Do You Savor the Flavor or Smoke to Choke?

I like wine. I’m not a wine snob in any way, (not that their is anything wrong with that), but I have learned how to taste wine, to look for the nuances, hidden flavors, special notes, yada, yada. Marijuana is very similar, but the tasting is so much more important. You have to savor the flavor.

It makes me cringe when I see someone load up a bowl or bong, put a flame to it and suck so hard they choke themselves. That’s no way to savor the flavor. There is a knack to doing a bowl of sweet, fresh bud, and it will serve you well to utilize this method if you’re serious about your medicine, because the flavors will help you learn what works best for you.

In my posts about terpenes, I spoke about some of the flavor nuances that different terpenes bestow on cannabis, and how recognizing and remembering these flavors is useful in determining what strain works best for you. To me, this knowledge is imperative, and more important than CBD and THC percentages. I see people going for the cannabis with the highest THC, believing that is the magic bullet, but I don’t think that’s true, because the whole plant and all its parts are what make the medicine, and depending on just one component when there are so many working together is as idiotic as the pharmaceutical companies basing all their cannabis drugs on just CBD or just THC.

It’s harder to savor the flavor if you are smoking a joint, because you also get the flavor of the paper it’s rolled in. If you are using a bong, it’s going to take some playing around with technique to get a small enough puff. Vaporizers are good to use for savoring, but not everyone has a good vaporizer, (because the good ones are damn expensive), and personally, I find them a bit labor intensive for my clumsy hands to load up the chamber and go. I’m increasingly less dexterous than I used to be, so I choose to use a small glass pipe. It’s fast and easy. I clean them often, soaking them in alcohol and baking soda and always have one in the cleaning solution and one in use. There is no excuse for a clogged up stinky pipe!

I prefer a borosilicate glass carburetor pipe, (borosilicate – meaning heat proof like pyrex, and carburetor – meaning there is an extra hole in the side of the bowl to help clear all the smoke from the chamber of the pipe). Using the pipe method, I place a bit of dried flower bud in the bowl (as shown). If the bud is hard packed you may have to flake it up a bit with a cannabis grinder or just your fingers. The point is don’t pack it too tightly in the bowl of the pipe, but rather leave it a bit loose so the flame can dance lightly over and around it. Don’t use matches because that will change the flavor too, (sulfur – yuck!). No Zippo lighter either, (yucky chemical taste). Use a butane lighter and while very slowly drawing on the pipe just barely pass the flame it over the bud enough to get it crackling, (and don’t forget to cover the carburetor hole with your finger when lighting up). Again, draw very slowly so the smoke lingers in your mouth a bit before the inhale. Close your eyes and experience what flavors come to you. Is it fruity? Like a berry? Like a lemon or orange? Does it start with one flavor and end with another? Is it spicy? Sweet? Savory?

After you’ve savored the flavor, pack the pipe and smoke as you wish. The flavor is still there, as is the aroma in the smoke, but there is nothing like that first, slow draw on a fresh bud when you gently break the glaze of the cannabis trichomes and taste every intricacy that flower has to offer. It’s making me drool just thinking about it.  Questions? Just ask! I just realized that for newbies, I really ought to do a write up about the different delivery methods for cannabis. I’ll get on it.