by Dan Ketchum
Is your favorite craft cannabis earthy, or citrusy? Is the high euphoric or relaxing?
From the aroma of your vape to the experience of your body and mind highs, terpenes matter. While we don’t expect you to memorize the more than 150 known terps, familiarizing yourself with some of the most prolific, popular, and smoke-enhancing terpenes is essential for true cannasseurs.
Which is exactly why we’ve prepared a handy terpene profile chart to expand your palette as well as your horizons.
Why Terps Matter
You’ve probably heard of trichomes, the translucent, hairlike glands that make good flower nice and sticky. A healthy layer of trichomes is essential to cannabis’ natural defense systems, and they contain resin glands that naturally produce aromatic compounds known as terpenes, which can affect the plant’s coloration and scent profile. Both of these are characteristics that help define how attractive (or unattractive) cannabis plants are to both helpful and harmful creatures. Terpenes occur in all sorts of plants, from lemons to cloves, not just cannabis.
But what does that mean to you, the cannabis consumer (who is, presumably, not a bug)? Those terpenes matter because they create the aroma bouquet that defines the sensory experience of your favorite strains. And more than that, specific terpenes have a significant effect on the highs you experience, as different terps produce different mood-altering effects. Not to mention their role in the synergistic entourage effect, which can heighten your cannabis experience and various potential health benefits they provide. Basically, terpenes are what lend your favorite strain its most defining characteristics.
Mistifi’s Terpene Profile Chart
With dozens upon dozens of different terps on record so far, how are you supposed to keep track? Wouldn’t it be great if there were, I don’t know, some kind of terpene chart you could reference?
We’ve got your back — just keep in mind that terps aren’t exclusive, and that strains can contain a variety of different terps in varying amounts.
| Terpene | Aroma | Effects | Common Strains |
| Caryophyllene | Spicy, peppery, with a nipping bite | Relaxing and lightly sedative | Bubba Kush, Mango Kush, Super Silver Haze, Skywalker |
| Eucalyptol | Like eucalyptus, minty, menthol | Cerebral and super euphoric | AC/DC, Headband, London Pound Cake |
| Humulene | Hoppy, woodsy, cedar-like | Body-loosening, and a little mind-loosening, too | Girl Scout Cookies, Pink Kush, White Widow |
| Limonene | Citrusy, fresh, gingery, clean | Stress reducing, uplifting and mood-enhancing | Sour Diesel, Sweet Tangie, Super Lemon Haze, Jack Herer |
| Linalool | Floral, a hint of spice, a bit of lavender | Calming and anodyne | Amnesia Haze, OG Shark, Special Kush |
| Myrcene | Earthy, herbal, musky, slightly sweet | Very sedative, and may help ease inflammation | Max OG, Grandaddy Purple, Purple Urkle, Jillybean |
| Phytol | Grassy, a bit floral, like green tea | Mild, anxiety reducing | Banana Kush, Cheese, Strawberry Diesel |
| Pinene | Strongly piney, woody, robust | Calming, but also focusing | Hell’s Fire OG, Strawberry Cough, Blue Dream, Dutch Treat |
| Sabinene | Spruce, almost like autumnal “pumpkin spice” blends | Serene, day-to-day pain relieving | Lemonade Haze, Orange Bud, Northern Lights |
| Terpinolene | Sweet but spicy and a touch earthy, like allspice | Grounding and centering, eases nerves | Golden Pineapple, Ghost Train Haze, Orange Cookies |
Our Mission: Preserve the Terps
Somewhere between harvest and finding its way to your vape cart, cannabis undergoes some sort of extraction process. Extraction processes essentially take the plant from its raw form into a consumable product, such as oil, distillate, hash, or wax. These processes do so by (here it comes) extracting key cannabis compounds such as THC, CBD, and — of course — terpenes.
How Terpenes Get Lost
Here’s the thing: most terpenes are super volatile, and most extraction processes (especially cheap and quick ones) are harsh. And when those two realities meet, a whole lot of terpenes get lost during the extraction process.
For instance, harsh extraction processes like petrochemical or butane extraction are popular due to their affordability and huge yields, but the astringent solvents they employ mean that less of the plant’s innate terpene profile makes it into the final extract. Because some solvents literally burn terps and other compounds out of the plant, some companies attempt to add flavor or smokability back into their products by pumping them full of additives, thickening agents, carrier oils, and flavorings. Though the latter may change thanks to legislation passed in late ‘22 regulating flavored vape products — a clear sign that maybe that stuff shouldn’t have been pumped into your cannabis in the first place.
The end result? Less aromatic, less flavorful, and less powerful weed. In other words, weed without a whole lot of identity. That’s where Mistifi’s live resin triple-strain vape pens come in — a better extraction process favors natural terpene profiles over those additive cocktails. Trust Mother Nature on this one.
Why Hi-Phi Gets It Right
In contrast to strident solvents, Mistifi uses a proprietary, in-house, and completely petrochemical solvent-free process called Hi-Phi Solventless Extraction, developed by Cannabistry over the course of four years.
Leveraging a combination of fine-tuned low temperatures and high pressure, Hi-Phi preserves the exact same ratio of terpenes found in the native cannabis flower. It’s the only extraction process on the planet that maintains the flower’s delicate “Golden Ratio,” the exact proportion of THC, terpenes, and other cannabinoids that make each strain unique.
This produces what we call Hi-Phi cured resin, a boutique resin made from a proprietary extraction process. In fact, Mistifi is the only vape brand that uses Hi-Phi. That could be because it’s a costly extraction process with a low yield, but we believe the quality end result is well worth the time and expense. You’ll taste it, and feel it, in the terps.
So now you know why terps matter, and you know why we take such great measures to preserve them. You’ve seen Mistifi’s terpene profile chart — now it’s time to chart your own terpene journey. Godspeed, fellow traveler.
Dan Ketchum splits his time between Dallas and LA as a freelance lifestyle, fashion, health, and food writer with more than a decade of experience. In cannabis, been fortunate enough to collaborate with Cannabis & Tech Today, FOCL, Vitagenne, Reign Together, Tough Mama, and more.