What Makes Premium Cannabis Flower Different From Other Dispensary Flower?

Shop with a discerning eye by learning what sets premium cannabis flower apart from low-quality dispensary bud.

In the era before legalized cannabis, there was no such thing as comparison shopping. Whatever was available, however it looked—that was it, take it or leave it. Thankfully, there’s a lot more choice these days.

Take a stroll through the Veritas strain library, for example, and you’ll find no less than 90 different options on a regular rotation, all representing the best of what Colorado cannabis can be. 

We have to admit, we think it’s pretty cool that cannabis consumers have a lot more power in their shopping decisions these days. Dispensary customers can ask budtenders questions, read labels and follow cannabis research trends to find products that work for their specific needs. 

But we also believe that in order to appreciate the dynamic differences between strains like Blood Orange and Pudding Pop, it’s important to know that not everything at the dispensary is primo. 

For cannabis consumers new to the scene or those who used to source cannabis through “their guy” or a friend of a friend during the underground days of “kind bud,” “mids” and “brick weed schwag,” here are some tips on how to shop for cannabis flower, and what goes into modern cultivation to create premium cannabis flower.  

Quality Standards for Cannabis Flower

If you don’t know the lingo, schwag is essentially slang for inferior, low-quality cannabis. But what makes cannabis inferior or lacking in quality? 

For ages, we’ve relied on just our eyes and nose to tell us what to think (or the classic Colt 45 by Afroman song giving listeners tips). Are there a lot of seeds and stems? Schwag. And if your back-of-the-drawer baggie of bud has completely lost its scent, gone brownish in color or developed fuzzy pockets of mold, those are tell-tale signs that your stash is way past its window of decent smoking.

However, in today’s dispensary era, it’s not as cut-and-dry as simply checking for the most obvious signs of mediocre weed. Instead, the challenge is a bit more nuanced—but with your effort comes great rewards.

Don’t Judge On THC Potency Alone 

The first thing to remember: Potency isn’t the only thing that matters. Beyond the simple fact that there is no singular “ideal” amount of THC (it varies from consumer to consumer) researchers have recently found that the potency of a cannabis product does not correlate with its overall quality or how high it will get you. More than that, a given strain’s THC content isn’t even necessarily the best indicator of how potent it might be.

The best way to assess the premium nature of a strain is, by contrast, to factor in a number of different elements together: This includes THC to a degree, but must also give weight to the flower’s terpene profile and how the flower was grown and processed, including the all-important curing step. 

Veritas Cannabis QR Codes 

While there’s a lot more information out there, that doesn’t mean you’ll need to make a spreadsheet before heading to a dispensary. At Veritas, we make it easy for you to find detailed information, like cannabinoid and terpene profiles, with a QR code on our packages of flower for maximum convenience.

Scan the code with your smartphone camera and you can learn all about how we do things differently in our craft cultivation. 

We’re proud to say that at every step of the way, from planting the seedlings, to tending plants to maturity, through harvesting, trimming and packaging to preserve terpenes, our entire process is completed by hand. Starting with a new cultivation batch that sees as many as 400 cuts taken from our mother plants each week, there’s a whole journey we invite you to take to learn more.

Happy people raise happy plants, and there’s no substitute for the people that care for our crops. Taste the difference for yourself and in no time, you’ll become an expert on the differences between strains of flower at a dispensary. 
For bonus points, check out Veritas tips on how to store cannabis flower safely and securely at home for lasting enjoyment.