Terpene Library

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.

Nerolidol is bark and blossom at the same time. It's in neroli — orange blossom — as well as jasmine, ginger and lemongrass, and it smells like fresh-cut wood with something floral behind it. In cannabis it usually works as a background note, giving depth rather than character.

Terpineol is lilac and lime blossom — sweet, floral, faintly soapy in the way good soap is soapy. It's also in pine and eucalyptus, which is strange company for a flower note, and it's part of why some pine-forward strains have an unexpected sweetness underneath.