It’s a subject that comes up from time to time: is it possible to flavor cannabis after being harvested? One of the most enticing aspects of some cannabis strains is their flavor. For most of us, the taste experience is an important component of cannabis, from the mind-blowing citrus punch of Strawberry Cough or Larry Lemon OG to the creamy, dreamy flavors of Cream & Cheese.
But what do you do when your cannabis falls short on flavor? The good news is that there are solutions, and if you’re willing to take a few precautionary actions, you can potentially improve your taste senses experience.
What Gives Cannabis its Taste
Terpenes — a wide and diverse class of chemical substances present in many plants, including conifers and mint – are the main perpetrators in providing the cannabis plant with its flavor. Terpenes such as myrcene are responsible for the skunky scent of cannabis, whereas limonene (lemon) or valencene (orange) is the major terpene in citrus-dominant strains.
Beta-caryophyllene has a spicy-peppery aroma, while linalool has a more flowery aroma. These, along with over 150 other terpenes, are found in minute levels in cannabis and work together to determine the smell and taste characteristics of your favorite delectable strains.
Why Does Your Weed Taste So Odd?
If you’ve ever opened a bag of your favorite weed and been disappointed by how it tastes, there are several possible explanations. Various elements during cannabis growth and harvest play a role in deciding how flavorful the plant is in the end.
Any faults made by growers could result in a disappointingly bland ultimate product. While specialized cannabis production techniques like LST (Low-Stress Training) might enhance flavor, poor flushing, insufficient curing, or utilizing the wrong nutrients/fertilizer/soil can result in cannabis with a decreased flavor profile.
When cultivating your outdoor auto flower seeds, it’s critical to understand how to execute each stage of the process to maximize flavor perfectly. Finally, if your cannabis is moist or, even worse, moldy, it will significantly impact the taste. Examine your nugs to ensure they’re healthy, and if you notice any mold symptoms, throw them away right away. If your weed is healthy, chances are the lack of flavor is due to cultivator error, or you have a strain that lacks kick — certain strains aren’t that palatable, even if cultivated flawlessly.
How to Enhance the Flavor of Your Cannabis
You may use various techniques to improve the flavor profile of an uninspired strain – some are more effective than others – but the key is to use moderation with all of them. Take a tiny amount of your pot and test it – you don’t want to sacrifice your entire stash and run it through a flavor-enhancing process to discover you don’t like the result and all your cannabis is tainted! Begin with a small amount and observe how it goes, like any experiment.
Weed can be flavored using essential oils or food flavorings.
Essential oils are fantastic since they’re aromatic and come in various flavors, like lemon, mint, strawberry, and a slew of other delectable possibilities – but be sure they’re pure plant extract and safe for human consumption. Dip a cotton ball in the essential oil and use it to enhance the flavor of your cannabis.
Ensure it’s not completely soaked and not dripping, then secure it to the lid of your stash jar without contacting your dry buds or the jar’s sides. Again, if you try this, start with a modest amount because you might not like the outcome, but more importantly, adding moisture to your jar increases your chances of mold. To lessen such odds, inspect your jar regularly and air it out on occasion. To flavor weed similarly, consider using food-grade flavorings from the grocery store, such as vanilla extract or mint extract.
Enhance Cannabis Flavors with Citrus Peels
A favorite choice mentioned on Seed Supreme among consumers of fruity cannabis strains, adding a little citrus peel to your jar may enhance the flavor of your bud. Orange, lemon, lime, and grapefruit are good options for zinging up your cannabis buds. If not done carefully, this procedure has the potential to create mold, so avoid the impulse to immediately open your stockpile and chuck in a handful of fresh orange peels (shout out to an old college friend of mine who did exactly this, only to return three weeks later to find a ruined ounce).
The best approach to improve the flavor of your cannabis using fruit peels is first to dehydrate them, and the simplest way to do it is to spread them out on foil or parchment on a baking tray, then bake them for 15-20 minutes on a low to medium heat in an oven. You want to dry them rather than bake them, so a temperature of around 150 degrees C should suffice. Remove the peels from the oven, cut them into thin strips, and securely wrap them in cheesecloth or a similar fabric. Attach your bag of peels to your jar lid, making sure it doesn’t come into contact with the cannabis buds or the jar sides, and check in every couple of days to vary the airflow to the buds for a brief time, watching for any symptoms of difficulty as you go. After a week or so, you should notice a tiny shift in the aroma in the jar – but if you want to keep going, toss your peels and replace them every 7-10 days.
Things to Consider
- While these approaches will have varied effectiveness, there is no guarantee they will have the desired impact, so continue with caution and experiment with a small bit of your cannabis.
- If you’re going to try the essential oil method, make sure to test the oil before putting it anywhere near your buds. Dab a tiny bit on your finger and taste it – if it’s overly perfumed, has a chemical scent, or burns in any manner, don’t use it!
- Please don’t put anything directly on your cannabis to flavor it, as this greatly increases the chance of damaged pot.
- Check to verify if it’s working and inspect for mold symptoms regularly. Remove the lid and let it breathe for a few minutes. DO NOT THROW YOUR FLAVORING IN THERE AND LEAVE IT TO WORK FOR A MONTH.
- Use any means of managing the humidity level inside the jar to your advantage here.
- Different strains will react in different ways. This may work with some strains but not others — some weed tastes like weed, and that’s how it should be.
Finally, keep your expectations in check — these ways can successfully use flavor weed, but if you notice that the flavor of your pot has altered across the board, you’ve probably overdone it. The best you can realistically anticipate is a small boost, and nothing beats the natural flavors of marijuana plants that have been meticulously cultivated, flushed, dried, and cured.
