Flavonoids vs Terpenes: What You Actually Taste

Terpenes are the reason one concentrate tastes like citrus peel and another tastes like pine. They are the aroma compounds, and they are also the most fragile thing in your dab: the first to arrive, and the first to be destroyed if you run your nail too hot.

Flavonoids get mentioned in the same breath and do something different. Here is what each one actually is, and what it means for what you taste.

What are terpenes?

Terpenes are aromatic compounds produced by plants. They are not unique to cannabis, and you already know most of them by smell: limonene is what citrus peel smells like, pinene is pine needles and rosemary, linalool is lavender. Cannabis simply happens to produce a lot of them, in combinations that vary by strain.

For dabbing, one property matters more than any other: terpenes are volatile. They vaporize at lower temperatures than the rest of the material. That is the whole reason temperature control is worth caring about, and it cuts both ways.

• Run too cool and the material never fully vaporizes. You get thin vapor and a puddle left in the dish.
• Run too hot and the terpenes are gone before they reach you. What is left is vapor without the flavor that was in the material.

The window where both work is 400°F to 600°F, and the lower half of that range is where flavor lives. Full detail in the dabbing temperature guide.

What are flavonoids?

Flavonoids are a separate family of plant compounds, and they are mostly responsible for colour rather than aroma. They are why one flower is deep purple and another is green. Around twenty of them are specific to cannabis, where they are called cannaflavins.

They matter far less to your dab than terpenes do, for a simple reason: flavonoids are not especially volatile, so most of what they contribute stays behind rather than arriving in the vapor. If you are chasing flavor, terpenes are the thing to pay attention to.

The short answer on the difference

Terpenes are aroma. Flavonoids are pigment. Both are produced by the plant, both vary by strain, and only one of them meaningfully reaches you through a banger.

The common terpenes and what they smell like

Strain names tell you less than terpene profiles do. These are the ones you will run into most, described by what they actually smell and taste like:

• Myrcene. Earthy, musky, slightly herbal. Also found in hops and mango.
• Limonene. Bright citrus, like the oil in orange or lemon peel.
• Pinene. Sharp and resinous. Pine needles, rosemary, basil.
• Caryophyllene. Peppery and spicy. The same compound that makes black pepper smell like black pepper.
• Linalool. Floral and soft. Lavender and coriander.
• Terpinolene. Fresh and slightly sweet, somewhere between apple and herbs.

Most concentrates carry several at once, and the balance between them is what makes one batch taste different from another even within the same strain.

How to actually taste them

Terpenes are already in your material. Everything below is about not destroying them between the dish and you.

Start in the lower half of the range

Around 400°F to 500°F is the flavor band. You will get a thinner draw than at 550°F or 600°F, and you will taste considerably more. Move in 10 to 25 degree steps rather than big jumps.

Keep the quartz clean

Residue from previous dabs sits between the coil and your material, blocks heat transfer, and adds its own taste to everything passing over it. A dirty dish flattens flavor more than most people realise. Swabbing while warm takes seconds: see How to Clean a Quartz Banger.

Use a carb cap

A cap restricts airflow, which lowers the pressure and therefore the temperature your concentrate needs to vaporize. That means more of the terpene range makes it out intact. Without a cap, a low-temperature dab largely evaporates into the room. Browse carb caps and dab tools.

Add terp pearls

Terp pearls spin inside the dish when you cap and draw, moving the concentrate across the hot surface instead of letting it pool in one spot. More even contact means more complete vaporization at a lower temperature, which is exactly the condition terpenes survive. See terp pearls.

Use a controller rather than a torch

A torch heats past your target and then falls through it, so every dab lands somewhere different and the hottest moment is usually at the start. A MiniNail enail holds the set point to the degree, and the number on the display is the dabbing surface rather than the coil.

Frequently asked

What is the difference between terpenes and flavonoids?

Terpenes are volatile aroma compounds and they are what you smell and taste. Flavonoids are pigment compounds and they mostly determine colour. Both occur throughout the plant world, and only terpenes travel meaningfully into your vapor.

What temperature preserves terpenes?

The lower half of the 400°F to 600°F range, roughly 400°F to 500°F. Terpenes vaporize before the rest of the material, so higher temperatures drive them off before they reach you.

Are terpenes only found in cannabis?

No. Terpenes are found across the plant kingdom. Limonene is in citrus peel, pinene is in pine and rosemary, caryophyllene is in black pepper. Cannabis produces them in unusually varied combinations.

What is the difference between a terpene and a terpenoid?

Terpenes are the compounds as the living plant produces them. Terpenoids are those same compounds after they have been chemically altered, typically by drying and curing. In everyday use most people say terpenes for both.

Do terp pearls improve flavor?

Indirectly, yes. They keep the concentrate moving across the hot surface rather than pooling, which allows more complete vaporization at a lower temperature, and lower temperatures are what keep terpenes intact.

The short version

Terpenes are the flavor and they are fragile. Flavonoids are the colour and they largely stay behind. If you want to taste what is actually in your material, run 400°F to 500°F, keep the dish clean, use a cap, and let a controller hold the temperature rather than guessing at it with a flame.