Terpenes: Why They Matter More Than Your CBD Percentage

Let me be straight with you from the off.

For years I thought I understood cannabis. I grew up around it, I loved the culture, the music, the people it brought together. But I didn't really understand it. Not properly. Not until a workplace accident, a low tolerance to high strength THC, and a recommendation from a friend sent me down a rabbit hole I genuinely never expected to fall into.

That rabbit hole led me to CBD hemp flower, then to becoming a medical cannabis patient, then to working for Originals CBD - and eventually to spending more hours than I'd care to admit with my head in books, research papers and PubMed studies trying to actually understand what this plant does and why.

Three books in particular changed how I think about all of this. Reefer Wellness by Dr Riley Kirk. Higher - The Lore, Legends and Legacy of Cannabis by Dan Michaels. And The Cannabis Manifesto by Steve DeAngelo. If you haven't read them and you're serious about understanding this plant, start there.

Because here's what those books - and years of research since - taught me: we've been looking at cannabis completely wrong. The obsession with CBD percentage, THC percentage, Indica versus Sativa, it's a massive oversimplification of something genuinely extraordinary. And nowhere is that more obvious than when you start to understand terpenes.

What Are Terpenes - And Why Has Nobody Been Talking About Them Properly?

Terpenes are the aromatic compounds found in hemp - and in thousands of other plants too. They're why lavender smells the way it does. Why lemons smell like lemons. Why walking through a pine forest feels the way it feels. They're not unique to cannabis, they're everywhere in nature, and humans have been interacting with them for thousands of years without necessarily knowing it.

In hemp specifically, terpenes are produced in the same glandular trichomes that produce cannabinoids. There are over 100 different terpenes identified in cannabis, and every single strain has its own unique profile. That's a big part of why no two strains are the same - it's not just the cannabinoid ratios, it's the entire aromatic fingerprint of the plant.

But here's what the industry hasn't been telling people loudly enough: terpenes don't just make your flower smell nice. They interact with your body's endocannabinoid system independently - and when they're combined with cannabinoids like CBD, something genuinely interesting happens.

The Entourage Effect - Real Science, Not Marketing

You've probably seen the term "entourage effect" thrown around. A lot of brands use it loosely. But there is genuine science behind it worth understanding.

In 2011, Dr Ethan Russo published a landmark review in the British Journal of Pharmacology - Taming THC: Potential Cannabis Synergy and Phytocannabinoid-Terpenoid Entourage Effects. It's a 20 page deep dive into how cannabinoids and terpenes interact, and it made the case that whole plant cannabis behaves fundamentally differently to isolated compounds. The same CBD, the same THC - but without the terpenes, you get a different experience. Something is lost.

More recently a 2021 study published in Scientific Reports found that cannabis terpenes are cannabimimetic - meaning they mimic cannabinoid activity - and that CBD combined with terpene blends had a significantly greater impact than either substance alone.

This isn't fringe science. It's where the research is pointing, consistently. And it lines up completely with what I've experienced personally as a medical cannabis patient - that full spectrum flower, with its complete terpene profile intact, does something that isolates and stripped back products simply can't replicate.

That said - and I want to be clear on this - isolates have their place. There are situations where a pure, measured dose of a specific cannabinoid is exactly what's needed and I'd never dismiss that. But if you're looking at CBD hemp flower specifically, understanding the terpene profile is just as important as anything else on the COA.

The Terpenes Worth Knowing

Here are the ones that come up most often in the strains we work with at Originals CBD - and what the research says about them:

Myrcene The most common terpene in cannabis. Earthy, musky, slightly fruity. Associated with relaxing, body-heavy effects - you'll find it dominant in most Indica-leaning strains. Also found in mangoes and hops. If you've ever noticed a strain hitting heavier than its cannabinoid profile might suggest, myrcene is often a factor.

Limonene Bright, citrusy, unmistakeable. Common in Sativa-leaning strains and heavily associated with uplifted mood and mental clarity. You'll taste it in strains like our Lemon Octane - that sharp, gassy citrus hit is limonene doing its thing. Also found naturally in citrus peel, juniper and peppermint.

Caryophyllene This one is particularly interesting. Spicy, peppery, woody - and the only terpene currently known to directly interact with CB2 receptors in the endocannabinoid system, the same receptors targeted by cannabinoids. Dr Russo's 2011 paper specifically highlighted its potential for working alongside CBD. You'll find it in black pepper, cloves and cinnamon as well as cannabis.

Pinene That fresh, piney aroma you get from certain strains? That's pinene. There's research suggesting it may help counteract some of the short term memory effects associated with THC - by preserving acetylcholine, a molecule involved in memory formation. It's also associated with alertness and focus.

Linalool The floral one. Soft, lavender-like and deeply calming. Found in - unsurprisingly - lavender, as well as basil and coriander. Commonly associated with anxiolytic effects and often dominant in strains that lean toward relaxation without heaviness.

Terpinolene Less talked about but worth knowing. Fresh, floral, slightly herbal with a piney edge. Associated with uplifting effects and found in strains like our Rainbow Sherbet. It's one of the less common dominant terpenes which is part of what makes strains that feature it so distinctive.

Why This Changes How You Should Think About CBD Flower

Once you understand terpenes you stop thinking about CBD flower in terms of percentages and start thinking about it as something much more complex and interesting.

A strain with 14% CBD and a rich, diverse terpene profile - myrcene, caryophyllene, linalool working together - is going to give you something fundamentally different to a strain with 18% CBD and a thin, underdeveloped profile. The number on the COA tells you part of the story. The terpene section tells you the rest.

This is why at Originals we care so much about where our flower comes from and how it's grown. Terpenes are volatile - they develop during the growing process and they degrade during a bad cure, bad storage or anything that stresses the plant unnecessarily. Flower that's been grown with care, harvested at the right time and cured properly retains its terpene profile. Flower that hasn't, doesn't - regardless of what the CBD percentage says.

It's also why I'm personally sceptical of products that add terpenes back in after extraction. There's a place for that kind of product but it's not the same as a living, intact terpene profile from a properly grown plant. Nature got there first and in my experience, nature does it better.

Where to Go Deeper

If this has piqued your interest and you want to go further down the rabbit hole - I genuinely recommend starting with Dr Riley Kirk's Reefer Wellness. It's the most accessible, science-grounded book I've read on cannabinoids and their interactions and it'll change how you look at every product label you pick up.

For the science directly, Dr Ethan Russo's 2011 paper is freely available on PubMed and worth the read if you're comfortable with academic language. The 2021 Scientific Reports study on terpene cannabimimetic activity is also open access.

And if you ever want to talk terpenes - drop us a message. This is the stuff we genuinely geek out about.