Field Guides

How to read a dispensary menu

By SŌMA 9 min read Updated

A dispensary menu can read like a spreadsheet: percentages, category tags, dense rows of names. This guide goes through what each part of a New York menu can and cannot tell you, and where to find what a menu leaves out: how old a package is, what was measured, and who made it. Its sources are listed at the end.

A menu is the shop's listing

A menu is the shop's own listing of what it sells, and its figures are as the shop lists them. The only rule we found in New York's adult-use regulations that names a menu is about price: prices must be included on any menu customers can see, and wherever a dispensary displays a price it must also display, separately and in a similar size or manner, the total cost including all taxes. What a product is, who made it and how its batch tested are on the package: its label, and the lab certificate and the Metrc Retail ID record that its QR code opens.

The THC figure

Before comparing two numbers, check that they are the same measure. A New York label on flower, pre-rolls and other inhaled products prints total THC as a percentage, and New York defines total THC as THC plus THCA multiplied by 0.877; THCA is the acid form in which the plant makes THC. A menu may list THCA instead, which is a different number: flower measured at 25% THCA and 0.5% THC has a total THC of about 22.4%. Our guide to the New York cannabis QR code shows where each appears in the record behind a package.

What a higher figure means for how a product feels depends on how much you take. In one Colorado study, regular flower users were randomly assigned flower of 16% or 24% THC, and regular concentrate users concentrate of 70% or 90%; they bought it at a dispensary and used as much as they liked. Within each group, reported intoxication and the other outcomes measured did not differ by potency. The concentrate users had more THC in their blood afterwards than the flower users, yet reported similar intoxication; they were people who already used concentrates, and a later analysis by the same group points to tolerance as one possible reason. The study let experienced users take as much or as little as they liked, so it does not show that the same amount of a stronger product feels the same. New York's own label guide puts it plainly: products differ in potency, and the amount of THC, CBD and other cannabinoids in a product can change how it affects you. OCM's advice for anything new is to start low and go slow: after one or two puffs, wait 5 to 10 minutes before having more. More in Flower, pre-rolls and concentrates.

Terpenes and the “entourage effect”

The idea that terpenes, among the compounds behind cannabis aroma, shape how cannabis feels — often called the entourage effect — is widespread: a 2020 review notes that scientific reviews, lay articles and marketing campaigns have promoted it, and New York's own guide to safer consumption says that linalool “might make you sleepy” and limonene “might invigorate you”. It is contested. Laboratory studies disagree: two found that common cannabis terpenes did not change how THC acted at the two cannabinoid receptors, CB1 and CB2, in cells, while a third found several terpenes activated CB1. In one small controlled study in people, one terpene inhaled with THC lowered participants' ratings of feeling anxious and paranoid and left the other effects unchanged; the reduction came only at the highest terpene dose, taken by 12 of the 20 participants in a session that always came last, which its authors say could have affected the result. The 2020 review described the claims made for the entourage effect as invoking “ill-defined and unsubstantiated pharmacological activities”. What the evidence does not show is that a terpene list on a menu tells you how a product will feel. More in What are terpenes.

Indica, sativa and hybrid

Indica, sativa and hybrid are used to describe a strain's effects: relaxing, uplifting and somewhere in between, as the guide to safer consumption from New York's Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) puts it. The same guide says the three terms alone are not enough to tell you which combination of cannabinoids and terpenes a product contains, and lists the cultivar, or strain, name among the things to look for to understand how a product may make you feel. What studies show is mixed:

  • Genetics. In a study of 30 strains obtained from dispensaries in three states, the samples fell into two genetic groups that did not correspond to the sativa, indica and hybrid types commonly reported for those strains.
  • Chemistry. In a study of lab measurements of commercial flower from six states, the labels did not consistently align with the cannabinoids and terpenes measured: a sample labelled indica was likely to have a terpene composition indistinguishable from samples labelled sativa or hybrid, though some labels leaned towards particular chemical types.
  • Experience. People do report differences. In an online survey, users more often said they felt sleepy or relaxed after indica and alert or energised after sativa; in a two-week study in which regular users reported their effects within half an hour of smoking, flower classified as indica was linked with more low-arousal effects, such as feeling sluggish or slow. Both rested on what people reported about cannabis they had chosen themselves. Their authors call for controlled studies, and the survey's authors ask whether expectations explain the difference.

So treat the tag as a hint, not a prediction. The questions in what to ask at the counter get further.

Find the dates

A menu need not show how old a product is, and neither does the label: New York's label rules ask for the expiration date of the unopened product and its storage conditions, not a harvest or packaging date. A dispensary may not sell a product after its expiration date.

For the age of a package, ask to see it and scan its QR code. Since March 2026, OCM has required a Retail Item ID QR code on each unit a dispensary receives; products a shop received before 1 April 2026 may still be sold without one, up to their expiration date. The Metrc Retail ID record it opens, as the producer filed it, usually gives the day the package was made and the test date and, where one was entered, the harvest; not every record has every line. The QR code guide shows how to read them.

The dates matter because flower keeps changing after harvest. THC slowly breaks down, faster with light, air and warmth, and in one laboratory study of a single CBD-rich variety, aroma compounds were down by more than half on average within four months. How fast a particular package changes depends on how it has been kept. More in why freshness matters.

Read the description for what it is

A listing's aroma and effect words — citrus, pine, calm, focused — are a description, not a measurement. There is no agreed vocabulary for cannabis aroma: a 2025 study that proposed one started from the point that standardised tools for describing it are lacking. The words still help you say what you like.

Measured terpenes are a different thing. OCM's testing rules require every final product to be tested for terpenes, so the lab certificate should list them; a package that markets terpenes must also carry a terpene profile on its label, and the Retail ID record may list them. Even so, in that 2025 study, of 91 samples, most of them CBD-rich hemp, the terpene profiles poorly predicted how a trained panel described their aroma; its authors note their sample may have been too small. A terpene line measures some of the compounds behind aroma; it is not a description of the smell, and it is not an effect.

New York's rules for cannabis advertising and marketing, which name websites among the media they cover, bar medical claims, the promotion of cannabis for a medical or wellness purpose and the promotion of product potency, and a package may carry no health claim. A description that promises a health benefit is not evidence of one.

What New York requires of every licensed shop

Some things do not depend on the menu. New York's rules require a licensed dispensary to:

  • display OCM's Dispensary Verification Tool near its main entrance; its QR code leads to OCM's list of licensed adult-use dispensaries;
  • sell only products that have passed lab testing and meet New York's packaging and labeling rules, and nothing after its expiration date;
  • keep its working stock locked behind a counter or other barrier, and store products so as to protect them against contamination and deterioration;
  • include prices on any menu customers can see, with the total cost including all taxes displayed as well.

None of this tells you how a particular package has been kept, or how it will smell; the package and its record are where to look.

Ask about the experience you want

Instead of asking for the strongest thing on the menu, describe what you are after: the aromas you like, the effect you hope for, the time of day. Then ask to see the package. Our guide on what to ask at the counter has the questions, and what the answers can and cannot tell you.

SŌMA's Match works from the same kind of description: it reads a menu against what you tell it in My taste — the aromas you like, the effects you want, what you avoid. It reads the menu, not the jar.

Sources

Frequently asked questions

Does a higher THC percentage mean better cannabis?

Not by itself. The figure tells you about strength, and how strong a product feels depends on how much you take: in one Colorado study, regular users who could take as much as they liked reported similar intoxication whatever the potency of the flower or concentrate they were given, which does not mean the same amount of a stronger product feels the same. Start low with anything new. Check, too, which measure a figure is: a menu may list THCA rather than the total THC a New York label prints. The number also says nothing about how old a package is or how it has been kept.

Are indica and sativa labels accurate?

As guides to a plant's genetics or chemistry, studies have found them unreliable: in one, samples did not group genetically by the types commonly reported for those strains, and in another the labels did not consistently align with the cannabinoids and terpenes measured. People do report different effects from them, but those reports come from cannabis they chose themselves, and controlled studies to settle the question are still lacking.

Where does a menu say how old a product is?

It need not: the only rule we found in New York's regulations that names a menu is about prices, and the label rules ask for the expiration date of the unopened product, not a harvest or packaging date. Ask to see the package and scan its Retail Item ID QR code: the Metrc Retail ID record, as the producer filed it, usually gives the packaged and test dates. See the QR code guide.

What should I ask a budtender?

Describe the experience you want — the aromas you enjoy, the effect, the time of day — rather than asking for the strongest option, and ask to see the package: its label, its expiration date and the record its QR code opens. More in what to ask at the counter.

Corrections

  • We said most of a menu is noise, that the THC percentage is the most over-weighted number on any menu, and that chasing the biggest number is the most common way to be disappointed. We had no source for these and removed them.
  • We said a high THC figure does not reliably predict how strong or enjoyable flower will feel, because the mix of cannabinoids and aromatic terpenes shapes the experience as much as raw potency, and (in the FAQ) that the overall experience depends on that mix. That states the contested “entourage” idea as fact, and the claim about enjoyment, as we put it, had no source, so it is removed (the one study we later found on what people liked is cited in the THC guide). The guide now says what laboratory and human studies found, that the idea is contested, and what one study found about potency and intoxication, with its limits; it also says a menu's THC may be THCA rather than total THC.
  • We said indica, sativa and hybrid describe traditions and tendencies more than guaranteed effects, and advised looking to the aroma and effect description instead. The guide now says what genetic, chemical and survey studies found — the labels do not consistently track genetics or chemistry, people report different effects, and controlled studies are lacking — and that a menu's description is not a measurement.
  • We said the harvest or packaging date is often the most useful number on a menu and, in the FAQ, one of the better quality signals; that fresher flower keeps more of its terpenes, which fade with time; and that no date at all is itself a signal. New York's label rules require an expiration date, not a harvest or packaging date, and we found no rule asking a menu for any date; the studies we found that measured aroma compounds in stored flower each looked at a single variety or set of samples; and we had no source for reading a missing date as a signal. The guide now says where the packaged and test dates can be read, and gives that study's finding as one study's.
  • We said a listing with specific aromas and effects tells you more than one with marketing superlatives, that specific sensory language usually means someone paid attention to the flower, and listed visible dates, concrete notes, flower stored sealed, cool and out of bright light, and staff who ask what you want as signals of a careful shop; the guide's description promised “the quieter signals — dates, storage, descriptions — that point to quality”. We had no source for these and removed them. The guide now says what New York requires of every licensed dispensary, and that aroma words on a menu are a description, not a measurement.
  • We said describing the experience you want is the question a good budtender can actually answer, and, in the FAQ, that describing it gives staff something specific to match you to. We had no source and removed both; the advice to describe it stays, with the advice to ask to see the package.