How to Mix + Mixing Calculator

Cannabinoid products simply aren’t the same without terpenes. Adding terpenes to your products, however, requires a skilled touch you won’t acquire with mere trial and error.

To discover how to add terpenes to your products, you’ll need to learn the basics of terpene mixing and use a terpene mixing calculator. Read on to find out how to boost your products with terpenes like a pro.

How do you mix terpenes?

High-quality terpenes usually come in oil form. Since most cannabinoid extracts are also oil-based, combining terpenes with cannabinoid distillates or winterized extracts doesn’t require any fancy footwork.

Depending on the type of product you want to boost with bulk terpenes, however, the terpene mixing process can become somewhat more complicated. It’s easiest, for instance, to add terpenes to vape concentrates that simply consist of Cannabis sativa flower extract.

Adding terpenes to cannabinoid edibles, on the other hand, is trickier. For products like edibles that contain lots of ingredients, it’s especially necessary to calculate the overall percentage that terpenes will take up in the product formulation.

How many drops of terpenes are in a gram?

That depends on the potency of the terpenes and the consistency of the terpene oil. There are 20 drops of water in a gram, but oils behave very differently than water.

In some cases, 20 drops of terpenes might only weigh 0.5 grams. In other cases, 20 drops of terpenes might weigh 1.5 grams.

As a result, you should never measure terpenes in drops. Instead, you should measure terpenes by weight using grams or by volume using milliliters.

What is a terpene diluent?

A diluent is a substance that is used to dilute a solution. Some terpene manufacturers offer terpene diluents, which can be used to liquefy isolates and dilute winterized extracts.

At Terpene Warehouse, however, all of our natural terpenes are ready to be added to products. Diluents are optional.

Terpenes that strictly require diluents are usually low-quality. Even worse, terpene diluents are commonly composed of propylene glycol (PG), vegetable glycerin (VG), or other potentially harmful non-terpene substances.

With a few basic calculations, it’s easy to accurately add terpenes to your product formulation. Here’s what you’ll need to know:

• The starting weight of your formulation in grams
• The percentage of terpenes you’d like your finished formulation to contain
• The percentage of any diluents you wish to add to your formulation

You can determine the exact number of grams of terpenes you’ll need to add to your formulation with a simple calculation:

• Say your current formulation weight (W) is 100 grams
• Your desired terpene concentration (T) is 3%
• The number of grams of terpenes you need to add is roughly 0.1 T (W) + 0.1 T² (0.01 W)
• In this case, you’ll need to add 3.09 grams of terpenes to your product formulation
• Your finished formulation will weigh 103.09 grams total

Wholesale terpenes for sale are often measured by volume, not by weight. To determine the weight of terpenes that are measured in milliliters, you can pour a small amount of concentrated terpenes into another container and place that container on a lab scale.

Milliliters are not directly convertible into grams. While 1ml of water is equal to 1g of water, substances other than water have different densities, resulting in different milliliter-to-gram ratios.

What percentage of terpenes is good?

Cannabinoid products should never contain more than 15% terpenes. In most cases, finished product formulations should contain between 2-5% terpenes.

Terpene concentrations under 2% might not impart the flavoring and aroma benefits you desire. If your product contains more than 5% terpenes, however, it might smell and taste overwhelmingly strong.

Terpene mixing FAQ

Let’s wrap things up with some answers to commonly asked terpene mixing questions:

1. Are all terpenes the same?

Terpenes are most well known for the roles they play in Cannabis sativa. However, terpenes are also found in hundreds of different plant species.

Ever wondered what makes lemon peels smell so zesty? It’s the terpene limonene. How about the distinctive scent of pine needles? It’s caused by the terpene pinene.

From a chemical perspective, a terpene found in cannabis has the same composition as the same terpene found in a different plant. Terpenes derived from cannabis, however, may contain trace concentrations of other substances found in the Cannabis sativa plant.

As a result, purists argue that cannabis-derived terpenes might be more desirable. The legality of cannabis-derived terpenes is, however, unclear.

2. What are plant-derived terpenes?

Plant-derived terpenes are terpenes that are not derived from Cannabis sativa. While cannabis is certainly a plant, this term specifically refers to terpenes that are derived from non-cannabis plants.

3. Are terpenes natural?

Terpenes derived from Cannabis sativa and other terpene-bearing plants are all-natural. Depending on the plants they’re extracted from and the extraction processes used, plant-derived terpenes can even be solvent-free and organic.

4. What are artificial terpenes?

Instead of deriving terpenes from cannabis or other plants, some manufacturers artificially reconstruct these compounds from other substances. It is unclear whether artificial terpenes are safe.

What’s certain is that it’s impossible to replicate the terpene profiles of specific Cannabis sativa strains using synthetic terpenes. As is usually the case with synthetic substances, the only advantage of artificial terpenes is reduced cost.

5. What are food-grade terpenes?

The term “food-grade terpenes” usually refers to plant-derived terpenes that are extracted from plants other than Cannabis sativa. This term is sometimes used to lend validity to non-cannabis terpenes.

6. What are botanical terpenes?

In most cases, the term “botanical terpenes” refers to plant-based terpenes that are not derived from cannabis. Manufacturers can extract botanical terpenes from plant materials like orange peels, lavender, cloves, and pine needles.

7. Can I put terpenes in my vape?

Over the course of thousands of years, cannabis smokers have determined that terpenes are safe to inhale. Adding terpenes to vape products improves the flavor, aroma, and effects of the vaping experience.

Be cautious, however, when adding terpenes to individual vape cartridges. In most cases, a single drop of concentrated terpenes will be sufficient. Depending on the size of your vape cartridge and the concentration of your terpenes, a drop of terpenes might even be too much.

8. How do you add terpenes to vape juice?

We only recommend that you add terpenes to hemp or cannabis vape extracts. The safety of products that combine terpenes with PG, VG, or other common vape juice carriers is unknown.

The most ideal results are achieved when terpenes are added to extracts before they are packaged into vape cartridges or pods. If you must add terpenes to individual vape cartridges, start with very small terpene concentrations and work your way up as needed.

9. Can you add terpenes to tincture?

Mixing terpenes into cannabinoid tinctures is one of the easiest ways to add the power of terpenes to your products. Plant-derived terpenes can take the place of natural or artificial flavorings, making your tinctures safer and keeping things in the cannabis family.

We don’t recommend that you add terpenes to individual tincture bottles. Instead, we offer wholesale terpenes to producers of cannabinoid products who want to enhance the flavor profiles, aromas, and effects of their sublingually administered formulations.