By now, you’ve probably noticed that some distillate vape pens and cartridges have a flavour, like King Louis or Blackberry, as well as either indica, sativa or hybrid written on them. So, what does that mean?
If you get an indica pen, but really want a sativa one, will the distillate pen really give you indica effects? The answer to that is it depends on the type of terpenes (which are the flavours) that are added back to the pen for the flavoring.
Most distillate pens are made with artificial terpenes that are actually made from other plants. For example, limonene, which is basically the citrus taste that you get from Lemon Kush, can also be found in lemons, oranges, and other citrus fruits. If the terpenes are artificial, the limonene likely comes from these other plants. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the terpenes are not useful, but they’re not going to give you the natural entourage effects that you’re looking for. The effects that you experience will also depend on the type of terpenes that are added, as well as the concentration and ratio.
So, if you get an indica pen, but want a sativa one, you can likely still try it out because you’re likely not going to experience as well-rounded a high as you would from smoking indica cannabis (at least from my experience).
Some manufacturers do add cannabis-derived terpenes back in. You’ll have more natural entourage effects, as the terpenes that were extracted during the distillation are added back into the distilled delta-8 or delta-9 compound.
With that said, not many manufacturers will use cannabis-derived terpenes because they are much pricier. The extraction process is a lot more complicated, so it’s usually more economical for manufacturers to introduce plant-based terpenes to the distillate instead.
There’s also synthetic terpenes. These terpenes were made in a lab, and the difference between synthetic terpenes and natural terpenes is basically like eating a strawberry or eating strawberry-flavored items. You can tell that there’s a difference.
