Why I Invented the Terpene Vault
The URSA Terpene Vault is a cannabis strain database that was born out of a search for the truth. How can we truly distinguish why a “Blue Dream” from one farmer makes us feel completely different from another farmer’s “Blue Dream”? The answer — measureable compounds. Cannabinoids & terpenes.
I designed and built the URSA Terpene Vault to help cannabis buyers determine what strains they want to buy.
It is still in the early phases of development, and is only relevant to a small population of California cannabis users, but it has the potential to greatly impact our cannabis experiences.
The Sativa — Indica Debacle
Up until recently, a lot of people believed that anything marked Sativa would give them an energetic head-high — and anything marked Indica would give them a sedating body-high. And Hybrid is… eh…something in between those two.
When I first entered the cannabis industry as a graphic designer in 2018, my coworkers informed that Sativa, Indica, and Hybrid classifications aren’t accurate. They are often made up arbitrarily by someone in charge who may or may not have smoked a sample of it. (Santa Claus is not real either, btw.)
Most cannabis is Hybridized.
Here is my extremely brief History of Cannabis Cultivation: Despite drug laws, grower dudes went to Afghanistan and India (in the 1960s and still to this day) to smuggle cannabis seeds into their home countries. Over the years, these “landrace” strains have been hybridized to produce optimal traits like THC percentage and bud size.
Now, cannabis grows all over the world and almost all of the hybridized strains are “better” than the landraces when it comes to all of the things we care about, (like THC and bud size.)
That’s only natural. Take a look at any other plant or domesticated animal like dogs, cats or chickens. Humans love to create things with optimal traits.
There is nothing wrong with Hybridization… BUT arbitrarily deeming a cannabis strain as INDICA, when it is actually an incredible cross of complex phenos — I have a problem with that. Especially if you are only calling it an Indica because you recently talked to a buyer who said she wants more Indica strains. That is just flat-out lying.
So, to all the Cannabis brands who are still doing this. Stop. There is a better way.
The Better Way
The Terpene vault was a response to this question:
How can we make cannabis strains easy to navigate… without over simplifying the plant or misleading people?
Thanks to lab testing, we believe we can track strain variation using 2 measureable compounds: Cannabinoids & Terpenes.
There is no denying:
We the people want to know what strains will make us sleepy, and which strains will make us energized.
People ask budtenders, “Will this help me sleep?” or, “Will this strain be good for my grandma’s arthritis?” The last thing they want is to stay awake all night when a budtender sold them on an Indica strain that was actually packed with Limonene.
But the demand is there — inquiring minds want to know — But people have been mislead by poorly labeled strains.
Seeing all these pain points, I knew that offering the terpene information of strains could unlock fierce customer loyalty, but it wouldn’t be easy. Because cannabis affects all of us differently.
In other words, for Jimmy — Myrcene could help him sleep. For Johnny — Myrcene might give him the spins. We can only experiment and take note.
The first step for Jimmy and Johnny is knowing which strains are high in Myrcene.
Facilitating Your Personal Terpene Journey
To properly experiment, you need to have data. The URSA Terpene Vault provides you with a snapshot of the nuances that make each strain unique. And the data provided is getting better with each iteration.
Our goal is to provide our customers and budtenders the details they need to accurately choose a strain.
Eventually I hope to turn the Terpene Vault into an app, with personal journaling and social commenting capabilities. Ideally it could be used as a tool to track which terpenes you are experiencing and how they affect you.
The Terpene Vault could be very beneficial for participants in research studies like the study that Bryan at HVGC — a recent guest on my podcast — is running with military veterans. If the participants were seeking out strains with high amounts of Myrcene for example. They could figure out which URSA product to choose.
If you would like to, please check out the URSA Terpene Vault and give me any feedback you have about your experience.
