Flavored Pre-Rolled Cones

With consumers flocking to flavored vapes and blunt wraps – particularly younger consumers – it's no wonder pre-roll manufacturers are looking to get involved in this cannabis trend. And pre-rolls are a perfect medium for experimentation.

The small size and inexpensive nature of the pre-roll makes it among the top add-ons at dispensaries around the country. That makes consumers more likely to splurge on something new.

And the relatively inexpensive production cost means producers can always try something new in their pre-rolls without investing too much time or money. It’s no wonder so many producers told us they saw flavors as the Next Big Thing in pre-rolls during our State of the Pre-Roll Industry survey last year.

So how do you add a little flavor to your pre-roll line?

How Flavors and Aromas Affect Smoking

When smoking, flavor and aroma always go hand in hand. That’s because our olfactory system, located in the nasal cavity, helps our brain combine smell and taste together to create the sensation of flavor.

While taste buds identify the basic tastes (salty, sweet, sour, bitter and umami), the majority of flavors we experience come from smell. Odor molecules enter the nasal cavity and stimulate olfactory receptor neurons. These neurons send signals to the brain, which combines them with taste signals to create a complete flavor perception.

Without being able to detect aromas, food – or smoke – would be pretty bland, like it is when you have a cold.

And interestingly enough, THC and other cannabinoids can affect our olfactory system, binding to receptors in our olfactory bulb and increasing sensitivity to weaker odors amplifying our sense of smell and making aromas and flavors seem more enjoyable.

So when you smoke a pre-roll, you get not only the taste as it passes over your tongue, but the aromas from the smoke as well, creating a complete flavor profile.

How Are Pre-Rolls Flavored?

SoThere are four main ways of flavoring a pre-roll: infusing the flower with terpenes, adding flavor to the rolling papers, placing a flavor bead inside the filter or using a flavored filter tip.

All methods have their pros and cons and all will affect the flavor of your smoke in their own ways, with the most subtle being the flavored tip that keeps the taste on your lips instead of making it part of the smoke itself. Let’s go a bit deeper on each individual method.

Flavor Beads

A flavor bead is a small capsule filled with flavoring that is placed in the filter or crutch of a pre-roll. Before smoking, users crush the bead between their fingers, releasing a burst of flavor that they inhale each time along with the smoke from the pre-roll, providing a burst of delicious flavor with each puff, enhancing the smoking experience.

What are Flavor Beads Made Of?

Without getting too involved in the chemistry, the flavor beads in Custom Cones USA’s Pearl Tipped Flavor Cones are pharmaceutical grade and meet all U.S. regulations. Our flavor beads are made by a company in Japan and they reformulated their flavors to be complaint with U.S. law.

Custom Cones USA’s flavor beads are all seaweed-derived, plant-based capsules that use no animal byproducts.

We offer our Pearl Tipped Flavor Cones in eight flavors - mint, strawberry, mango watermelon, grape, berry mix, cherry and vanilla - and three different sizes: King Size 109mm that hold a full gram, 1 ¼ half gram 84mm size and the 70mm “dogwalker” mini cone.

Each pre-rolled cone has an image of the flavor printed on the filter along with the word “squeeze,” making these special cones as eye-catching as they are tasty.

Flavored Rolling Papers

Another way that companies try to add a little flavor into their pre-rolls is by infusing the rolling papers themselves with flavoring. To do this, the flavoring, is created by adding various chemicals during the paper-manufacturing process.

But the scent is just that, a scent, that remains on the papers and is burned as it is smoked. You don’t actually inhale any of the flavor either as it is burned off during combustion, so it doesn’t actually get to your olfactory sense the same way a flavor bead does since those flavors are never combusted.

Speaking of combustion, as noted, to flavor the papers, different chemicals are added. And while many of those chemicals are often considered “food grade,” that notation means they are safe for ingestion. However, that may not be the case when those same chemicals are burned and inhaled. Even something as simple as adding sugar to give the paper a sweetness can irritate the lungs when burned.

Many flavored papers are also printed, which can be a potential health hazard in its own right. Often, the dyes and coloring agents used in printed rolling papers are made with “food safe” ink, such as soy, that can be harmful if burned and inhaled. Sometimes those inks even contain heavy metals – blue dyes in particular have been found to contain unsafe levels of copper – that can not only potentially harm a user, but could trip a lab test if your state tests the final form instead of just the flower and cause you to have to destroy an entire run of pre-rolls.

Flavored Blunt Wraps

The same processes used to flavor rolling papers can be used to flavor blunt wraps, which are usually made with hemp or tea leaves.

But again, like with rolling papers, those flavors are combusted and destroyed as they are smoked, leaving little actual flavor in every puff. So while they may smell great, they don’t actually taste any different. They should be called scented wraps, not flavored.

However, due to the longer-smoking nature of blunts, the flavor on the wrap does sit longer on the lips providing a nice taste while smoking a blunt.

Flavored Wood Filter Tips

Flavored wood tips are another way to add a little taste of something sweet without actually changing the flavor of your flower.

Instead, the wood filter tips themselves are infused with flavor. They are designed to leave a taste of sweetness or vanilla on the lips without changing the flavor of the buds you worked so hard to grow.

Wood filter tips also help block any particles or “Scooby Snacks” from getting through and help cool the smoke so your customers can take even bigger hits. Plus, the natural feel of wood on the lips signifies a premium product and truly enhances any smoking experience.

Terpene Infused

The most complicated way of flavoring a pre-roll is by flavoring the flower itself, usually by infusing it with terpenes to enhance some flavors or add some that aren’t there.

Terpenes are what give plants their smells, including cannabis. For example, it’s the terpene called limonene that gives both lemons and Super Lemon Haze its citrusy aroma.

Cannabis can be sprayed with terpenes during the curing process or even after grinding to add flavor to the buds, but too much can lead to overpowering and/or fake-tasting flavors.

Another way to combine terpenes with bud is to use a machine like the Infused Flower Mixer, FlackTek, Jiko, or Stardust Machine to combine terpene oils with buds. The Infused Flower Mixer, for example, uses the power of physics to create a perfectly homogenized combination of flower and concentrate – including terpenes. The machine’s dual asymmetric centrifuge ensures the flower is completely coated or encapsulated in just minutes. It’s a much more thorough method of infusing terpenes (or any other concentrate) into flower.

Terpenes can also be added through the use of a product called Terpods, or small plastic devices that contain concentrated terpenes that will add the scent to anything it is left in a closed container with. These are not an effective way of producing flavored pre-rolls at scale, but can work for a home-smoker looking to add a little something extra to their pre-rolls.

Again though, Terpods add scent to the pre-roll, but will not actually change the flavor of the flower once it is inside the cone.

Final Thoughts on Flavored Pre-Rolls

Whether flavored pre-rolls are your thing or not, there is no doubt that a relatively large cohort of smokers enjoy them, and it makes sense for manufacturers to consider ways to add flavoring to their pre-rolls.

But, again, different methods produce different results, and customers will notice. If your pre-rolls smell great, but don’t change the taste or overall experience, it may turn off potential customers. So be sure you are choosing a flavoring method that provides the most consistent delivery and best experience possible.

We have found that using a flavor bead in the filter releases the best, most consistent flavor because it is not combusted and maintains its full taste and aroma as it is inhaled along with the cannabis. Flavor beads also reduce the potential dangers of combusting substances that were never designed or tested to be used in that way.

But whatever you choose, the flavored pre-roll is an important and rising category that all top pre-roll producers should consider adding to help differentiate themselves from the competition.

Contact the Pre-Roll Experts today to find out the best way to add a little flavor to your pre-roll brand!