How Much Is Too Much Terps

People think we're crazy and competitors can’t stand us because we match the average HTE Terpene percent% minus- all the impurities allowing us to have the highest concentration of cannabinoid/terpene ratio available on the market. Making our extracts as pure and tasty as can possibly be. Each with its uniquely distinct and prominent strain specific profiles that identically represents the actual strain biomass used for the extraction. Zero additives of any sorts. Zero solvents. All organic practice standards from the growing soil to final essential oil. While this is the least profitable, we are legend not a myth.

Quality over Quantity & Patients before Profits

 

How Much Is Too Much Terps?

 

Most common question we see is… “What is the proper amount of terpenes to mix into vapes and other products?”

Most common answer we find is around 5% give or take. While we completely understand the safety zone when people first start entering the unknown. 

Lets go over the basics.

Average terpene content found in Flower vs Concentrates prior to any reintroductions.

 

Flower average is 0.6% - 2.5% We have seen it as low as zero % and as high as 5+% being freshly tested directly after harvest cure. 

Bubble / Water Hash: less than 1% average (Terpenes can be present at higher concentrations, however most the time its compromised in the drying cure process in order to prevent mold.)

Rosin: 0.6-5% average (if the material is first washed prior to squishing, there will be a significant loss of terpenes that get pushed out into the water and drained away.) Average terpene content in rosin is less than 1%. Rosin tends to lose its terpenes immediately if not properly stored. Rosin likes to degrade very fast as its unstable and extremely sensitive to temperature and light. 

Crumble: 0-1% average.

Shatter: less than 1% average seen as high as 10% (The higher the % of terpenes the more unstable the shatter will be and the faster it will nucleate and turn into a terp-sugar.

Nectar Sugars: 3-15% terpenes

Nectar sugar/sauces back in the day had such high amounts of terpenes that people thought the terps where solvents. People where scared and didn’t want anything to do with them. This was a time when we where unable to sell our best products cause the rumors of everyone having residual butanes present in their extracts had been spreading. We’ve been testing our products since 2014 when the Wercshop was still in California.

HTE Sauce: with 10%-40% average terpenes (we are constantly testing HTE all the time and have seen as low as 1.5% and highs up towards 60% terpene content.) Cheap HTE is everywhere however quality HTE is kept by most producers. Massive inconsistent ranges when it comes to the terpene content with HTE production.

Now lets do some terpene dab math:

If you smoke dabs that are even mixes of HTE (High Terpene Extract aka Pour Off aka The Sauce Layer) and HCE (High Cannabinoid Extract aka The Diamond Layer aka THCa Section) This is about the average total of Terpenes, THCs & Impurities.

Lets take for instance you where to mix (equal parts HCE & HTE) 0.5ml of HCE containing 85% THCa and has 5% residual Terpenes and 10% impurities with 0.5ml HTE that contains 30% Terpenes and has 15% THCa and 55% impurities.

To find the final concentrations, you'll need to calculate the total amount of each component in the mixture. Then, divide by the total volume of the mixture. Let's break it down:

For THCa:

HCE: 0.5ml * 85% = 0.425ml THCa

HTE: 0.5ml * 15% = 0.075ml THCa

Total THCa = 0.425ml + 0.075ml = 0.5ml

For Terpenes:

HCE: 0.5ml * 5% = 0.025ml Terpenes

HTE: 0.5ml * 30% = 0.15ml Terpenes

Total Terpenes = 0.025ml + 0.15ml = 0.175ml

For Impurities:

HCE: 0.5ml * 10% = 0.05ml Impurities

HTE: 0.5ml * 55% = 0.275ml Impurities

Total Impurities = 0.05ml + 0.275ml = 0.325ml

Now, divide each total by the total volume of the mixture (1ml):

Final concentration of THCa = 0.5ml / 1ml = 50% Final concentration of Terpenes = 0.175ml / 1ml = 17.5% Final concentration of Impurities = 0.325ml / 1ml = 32.5%

So, the final concentrations after mixing would be:

50% THCa

17.5%Terpenes

32.5% Impurities

Many brands have been putting out pure HTE vape carts for years now with terpene levels up towards 20%

Adding/ mixing 5% pure cannabis/hemp derived terpenes back to distillate, liquid diamonds, THCa or whatever pure Alt cannabinoid that has a neutral blank canvas will indeed make the taste stand out being the removal of all other impurities. However 5% it still a very small amount compared to a good BHO/PHO style extract or sauces. 

Lets all understand that 5% terpenes is not how much you consume. If you take multiple large hits compared to 1 or 2 small ones. The total intake amount of consumed terpenes from a 5% concentration changes drastically when it’s actually calculated by dosing measurements.

Less is a waste and more is a taste:

Did you know that it’s more wasteful to use less terpenes? 

The reason being is that if there isn’t enough terpenes in the first place to be effective and make a noticeably enjoyable difference the entire amount used is rendered pointless. Depending on the pungent strength of the terpenes, we really start to see them shine around the 10%+ range. This really brings out the subtle notes that can’t be noticed in low %. These minors are what truly distinguish the strains complex uniqueness. Cannabis having over 400 known terpenes makes the individual terpene compound percentages much lower than just having a few botanicals used in fake recreations which are made with high concentrations of only few select compounds instead of spread across hundreds with gods fingerprint.

The art of formulating terpene ratios comes down to a happy medium between a standardized cost effective final product and what the end consumer wants. This will vary for personal use verses retail as well as dab or vape formulations.

We like to replicate that real FSHTE experience without all the impurities.

So for infusing CDTs into pure cannabinoid isolates/ distillates we use between 15-20% vol / 12.5-17.5% wt. depending on the product and CDT profile. We suggest staying within the concentration ranges produced by extraction methods we have been accustomed to and never going beyond 25% CDTs