Terpene Library

Bisabolol is chamomile — the tea, and the smell of it steeping. It comes from only two notable sources, chamomile and the Brazilian candeia tree, which makes it the most narrowly sourced terpene we list. In cannabis it's soft, sweet and faintly floral, and easy to miss under louder company.

Crack black peppercorns and lean over the grinder — that hot, dry bite in your nose is caryophyllene. It's in cloves, cinnamon, oregano and basil: the spice-rack terpene. In cannabis it's why some strains smell less like fruit and more like something cooking.

Linalool is lavender. Not like lavender — it's the same molecule, which is why a linalool-heavy strain can smell like a drawer sachet or a bar of expensive soap. Mint, coriander and cinnamon carry it too, but it's the lavender people recognise.

You already know what myrcene smells like. It's the heavy, faintly sweet earthiness of a ripe mango, the back half of a hop flower, the smell of a bay leaf when you crush it between your fingers. In cannabis it's usually the most abundant terpene in the jar — in plenty of strains it's more than half the total terpene load. A lot of what people call "that weed smell" is really just myrcene.

Camphene smells like a damp forest floor: fir needles, wet wood, a trace of camphor underneath. It gets confused with myrcene constantly, and honestly the two are easy to mix up in a jar — camphene is the colder, sharper of the pair.

Eucalyptol is the cold you feel at the back of your nose from a eucalyptus leaf or a strong chest rub. Tea tree, bay, sage and cardamom carry it too. In cannabis it's uncommon and unmistakable — a cooling note that reads almost like menthol.