With the recreational cannabis industry emerging in New York, consumers coming in from the traditional market often have questions as to how legal cannabis works, what’s safe to consume, and how to best spend their money.
For our first Farmers Choice blog entry, we’ll be covering what Farmhands feel are important for all consumers to know.
How To Read a Certificate of Analysis (COA):
The Certificate of Analysis of your cannabis product is important for any consumer to become
familiar with, as it’s a publicly available set of lab results for the product you purchased.
In New York, all cannabis products sold on the recreational market are required to have a COA
somewhere on its packaging. The COA will oftentimes be in the form of a QR code, which you
can scan with your phone camera for a direct link to the results.
For this section, we’ll cover the important lab results of a COA consumers should be looking at,
and how to determine if what you purchased was grown and processed with care and attention.
CFU (Colony-Forming Units) is one of the measuring units used in a COA when testing for Yeast and Mold activity.
Generally you’ll want the results of your flower to be below 100,000 CFU’s for it to be considered a properly grown product.
Determining What is Potent:
The first page of your products COA will generally be a quick run-down of all the tested information, with more in-depth details in the following pages provided. Not all COA’s will look alike, as there’s a variety of testing labs used across New York.
The way we can indicate a potent product based on its COA, is by checking its Terpene and THC percentages.
While COA formats may vary, the results required for each COA will always remain consistent. If potency is what you’re looking for in your purchase, then allow us to break the number one stigma often followed by new or unenlightened consumers.
Does THC % Matter?:
For years consumers have been under the impression that THC percentages are the go-to
number for what will get you the best high. Though as the years have progressed, more studies
have been done on the chemical compounds that derive from cannabis. It turns out, THC
percentage doesn’t play as big of a role as people once thought.
Just because an eighth has 20% THC, it doesn’t mean that the 4% terpenes backing it up won’t
carry the weight. If anything, it’ll be a more enjoyable experience.
How Terpenes and Flavinoids Determine Your Experience:
Both Terpenes and Flavonoids are organic compounds found within the tricomb of a cannabis
plant. Their purpose being to accompany the mixture of cannabinoids and THC-A. Both of the
aforementioned organic compounds contribute far more to your high than an outstanding THC percentage.
What is The Entourage Effect?:
One of many new discoveries to come from cannabis research, The Entourage Effect is when
the multitude of compounds found in cannabis work together to enhance the plant’s medicinal
and psychoactive properties.
The 150-200 different terpenes found in cannabis all offer their own effects. When an array of
these terpenes are found in one strain (as they often are), it further encourages the entourage
effect to kick in and give you the effects from that strain. Alongside terpenes dictating what
effects you’ll feel, they’re also what gives a cannabis strain their unique smells and tastes.
Flavonoids on the other hand are still being researched to understand their role when interacting with your endocannabinoid system. With what we know as of today, Flavonoids work with cannabinoids and terpenes to also encourage the entourage effect – further enhancing the experience you have with a specific strain.
Farmhand Tip: Prioritize terpene percentages when shopping for flower or concentrates.
Many variables come into play when a strain does, or does not deliver the advertised effects –
proper growing practices and careful harvest/extraction is essential to having a great end
product.
Residual Solvents:
This section has no relation to the cannabis flower category, though with the rise in popularity of carts and concentrates as a whole, ensuring you understand what’s leftover in your product from its extraction is another important part of a COA’s results.
Example of a clean product:
When looking at your COA for residual solvents, the best possible result would be ND (Not
Detected). This means that your product has been properly purged of all the residual solvents
used during its extraction process. There’s a number of different solvents used for solvent-based extraction, most commonly being Butane or Ethanol.
For the best possible experience with cannabis, you want your product to be 100% full spectrum cannabis, free of any residuals.
THC to Terpene Ratios by Grade:
To better understand what numbers are associated with the quality of your product, below is a
chart listing the identifying percentages for each grade:
Flower
Concentrates
Note that these percentages can differ dramatically from one another – each section is to help
identify statistically what will be better than another product.
The major takeaway we’d like you to get from this entire blog, is that shopping by THC percent is not an efficient way to spend your money, especially when there’s cheaper, more potent options hiding among the highly marketed brands.
What are Sprayed Terpenes?(Spray Packs):
Terpenes are naturally occurring in all different kinds of plants, known as Botanical Terpenes.
Botanical Terpenes are not to be mistaken with ones deriving from cannabis, known as CDT
(Cannabis Derived Terpenes).
These Botanical Terpenes, just like cannabis derived ones, can be extracted from the plants
they’re found in. They’re then processed into a sprayable aromatic compound, which
unfortunately may end up in your eighth, all in hopes of fooling you that what you’ve purchased is top-shelf chronic.
There are still studies being done on the harmful side effects from decarboxylating Botanical
Terpenes, though from a collective of cannabis consumers to you, it’s our suggestion to stay
away from these possibly harmful additives put into some products.
How To Know if Your Flower is Sprayed:
Because spraying terps is a way to cut corners on low-grade flower, it’s almost never advertised
that their product is infused with non-cannabis derived compounds.
The first way to quickly identify if your flower is sprayed, is to check the ingredient list if one is
provided on the packaging:
The ingredient list in the image above is an example of a cannabis product containing sprayed
terpenes.
For a product which is not infused with non cannabis derived terpenes, their ingredient list
should look like:
Not all packaging will list their ingredients, so a key way to identify spray is by your sense of
smell. Understanding the ability of cannabis terpenes and their limits is a crucial aspect in
making sure you’re consuming products with no additives.
It’s entirely possible for your newly acquired strain to smell or taste like the essence of a
Blueberry Muffin, or a piece of Bubblegum – though if you notice a strain smells nearly identical to its name or advertised taste, then the possibility of that product being sprayed comes into question.
Your nose is your best friend when shopping for cannabis, and as the market continues to
evolve worldwide, new flavor profiles and aroma’s emerge from skillful growers to shock the
community. Luckily, Farmhands do their best to stay up-to-date with the evolving cannabis
scene, and will continue to do so in efforts of providing our customers with the best
products New York has to offer.
Always Ask Your Farmhand:
The vast majority of Budtenders in New York are regular or daily consumers of cannabis. Here
at Farmer’s Choice, our Farmhands are knowledgeable about the New York recreational market
and can answer most, if not all questions you might have.
Your Budtender should always know the specifics about a product, so before deciding on your
next re-up, chat with one to see what’s safe in this fast evolving industry.
Stay safe and smoke clean,
-Farmhand Jordan
