VAPING CANNABIS-DERIVED TERPENES VERSUS BOTANICAL TERPENES

When you’re shopping at a weed dispensary, you will find various weed vape pods made with different categories of terpenes. If you’re unfamiliar with the differences, you might be a little confused as to why they exist, and more importantly, how their experience and effects differ.

Thankfully, we’re pretty familiar with these terpenes, and why certain consumers pick one or the others. Let’s discuss cannabis-derived terpenes and botanical terpenes, what they are, why they exist, and how their differences affect your overall high.

What are cannabis-derived terpenes?

Have you learned about terpenes yet? If not, you should. Terpenes are aromatic chemicals that exist in all plants, including cannabis. Over 20,000 terpenes exist across all plants (over 100 have been discovered in cannabis).

Terpenes give plants their aromas and flavors, but also, these compounds act as a natural defense against biological predators. When you taste fruity flavors from strains like Rainbow Sherbert and Zkittlez, or funky flavors from strains like GMO Cookies and GMO Cake, terpenes are responsible.

Examples of terpenes include myrcene, limonene, caryophyllene, humulene, and pinene, to name a few. In cannabis, studies have suggested that these terpenes work in conjunction with other plant compounds to produce the specific types of effects we feel from cannabis.

With this in mind, consumers are beginning to look past THC and explore the different smells and tastes of different cannabis strains to find the uplifting, sedative, sleepy, etc. effects that they desire from smoking cannabis flower, dabbing cannabis concentrates, and hitting cannabis vape pods.

Three main categories of terpenes exist within the cannabis vape market: cannabis-derived terps, botanical terps, and synthetic terps. Cannabis-derived terpenes are defined as terpenes that have been extracted from actual cannabis and hemp plants. 

What are botanical terpenes? 

Technically, all plant terpenes are botanical terpenes. However, the cannabis market defines botanical terpenes as terpenes that come from other natural plants that are not cannabis.

Botanical terpenes are extracted from natural flora through a steam distillation process and then combined with cannabinoid formulas with the goal of creating a chemical blend that mirrors the terpene profile of the original cannabis strain. 

Cannabis-derived terpenes versus botanical terpenes

Discussing the differences between cannabis-derived terpenes and botanical terpenes comes down to their efficacy, their manufacturing costs, and the costs of the final weed pens for cannabis vape consumers. 

Effects of cannabis terpenes versus botanical terpenes

The effects we feel from cannabis are not solely based on terpenes, but on the way terpenes work in conjunction with cannabinoids and the rest of a strain’s compounds. This is called the entourage effect.

Manufacturers make strain-specific weed pens by studying the genetics of a cannabis strain, and essentially remaking the terpene and cannabinoid profiles with high-THC (distillate) oils and either cannabis-derived or botanical terpenes. Neither of these types of blends is as entourage-effective as a full-spectrum cannabis product like live resin pods and live rosin pods.

Effects-wise, it’s tough to tell the difference between these types of terpenes in cannabis vapes, though some may say that cannabis-derived terps hit harder/better than botanicals, simply because they do in fact come directly from cannabis plants. Truthfully, there is no solidified answer yet, and both types of terpenes can provide highly therapeutic experiences.

As the cannabis market grows, consumers are starting to want cannabis-derived terpenes more, so they can feel comfortable knowing their cannabis products only came from cannabis.

Manufacturing costs

It is cheaper for companies to make weed pens with botanical terpenes than it is for them to use cannabis-derived terpenes.

Cannabis-derived terpenes are highly volatile and difficult to stabilize as they degrade with time and exposure to air, heat, moisture, etc. It is much harder to manage them than botanical terpenes.

Terpenes make up a very small percentage of the cannabis flower’s chemical profile, with cannabinoids, flavonoids, and other compounds making up the rest. This causes the cost of cannabis-derived terpenes to be exponentially higher than botanical terpenes since cannabis terpenes require a much higher volume of cannabis plants for extraction.

This is why many weed pens are made with terpenes from non-cannabis flora: they are much more cost-effective to purchase in bulk. 

The price of cannabis vapes and pods

Because they cost more to make and have higher demand, but lower supply, weed pens made with cannabis-derived terpenes are more expensive than weed pens made with botanical terpenes.

Simply put: lower costs for producers mean lower costs for consumers.

Final call: Which terpenes are better?

As with most cannabis products, the choice of which ones are the best comes down to your personal preference, tolerance levels, and the consumption experiences you desire.

If you want to be guaranteed that your products only come from cannabis plants, then the premium price for premium cannabis-derived weed pods compared to botanical terpenes pods will absolutely be worth it, because they are the strain’s exact natural terpene profile. This guarantees Ice Cream Cake fans get Ice Cream Cake flavors.

If you are simply looking for THC’s effects, without having to sacrifice a flavorful experience, then the affordability of weed vape pods made with botanical terpenes will do you just fine. They provide the high potency and old tastes of terpene-infused distillate cannabis oils.

As always, whether you are buying weed pens made with cannabis terpenes or other-plant terpenes, just make sure that you only purchase them from brands that can guarantee high quality and consumer safety. This is of the utmost importance, as one bad consumption experience can have a negative effect on your overall relationship with the plant.

At STIIIZY, we only use premium cannabis flower for all of our cannabis-derived terpene vape pods, which are used with our proprietary weed pen battery system.