The weed world is starting to crack the “terps” that makes each bud—and edible—unique.
Helping them along is a menu of infused treats expanding in lockstep with legalization: broad-spectrum extra-virgin olive oil, sugar-dusted gumdrops, hand-poured chocolates, sparkling “social tonics,” and so-called adaptogenic teas—stirred with a straw of bud-infused raw honey, of course.
It’s not just the foods that are delicious. Cannabis flowers themselves can boast aromas of lemon icing, pine needles, grape soda, or even, in a favorite of seasoned stoners, gasoline. These widely varying scents largely come courtesy of terpenes. The volatile hydrocarbon chains show up all over the plant kingdom, and experts have identified more than 200 varieties in weed alone. The little molecules may be less famous than cannabinoids (the class of compounds that includes superstar mood shifters like THC and CBD), but they’re every bit as important to consumption. They help determine how a cannabis flower smells and tastes—and, in some cases, the way it makes a person feel.
– Read the entire article at Popular Science.
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