Dry herb vaporizers are a new way to enjoy cannabis with a ton of advantages over traditional methods like smoking joints. They're easier on your lungs, get you more effects from your herb, and are more discreet to use in terms of smell.
But how does a vaporizer affect the taste of cannabis? Is there a difference in deliciousness between vapor and smoke? And how do you keep a dry herb vaporizer tasting great over time? Read on for some tasty tips to make your sessions fresh and flavorful.
Vaping Cannabis Tastes Better
When you use a dry herb vape, what you're doing is heating up cannabis to a controlled temperature, instead of burning it with a flame. Once the herbs in the vape's chamber hits a high enough temperature, the weed will vaporize and release cannabinoids (like THC and CBD) into vapor.
When you inhale, you get the clean, pure taste of the herb strain, instead of having its subtleties destroyed by burning it. The vapor will be tastiest at lower temperature settings, while higher temperature settings will get you stronger effects, but a worse taste.
The first few hits will be the most flavorful, because the terpenes that give the herb its aroma are vaporized first. After that, inhaling will be flavorless for a few more pulls. Then at a certain point, you might start to notice a burnt popcorn aroma when you inhale. Now you've gotten all you can from the herbs in the chamber and it's time to empty and reload the chamber.
Reloading your vape is way easier if you have an oven-swapping vaporizer like the Furna. You can load multiple ovens in advance, and swap a used oven for a fresh one instantly. It's especially convenient when you're on the go and don't have a convenient or discreet place to clean and reload the vape.
Benefits of vaporizing vs. smoking weed
Vaping using a dry herb vaporizer is much better for respiratory system health compared with combustion-based methods like joints and bongs. When you vape cannabis, you can get over 40% more THC and CBD from each session. Also, you can reuse already vaped bud (AVB or ABV) and use it to make edibles or herbal hot drinks.
Vaping also doesn't create as much of a bad weed smell, and as we're learning, it tastes a lot better too. For a deeper look at the advantages of dry herb vapes, check out our post about the benefits of using a dry herb vaporizer.
Why Does My Dry Herb Vaporizer Taste Bad?
Vaporizers should always be able to deliver amazing tasting vapor. If your dry herb vape tastes bad or seems to not be doing anything at all, the problem is usually one of two things: not packing the chamber correctly, or a dirty airflow path in your device.
Most vaporizers work best when the herb has been ground into medium-fine particles, using a proper grinder before you vape. You want the plant matter to have more surface area so it can be evenly heated, and you want to avoid large pockets of herb that can trap heat and block the flow of air. These pockets can heat up, and at higher temperatures, parts of the cannabis may burn.
Once the bud is ground, pack it into the chamber and fill it, but don't overfill it. Then tamp it down a bit to make it slightly denser. Wait for your vape to reach the target heat, and then it should be ready to go. Your hits will be more powerful and flavorful when you pack the bowl correctly.
Cleaning tips for best quality vapor
You also have to clean your vaporizer regularly if you want vaping to taste good. After every session, some residue will be left in the chamber, mouthpiece, and screens, and over time this gunk builds up in the device. Emptying out your vaporizer right after you're done with it, while the unit is still hot, helps you get more of the leftover herb out, but over the long-term there's no avoiding cleaning. If your vape is tasting bad, or it feels like the flow of air is being blocked, it's time to clean your vaporizer.
Follow the instructions for your particular device, but in general to clean a vaporizer, you'll want to turn it off and wait for it to cool completely. Then disassemble any removable cleanable parts, such as the herb chamber or mouthpiece, and clean them. For most vaporizers, this involves using a brush and wiping down parts with isopropyl alcohol. You might also have to soak some metal or glass parts for a short time in the alcohol.
The next time you use your vaporizer, let it run for a little bit without any herb in it, just to let any remaining alcohol burn off a little. Once you take your first hit after cleaning, it should immediately taste different.
Which Dry Herb Vape Has the Best Flavor?
Ultimately, which dry herb vaporizer tastes the best comes down to personal preference. Different users will have different opinions of each based on their own vaping experience.
But there's no question that to a certain extent, you get what you py for, and underpowered vaporizers give users less potent vapor and diminished flavor when vaping. You'll get less efficiency out of your herb, and you won't experience the full benefits of vaping with a dry herb vaporizer.
Some of the most powerful and well-reviewed vaporizers are desktop units, meant for use at home. Because they are larger and have access to a powerful energy source (a wall outlet), they can give you more flavor in a single hit than a portable device. But they're usually more expensive, and they're not very versatile.
Portable dry herb vaporizers
The dry herb vapes that get the best reviews include Storz & Bickel's Mighty, the Furna, and the DaVinci IQ2. The PAX 3 is probably the most popular portable vaporizer out there.
Furna's oven-swapping technology definitely takes the convenience of portable vaping to another level. You can even swap a dry herb oven for a concentrate oven or a 510 cartridge oil oven, making it way easier to vaporize cannabis concentrates. With Furna, cleaning and reloading your vape has never been easier, and it's easy to always have great-tasting sessions.
