There are so many different brands, strains, and prices on a dispensary menu. How do you know that you’re buying quality cannabis flower? There are some key factors to consider when choosing the best flower, whether you’re rolling your own at home, using it in a desktop vaporizer, or creating your own infusions. From appearance to aroma, learn to identify the finest flower from the rest.
3 factors to consider when identifying high-quality cannabis flower
Distinguishing between good and mediocre cannabis flower is key for an enjoyable consumption experience. Before you even begin your search, there are three key factors to consider when evaluating cannabis flower:
- Appearance: Look at the cannabis flower sample out on display in our Bud Bar. You want to see vibrant colors, well-formed buds, and a healthy coating of trichomes that contains the good stuff like cannabinoids and terpenes. While flower color varies between strains, you’re generally looking for shades of green with some hints of other colors, like purple or orange, that may indicate proper cultivation or handling practices. Avoid buds that look dull, brown, or excessively dry.
- Aroma: How the flower smells can offer valuable insight into its quality and potency. Scent profiles vary widely between strains, ranging from earthy and woody to fruity or floral, thanks to its terpene profile. All these smells are good. What you want to avoid are musty, moldy, or hay-like smells.
- Texture: While touch is off-limits before you buy the flower, you can still assess the texture of cannabis visually. The high-quality flower typically features dense, resinous buds, while the lower-quality flower will look over-dry and brittle like it might crumble easily.
High Street’s Bud Bar experience: What to expect
Step into our dispensary, and you’re met with our Bud Bar. The Bud Bar at High Street offers you a way to engage your senses and explore our curated selection of flower firsthand. This display features a selection of various strains, each labeled with information and details on what to expect. Follow your heart, or your nose, more accurately: you’re encouraged to see and smell the flower to make an informed decision about the flower you want to take home.
We rotate featured flower regularly at the Bud Bar. We’re proud to showcase local craft growers like Garden Greens, Hillview Farms, and Clade9, brands known for carefully cultivating high quality flower.
What to consider when choosing cannabis flower
Aside from the visual and smell checks to assess flower’s overall quality, you should also narrow your selection based on your needs and preferences. Consider the following while shopping.
Your desired effects
Before making your selection, take a moment to consider what you want to get out of your session. Are you looking for strains that induce relaxation, boost creativity, or enhance focus and productivity? Understanding your desired effects guides you toward strains and products that best suit your needs.
Your budget
Take into account how much you’re willing to spend. While premium products (sometimes called reserve or top shelf) may come with a higher price tag, High Street also carries budget-friendly options that still offer the quality and potency you’re looking for. You may also be able to buy a smaller amount of a preferred strain, as some products are sold in eighth-ounce (3.5 gram), quarter-ounce (7 gram), and half-ounce (14 gram) packages. You can easily sort our menu online by price to make this easier.
Favorite brands
When heading to the dispensary, be sure to inquire about any brands or cultivators you trust or prefer. Familiarity with a particular brand can provide peace of mind and assurance of quality and consistency. It can also help our budtenders guide you toward something similar, even if we don’t have the exact product you are looking for. Some of the popular flower brands we carry at High Street include Garden State Banana, Crops, and Elyon.
Terpene and cannabinoid content
Knowing precisely what’s in your flower is arguably the best way to understand the potential effects of any cannabis product. Terpenes, the aromatic compounds found in cannabis, may influence the plant’s effects, along with its smell and flavor. Similarly, cannabinoids like THC and CBD produce different effects. How all these compounds ultimately affect your experience goes back to a concept called the entourage effect, a theory that suggests that compounds in cannabis behave synergistically with one another than they do alone. Assessing the balance of these compounds within flower helps you tailor your selection to align with your desired outcome.
Lab testing and transparency
It’s wise to prioritize products that have undergone lab testing for potency, purity, and contaminants. Through these tests, dispensaries like High Street provide customers with peace of mind, knowing every time has meant stringent quality control measures. New Jersey requires all products to be tested before you can buy them, so you can rest assured that a third party has verified all the flower you buy.
Discover quality cannabis flower at High Street
At High Street Dispensary, we’re here to provide New Jerseyans the best flower the state has to offer. Folks from far and wide come to Hackettstown for our selection of craft flower from the state’s best growers. And while you can’t open the packages before you take home the product — that’s true of any dispensary in New Jersey — our Bud Bar lets you see and smell the flower before you take it home. Come discover the difference for yourself at High Street, where quality cannabis flower awaits.