What Does Weed Taste Like?

From candy to berries to lemon and even gasoline, there are enough marijuana flavors to put Baskin-Robbins to shame. You have Grape Ape, which tastes like grape Hubba-Bubba; Strawberry Cough, which tastes like fresh strawberries; and Thin Mints Girl Scout Cookies, which tastes like chocolate minty heaven. And on the other end of the spectrum are less appetizing (though highly-potent) strains, like Sour Diesel, Super Skunk, Cat Piss, and UK Cheese.

Flavours have become an important part of modern cannabis, with growers searching for the “sweet spot” between cannabinoids and terpenes. Terpenes are the natural oils in the marijuana plant that contribute to the olfactory profile of the flower, produced by the Cannabis sativa plant to help it elude predators and lure pollinators. The specific amount of each terpene present depends on the local climate, the fertilizers, nutrients, soil type, and even the altitude.

The plant secretes terpenes from the same glands that produce cannabinoids to bestow each flower with a pungent and distinct mix of flavours like citrus, pine, mint, and berry. These flavourful bouquets of terpenes can be as complex as wine, sometimes referred to as a “terpene profile.” When you find marijuana varietal that appeals to your needs—therapeutically or otherwise—and it tastes good, it can deepen your appreciation of the plant’s genetics and heritage.

To get the most out of a flavourful flower, use a vaporizer with precise heat controls and set it low. The problem with smoking a joint, blunt, pipe or bowl is that direct heat from the lighter or match burns up those tasty terpenes very quickly making it taste like burnt plant matter.

That burnt taste comes into play again when cooking with marijuana. That’s because the plant material must be heated up to the point where the non-psychoactive THC-A molecule transforms into its psychoactive THC molecule, also called “decarboxylation” (the elimination of a carboxylic acid group from an organic compound).

A common way that home cannabis chefs do this is to break the bud up onto a sheet and bake it in an oven at about 220-240 degrees Fahrenheit. However, while this brings out the psychoactive properties of the marijuana it also makes the herb fairly bitter-tasting. So, while you may have chosen the Chocolate Thai strain with the intention of adding some extra cocoa notes to your special brownies, the “decarbed” cannabis won’t smell or taste anything like chocolate once it is out of the oven. That’s why edible makers and medicated meal chefs either formulate recipes that cover up the bad taste, or they decarboxylate at a lower temperature for longer to preserve the fidelity of the terpenes.

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