{"id":4028,"date":"2026-04-04T10:37:48","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T23:37:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nimbinmardigrass.com\/2026\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=4028"},"modified":"2026-04-11T14:38:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T04:38:02","slug":"creating-a-cannabis-quality-assessment-framework","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/www.nimbinmardigrass.com\/2026\/event\/creating-a-cannabis-quality-assessment-framework\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating a Cannabis Quality Assessment Framework"},"content":{"rendered":"

Speaker: Gabriel Younes<\/a>, Head of Curation at Sohma House<\/h3>\n

About<\/strong>: Established industries like wine and whiskey have long employed sophisticated sensory evaluation methods for assessing quality, yet medical cannabis has largely relied on laboratory testing and subjective patient feedback to determine flower quality. The Cannabis Quality Assessment Framework creates a standardised system for judging cannabis based on 3 key pillars of quality – aroma Freshness, Loudness, and Complexity, in an effort to reduce subjective variability and better understand the factors that contribute to cannabis quality.<\/p>\n

Bio<\/strong>: Gabriel is a patient-turned-industry specialist in the Australian medical cannabis space. Trained in wine, he developed a sharp sensory toolkit and applied it to the burgeoning medical cannabis industry, with a particular focus on quality, aroma, and subjective effects. After being headhunted on Reddit to work in senior product and procurement roles at easykind, he now serves as Head of Curation at Sohma House, and aims to increase the quality and genetic diversity of the medical cannabis market.<\/p>\n

Creating a Cannabis Quality Assessment Framework<\/h3>\n

Established industries like wine and whiskey have long employed sophisticated sensory evaluation frameworks for assessing quality, yet medical cannabis has largely relied on laboratory testing and subjective patient feedback to determine flower quality.<\/p>\n

In the wine industry, the quality of a wine is often judged based on the \u201cBLIC\u201d model \u2013 Balance, Length, Intensity, and Complexity, which are hallmarks of a quality wine. I propose a cannabis quality assessment framework that is based primarily around 3 key aroma characteristics which predominantly drive cannabis quality \u2013 Freshness, Loudness, and Complexity.<\/p>\n

Assuming the flower is clean and free from contaminants, a quality flower is one that has retained a high concentration of volatiles (naturally occurring terpenes & flavorants) as well as a complete cure. This implies a high resin content, good vapour production, a smooth inhalation, and \u201cfull spectrum\u201d subjective effects owing to the Entourage Effect. These 3 aroma hallmarks are the most important subjective indicators of the above.<\/p>\n

Freshness is a gauge of how oxidised or stale the flower is. It doesn\u2019t refer to how recently the flower was harvested, more that it\u2019s a judge of how well it has been preserved. Often, a recently harvested flower can appear to have low freshness due to poor drying or curing, or loss of volatiles. Think of the difference between freshly-ground pepper and pre-ground pepper. A flower with high freshness should smell intact and not like it has degraded.<\/p>\n

Loudness refers to its aroma intensity or strength, as well as how far the smell carries. A high-quality flower should be so loud that it can easily be smelled across the room. Up close, it should almost singe your nose hairs from how pungent it is.<\/p>\n

Complexity is a gauge of how broad the chemical profile of the flower is, and how well it has retained the volatiles that were originally in the plant at harvest. A complex flower has layers of aroma that make it harder to describe and pin down.<\/p>\n

The more these 3 characteristics are apparent, the greater the likelihood that the consumer will perceive it to be high quality. We can confirm that aroma is the primary driver of consumer\u2019s perception of cannabis quality from a couple of recent studies (Gilbert & DiVerdi, 2018, Plumb et al., 2022). Of course there are other considerations when it comes to quality, such as trim, trichome density, nug size, seed content and so on \u2013 but I posit that aroma serves as the best proxy for quality owing to its ability to reflect a high content of volatiles, a high resin content overall, and a complete cure, which are the most crucial aspects of flower quality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nimbin Town Hall, 45 Cullen Street<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4030,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[17,22,30,14],"class_list":["post-4028","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tribe_events_cat-17","tribe_events_cat-saturday","tribe_events_cat-educate","tribe_events_cat-hemposium","cat_2026","cat_saturday","cat_educate","cat_hemposium"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCreating a Cannabis Quality Assessment Framework - Nimbin MardiGrass 2026<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nimbinmardigrass.com\/2026\/event\/creating-a-cannabis-quality-assessment-framework\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Creating a Cannabis Quality Assessment Framework - 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