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Terpenes

Guaiol

Pine and rose over damp wood.

Woody and faintly floral, and unusual enough that it rewards an unusual pairing — figs, honey and walnuts, or lamb with rosemary. It is heavy, so it comes through a roast.

In the kitchen

Cooks through

The heaviest aromatics in cannabis, and the ones that behave like ordinary kitchen spices — black pepper and cloves carry the same compounds and neither is ruined by an oven. What you smell in the jar is close to what you taste in the finished thing, which cuts both ways: it is why the grassiness people complain about is usually this half of the profile.

Cook it with

The same compound is in guaiacum wood and cypress pine — which is the short version of why these pairings work. You are not matching a flavor to the cannabis, you are adding more of something the flower already tastes of.

Recipes that suit it

All recipes →
SnackLow

Honey glazed spiced nuts

Roasted first, glazed with infused honey after they cool. Infused honey is less efficient than fat, so this leans on the glaze going on cold rather than being baked.

Contains chopped rosemary, honey

Written for

2.5 mgper serving

12 servings · 35 min

SauceLowNo cookNo smell

Basil pesto

Made in a food processor, no heat at all. Keeps a week in the fridge and doses pasta, eggs or bread by the spoonful.

Contains pine nuts or walnuts

Written for

2.5 mgper serving

8 servings · 10 min

BreakfastStandard

Banana nut muffins

Muffin-method batter mixed by hand in one bowl, with bananas dark enough that the skins are mostly black. A high opening oven temperature is what gives the tops their dome.

Contains walnuts

Written for

5 mgper muffin

12 muffins · 35 min

DessertStandardNo smell

Gummies

The iconic edible, and the one people most often get wrong. Gummies separate because fat and gelatin do not mix — the fix is an emulsifier and constant stirring, not more heat.

Contains honey or corn syrup

Written for

5 mgper gummie

24 gummies · 35 min

DrinkMicrodoseNo cook

Matcha latte

Sifted matcha, water below boiling, and milk whipped hard enough to take up oil. A handheld frother does what a bamboo whisk cannot, which is drive the fat into the milk and keep it there.

Contains honey

Written for

2.5 mgper mug

2 mugs · 15 min

DrinkMicrodoseNo cookNo smell

Peanut butter banana smoothie

Frozen banana and ground peanuts make a drink thick enough that oil has nowhere to rise to. The only real trick is the order things go into the blender.

Contains honey

Written for

2.5 mgper serving

2 servings · 10 min

Flower that carries it

From StrainTrackr. Each of these breeders named guaiol on their own product page — a claim about their cultivar, not a lab result. Most strains have no terpenes published at all, so this is a sample of what is documented rather than a ranking of what is strongest.

The other 24