I would guess that all this focus on strains speaks to the extent to the extent to which pot is just never going to be like wine.
With wine and beer, the ingredient varieties do impact flavor, but, realistically, they have nothing to do with the price a product can command. There's $3/bottle Cab and there's $300/bottle Cab. The difference in price is ostensibly down to the amount of skill that goes into the production of the final product, not just the grape variety.
I have a hard time imagining that can happen to a significant extent with cannabis. I'm guessing there's not as much room for a discerning palate to pick up on and enjoy subtle terroir distinctions in a product that you consume by setting on fire and inhaling the smoke. Nor do I see as much room for artisanal skill to appear in the final product. Making wine involves careful balancing of a variety of factors in order to fine-tune how an active biological process alters the characteristics of the final product. Cannabis? I'm pretty sure the process ranges from drying it and packaging it up in plastic baggies, to tincturing it and mixing the result into candy. I just don't see as much room for fine craftsmanship in either option.
Not saying there's none at all. Just that I have a hard time seeing how there's enough of it to support much of a very high-end luxury niche to the industry the way you see with booze.
Nor do I see it working out like tobacco where you at least have a (small) minority of cigar and pipe smokers who are primarily interested in the flavor of the smoke. But it sounds like cannabis is now so strong that it's difficult to consume any amount of it without becoming intoxicated. Which I would assume makes the development of a proper connoisseur culture around it about as likely as a connoisseur culture around 90% grain alcohol would be.
Well, who knows, the legalization around the world is still relatively new, and mass markets are being tested, so when for example more of Europe legalizes cannabis also, different and more varied markets are going to come alive.
But for example medicinal cannabis like Bedrocan was developed to be a very clear and non-intoxicating strain, and you can definitely feel the difference in that vs homegrown varieties, so there is definitely an art there that is still to be explored by the big markets.
Who knows, wine and beer industries have existed for so much longer. With cannabis I understand it's the same thing, there is a lot of fine tuning in how you give nutrients, light and the environment, it affects both the taste and the effect. Also indoors vs outdoors has a different effect, so for sure there are a lot of variables in play that can be tuned.
My hope is that slowly the mass legalization will be going towards in giving the people the strains they need, some need more relaxing, some more activating, some more pain nulling and so on.
Also, smoking is not the best way anymore, vaporizing or eating is the most efficient way. High quality vaporizers the effect is much more medicinal, than smoking it, same way is when you eat it.
Maybe you have not tested a high quality vaporizer? with those the flavor and effect is much more clear, the smoking gives you an intoxicating effect from jus t inhaling smoke into your lungs. With a high quality medical cannabis and vaporizer, the effect is very medicinal, it can be almost non-intoxicating especially when used for a longer period of time.
Too bad this stuff is still illegal in many places. The illegality has most probably been driving the need to pack a lot of punch into as small amount of weed as possible, hopefully the legalization process will lead into more milder variants and strains being developed.
With wine and beer, the ingredient varieties do impact flavor, but, realistically, they have nothing to do with the price a product can command. There's $3/bottle Cab and there's $300/bottle Cab. The difference in price is ostensibly down to the amount of skill that goes into the production of the final product, not just the grape variety.
I have a hard time imagining that can happen to a significant extent with cannabis. I'm guessing there's not as much room for a discerning palate to pick up on and enjoy subtle terroir distinctions in a product that you consume by setting on fire and inhaling the smoke. Nor do I see as much room for artisanal skill to appear in the final product. Making wine involves careful balancing of a variety of factors in order to fine-tune how an active biological process alters the characteristics of the final product. Cannabis? I'm pretty sure the process ranges from drying it and packaging it up in plastic baggies, to tincturing it and mixing the result into candy. I just don't see as much room for fine craftsmanship in either option.
Not saying there's none at all. Just that I have a hard time seeing how there's enough of it to support much of a very high-end luxury niche to the industry the way you see with booze.
Nor do I see it working out like tobacco where you at least have a (small) minority of cigar and pipe smokers who are primarily interested in the flavor of the smoke. But it sounds like cannabis is now so strong that it's difficult to consume any amount of it without becoming intoxicated. Which I would assume makes the development of a proper connoisseur culture around it about as likely as a connoisseur culture around 90% grain alcohol would be.