It is becoming more popular to taste and appreciate cannabis like wine. In California, the global epicenter for ganja, blind testing cannabis has become a standard practice.Â
Local chef, entrepreneur and industry veteran Chip Moore, 36, is the founder of the 4 and 20 Blackbirds collective and has been treating its members to the blind tasting concept — wherein participants don’t learn strain names before sampling, followed by discussion about the key characteristics of tastes, smells and effects.
The Herba Buena Collective, whose founder Alicia Rose is from the wine business, also conducted blind tastings of wine in the hippie hamlet Fairfax, north of San Francisco.Â
Alicia explained that the “effusiveness” of aromas should help aficionados navigate the taste-testing process. She will often have collective members sniff a Herba Buena ultra-organic marijuana jar before she reveals the strain. She says, “I want them to experience and smell the flower first before they identify it.”
It isn’t a completely surprising development. It is important to note that the word “you” means “you”. San Francisco Chronicle As early as 2007, magazine and newspaper both mentioned that cannabis can be treated like wine. The Clever Root — a farm-to-table foodie publication backed by the wine industry — has included an entire column devoted to cannabis. The magazine Marijuana Business Daily Now, each issue includes results from blind taste tests.
Cannabis is being normalized through events such as these. Industry leaders would do well to take inspiration from wine and food cultures to show how cannabis offers the same level of connoisseurship as fine wine or chocolate.
How to Conduct Your Own Blind Smell & Taste Test
1. You should blind-test weed. Moore explained that “the main difference” is when someone has tasted the strain before, they already know how to describe it based on previous experiences.
2. Pick rare strains. Don’t choose popular favorites like Sour Diesel or OG Kush — aficionados can identify their signature lemonhead or pine-sol funk aromas in one whiff, and the results lead to sample bias.
3. Pre-roll some cigarettes. Unlike wines, you can identify cannabis strains visually even from across the room. This makes the purpose of blind tasting moot. Moore says, “I challenge participants to use all their senses to get past preconceived notions to really know the cannabis bud that they smoke.”
4. Try a dry hit. You can draw on a non-lit joint and taste its terpenes. The quality of a herb can be determined by a dry toke. A clean, herbal flavor is preferred without any sharp salinity that could indicate unflushed fertilisers.
5. No bogarting, just fire it up. “I tell them to start off slow, not take one of those big, ‘I’m not going to get this joint back’ hits,” laughs Moore.
6. Notes are a great way to remember things. Share joints and record your first impressions in private. This will allow you to experience the changes that occur as it is smoked. Swami Select’s leading cannabis judge says: “Each joint has its own journey, and tells its story. It can be indoor, sungrown or whatever.
7. Coffee beans can be used to cleanse your palate. The coffee beans refresh the nose of those who have been exposed to smoke and terpenes from cannabis.
8. No spoilers. Moore wants people to keep recording their observations as the joints burn, but not to shout what the tension is. It creates expectation bias.Â
9. Don’t overdo it. Some wine tasters will spit the wine out. The smokers should just go slowly. Moore says with a laugh, “The goal isn’t to be so high that you forget what you are doing.”
10. Guess the strain. You can write down any last impressions and possible guesses about the strain. Discuss.
11. Repeat. Continue practicing.
TELL USHow do you select your cannabis?
Published in Cannabis Now Issue 21. LEARN MORE