Just like in coffee, wine, or tea, the aroma of cannabis can define product quality, sometimes even more than THC itself. And yes, among those aroma profiles you’ll find fruity, citrus, earthy notes… and even descriptors like vomit/fecal.
That’s what researchers from Oregon State University (OSU), together with a panel of trained sensory specialists, presented in a new study published in PLOS One.
The research set out to answer questions the cannabis world has been circling for years: What are we actually smelling when we smell a fresh bud? How much does aroma shape our expectations of quality? And can the industry finally agree on a shared vocabulary so we stop treating THC as the only indicator of “good” cannabis?
A sensory lexicon to bring order to cannabis chaos
The team assembled 24 sensory analysis experts—many with backgrounds in wine, coffee, tea, and fermented foods—and had them smell 91 flower samples, including hemp (Type III, low THC) and psychotropic cannabis (Type I, high THC).
After logging thousands of sensory notes, the group created a lexicon of 25 validated aroma terms, each supported by reference standards. When the researchers analyzed the data, four major aroma families emerged, surprisingly consistent and, in some cases, pretty unexpected:
Fruit / berry / candy
Citrus + chemical
Cheese + vomit/fecal
Funky / earthy / musty / dry grass / fuel / black tea / wood / toast
Lead researcher Thomas H. Shellhammer explained why this matters in an industry still shaped by dispensary folklore.
“Aroma plays a major role in how consumers judge cannabis quality, but until now there has not been a standardized language for describing it,” he said, as reported by Ganjapreneur.
He added: “As the cannabis industry moves from an unregulated marketplace to a legal one, it’s valuable to give consumers tools to help assess product quality beyond just …
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Author: Camila Berriex / High Times
