Smell Innovation

Did you know it's possible to invent a new smell? A scent that has never existed or been experienced by any human in the history of the world? 

Smell Innovation

Creating new scents is possible because the olfactory world is infinite, and our sense of smell can detect millions of different and new scents. Scientists and perfumers have been studying and exploring the creation of new scents for years, pushing the boundaries of what our noses can detect. Today we are going to explore how cannabis terpene profiles are precision formulated to smell exactly like the strain they came from, and the endless possibilities of inventing a new smell! 

The Iconic Invented Smell: Iso E Super

Have you heard of Iso E Super? It's one of the most famous invented smells! The name might sound like a comic book hero, but it's short for its molecule name, "Isocyclemone E." It was created by Two Americans, John B. Hall and James M. Sanders, in 1973, and it quickly became a phenomenon. Everyone wanted to get their hands on Iso E Super, and it was added to many popular perfumes and products. Described as a myrcene-rich aromatic, it has been featured in fragrances from iconic perfumery houses like Lancome and Christian Dior. Until it finally became its own perfume called Molecule 1, created by perfumer Geza Schon. 

Revelations In Air

One of my all-time favourite books, Revelations In Air: A Guidebook to Smell, describes the groundbreaking impact of this brand-new scent molecule:

"Iso E isn't just a synthetic copy of a preexisting smell. This molecule derives from no real-world object other than itself. Before its invention, it didn't exist in nature. Iso E Super and smells like it illustrates a very weird fact: unlike colours, we can invent brand-new smells." 

Iso E Super is extraordinary because it is not based on any smell that has ever existed in human history. The author, Jude Stewart, highlights the fact that unlike colours, which are limited by the visible spectrum, our sense of smell can detect an endless array of scents. This is what makes the world of fragrance so extraordinary - it is quite literally limitless.

Preserving Scents

Have you ever taken a deep breath on a summer's day and wished you could hold onto that sweet scent forever? Or you've tried to capture a scent memory of a particular time or place. Because we can't "capture" smells like we can with photographs, humans turned to extracting and synthesizing them in laboratories. Preserving scent is born out of our desire to replicate the volatile aromas of nature. 

Fun Fact

Interestingly, of all the smells in the world, the first synthesized smell molecule was Cinnamaldehyde, the top note in cinnamon, in 1834. 

How to Preserve Terpenes

Today, extracting scents from the natural world can be achieved through various methods. 

Distillation, or steam-distilled terpenes, involves heating the plant material to vapourize the essential oils and then cooling the vapour to condense it into a liquid form. Cold pressing involves pressing the plant material to extract the oils without heat. Both are used to extract natural terpenes and essential oils from plants.

Enfleurage is a rare technique used when dealing with delicate flowers. Enfleurage is considered an art form and involves extracting the scent by placing the flowers on a fat-covered glass sheet. It is very gentle and time-consuming work but preserves the floral aromas in the fat almost identically.  

How to get terpenes

A headspace vial is the least destructive way to collect natural plant terpenes. The glass vial is placed over a flower to collect the fragrant air around it. The collected air is then analyzed in a lab using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (and sometimes professional noses) to find the scent formula based on its full terpene profile. The "recipe" is then reverse-engineered using isolated terpenes and other scent molecules to recreate the smell. 

Many of the cannabis strain terpene profiles, blends and terpene isolates we see in the cannabis industry are often created using this technique. 

Terpenes In Weed

Recreating smells is an intricate art that requires years of experience to perfect. Even with modern technology, replicating the exact aromatics of a specific plant can be challenging. The Cannabis Industry is currently making impressive strides in scent recreation with many available isolated terpenes and terpene strain profiles almost identical to their original plant. 

Cannabis terpenes can come from various sources. Cannabis-derived terpenes are the most expensive to use in formulations due to the high cost of growing and harvesting the number of plants required to extract a large volume of cannabis terpenes. Hemp-derived terpenes and botanically-derived terpenes are more widely available alternatives. 

Invent Your Own Formula

Feeling inspired by the iconic Iso E Super? Now you know that you too can invent a new smell using natural plant terpenes, it's time to experiment with CannTerp Terpene blends and CannTerp Terpene Isolates to craft a unique smell and flavour profile just for you. 

How to Experiment

To make your blend, add one drop at a time to an empty dropper bottle and try to design a complete recipe using 5-20 drops. Every time you add a drop, write it down. Continue to mix and add drops of different terpenes until the blend is exactly what you want, a perfect mix of top, middle and base notes. Then, scale up the recipe to 5 or 10 mLs based on your original mini version. (Cheat code: 20 drops is mL). This can be a way to explore new flavours and smells and create something truly remarkable that defies all existing smells our noses have ever encountered! 

We Can All Invent New Smells

With every new invention, the possibilities for creating scents that we have never smelled before become even greater. The only limit is our own imagination! So let your nose explore and discover the wonders of the olfactory world. Who knows what kind of extraordinary scents you might uncover?

Paid for by CannTerp.ca