The quest for consistent cannabis products
All cannabis reviews are not equal, thoughts on the cannabis review ecosystem.
Disclaimer : MJ is entirely owned by its founders, who are also participants in the MJ community. MJ is not associated with any venture capital or other outside investment funds. MJ is providing the cannabis review tool app.mjmaryjane.com
Mj is free and not associated with any cannabis brands. MJ has maintained its independence in order to encourage reviews with the highest level of integrity.
What consistency in cannabis means and why does it matter that much ?
Consistency with regards to cannabis means stable flavor and effects from batch to batch, nothing more. Cannabis may be compared to the pharmaceutical industry. Patients take pharmaceutical drugs expecting specific consistent results, probably similar to their previous experiences. Results of the intake are expected, creating trust with the brand after repeated success. A specific brand with a consistent product lets customers count on a specific set of flavors and effects. Would you still buy the same brand of cereals if the taste was changing every week and there was no way to know which taste it would be this time? The answer is very likely no. Patients, like customers become recurring consumers because of trust brought via consistency in the service and product.
In the cannabis global seed to sale process, there is no guarantee that the seed used by the grower was actually the seed he or she was expecting. Seeds can of course be mislabeled, particularly where no legal framework exists in the location. Even while acting entirely in good faith, someone may have entirely mislabelled genetics. The same applies to cannabis products.
In the still nascent cannabis industry, it is difficult to find consistency in cannabis product quality.
Reviews are used to promote products and services across all cannabis market but most people lack education about cannabis, creating a dearth of accessible quality cannabis reviews. The most known tool on the internet to assess cannabis quality is leafly.com. Those cannabis rating pioneers have tremendous traffic and user satisfaction, making them the leader in the industry. That said, their current system has limits.
Mj believes that one review can not be based only on the strain name. Cannabis reviews must rely on a complete set of factors. MJ respects each unique strain, grower and harvest date. Each cannabis harvest is unique much like a specific vintage of wine from a particular winery.
Knowledgeable cannabis users are consistently looking for a specific result and feel when consuming a cannabis strain.
The shape, the color, the quality of the flowers, the thc levels and the terpene concentrations can vary wildly within similar genetics. Even when the environment has been precisely controlled for, a particular seed may exhibit several phenotypes, resulting in extremely different final flower product. More broadly, a strain called ‘og kush’ and grown in an organic outdoor grow operation in California will still be labelled ‘og kush’ when grown indoors and sold to customers in Amsterdam. These two strains have been grown in an entirely different environment and system, and the label ‘og kush’ is simply insufficient for a consumer to rely upon for a consistent experience.
Cannabis flower is inconsistent by nature, the industry needs a champagne and wines vintage label.
Champagne and wines have labels ensuring the origin of the products. But it’s not all, they have vintages called “Millésime”.
Like any plant, identical cannabis genetics will differ according to many variables. Vintage is the process of picking grapes and creating the finished product.
A vintage wine is one made from grapes that were all, or primarily, grown and harvested in a single specified year. The term applies to any wine that is perceived to be particularly old or of a particularly high quality. The grapes will be coming from a very specific territory. Champagne can be grown only in champagne, which is a specific region of France. If the same grapes are grown somewhere close to this area it might have the same qualities but it will never be called “champagne” but probably some “whatever sparkling white wine”.
how does one user find consistent products ? how does one ensure product consistency in the cannabis supply chain ?
To ensure consistency in their products. Growers and processors use clones. Clones and terpenes are key to consistency. Why are they using clones ?
Let’s do a brief debunking of the steps from the famous cannabis seed to sale process and terpenes usage. Seed to sale is referring to the entire production chain of a cannabis operation. They start by planting the seeds on their farms, they grow the plants, harvest those plants, process everything, and then package it before it goes to the customer. Some cannabis companies handle the entire inventory management process from start to finish, seed to sale.
Cannabis trichomes terpenes are responsible for the aroma and flavors of cannabis, and influence its effects by interacting with cannabinoids. Terpenes are defined as “a large class of hydrocarbon compounds” that lead to the wide variety of flavor and effects”.
Terpenes are the compound that creates one specific flavor or effect. It’s a compound found in all vegetable. The pineapple express strain will taste like pineapple only because the same terpenes are present in both plant. The pineapple fruit and the cannabis strain pineapple express. One can expect this cannabis to have the same flavor and effects if their respective terpene levels and composition perfectly matches. Growers by using clones are trying to minimize the risk of consistency variation. All new plants, being perfect genetic clones.
Strain names can be nothing more than marketing gimmicks.
Strain genetics and more precisely final products, are not equal even when the strain name and specifications are identical. The name given to a specific strain is merely a label. Names may change according to brands and trends. Cannabis is not immune from fashion’s trends. Furthermore there is rarely any verification of those informations, rendering those data useless for the most part. Sometimes the strain name may indicate the genetic parents of the plant and occasionally the flavor of the strain. Pineapple express is an example of a trendy strain today, which will likely be not as trendy in the future. Trendy strain names can sometimes drive sales growth in dispensaries. Mj is looking to gather actionable data that are automatically verifiable. All reviews are not equal, some reviewers have higher levels of credibility. MJ allows the valid information to become more accessible.
It is so hard to reach consistency in product that some dedicated service exists to help grow cannabis and reach consistent results, Growdiaries.com
Across the globe, similar genetic strains will be different according to the growers, the geography and the materials used in the grow operation. Growdiaries.com is the perfect example on how complex growing cannabis can be.
Find consistency in cannabis in one geographical location, the Wrobert Parker case study
Let’s take Wrobert parker reviews in Seattle. As one of the founders of mj, Wrobert parker is looking for consistent pot quality.
Wrobert Parker is covering all Seattle dispensaries. Buy, mostly indica strains and more especially his favorite strain girl scout cookies. Consistency is a problem and even though he goes to the most reputable shops in Seattle, they never have consistent products or the brand changes as well as the grower. Resulting in variation in pot quality. The brand is often different. Growers and processors are different or the batch of cannabis from the same grower is different. The strain consumption experience will not be consistent compared to what the user is expecting. The expectations of the client looking for this specific strain are not met resulting in a bad review/experience. And a bad review for the shop plus a not returning customer.
Consistency in cannabis products will increase with market maturity.
Mj is looking to provide that vintage nomenclature for cannabis
Consistency in product means consistency in experience. Consistency in experience will lead to satisfied recurring customers. Customers are expecting from him a specific taste and some consistency in the final product. It means perfect consistency in flavor and taste as well reasonable cannabinoids levels. How one can achieve that ? The cannabis industry needs to implement the cannabis vintage system.
