Field Guides
How to taste cannabis like a sommelier
By SŌMA 5 min read Updated
Wine, coffee and beer have published tasting vocabularies, often drawn as flavour wheels. For cannabis, a 2018 study tested a preliminary list of 48 aroma words for dried flower, and found that consumers who only sniffed the samples and ticked the words that applied could tell strains apart, and rated duplicate samples alike. Slowing down to observe what is in front of you turns a vague impression into something you can describe, remember and ask for again.
Here is a simple sequence: no special equipment, just your senses and somewhere to write. Its sources are listed at the end.
1. Look
Start with the eyes. Note the colour, and the frosting of resin on the surface: glandular trichomes, tiny resin glands where the plant makes its cannabinoids and terpenes, are abundant on the surface of the female flower. This is observation, not judgement: you are building a habit of noticing.
2. Smell
Take a gentle sniff and try to place the smell in a family: earthy, citrus, pine, floral, fuel, spice. Our sensory vocabulary has more. Then look for a second and third note under the first.
Do not worry if the words do not come at once. A classic study of how people identify smells found that it works when the smell is familiar, when it has long been linked to its name, and when there is help in recalling the name, and that performance drops sharply when any one of these is missing. A list of families is that help.
- If you compare more than one, rest your nose in between: in one aroma study, panellists smelled a neutral base, such as the back of the hand, between samples to avoid sensory fatigue.
- Do not read strength from the nose. In the consumer study above, people's smell-based guesses of potency did not track the THC the lab measured; THC itself has no smell.
- Some notes come from compounds a lab's terpene panel does not measure: the skunk-like note has been traced to sulfur compounds. See What are terpenes.
3. Note the flavour
If you consume it, notice the flavour, and ask whether it matches the smell and which notes stand out. Smell reaches you two ways, sniffed through the nose and from inside the mouth, and from the mouth it is experienced as flavour; in food, smell plays a dominant role in what people call taste. We found no study of how the flavour of smoked or vaporised flower relates to its smell, so note both.
Start low, go slow
New York's Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) advises starting with a low amount and going slowly: after inhaling or vaping one or two puffs, wait 5 to 10 minutes before consuming more. Looking, smelling and writing need none at all.
4. Record it
Jot down a few words: the aroma families, what stood out, how it felt and when you used it. Over several entries you may see which qualities you enjoy.
Write down what identifies the package as well as its name: the strain name, the producer, and the packaged and test dates from the record its QR code opens (see our QR code guide). Packages sold under one strain name can differ: in a genetic study of 30 strains obtained in three states, most had at least one sample out of line with the others sold under the same name, though many were consistent once those were set aside. Age and storage change flower too; Why freshness matters says what is known.
Turning notes into matches
SŌMA is built around the same idea. My taste holds the aromas, flavours and effects you say you like and avoid, and the strains you love, and SŌMA's Match scores each strain on a shop's menu against it. Match reads the names on the menu, not the flower in the jar, so your own nose is still the last check. After a match you can tell SŌMA how a pick landed; your verdicts move later matches within a set limit, more as related verdicts build up. How SŌMA works has the detail.
Sources
- Gilbert and DiVerdi, “Consumer perceptions of strain differences in Cannabis aroma”, PLoS One, 2018.
- Booth, Page and Bohlmann, “Terpene synthases from Cannabis sativa”, PLoS One, 2017.
- Livingston and others, “Cannabis glandular trichomes alter morphology and metabolite content during flower maturation”, The Plant Journal, 2020.
- Cain, “To know with the nose: keys to odor identification”, Science, 1979.
- Oswald and others, “Minor, nonterpenoid volatile compounds drive the aroma differences of exotic cannabis”, ACS Omega, 2023: methods, sensory analysis.
- Oswald and others, “Identification of a new family of prenylated volatile sulfur compounds in cannabis revealed by comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography”, ACS Omega, 2021.
- Spence, “Just how much of what we taste derives from the sense of smell?”, Flavour, 2015.
- Small and others, “Differential neural responses evoked by orthonasal versus retronasal odorant perception in humans”, Neuron, 2005.
- Consumers, Office of Cannabis Management: “What does ‘Start Low and Go Slow’ mean?”
- Schwabe and McGlaughlin, “Genetic tools weed out misconceptions of strain reliability in Cannabis sativa: implications for a budding industry”, Journal of Cannabis Research, 2019.
- How SŌMA works: how Match scores a menu, and what your verdicts change.
Frequently asked questions
How do I taste cannabis properly?
Move through the senses in order: look at the flower, smell it and try to name the aroma families, note whether the flavour matches the smell if you consume it, and record a few words afterwards, with the package's details. Slowing down and naming what you sense is the core of it.
What should I smell for?
Try to place the aroma in a family (earthy, citrus, pine, floral, fuel or spice) and then look for secondary notes under the first. A list of families helps: people name smells more readily when they have help recalling the words.
Can I tell how strong flower is by smelling it?
No. In a study of consumers smelling dried flower, their smell-based guesses of potency did not track the THC the lab measured, and THC itself has no smell. For THC, read the label and the lab certificate.
Do I need any special equipment?
No. The approach uses your eyes, your nose, your palate if you consume what you are tasting, and somewhere to write a few notes. The discipline is in paying attention and writing it down, not in any tool.
How does this relate to 's Match?
It is the same idea, organised: My taste holds the aromas, flavours and effects you like and avoid, and Match scores the strains on a shop's menu against it. Match reads the menu, not the jar, so your own notes on the flower still matter.
Corrections
- We said wine has a tasting ritual, and so does coffee, and that cannabis rewards the same kind of attention. The guide now says what is documented: wine, coffee and beer have published tasting vocabularies, and a 2018 study found that consumers could tell cannabis strains apart by smell.
- We said well-kept flower looks alive rather than dull or grey. We found no source for judging how flower was kept by its colour and removed it.
- We said aroma is where most of the character lives, and that naming what you smell is the single most useful tasting skill (in the body and the FAQ). We had no source for either and removed them; the guide now cites a study of how people identify smells.
- We said flavour often echoes aroma but not always, and that a citrus nose can carry a peppery or earthy taste. We found no study of how the flavour of smoked or vaporised cannabis relates to its smell, and removed both; the guide now says what is known about smell and flavour in general.
- We said recording is the step most people skip, that over a handful of entries a pattern appears, and that the record is worth more than any strain name. We had no source for these. The guide now says notes may show a pattern, and to keep them with the package's details, since packages sold under one strain name can differ.
- We said Match captures the aromas and effects you respond to and finds flower whose sensory profile lines up, so your palate, not a label, does the choosing (in the body and the FAQ); and the description called this the same sensory approach behind SŌMA's Match. Match scores the strain names on a shop's menu against your taste; it reads the menu, not the jar. The guide now says so.
- In the FAQ we said the approach uses only your eyes and nose; the flavour step also uses your palate, if you consume what you are tasting. Corrected.