Procuring Bulk Cannabis Flower: What to Consider

A grower once asked me what I'm looking for when I buy bulk flower. He was in the process of trimming his latest harvest and wanted some guidance as to what goes into the price per pound. When I started in my current role as the dispensary menu purchaser, I was handed a rubric titled “The Dried Inflorescence Rubric”. This was a handy tool to help me align my gut feelings with the goals of the store I’m curating for. 

In some ways, it’s no different than the legacy days of presenting a pound to a wholesaler at the base of a mountain and then bartering or trimming the flower better right then and there. We just have more sales data to anchor negotiations. That said, I am now taxed on my salary for this, and don't get any points off the pack.

There are some aspects to purchasing flower that cannot be measured. How a flower feels once  we’ve consumed it is so deeply personal that it ultimately doesn’t matter how my grading plays out. Some of the best weed I’ve ever smoked has been 13%  small buds. A flower like that would be from the top shelf, but was exactly what I was looking for. Alas, personal preference does not dictate consumer trends (I remind myself constantly) or what consumers THINK they want. 

I initially wrote this as an email response I sent the grower. I've since amended it for

this post to share with you (a curious consumer, small grower looking to sell, or an aspiring curator) what I'm considering when taking in grower pounds.

Cannabinoid profile

Active cannabinoids are worth a full quarter of my final grade. While I’ve been using this rubric since recreation's inception, it could not be more indicative of what I can realistically move at the store today. I am currently campaigning to take TAC (Total Active Cannabinoids) into higher consideration, but at present, it doesn’t sway our customers. The only tidbit that seems to matter is THC %. 

The demographic of the customer where I currently buy for is not an avid connoisseur or particularly looking to be enlightened by the finer points of minor cannabinoids. I have been told by the budtenders and heard it with my own ears the polite declination of knowledge. To be fair, I also understand the desire to simply get high.

Materials are provided to budtenders for training and for reading at the store should someone ask however! I continue to root for the average connoisseur to take a curiosity to the flower in front of them (and start a blog to shout information into the void).

My store’s community is looking for an "approachable", straight forward THC experience. I put approachable in quotations because I've learned this to mean the highest THC% for the lowest price. I hear often that our customers have their order in mind before they even walk in the door, or have placed it for pick up, bypassing talking with budtenders entirely. Our online site can be filtered highest THC% to lowest or the classic lowest to highest price. They are not looking at, or smelling, the flower.

I fear we've moved away from the joke about being an Apple store to becoming more of a Starbucks.

Not all hope is lost. A line of smell boxes full of flower at our Flower Bar sits awaiting sensory exploration. An increasing subset of shoppers in the store community are asking about terpenes profiles. I have a crush on every single one of them. However, these folks hover at the periphery of our customer base.

I've been making advances to pivot back to the medicinal value of flower so consumers can root any new knowledge in their lived experience. New research is slowly seeping into the industry that allows us to make claims actually backed by science and not just psychonauts trial and error. This value has gotten lost within my company, and much of the medical markets I am familiar with, through the years of prep and execution of the recreational markets. So, I am still combing diligently through all of the cannabinoid and terpene certificates of analysis for all of the flower I see so we can really direct those who ask.

Cure, Structure & Density 

I'm certainly not looking for twiggy, airy small buds, aka "larf". I love a dense nug, even though they come with their own exigent. If I can break one or two firm pieces up without finding any hidden mold (which was more familiar at the start of recreational sales than I would like to admit), then I am more confident in the pounds.

Anything too mushy would alert me to the fact that it's still got some drying out to do or the flower is beginning to rot. The difference between a spry spongy feeling and an alarming squish, is dependent on grower drying and storing practices. To the right is a picture of a Lemon Jeffrey pound that came to me still a bit wet, squishy, and browning. I immediately rejected this flower after one nug smeared across my finger tips - the surest sign of rot.

The state guidelines require moisture under 13%. Anything over 13% from a third party can’t guarantee that flower has dried down low enough that it no longer inhabitable. The Lemon Jeffery was tested to have a moisture of 12.04%, so it was likely not kept in a controlled environment.

Smell/Aroma

Terpene tests are a large portion of this equation. Terpene science is still in its infancy when it comes to terpenes in cannabis. That said, I am looking at whether or not there is a terpene test at all, the overall % of terpenes in any given strain, which individual terpenes are testing over .5%, and which of those make up the flower. 

However, I am also trusting my senses. The nose knows! Any strong scent wafting from a pack tells a story. Scents can indicate the lineage or age of the flower. Even a “hay smell” alerts to a mustiness within the dry/cure space. Grass clippings/chlorophyll smells make me wonder when the the flower was harvested.

Color & Brightness

Color is largely a flex of bag appeal for the customer. Yes, some flower genetics are more inclined to naturally throw a certain shade of pink, purple, or orange. Manipulation of factors such as temperature and pH can do the same. Color signals to me how dialed in a grower has their environment for their particular plants.

It can also be a riskier move for the grower. Even if someone can grow purple or pink weed, their drying and curing process could alter how the flower's appearance arrives to me. I find this especially true with outdoor flower. A grower could send a picture of beautiful purple flower in the field, but has turned brown before it's presented for purchase.

As I've mentioned with the Lemon Jeffery, I don't trust brown flower, and neither should you.

Of course people are going to love a jar full of swirling greens and purples. Their purchase should be something someone would want to take a picture of or tell their friends about. With the restrictions on cannabis advertising in Vermont, word of mouth and consumer posting is absolutely vital. It's important to provide the people with something to share.

Ripeness & Trichome Gland Development

I'm fond of the time I spend studying flower under the microscope. I’ll check out the trichomes (clear little mushroom shapes on the surface of the flower that holds the potent psycho oils) on the outside, break it in half to check the production on the inside, evaluate trichome color, etc. This is an early indication of the age and effect of the flower.

The more amber color I see reflected in the trichome heads, the more it’s likely the flower has aged and is going to behave as a sedative, or "indica" on the menu because much of the THC molecules have aged into a different cannabinoid Cannabinol, abbreviated CBN. This isn't a hard rule, but a general indicator. If more than 50% of the trichome heads are amber, I am more likely to take points off. The Blue Gelato sample to the right highlights what the beginning stages of amber trichomes look like under the microscope.

Points also come off for popped trichome heads from excessively aggressive handling or machine trimmers. Below is a photo of Runtz GMO where there are trichome stalks, but a lot of the heads that hold the cannabinoid oils are gone.

Manicure Quality & Size

The scouring for seeds, bananas, fox tailing, or weird growth is never ending. Are there spots where seed pods were picked out? Is there matting to the stigmas (the little orange hairs)? To the right is a picture of a pollen sack I zoomed in on while picking through a pound of Super Boof.

I evaluate if it’s a hand trim or a machine trim. It’s worth noting that not all machine trim is treated equally. A quick tumble is not the same as a human hand never touching up or inspecting the flower. I dislike when I find all of the trichome heads decapitated under the microscope. Shaking up your flower is inevitable, but it's important to be diligently gentle with the harvest because these heads will roll at the slightest breeze. Imagine how many are lost in what is essentially a washing machine.

That said, there are times where I wish a grower had put their flower through a machine if the alternative was to just not finish the trim themselves.

I don’t always actively screen my pounds to sort out smalls unless I suspect I got ripped off. On the other end of the spectrum, I also dock points when an entire cola (large, top flower nug) made it into the final order. I have, and probably will again, sat and cut buds into more reasonably sized pieces to fit in an eighth jar. In house, the more work the packaging team must do to make a flower fit in the branded jars, the more I am going to hear about it.

Requested Price

For quite some time, I was having $3000-3200 lbs sitting around as if I was running a cannabis museum. Explicitly, I do not wish to race the industry to the bottom and pay farmers a livable price.

The more I pay, the more I am pressured to price it a certain way on the menu.

The more I pay, the less I can ultimately discount it as it begins to age out or collect dust.

 One of the largest complaints I hear from friends buying from the recreational market is that Vermont weed is too expensive. I have good flower that I want the people to smoke, but if it's not accessible to them, they'll never know.

The Current Menu

Timing and internal flower schedules play largely into my decision. When I have pre-rolls that the store has back stock that is not moving, I am not looking to bring on any more. Are there products I am kicking myself for not being able to grab? 100%. For one reason or another, I already gave that shelf space to others and have to pay the price of not taking in other, arguably better, pounds or pre-rolls. 

I try to avoid filling my shelves with one family of flavor. I want to have a diverse shelf of lemon, kush, sour, cookie, and whatever else has captivated me or the market. If I am overwhelmed with dessert (runtz, sherbet, cake derivatives), I'll be sniffing out something full of diesel. In my spreadsheets I have 10 or so familial catagories I try to have filled with our current menu options. I can't wait to write about those families in another entry.

Our in house grow plays a large role in selection. If all of the internal flower was testing 25%+, our strains weren't so similar, or we weren’t in the middle of several pheno hunts, I would have more wiggle room to take on riskier, more interesting purchases. However, all of the above are currently a challenge. I cannot take on third party flower that isn't a stand out, rock star in one way or another.

What I would collect for my personal collection is not always what I know will sell. I try to ensure I have something of quality for major scent profiles and price points. I've learned a ton since I began inspecting flower. I am currently on a buying freeze and have been pondering on how I want to rebuild our menu once I am set free again in the market. In a year, when both the market, political landscape, and perhaps the company I work for, look completely different, I wonder what'll matter more to me then.