Takeaways:
- Hemp Terpenes before TBF were unrefined, mostly Myrcene or Terpinolene Dominant. These terpenes are genetically linked with high CBD:THC ratio.
- BioTech Institute is responsible breaking the Myrcene Hemp paradigm. Its Hemp Division merged with TBF.
- TBF will lead development of varieties rich in secondary metabolites.
HEMP SUCKS
When we started producing hemp-derived terpenes in 2019, the mere mention of hemp as a source for flavor would trigger the inner snob in nearly all buyers. In all honesty, their knee-jerk reactions were not misplaced.
The HDT collecting dust in Southern Oregon was byproduct bullshit from the CBD boom. It was nearly all Oregon CBD genetics. None of it had ever seen a fridge or a freezer. It hadn’t been separated from the water used to steam it. It was raw oil, rotting away, with a price point that slid like an avalanche. Those same liters, on that same text menu, were passed around like a joint no one wanted at hippie hill on 4/20. They single handedly ruined the concept of HDT in the minds of vape manufacturers. When we decided to go all in on this project, we had no idea that Southern Oregon was having a Jager moment in terpenes.
The Myrcene Mafia
Fortunately for us, we were going to produce terpenes that mirrored the quality of the best live terps anywhere on the market — and we had a plan to do it. Our plan leaned on genetic development and vape manufacturing experience that was in full swing back to 2012. To compete with botanicals on price and marijuana on diversity, we were going to need genetics that the market hadn’t seen before. We had no desire to farm the same myrcene dominant trash. Our partners at BioTech Institute controlled the access to those genetics as a result of the IP that protect them. Those same great genetics power most of our menu today and that partnership has allowed us to bring novelty to the market time and time again.
Around harvest time in 2020, the Terpene Belt Farms team was coming together, spending long days mastering the operation of our newly built processing plant while also diving into research on refinement methods in the lab. Each week brought fresh faces, new equipment, and new methods. I remember the moment I got a text from my friend, Mario Guzman (aka Sherbinski), sharing the dreaded Southern Oregon Terp Menu. I felt my heart drop; the feeling you get when your ego is in full panic, and you are trying to remain stoic. After some back and forth, I ended up connecting with the team that was producing the material, and to my pleasure, discovered that they didn’t understand that raw oil is just the beginning. Just like growing smokeable flower, the harvest, drying, and curing is what separates the men from boys. Since this early time in the business, we have maniacally focused on improving what happens from the time the raw oil is produced to when it lands with our customer.
In the first blog in the ‘TBF Strong’ series, we shared details on our vertically integrated operations and how they allow us to produce consistent product year over year. In this blog, we are going to share details on the investment made in the genetics that make our oils special.
ROPE & DOPE
Hemp. It’s a really polarizing word in 2024, but back in 2018 when the farm bill passed, boy it meant something much different. Back then, it really meant “rope not dope” and there was not a chance in hell that anyone thought flavoring could be one of its uses.
The problem could be boiled down to one major issue with all the industrial hemp varieties on the market: they were all rich in myrcene — and I mean really rich. You would find GC reports that looked like a single spike of myrcene as high as 70% of the total terpene composition. Myrcene is the least interesting of all the primary terpenes we see in cannabis. It is also the most popular (reads least desirable). It has a slew of problems that we will discuss later but they can be summed in Myrcene rich oils having a poor shelf life. Terpene polymers anyone? Myrcene’s prevalence in the early days of hemp was caused by its production being a co-dominant trait to high CBD:THC ratios. If you were breeding towards total THC compliance, you were selecting plants that were upregulating the production of Myrcene without knowing it. As varieties reached some semblance of homozygosity with regards to total THC, they also lost nearly all their defining sensory characteristics. Right around this time, the spark that lit up hemp as a cannabis alternative was struck and it smelled like dope.
HOLD MY DRINK
How was that possible? Fire hemp? I asked the same question to Dr. Mark Lewis in 2018, and his response was mysterious at best. At the time, they were blazing a trail in mixed ratio (THC:CBD) world and had successfully developed methods that allowed for the terpene profile and the cannabinoid profile to decouple from one another through selective breeding. This enabled them to take a terpene “cassette” from a Type I high THC variety and keep it intact while switching out the cannabinoid cassette to a Type III low THC variety that could be farmed as hemp . There is an intermediary step that involves the creation of novel Type II genetics. An important step that led to the issuance of the first patents in the United States claiming cannabinoid-producing plants. Sure enough, the resulting Type III varieties were also eligible for patent protection meeting the utility, novelty, and non-obviousness requirements.
The details of what happened next will remain cloudy, the generally accepted lore has it that Mark and his team were able to remix terpene cassettes in ways the market had never seen. They went on to be the first to introduce the Terpinolene, Beta-Caryophyllene and Limonene cassettes into the hemp world. This early work has found its way into a majority of hemp grown today for flower or flavor in one way or another. These projects served as the foundation for the smokable hemp flower market and became the go to for folks interested in terpenes.
Steven Haba, who had also joined the team, took that foundation and with Mark’s methods pushed the limits further. In the years since we launched Terpene Belt Farm, Pinene, Alpha-Caryophyllene, Ocimene, and Linalool dominant cassettes have been developed. Steve and Mark racked up a bunch of accolades along the way, with Steve becoming the most awarded grower at the Emerald Cup with a total of 17 awards in 3 years.
TERPENES SUCK????
As of recent, Abstrax has made important investments into R&D of the fragrance compounds publishing a series of articles that discuss their findings. These studies report on the discovery of secondary metabolites that have a low threshold of odor detection. These compounds which exist in de minimis amounts are challenging for analytical equipment to pick up. All the while, breeders have been using their noses to select for dank, loud, skunk, gas, ripe fruit, rotten fruit, garlic, rank, and all the other aromas that make great cannabis what it is. The presence or absence of these compounds can have large impacts to aroma of a variety to the degree that a profile with similar base terpenes can span two or more flavor categories due to the overwhelming dominance of these secondary metabolites. Abstrax’s findings allow them to market the compounds that they are able to recreate and add to their botanical lines to introduce authenticity. Terpene Belt Farms has been researching the composition of great cannabis oils utilizing the same high resolution equipment, all be it quietly and behind the scenes. Taking it one step further, we are now able to use that data to steer the breeding program that was fueling BioTech Institute’s IP portfolio to produce these sought after compounds in high and higher concentrations while developing markers to identify the genes responsible for their presence. We are proud of the work we have done together and are excited to announce we have entered into a merger that will enable the Biotech Institute genetic toolbox to further integrate into the commercial footprint of Terpene Belt Farms. Together, we hope to usher in a future where curiosity drives innovation and the bridge between research and commercialization is traversed with a level of consistency this industry has yet to witness.
