How to connoisseur marijuana.

The Introduction

Marijuana is a complex plant with many looks, smells, tastes, and highs. In order to appreciate every single nuance a sample of cannabis has to offer, it is useful to use a systematic, formulaic approach to evaluating it. However, this guide is not an all or nothing proposition. Use this guide to deepen your appreciation of the specific traits of marijuana that you care about.

The Choice of Smoking Instruments

Before we move onwards, I would like to make a quick note of the many choices for ingesting marijuana. After trying them all, I've found the vaporizer to be the purest tasting -- it's easier to taste something when it doesn’t have a combustion or butane taste. That being said I love incredible glass, so I most often use a bong for tasting. I just make sure to change the water as often as I smoke, sometime midsession if it has gone on a long time. I also clean my bong quite often.

The Bag Appeal

First, take a good look at the bag and its contents; does it look appealing? (We will call this "bag appeal"). Observe the general shape and size of the nugs. Generally most people like bigger nugs (We used to call these "gangster nugs" in high school), although a few of my friends find small nugs more convenient for packing bowls (We shall refer to small nugs as "popcorn nugs"). I prefer a mixed bag; I love picking apart a huge nug over time to pack bowls with, but at the same time I need nugs that I don't feel guilty about grinding up. Notice whether or not the nug has a pleasing shape to it. I prefer nugs that look like they were just picked off the plant and kept intact, as opposed to nugs which were clearly colas at one point, but were butchered during trimming into smaller nugs. I've found a lot of really good club weed to be this way; it might still be great weed, but it forms an amorphous mass in the bag which does not appeal to me. And of course, if a nug is in a particularly pleasing shape, take notice. It seems silly, but it's all the little beautiful things about cannabis that add up to an unique, wonderful, and complex experience.

Take one nug and examine the texture closely. First, confirm whether or not the bud has been trimmed well. Well trimmed weed generally has a minimum of leaves (less resinous and tasty) and a maximum of flower (super pungent, potent, and pugnacious on the taste buds). However, I have seen samples in which leaves are used to add to the quality-- usually this is pot which is grown so well the water-leaves (the little leaves on nugs) are just as covered in trichromes as the flower is, and leaving a little leaf showed off the purple color of the strain. Generally, purple strains have super purple leaves, but the flowers may or may not be purple tinted.

In order to truly complete the appraisal of the appearance; you will need a weedoscope of some sort. This can be just a regular magnifying glass and a flashlight, or it could be a crazy RadioShack contraption with built in LED lights, etc. I use the kind of weedoscope that is popular for growers. They are 30x, and shaped liked a telescope, so you can just put it up next to something and examine it closely, as opposed to having to break off a sample to magnify.

Once you have your marijuana magnified, hope to see copious amount of trichromes, the things that look like little pins -- balls on the ends of stems on the weed. You can tell a fair amount about the growing history of the sample by the trichrome alone. If the majority of the trichromes are brown or amber colored, it indicates that the sample was probably harvested late. Amber colored trichromes and harvesting late have anecdotally been associated with high amount of cannabinol or CBN, a cannabinoid that helps in producing a sleepy affect when high. However, the absence of any amber trichromes and the abundance of crystal clear trichromes can indicate that the sample was harvested slightly early, and may have not reached full trichrome potential for the strain. Clear trichromes and harvesting early has anecdotally associated with high amounts of tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCV) which has been proven to intensify the affects of THC (the cerebral effects), and shorten the duration of the high. Amazing pot has maybe 10-30 percent amber trichromes, 10-30 percent cloudy trichromes, and the rest clear trichromes. This number can be fiddled with the grower. If a grower wants to emphasize the "stoney" aspects of an Indica strain, this can be achieved by harvesting slightly late. The grower could use reciprocal idea and harvest early, to make for a more cerebral daytime pot. One should keep all of these things in mind.

As you can see, there is much more to the visual stimulus good pot can create than is often appreciated by cannabis users.

The Smell

After examining the appearance, it is time to explore one of cannabis's most infamous traits, the smell. I find opening a container in which marijuana has been stored in for a few ways in one of the best ways to get a strong smell. I have seen some people grab a nug and crack it. This releases the smell, but it also just destroys the nug, so I try and avoid this technique if I can. There are many words to describe marijuana. A good list to get you started can be found in the post entitled, "Words to describe the smell and taste of cannabis" for March 2, 2008. Some strains are more pungent than others, but it it has been cured properly (that is, over a length of time) the smell will should be immediately evident. Try to relate the smell to something you have encountered before. Keep in mind it may be similar to something unconventional, like an old sock, your grandmother's house, or a circus. The more weed you smell, the more unique smells you will recognize, and you will become better at communicating exactly what you smell to others. Some of the most exciting moments out of all the strains I have evaluated were when the strain smelled exactly like its namesake. After a while you start to remember the distinct smell of Trainwreck or Soul Diesel.

The Smoking Experience

Prepare the herb for smoking in the manner you wish, whether it be rolling a huge joint with RAW papers and an accordion crutch, or packing the Frotini on your 24” RooR triple chamber. The only suggestion I have here is to be careful when handling bud, trichromes are delicate and you can end up knocking a fair amount off if you manhandle the weed.

To light the weed, I recommend either solar hits (hits done with a magnifying glass focusing light from the sun and igniting the herb), glass hits (the weed is lighted by a superheated glass rod), or a Phedor/Modified Hakko Soldering iron (Electronically heated ceramic element combusts the herb). All of these methods have one thing in common -- they do not use butane. Butane drastically alters the taste of marijuana and probably has additional adverse health effects. If you've never tried butane-less hit, I encourage you to seek it out. It really makes a significant different, and can improve the smoking experience greatly.

When I am appraising a sample of good weed, I take a rip, inhale, and then exhale with just a little smoke through the nose. Take large enough of a hit to get a good sense of the taste, but not so large that you cough; if you do, you will certainly not being paying as close attention to the taste as you would be if you mind was totally focus on the herb. Good complex weed will transform flavors; it'll be one flavor upon inhalation, and a different one upon exhalation, and yet another as an aftertaste. The taste of marijuana usually correlates at least partially with the smell, as smell and taste are such interconnected senses.

Observe what the smoking experience is like. Take note of whether or not the smoke expands in your lungs and makes it feel like a small child is sitting on your chest, or does it come out easily and playfully. Pay close attention to what the roach of the joint or the last couple hits of the bowl taste like. Most weed will taste good the first hit, only amazing weed will taste good the last it. The sample should burn away as white ash, indicating the absence of impurities from inorganic fertilizers. Weed that forms a charred black mass in the bottom of the bowl was likely fed to much inorganic fertilizer to promote growth and not flushed properly.

The High

Finally, ask yourself what the high is like. A list of words to describe types of high can be found in the post titled, "Words to describe the high of a sample of cannabis" post on March 2, 2008. Always keep in mind that the mental state you are in when you get high strongly affects the high you feel. If you are tired, for example, you are going to feel sleepy when high no matter how the pure the sativa. Note intensity and duration of the high. Especially make a note of the come down; with bad pot I feel more of a crash and a lot of fatigue, but with good pot the high just drifts away ephemerally without you noticing it do so.

The Conclusion

The number of things you can pay attention to in a sample of pot is numerous. Depending on how much you like weed, used as many or as few of these techniques as you like. Most importantly, even if the weed was not grown to its full potential, try to appreciate the aspects the grower got right.