The Truth About Terpenes & How They Enhance Your Experience

There’s a lot more to hemp and “marijuana” plants than THC or CBD. Cannabis is a complex plant that comes in many varieties – also known as “strains” or “cultivars” – each of which contains a unique blend of compounds that can significantly impact how it affects you. Of these, some of the best known (and most important) are called terpenes.

What Are Terpenes?

Simply put, terpenes are the chemical compounds that give all plants – not just cannabis – their distinct taste, smell, and effects. They’re responsible for scents like pine and lavender (and are even used to make essential oils), as well as the bitter taste of the hops in your favorite IPA. And when it comes to cannabis, terpenes are a big part of the reason some strains make you feel sleepy or subdued, while others might set your mind racing with inspiration.

In other words, terpenes play a really important role in determining the kind of effects your chosen plant product is going to produce. Yet they’re still not as well understood as they could be. So let’s take a look at some of the most commonly accepted beliefs about terpenes… and see if we can separate the misconceptions from the truth.

Belief #1: Terpenes Don’t Really Work in Edibles

Some people don’t believe terpenes have any effect at all when ingested rather than inhaled. We won’t exactly call this belief a myth, because the science (at least as it relates to cannabis) isn’t totally conclusive. And it’s certainly true that, when you isolate THC from the rest of the cannabis plant to create the distillate found in most edibles or infused drinks, you do leave behind terpenes and other beneficial compounds.

What many people don’t realize, however, is that it’s possible to reintroduce these terpenes at a later stage of the cooking process, as long as temperatures remain below the terps’ boiling point. And there are a number of studies (involving plants other than cannabis) which have detected terpenes in the subjects’ blood following ingestion – including this one and this one.

The dedicated R&D team at Wana Brands, the founding company behind Wanderous, have found this evidence compelling enough to invest a great deal time and research into reintroducing terpenes to their gummy formula. Wana has partnered with Abstrax, an industry leader in terpene research, to analyze the terpene profiles of leading cannabis strains. They’ve used that information to create three class-specific terpene blends – a relaxing one based on the terp profiles of popular “Indica” strains, a more motivating one based on top-selling “Sativa” strains, and a balanced one based on “Hybrid” strains. These unique blends are what allow Wana to offer their hemp-derived recreational gummies in three effects-based blends: “Relax,” “Inspire,” and “Balance.”

Belief #2: Cannabis-Derived Terpenes Are Better than Botanically Derived

Some folks believe that the terpenes used in edibles should only come from one place: cannabis. But this simply doesn’t make sense. On a molecular level, terpenes are the same no matter where they come from – for example, the compound linalool produces the same effects whether you extract it from a lavender or a hemp plant. The origin of the terpenes won’t make a difference as far as how the edibles make you feel.

And actually, there’s a pretty big disadvantage that comes with using terpenes derived only from cannabis. For one thing, they’re harder to come by, which can cause supply issues. For another, cannabis strains evolve slightly from harvest to harvest – meaning that the terpene profile of even one specific strain might change over time. So to use only the terpenes extracted from that strain might produce different effects with each new batch of edibles.

Wana wants to offer consumers consistent results every time. While their terpene blends do mirror the combinations found in cannabis strains, they derive the terps themselves from botanical sources like fruit. Unlike a cannabis crop, botanical sources provide an unlimited supply of the terpenes Wana needs. They make it possible to recreate the same precise combinations – and, by extension, their effects – over and over again.

Belief #3: Some Terpenes Are More Important than Others

Many edibles companies feel it’s sufficient to work with only five or six of the most commonly occurring terpenes. The Wana team, on the other hand, believes that nature is a subtle and miraculous thing – and there are no unimportant pieces of the puzzle. That’s why they infuse their products with more than 30 unique terpenes, bringing you as close as possible to the nuanced effects of the cannabis plant itself.

In Conclusion…

Now that you’ve got the basics, we’ll leave it to you to try Wana’s products and draw your own conclusions. But suffice it to say: we at Wanderous are true terpene believers!

Classic Inspire – Raspberry Limeade

Tart, sweet, and citrusy, these deliciously motivating gummies contain an uplifting blend of CBG, CBD, THC and 30+ inspiring plant compounds known as terpenes. Wana’s Classic formulations typically take effect in 45-90 minutes, with a duration of 4-6 hours.

Classic Inspire – Raspberry Limeade