Many individual aroma notes can be detected when smelling marijuana, ranging from floral to fruity or earthy. We all have our preferences, but most cannasseurs would agree on one thing: any weed worth talking about should smell pungent. It should smell strongly and distinctly like weed, no matter what subtler accents are present.
Blue Dream, White Widow, and Gelato can be distinguished by smell by an experienced observer, but it’s their common core odor–the smell of weed–that we want to explain. What, exactly, is this pungent “weed smell” common to any strain grown with care? Where does it come from? Is it based on having high terpene content, or a particular constellation of terps? Or is there something else?
Jump to a section
- Skunk, gas, and the perception of “good weed”
- Terpenes are not the only answer
- Chemical basis of pungent smells in nature: Skunks & garlic
- Volatile sulfur compounds & the aroma of weed
- Which cannabis strains have the highest VSC content?
- Freshness & cannabis pungency
- Do cannabis VSCs have psychoactive effects and/or medicinal value?
Skunk, gas, and the perception of “good weed”
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