the experience you want. Before we get to that though, we should talk about what terpenes are and how they carry a lot of the weight when it comes to our experience of cannabis.

What they are and how they work

                Terpenes are chemicals which help to create the distinctive flavours and aromas that elevate our experience of cannabis from the simple imbibing of a psychoactive plant into a buffet for the senses. They actually exist in all fruits and plants, but what makes cannabis unique is that it contains what experts refer to as a “crapload of terps”. There are hundreds, if not thousands of terpenes present across the various strains that exist.

If terpenes only contributed to the aroma and flavour of cannabis that alone would be a good reason to analyze, celebrate and discuss them. However, the impact of terpenes is felt at a far greater radius than most people realize, with them actually carrying a lot of the weight of cannabis effect as well because of how they and the cannabinoids in the plant interact together with our system. This interaction is referred to by some as the “entourage effect” and is not totally understood.

                What we do understand is that combining certain terpenes with cannabinoids like THC and CBD can help create some of the different, oft times dynamic effects that we encounter in cannabis. Did that strain make you sleepy? It probably had a bunch of myrcene, caryophyllene or farnasene present amongst its terp family, which combine to make a sleepy time drought that’ll have you counting sheep in no time. Did you suddenly get a boost of creative energy that led to you cleaning your entire living room before playing Battlefield 6 for 8 hours straight while your cat watched on in awe? Then your strain probably contained some of the uplifting terpenes like limonene or ocimene.

                So that, my ganja loving friends, is a very brief summary of what terps do and how they do it. As we go forward through different terpenes, we’ll address more closely the way the relationship between each terp and your endocannabinoid system. For now, just know that if you want to get the most out of your cannabis shopping, ask your loveable budtenders about terpenes and how they can enrich your experience of the electric lettuce.

                Got terpenes on the mind? Check out our menu for a selection of high terpene, smooth smoking strains!