How to Tell The Difference Between Good and Bad Weed

Good Weed Vs. Bad Weed

The harsh reality of our world is that buying weed is expensive. There is nothing worse than dropping your hard-earned cash on some bud only to discover that it’s complete sh*t. To avoid this, you have to become an expert at determining if you’re dealing with good weed or bad weed. Here are the best ways to figure that out. Master these skills to become a true cannasseur.

Start With A Visual Inspection

The very first thing you should do when inspecting a bag of flower is give it a quick visual inspection. There are a number of tell-tale signs that are usually right on the surface. Here’s what you should look for:

• Trichomes: You want flower with plenty of trichomes. Those are the hairlike structures that grow off the surface of cannabis flowers. Trichomes are important because that’s where a lot of the cannabinoids are found—most importantly, trichomes hold the bulk of a bud’s THC. To be sure you’ve got trichome-rich buds, look for lots of hairs and tons of white crystals.
• Color: Obviously, good weed should be a nice, rich green color. Depending on the strain, it could also include other colors like purple, red, or orange. But watch out for brown bud that looks dried out. That is not what good weed should look like. If you see bud like that, it’s probably bad weed and isn’t worth your money.

Smell It

After visually sizing up your weed, give it a smell. The scent of a nug can instantly tell you a lot about its quality.

In general, the stronger the herb smells the better it is. When you take a whiff of a baggie filled with flower you should smell that sweet, tangy, skunky, dank, herby smell of cannabis—and it should be strong. You may even be able to smell it through the bag it’s in.

Depending on the strain, you may also pick up the scent of diesel, citrus like lemons or oranges, berries, and grapes. If you can detect a distinct scent profile, that is a good thing. It means that the bud was grown and harvested well enough to let the natural characteristics and terpenes of the plant shine.

On the other hand, if the bud you’re smelling is dull or bland that is a bad thing. Similarly, watch out for flower that smells moldy or like grass or hay. That is not how cannabis should smell. So if you pick up odors like that, odds are the bud is dried out, it’s gone bad, or it just wasn’t grown or harvested properly.

Texture: Sticky Or Dry?

Good weed needs to be properly cured after it is harvested and dried. Well-cured bud is potent, flavorful, and will give you the best all-around smoking experience.

When flower is cured properly it should feel slightly dried but still sticky. If a nug has lost its stickiness, it is probably too dried out and it’s bad weed.

Similarly, bad weed that’s too dry will be crumbly. It will basically turn to dust when you break it apart. You are looking for cannabis that finds the perfect balance between being slightly dried while still sticky.

Similarly, you don’t want weed that’s too soggy or moist. That is another sign of bad weed. When it comes to texture, it’s all about balance.

If possible, try to touch the bud before purchasing it. This might not always be possible, but if you’re able to handle it first, the texture of the bud will tell you a lot about its quality. You want well-cured bud: slightly dry but still sticky icky.

Well-Trimmed Flower

Good weed is weed that was grown well, harvested with care, cured properly, and trimmed well. A good-looking nug is almost always a good sign.

You want your weed to have very little sticks, stems, or seeds. Similarly, there should not be very many leaves in with your flower. All of that stuff should have been removed during the harvesting, curing, and trimming stages, so if you see sticks, stems, seeds, and leaves, odds are you’re dealing with bad weed.

To make matters worse, sticks, stems, and leaves are just diluting your bag of weed. Don’t pay for all that mess; you want good, pure bud.

Watch Out For Contaminants

Obviously, if bud looks like it is contaminated with anything other than pure cannabis don’t mess with it. That is clearly bad weed.

The most obvious contaminant to look out for is mold. If you see any bit of mold on the bud, do not buy it. Smoking mold can be dangerous, and it is a sure sign that the weed has gone bad.

Along with mold, keep an eye out for tiny little bugs. This is more rare, but you should probably avoid flower that’s been playing host to critters for too long. It’s just weird.

Unfortunately, you can’t really detect other contaminants like pesticides just by looking, smelling, or touching. The most you can really do about that one is buy from a dispensary that requires rigorous quality checks on its products.

How Does It Taste?

You can’t really taste the smoke a nug produces until after you have already purchased it, but if by some weird chance you can, pay attention to how it tastes.

Good weed should taste a lot like how good weed smells: rich, pungent, and pure. Bad weed will usually taste bland, and will produce smoke that is harsh, metallic, and acrid.