It’s the age-old question: are you looking for Indica or sativa? Meaning: Sleepy or Energetic? Couch Lock or Euphoria?
While many of us canna-consumers have been trained this is the way you shop for cannabis, we hate to break it to you, but we’ve all been duped.
Indica and Sativa are scientific nomenclature terms that mainly describe plant structure and can be indicative of what region the strain originated from. See this image from Leafly – even the company dedicated to cannabis education has started abandoning the reckless designations* of “Indica” and “sativa” alone being responsible for experienced effects.
*slightly dramatic
We’ve all experienced it, right? About to head out for a night on the town, you take a puff of your new Sativa, and suddenly that couch just feels far too comfortable. Or maybe the opposite? Ready to lay down for the evening and the Indica your local budtender just talked up has you wide eyed giving thought to whether or not Einstein’s theory of relativity is really correct and feeling like maybe you should be scrubbing the baseboards.
So if you knew you didn’t just get a “bad batch” and that this is actually because Indica and Sativa don’t signify what we’ve been taught they do – what does this mean for your cannabis experience? How can we begin to talk about cannabis effects without trying every strain on the shelf? Enter terpenes.
Terpenes are scientifically known as organic compounds present in plants that contribute to the aroma of a plant. Terpenes have already been studied extensively in other plants and are known as the responsible phytochemicals for things like why lavender essential oil can calm your mind or why your lungs open up when you take a deep breath in the middle of a pine forest.
And it just so happens that cannabis is FULL of these little powerhouse compounds. And new cannabis research is showing that terpenes are really what’s responsible for the effects you feel, far more than scientific designation for plant structure (I.e. Indica and sativa).
The good news for you is Ascend Cannabis Co. really cares about terpenes. We test every batch of flower for terpenes because we believe it’s important to you to have this information. It’s the easiest way to start tracking strain effectiveness and finding commonalities to what you enjoy or targeting desired effects.
Want to know more about terpenes and strains? Follow along on our terpene series here on the blog. We’ll take you through the top most common terpenes found in Ascend Cannabis Co.’s flower and what that means for our strains and your experience.
