Farmhand Blog #1: Guide to Recreational Cannabis Shopping
With the recreational cannabis industry emerging in New York, consumers coming in from the traditional market often have questions as to how legal cannabis works, what's safe to consume, and how to best spend their money. For our first Farmers Choice blog entry, we'll be covering what Farmhands feel are important for all consumers to know.
How to read a Certificate of Analysis (COA)
The Certificate of Analysis of your cannabis product is important for any consumer to become familiar with, as it's a publicly available set of lab results for the product you purchased.
In New York, all cannabis products sold on the recreational market are required to have a COA somewhere on their packaging. The COA will oftentimes be in the form of a QR code, which you can scan with your phone camera for a direct link to the results.
In this section, we'll cover the important lab results of a COA consumers should be looking at, and how to determine if what you purchased was grown and processed with care and attention. CFU (Colony-Forming Units) is one of the measuring units used in a COA when testing for yeast and mold activity. Generally you'll want the results of your flower to be below 100,000 CFUs for it to be considered a properly grown product.
Determining what is potent
The first page of your product's COA will generally be a quick run-down of all the tested information, with more in-depth details in the following pages. Not all COAs will look alike, as there's a variety of testing labs used across New York.
The way we indicate a potent product based on its COA is by checking its terpene and THC percentages. While COA formats may vary, the results required for each COA will always remain consistent. If potency is what you're looking for in your purchase, then allow us to break the number one stigma often followed by new consumers.
Does THC % matter?
For years consumers have been under the impression that THC percentage is the go-to number for what will get you the best high. But as the years have progressed, more studies have been done on the chemical compounds that derive from cannabis. It turns out THC percentage doesn't play as big of a role as people once thought.
Just because an eighth has 20% THC doesn't mean that the 4% terpenes backing it up won't carry the weight. If anything, it'll be a more enjoyable experience.
How terpenes and flavonoids determine your experience
Both terpenes and flavonoids are organic compounds found within the trichome of a cannabis plant. Their purpose is to accompany the mixture of cannabinoids and THCA. Both of these organic compounds contribute far more to your experience than an outstanding THC percentage.
What is the entourage effect?
One of many discoveries to come from cannabis research, the entourage effect is when the multitude of compounds found in cannabis work together to shape the plant's overall effects.
The 150 to 200 different terpenes found in cannabis all offer their own characteristics. When an array of these terpenes are found in one strain (as they often are), it further encourages the entourage effect. Alongside dictating what effects you'll feel, terpenes are also what give a cannabis strain its unique smells and tastes.
Flavonoids, on the other hand, are still being researched to understand their role when interacting with your endocannabinoid system. With what we know today, flavonoids work with cannabinoids and terpenes to also encourage the entourage effect, further shaping the experience you have with a specific strain.
Residual solvents
This section has no relation to the flower category, but with the rise in popularity of carts and concentrates, understanding what's leftover in your product from its extraction is another important part of a COA's results.
When looking at your COA for residual solvents, the best possible result is ND (Not Detected). This means your product has been properly purged of all the residual solvents used during its extraction process. There are a number of different solvents used for solvent-based extraction, most commonly butane or ethanol. For the best possible experience, you want your product to be full-spectrum cannabis, free of any residuals.
Shop by terpenes, not by hype
The major takeaway we'd like you to get from this entire blog is that shopping by THC percent is not an efficient way to spend your money, especially when there are cheaper, more potent options hiding among the highly marketed brands.
What are sprayed terpenes (spray packs)?
Terpenes occur naturally in all different kinds of plants; these are known as botanical terpenes. Botanical terpenes are not to be mistaken with ones deriving from cannabis, known as CDT (cannabis-derived terpenes).
Botanical terpenes, just like cannabis-derived ones, can be extracted from the plants they're found in. They're then processed into a sprayable aromatic compound, which unfortunately may end up on your eighth, all in hopes of fooling you that what you've purchased is top-shelf.
How to know if your flower is sprayed
Because spraying terps is a way to cut corners on low-grade flower, it's almost never advertised. The first way to quickly identify sprayed flower is to check the ingredient list, if one is provided on the packaging. Not all packaging lists ingredients, so a key way to identify spray is by your sense of smell.
It's entirely possible for your newly acquired strain to smell or taste like a blueberry muffin or a piece of bubblegum, but if you notice a strain smells nearly identical to its name or advertised taste, then the possibility of that product being sprayed comes into question.
Your nose is your best friend when shopping for cannabis. As the market continues to evolve worldwide, new flavor profiles and aromas emerge from skillful growers. Luckily, Farmhands do their best to stay up to date with the evolving cannabis scene, and will continue to do so to provide our customers with the best products New York has to offer.
Always ask your Farmhand
The vast majority of budtenders in New York are regular consumers of cannabis. Here at Farmers Choice, our Farmhands are knowledgeable about the New York recreational market and can answer most, if not all, questions you might have.
Your budtender should always know the specifics about a product, so before deciding on your next re-up, chat with one to see what's worth trying in this fast-evolving industry.
Stay safe and smoke clean, Farmhand Jordan