Customers affiliate the results of hashish with THC, turning the best-known cannabinoid into an important issue when purchasing for flower and associated merchandise. Because of the trade’s push to fulfill ill-informed shopper demand, the general high quality of product has fallen considerably.
When growers, retailers, and customers determine to focus strictly on THC content material, terpene preservation falls to the wayside. After years of chasing THC, the terpenes in at present’s flower are deteriorating at a speedy price, leaving customers with a comparatively ineffective product by the point it reaches their arms.
With the best steerage and training, shopper demand will finally reward the growers who shift the best way they consider business hashish cultivation, leading to longer-lasting and simpler merchandise.
Why Is Terpene Preservation so Vital for High quality Hashish?
Most trade professionals are aware of terpenes, the naturally-occurring compounds which are largely accountable for every cultivar’s vibrant aromas, flavors, and results.
Whereas terpenes are present in most crops, fruits, greens, and pine bushes, they play a profound function in differentiating one hashish pressure from the subsequent. Terpenes are what give Blue Dream its candy, earthy scent and euphoric results, or present Purple Kush with its gassy taste and enjoyable popularity.
Nevertheless, suppose this a part of the plant’s make-up isn’t correctly cared for from the cultivation discipline to the purpose of sale. In that case, the risky parts will deteriorate and customers can be left with dry, ineffective flower that tastes and smells bland.
“There are six main terpenes present in hashish, and the plant primarily produces monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes. Monoterpenes are essentially the most risky compounds, and if the plant is left at room temperature, these terpenes will volatilize and disappear,” mentioned Alec Dixon, co-founder and director of shopper relations at SC Labs. In line with Dixon, one of many greatest components of the answer is something however fashionable.
“For a farmer, should you’re harvesting acres of hashish within the midst of peak warmth hours, you might need sacrificed about 15 to twenty % of the terpene content material proper there on the sphere. There are all these outdated wives’ tales round the best time to reap, like in the course of the night time, and there’s a brilliance to it as a result of terpenes will deteriorate should you don’t put thought into it.”
Sadly, the possibility for deterioration doesn’t finish with considerate harvesting, drying, and curing. The hashish provide chain — which nonetheless hasn’t recovered from COVID and different international impacts — isn’t presently arrange in a approach that prioritizes terpene preservation, and that should change.
“Most farmers will not be harvesting in the course of the night time. They’ll do these enormous harvests all through the day, load that hashish into vehicles, and drive it an hour and a half to the closest location for it to be hung and dried,” mentioned Dixon. “And the way a lot [terpene] loss befell throughout that point?”
Dixon sees at present’s authorized market as immature with its reliance on THC to outline high quality and worth, even supposing so many people within the trade perceive that one cannabinoid solely tells a small a part of a much more elaborate and fascinating story.
“For farmers and folks near the plant, it’s at all times been recognized that terpenes present far more of the plant’s high quality than THC content material,” mentioned Dixon. “However when overproduction happens and mass quantities of hashish are sitting on retail cabinets for months at a time, it actually exposes the enterprise infrastructure and whether or not they have the instruments to look after and protect the terpenes of their possession.”
In line with Dixon, roughly 60 to 90 % of a plant’s terpene content material is misplaced by the point it enters the arms of a processor or distributor, and far of what stays will deteriorate earlier than it reaches the buyer.
To Stay Aggressive, Terpenes Should Be King
The necessity for a stronger emphasis on terpene preservation isn’t a nascent or unjustified principle. SC Labs commonly handles product testing for the Emerald Cup, and so they’ve lately begun grouping the entries by terpene content material to see what kind of impact it might need.
“Should you have a look at the typical cannabinoid content material of the highest 20 winners, it has nothing to do with the choice. However should you have a look at terpene content material, you possibly can at all times see it’s a minimum of one to 2 customary deviations larger within the winners,” mentioned Dixon. “It actually reveals, in an occasion the place the best degree of professional hashish sommeliers are blindly testing and judging merchandise, that terpene content material is far more of an indicator of what the decide will choose as a winner.”
Dixon believes the trade must pay nearer consideration to this situation earlier than it’s too late, particularly because the market deepens its saturation with a majority of manufacturers making an attempt to do the identical factor.
“It’s vital that we inform one other story and battle for craft hashish on this approach. If the trade can’t get collectively on this concept, we’ll see the identical factor that occurred with alcohol. There can be a 30 to 40-year development of hashish consolidation with just a few massive manufacturers on the high, till the market will get her head out of her ass and fights for terpene content material as a defining issue,” mentioned Dixon. “In any other case, craft hashish will reemerge in 80 years, when the market lastly will get a greater grasp on what actually issues. I’m simply hoping it doesn’t go that approach.”
Happily, inefficiencies among the many largest producers in any market current disruptive alternatives for everybody else. In hashish, craft hashish farmers stand to achieve a a lot stronger foothold by focusing their efforts on preserving the fruits of their labor from the farm to the buyer’s entrance door.
“Hashish requires and deserves a continued provide chain. The product needs to be moved instantly and temperature-and-humidity-controlled each step of the best way,” Dixon mentioned. “When oversaturation available in the market happens, it’s the proper alternative for a craft farmer to degree up the whole provide chain by inserting emphasis on terpene content material. It’s important for extra cultivators to know that terpene cultivation and preservation are completely defining elements when competing in opposition to Goliath.”