Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a “Robert Parker of cannabis?” Colorado-based Trichome Institute has introduced a patent pending qualitative assessment of cannabis flower that is now being offered in three dispensaries. The cannabis education provider has created the Trichome Assurance Grade (TAG), which is a score that is applied to cannabis by certified experts who rate based on visual factors as well as smell.
We’re the only lab in the state that consumes cannabis as part of our testing process. We don’t consume it to grade if we get high or not; we don’t care about that. We look for burnability, because if your bud starts crackling, it’s sprayed.
Max Montrose, President of Trichome Institute
And if it’s not flushed, if the grower didn’t extract the salted minerals out of the plant before he cut it down, you’re smoking salt. That’s why when you smoke and it’s hot and burns in your throat, that’s not good.
TAG scores potency indications, including trichome integrity and terpene strength, microbial tests for powdery mildew and botrytis cinerea, signs of contaminants and poor cultivation and attractiveness and consumption characteristics.
Read Kate McKee Simmons’ “Trichome Institute’s TAG System Puts a Grade on the Quality of Your Weed”: http://www.westword.com/news/trichome-institutes-tag-system-puts-a-grade-on-the-quality-of-your-weed-8059424
