29-year-old Max Montrose is President and co-founder of the Trichome Institute. It is a new school in Colorado that will train the next generation of ‘weed sommeliers’ to help people like yourself choose the best strands of cannabis on the planet. The name ‘Trichome Institute’ is a nod do the trichomes which can be seen on the cannabis buds, the sticky icky crystals that you often see on ‘weed porn’ photos on Instagram or Reddit. And they won’t actually be using the term ‘sommelier’ for the weed experts who will help dispensary customers pick out the proper strain, instead, they will be called ‘interpeners’ who will be experts in the art of interpening. According to the National Post, Max Montrose defines ‘Interpening’ as ‘the practice of assessing the quality and psychotropic effects of a cannabis flower using only sight and smell’.
Anyone of legal age can attend the Trichome Institute for a small fee, and the classes sound pretty damn awesome:
The courses are modeled after the wine sommelier program. Level one involves a 3.5-hour lecture and costs about $220, while the second level costs about $335 and includes the lecture as well as a sight-and-smell workshop, followed by a test.
For the exam, students must take 10 jars of unlabelled cannabis and identify the five that are unacceptable because of problems like pest and mould and say why, then order the remaining five samples from most stimulating to most sedating.
Level three is still being finalized, but so far it is invite only and consists of an essay on the horticulture and history of cannabis as well as dissecting buds and training in hashish, an extract of the cannabis plant, Montrose said. (via NationalPost)
You can find an introduction to the art of Interpening on the Trichome Institute’s website, as well as a list of the currently available courses. They are based in Denver, where marijuana is legal for recreational use. However, if you’re in NYC and looking to become wise in the ways of Interpening marijuana I have some good news and bad news. The good news is they hold satellite courses in the city and teach Level 1 Interpening, the bad news is that course was held last weekend (June 17th) and probably won’t happen again for quite some time.
To see their upcoming events and to learn about how you can become a marijuana expert you can CLICK HERE to head on over to the Trichome Institute’s website.
[h/t the National Post]