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How to Make Weed Taste Better
Have you ever thought, “Damn, why does my weed taste bad?” Well, that’s what this article is all about. We all love the rich, herbal taste of cannabis, although of course, some strains naturally taste better than others. However, after a while, even your best stash can get a little stale.
There are countless ways to add flavor to weed, starting from the soil and ending with your finished buds. Keep reading to learn the easiest ways to add flavor to weed.
What Gives Weed Its Taste?
Before you can know how to give weed flavor, you have to understand what gives weed its taste and smell in the first place. We’re talking terpenes and terpenoids.
Terpenes and terpenoids are molecules found within the essential oils of plants, including cannabis, giving the plant its unique set of flavors and aromas. These compounds not only affect the smell of your weed but also the high it produces. Some common terpenes found in cannabis include:
- Pinene
- Linalool
- Limonene
- Beta-caryophyllene
- Myrcene
Different combinations of these terpenes and other less prominent ones make up a strain's terpene profile. The terpene profile of a strain determines whether the strain will be spicy, fruity, earthy, and so on.
Why Does My Weed Taste Weird?
Without a strong terpene balance, all you are left with is the raw plant flavor. This will leave your weed tasting stale, off, or just downright weird. Here are some common issues or mistakes that will diminish your weed’s precious taste:
- Dampness and mold
- Improper curing technique
- Not flushing before harvest
- Poor-quality fertilizers
- Your personal taste and preference
- The weed itself is of poor quality
- Using a dirty weed pipe
- Using cheap rolling papers
- The bud being old and stale
If you aren’t sure how to make weed taste better from harvest to finish, follow along with the tips below.
How to Add Flavor to Weed Before Harvest
If possible, start focusing on how to give weed flavor while your plants are still in the ground. Here are some of the best techniques to add flavor to weed before harvesting:
LST
Low-stress training (LST) can be used to redirect a plant’s growth, giving it more energy to focus on producing bigger, more flavorful buds. These techniques include pinching, pruning, de-leafing, and more. All methods are used toward a similar goal – they’re just achieved in different ways.
- Pinching means removing the plant’s primary growing tip to encourage lateral rather than vertical growth.
- Pruning involves carefully cutting back your plants in places where growth is wasted to redirect the energy toward the main stems.
- De-leafing is simply the act of removing discolored or excess fan leaves.
Make sure you understand the methods you use before trying them out, as mispractice of these techniques can leave your plant stunted.
Stop Watering Close to Harvest
A big mistake that many new growers make when growing dank cannabis strains is wanting to use as much fertilizer as possible until harvest day. This leaves a lot of bad-tasting chemicals in your plant and therefore in your buds.
Instead, you should always flush your cannabis plants approximately 2 weeks before you harvest. All you need to do is switch out your nutrient water for plain water for those final 2 weeks. Then 1-3 days before harvest, stop watering completely.
This allows you to flush out chemicals and fertilizers from your plant so you can have a cleaner harvest. Then, just as your plant starts to wilt, it produces a final influx of resin and terpenes. This is one of the easiest ways to add flavor to your weed naturally.
Drop the Temps at the End of Flower
If you’re growing weed indoors and want to know how to increase the terpenes, you can manipulate the room temperature to your advantage.
Drop the room temperature by just 5 degrees Fahrenheit every night in the last week of flowering. This will cause your plant some slight stress, triggering it to produce more trichomes, and therefore more terpenes as well.
Expose the Plants to UV Lights
Traditional indoor grow lights contain no UV light rays, but UV light can trigger plants to produce significantly more trichomes in order to protect themselves from damage.
Adding a UV light to your grow room during flowering will enhance your bud's flavor and effects due to the increased trichomes. Just be sure not to overdo it – otherwise, the light will damage your plants.
Use Terpene Enhancers
As your plants near the flowering stage, you can add terpene enhancers to the soil to fill up their sugar reserves.
When cannabis plants have full sugar reserves during the flowering stage, they have the energy to produce spectacular terpene levels and trichomes. You can use a premade enhancer like Terpinator or DIY alternatives like molasses.
How to Add Flavor to Weed During Harvest
Once you’ve taken all the steps that you can during the growth and flowering stage of your plants, it's time to learn how to give weed flavor during harvest time.
Pour a Flavored Solution into the Soil
Essential oils and food-grade extracts can absorb into your buds through the roots of your plant before harvesting. You want to use essential oils that are edible to avoid creating an unpleasant taste in your buds.
Simply mix about 15 ml of extracts or essential oils into 20 liters of water and then pour the solution into the soil up to 5 hours before you harvest. This is a great way to add flavor to weed, as the plant will hold onto the extracts or oils while you harvest.
Put a Branch in Flavored Water
If you’ve already harvested your buds and didn’t get a chance to add the above solution to your soil, you can still try this method on freshly harvested branches.
All you need to do is mix up some essential oils or food-grade extracts into water and place the stems of your cut branches into the solution. You just need the plant to absorb the solution through the bottom of the stem.
How to Add Flavor to Weed After Harvest
Even once you’ve harvested all your weed, it’s still not too late to add flavor. You can still enhance your marijuana’s flavor using these tried and tested methods:
Drying Weed
When exploring how to make weed taste better, the way you process your weed after harvest makes all the difference. Make sure to dry your weed in a cool place where the humidity is between 45-55%. Too much heat and dryness will degrade your trichomes during the drying process.
Curing Weed
The same goes for curing your weed. You need to do this properly if you want to improve your marijuana flavor. Make sure you keep your weed in a dark, cool area with humidity between 55-65% to maintain as many trichomes and terpenes as possible.
You also want to be sure to stick to a proper curing schedule where you open the jars and let your buds breathe. Twice a day for the first two days is best practice, then once a day from then on for about 2-8 weeks.
Cotton Ball Method
Once your buds are dried and cured, you can use the cotton ball method to add flavor to weed with ease. This method involves infusing a ball of cotton with your desired food-grade extract or alcoholic spirit and taping it under the lid of the jar.
You want to make sure that the cotton ball is not so soaked that it drips onto your weed, and to open up the jar regularly to allow any moisture to escape. You can use any food-grade extract or alcohol with a strong aroma, such as rum.
Flavor Spray
Of course, an obvious way to add flavor to weed is to use store-bought flavor sprays that you can spray directly onto your buds. Just be sure to follow the instructions correctly to avoid overdoing the flavoring.
Best Flavored Strains
The best way to ensure that you have great-tasting weed is to grow naturally flavorful buds from high-quality cannabis seeds. These three strains are some of the most loved and dankest strains on the market – let’s take a look.
Pineapple Express Auto (Fast Buds)
Pineapple Express Auto (Fast Buds) - Autoflowering
- 20 %
- Intergalactic flights and complete tranquillity
- 400 - 550 g/m² indoors
50 - 200 g/plant outdoors
A close descendant of an all-time favorite, Pineapple Express Auto by Fast Buds is a flavor machine with epic 20% THC levels and up to 1% CBD. This classic exudes terpenes and trichomes, leaving you with XL harvests of pineapple-infused buds. All aboard the Pineapple Express!
HulkBerry (RQS)
One of the latest up-and-coming flavor whoppers to hit the market is HulkBerry by Royal Queen Seeds. This strain hits you with its 27% THC levels while your senses are taken over by complex berry and diesel aromas with earthy undertones. It’s no surprise that this monster will also produce knock-out yields reaching 700 g (1.5 lb) per plant!
Za-Za OG (Herbies Seeds)
Za-Za OG (Herbies Seeds) - Photoperiod
- Prescribed happiness
- 26 %
- 600 - 800 g/m² indoors
1600 - 1800 g/plant outdoors
Last but not least, you won’t be worrying, “Why does my weed taste bad?” when you grow Za-Za OG by Herbies Seeds. With 26% THC, this Indica-dominant medicinal beauty is bound to impress. Not only are her effects out of this world, but so is her classic Kush pungency of citrus and diesel with a subtle caress of berry.
Is Weed Flavoring Worth It?
Growing naturally flavorful weed will always be the best way to make sure your weed is delicious. However, if you missed that mark or just feel like changing things up, any of the methods discussed in this article will help make a difference.
Just remember, not all strains will respond the same to your chosen flavoring technique, as each one already has a unique terpene profile to contend with. And remember, if you’re trying to flavor cured buds, make sure the weed itself isn’t too old or stale – otherwise, you still won’t have much luck in the flavor department.
Herbies Head Shop expressly refuses to support the use, production, or supply of illegal substances. For more details read our Legal Disclaimer.
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