Cannabis potency is the easiest thing to measure and the least useful thing to shop by. THC percentage tells you how much of one compound survived testing. It tells you nothing about aroma, nothing about how the effect feels, and nothing about whether the product will still be good in two months.

Terpenes are the volatile compounds responsible for a strain's smell and much of its character. Volatile is the operative word: many begin evaporating at temperatures well below boiling, and standard extraction pushes right through that range. What comes out the other side can be strong and still taste like nothing.

Running the entire process cold changes the arithmetic. Freezing the flower at harvest keeps the trichome heads intact. Extracting and curing at cryogenic temperature means the aromatic fraction never gets a chance to leave. The result is a lower headline number more often than not — and a product that smells like the plant it came from.

When you're comparing two jars on a counter, open them. The one that fills the room is the one that was handled properly.

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