For people who remember the good ole’ days (like ten years ago) when marijuana was totally illegal pretty much everywhere, it was hard to imagine some of the incredible new weed technologies that are out there today.
With an opening legal market comes some incredible research and innovation that is making the smoking experience better, higher, and…tastier? At least thats what it looks like, based on some new research out that claims to have identified the genes that create weed flavors.
The study came out of the University of British Columbia (UBC), where scientists are coining some highly scientific terms for the most common marijuana flavors: stinky cheese, mint cookies, grape lemonade and cola.
It’s exciting news for a marijuana industry which, in many ways, is working to develop itself into a market as sophisticated and nuanced as wine. Dr. Jörg Bohlmann, professor at the Michael Smith Laboratories at UBC behind the studies, explains:
“The goal is to develop well-defined and highly-reproducible cannabis varieties. This is similar to the wine industry, which teens on defined varieties such as chardonnay or merlot for high-value products. Our genomics work can inform breeders of commercial varieties which genes to pay attention to for specific flavor qualities.”
We’ve always had the well-known, classic strains of marijuana we could count on for a reliable taste, but with this kind of research, the level of specialization of marijuana strains is going to be, and already is, incredible.
With almost 30 genes located that help create the diverse range of cannabis flavors, breeders are beginning to pile up valuable knowledge about how to perfect the best tasting, and most elevating strains.
Dr. Bohlmann believes the potential to diversify and standardize cannabis in a similar fashion as the wine industry is very possible, but notes that more research will need to be conducted with implementable results before the process is complete.”
