Adding Terpenes?

Terpenes in Culinary Applications

Written by Heather Marie Stanley

The nose knows isn't just for buying cannabis flower. Terpenes can play a role in your cannabis edibles too.

By reintroducing terpenes into your edibles, you can become the alchemist of the affects you feel! You can curate your experience by choosing preferred terpene profiles and introducing them into your creations to customize your effects.

Through the infusion process of cannabis into various solvent types, from butter to alcohol, especially with applied heat, changes in the aromatic chemical composure of your end product have occurred. With the decarboxylation process and infusion process many of the naturally occurring terpenes are lost or changed. This means that the aroma of the cannabis flower you choose to infuse with may be remnant of its original aroma after infusion but will not hold all of the original aroma properties.

To capture as many terpene molecules as possible in their closest to original state, you would need to infuse at low temperatures, for shorter durations of time. This can also be achieved through other extraction methods, but often even in manufacturing, terpenes need to be reintroduced to an end product. As far as at home culinary infusions, there is little that can be done to retain the original terpene profiles of the cannabis flower.

This theory of infusing at lower temperatures for shorter durations could help capture more of the original aroma profiles, but it may not be the accurate temperature or duration to achieve full decarboxylation or fully infuse the cannabinoids into your chosen vehicle of infusion. This is where the benefit of adding terpenes to your edibles can help you achieve more precisely what you are looking for as far as aroma and potential effect.

The Entourage Effect is when cannabinoids and terpenes interact and create a greater effect together than when alone. Often, at home infusions are lacking this essential ingredient, terpenes! Again, this is inherent to the heat applications during home extraction processes changing the original chemical makeup of the terpenes or dissipating them entirely due to their volatility. Thus, requiring an addition of terpenes once the decarboxylation and extraction/infusion process is complete; or further down the line to use specific terpene profiles in an end product, such as a cannabis infused mixed drink or sauce.

Aroma plays a huge role in rather we enjoy cannabis, as well as our enjoyment of consuming food and beverage. The olfactory stimulation that occurs when cannabis is smoked or vaped is essentially the same stimulation that occurs when we consume food and beverage, although slightly different states. When we consume food and beverage, the aroma compounds and other food volatiles adhere to saliva creating an aqueous substance acting almost like a solvent, extracting these aroma molecules to be entrained to the olfactory nerve.

When smoked or vaped, cannabis aroma molecules do not require the addition of saliva to stimulate the olfactory nerve since it is already gaseous and not an aqueous liquid form. Regardless of their state, the aroma molecules or terpenes, stimulate the olfactory nerve in essentially the same fashion; by binding to receptors that then signal a cascade of chemical reactions and physiological responses.

These chemical reactions, as well as the physiological responses will vary from person to person dependent on many factors which are usually swayed by individual personal experiences. Scent has this magnificent ability to transport us to another time in our memories and this is a key cause in why each of us experience different affect with aromas.

Once you have deciphered which terpenes and aroma profiles you prefer, it will give you a guide in how to select a variety of cannabis products. Rather it be through training your olfactory to recognize these specific terpene effects or learning which specific terpenes or cannabis cultivar (strain) profiles you enjoy most; you now have a gauge to help find what will best suit you!

As terpenes have become known as "the driver" in the cannabis experience, more manufacturers are now providing terpene analysis of their products on packaging: vape cartridges, flower and a myriad of orally absorbed or orally consumed products (tinctures, edibles, capsules, etc.). This gives consumers the perfect opportunity to dial in their cannabis use with a variety of products!

If you still prefer DIY edibles, as to create even more varietal availability, you can add terpenes to a vast majority of culinary applications at home. The most important thing to keep in mind when applying terpenes in a home setting is they are concentrated and just as Essential Oils, terpenes can cause chemical burns on skin or mouth/throat, can be flammable and toxic without proper care of use.

When adding terpenes to food and beverage, it is best to use gloves when handling them and apply one drop at a time to avoid over saturation of the terpenes. Most recipes will require only one or two drops, but as a rule of thumb no more than a 5% terpene content is advised.

A rather important subject with terpenes is their volatility. Some begin evaporating or converting at room temperature, while others may have a boiling point of a much higher degree. Due to their volatility, it is best to apply terpenes to cool dishes. If applying to something warm, remove from heat and allow to cool slightly before adding terpenes to avoid changes in the terpene profile as much as possible.

Prior to adding them to your dishes, it is also important to take the time to smell the terpenes by applying them to an absorbent scent card. Smelling them will give you the opportunity as an individual to gauge its aroma pungency and then from there how much terpenes will possibly be needed in your final product. Often a single drop is enough to aromatize an entire dish. This is dependent on not only the terpenes used but the dish, as some aromas from the food or beverage may overpower the aromas of the terpene profile you chose to apply.

This is truly where the complexity of adding terpenes and cannabinoids to food and beverage begins! Just as cannabinoids and terpenes have an Entourage Effect, so do many of the phytochemicals and other constituents organically found in foods and beverages. It really is an extraordinarily complex event when we consume cannabis and terpene infused foods.

Effects can vary over time and between individuals, as well as with the type of food it is consumed in. This is due to metabolization of the myriad of chemical components of the cannabis and food ingested, in conjunction with the individual's own chemistry. It is basically unpredictable; this is why it is important to take care in consuming or serving edibles to others.

Written by Heather Marie Stanley