by Dr. Michelle Sexton, Co-Founder and Medical Research Director
The Original Terpestival™ and Terpene Tournament™ has again offered local craft cannabis producers and processors the opportunity to showcase their top genetics and compete for terpene characteristics of finished cannabis product. The Center for the Study of Cannabis and Social Policy (CASP) reached another milestone in this successful fund-raising event, held this year in Hopland CA on July 23rd. CASP is a 501c3 tax-exempt organization that collects and disseminates information about cannabis policy and markets in the context of state-level experiments in democracy, affected by Legal Cannabis laws, rules, and regulations.
Dr. Ethan Russo, an internationally recognized Cannabis historian, Board-certified neurologist, psychopharmacology researcher and Medical Director for Phytecs was the keynote speaker. For the competition, SC Labs provided the quantitative analysis of terpenes and judges also sampled the entries. We are grateful to our many sponsors and vendors who came out for hot fun in the summer time at a unique facility, The Solar Living Institute. We hosted three very educational panels on Processing and Terpenes, Growing and Terpenes, and Terpenes in Health and Ritual. The event was well-attended and we received incredible reviews for this one-of-a kind educational boutique event! Awards were presented on the basis of both quantitative and qualitative results.
One category of award was for the highest total amount of terpenes that were quantified (out of 35 commonly found in cannabis species). The aggregate results across all samples revealed some interesting data. The flower average terpene content was 1.4% Because the event was away from harvest time, there may have been loss of terpene content over time, depending on storage conditions. Only rarely will flower have more than 4% total terpenes, which is pretty amazing given the potent aroma of the plant!
As you can see from Figure 1 the total terpene variability in concentrate is notable, and is due to differences in extraction protocols and extraction efficiency for the terpenes. Specifically in Figure 2 you can see that 2/3 of the solventless extracts (CO2 accepted) actually did not concentrate monoterpenes, and sometimes had less of the individual monoterpenes than the flower samples. Only beta-carophyllene is significantly being concentrated in most of the samples while cannabinoids are typically increased 4-fold or more. The terpenes are an important chemical class that differentiate chemovars from each other. However, if they are being lost in the process, perhaps this raises the question of whether products should be sold under the same name as the original varietal that the concentrate was made from. Also, because the monoterpenes have been reported to have their own biological effects, with their loss it is to be expected that the overall effects would be quite different!
The winner for Highest Total Terpenes in an extract, as well as for most of the terpene categories was from Paradigm for their terpene extraction of “Indica Jello Terps”. Paradigm is the largest woman-owned extraction facility in California, owned by Karyn Wagner. Interestingly, based on the judges comments, these highly concentrated terpene products are not desirable for inhaling on their own. As Karyn agreed, they are a useful intermediate product that could be implemented for combining back with more viscous extracts in lieu of using propylene glycol, glycerine, polyethylene glycol or MCT oil (all of which may be harmful to human health when heated and inhaled), so that they are pourable for filling cartridges, or for use in tinctures. Paradigm also was awarded second and third place for Blue Dream Dreamer and AK47 Shotgun.
Highest Total Terpenes for Flower was awarded to Dirt Ninja for their Grapefruit OG. Second place was Silly Strawberry by Sunboldt Grown, and third place went to Sage and Sour Kush from Ethereal Collective. Figure 4 shows the total terpene distribution across flower entries with the winners in each class alongside.
We gave judges’ awards based on their subjective feedback provided in a survey form. Rick Pfrommer selected the judges, and following part of our event theme (women-centric) , we had 50% of women judges and one gender neutral individual. They were aged 30-49 and 63% had a bachelors level degree. We asked them to rank each sample based on smell, taste, visual appearance, smoothness of smoke and overall effect. They scored these elements on a scale from 0-5 indicating whether the terpene dominated the smell and taste, was somewhat present, neutral, faintly present or none detected. We asked them to rate the overall effects such as physically stimulant, or relaxing with the answers of very, somewhat, neutral, very little or absent. They also scored entries for visual appeal and “smoothness”.
Most Stimulating:
Flower Extract
ChemDog x SFV Ethereal Collective Oil Spill Humboldt Oil Cartel
Sherbert Ethereal Collective Sour OG Talking Trees Farm
Grapefruit OG Dirt Ninja Farms Purple Lotus CBD Ethereal Collective
Most Sedating:
Flower Extract
Sherbert Ethereal Collective Sour OG: Talking Trees Farm
Butter OG Ethereal Collective Girl Scout Cookie Talking Trees Farm
Silly Strawberry Sunboldt Grown Blood Orange Nexus Alchemy
Finally we awarded a “Best of Show” for flower and extract. One grower, Ethereal Collective, swept the flower category with 1st, 2nd and 3rd placings for Chemdog x SFV, Butter OG and Sherbert. Best of show for an extract went to Nexus Alchemy for Blood Orange, 2nd place was for Oil Spill by Humboldt Oil Cartel, and 3rd was for Girl Scout Cookie by Talking Tree Farms.
It was notable this year that so many women won awards, and in fact swept the awards for terpenes and for the judge’s categories! Some of the comments from the judges for the Ethereal Collective’s flower entries were: “Beautiful nuggets of intense flavorable terps”; “well-rounded”; “lushed well and cured well”; “amazing terps from the dry drag to the clean burn”; and “hats off to this farmer!”.
One take-away message from the event is: “don’t let your cannabis selection be defined just by the cannabinoid profile”. The terpene profile needs to be used along with the cannabinoid profile for the end-user to be an educated connoisseur. Our entrant took home the complete cannabinoid and terpene profile analysis from SCLabs along with judges’ comments that can be used for constructive feedback and product marketing. There is a growing trend in the cannabis industry to make efforts at preserving the terpenes during extraction, as well as during curing of the cannabis flower. We urge those who are producing these extracts to use laboratory analysis for process monitoring. If you know the terpenes in the flower, then this can guide the extraction process. Quality has always been defined to the growers by the terpenes and the same should apply for extracts!
Our deepest gratitude goes out to all of those who worked so hard to organize the event, among them Allison Edrington, who did a spectacular job as the event coordinator, and Rick Pfrommer who rallied for the judging process- performing the tedious tasks of dividing up and delivering samples to the judges. We are grateful to all of the sponsors and vendors who took their time to participate and make the event a success! Thanks to all who entered their products and for those who attended the event. CASP appreciates you and says a big “thank you” for the ongoing support of our organization and the work that we do at CASP! And a special thank you to Dr. Dominic Corva who had the vision and impetus to found the organization and carry on in spite of the challenges around raising financial support for the sometimes controversial work that we publish!
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