How to Store Cannabis Flower After Leaving the Dispensary

Proper cannabis storage preserves terpenes. Here are tips for keeping your flower fresh and flavorful at home.

Shopping for cannabis flower today is an experience empowered by choice. Within the Veritas Fine Cannabis strain library, countless combinations of terpenes, cannabinoids, flavors and effects are available—and there’s always something interesting to try at your favorite dispensary.

As we’ve built out our rotation of 130-plus strains, we’ve focused on curating a terpene-focused collection that’s as unique as the plant itself. After all, it’s a strain’s terpene profile that offers a tangible taste of cannabis variety.

We’re now at a point where we’ve had the chance to collaborate with celebrated brewers like Oskar Blues to create a sweet, citrusy cannabis-inspired craft IPA, and we’re doing deep dives on popular strains like our Blood Orange and Pudding Pop. But as much as we love talking shop about strain specifics, we also want to give discerning consumers the tools they need to keep their purchases fresh and flavorful for as long as possible. 

Cannabis Storage Tips and Tricks

Every plant we grow at Veritas is something we take great pride in. And we preserve the terpenes throughout our cultivation and harvest process with a craft approach to care and cannabis curing that ends with perfectly hand-trimmed flower. 

The work of caring for one’s cannabis doesn’t stop once you’ve cracked open a signature black jar of buds that haven’t been touched since they left our facility. But don’t worry—we promise there’s no heavy lifting required.

Beyond the importance of storing products in a place inaccessible to children and pets, there is also the matter of ensuring your flower is properly protected from conditions that will cause its spotlight to prematurely dim. 

Indeed, just as a bouquet of roses withers and loses its fragrance over time, your buds face a similar fate without proper storage. And no one wants to get home after a long day and fill their bowl only to find their flower has lost a little—or a lot—of its luster. 

The good news is that making sure cannabis flower is happy in your home is quite simple. In fact, all it really takes is having an opaque jar in which to store the cannabis and an equally dark, cool environment (ideally under 70 degrees Fahrenheit) for said jar to live. 

The Science of Cannabis Storage

Why go with a dark jar and a dark, cool place? Though it’s admittedly a bummer to not be able to stare at your nugs in their full, naked glory out in the open, the primary benefit of keeping your flower in an opaque container is that it will limit a combustion chemical reaction in which oxidation and degradation occurs. 

Not to be confused with the act of putting a lighter to a freshly rolled joint (a process known as decarboxylation), in this case the combustion reaction is happening at a flame-free molecular level without your involvement.

Zooming in, the presence of light and oxygen on improperly stored cannabis flower will result in the progressive degradation of the inactive, acid form of tetrahydrocannabinol (THCA) into THC. Though THC is, of course, one of the star cannabinoids of the plant, this conversion can actually render the flower less potent over time, as the THC in turn degrades into cannabinol (CBN), which is less psychoactive than THC. 

Additionally, these conditions can also lead to substantial loss of the aromatic terpenes that vaporize out of the container before they can be enjoyed in your next smoke sesh.

What’s the Best Way to Store Cannabis? In the Dark

For these reasons, the best way to maintain cannabis freshness for as long as possible is to keep it in air-tight, opaque jars that are stored in a cool, dark place. Though some take this latter part to its extreme by keeping flower in fridges or freezers, that’s not required. As long as direct sunlight and extreme heat are avoided, there’s no need to put your cannabis on ice.

The payoff is flower that will be as happy in your home as the day we first packaged it. So keep those Veritas black jars handy.