Guide 04
Intensity versus character
Two jars can smell like the same thing at different volumes, or like different things at the same volume. A terpene report carries both pieces of information, and NOSE keeps them apart on purpose.
In short
- The total terpene figure is a rough guide to how loud a jar is. The mix, meaning each terpene’s share of that total, describes what it smells like.
- NOSE scores matches on the mix alone, so a louder jar with the same proportions still scores 100.
- A fixed cutoff per terpene, such as 0.5%, counts loudness, not character.
- When you build a palate from several jars, each jar gets an equal say however loud it is.
- Loudness is shown separately as intensity. It’s useful, but only as a rough guide.
- Both numbers describe the jar on test day. Terpenes keep evaporating afterwards.
Two questions, one table
Every terpene table answers two different questions. How much aroma material is there? That’s the total. What kind of aroma is it? That’s the balance between the compounds. It’s easy to blur the two, because both come from the same column of numbers.
Here are three jars. The values are made up to keep the arithmetic easy, but the scores are exactly what NOSE’s matcher returns for them.
| Comparison | Character score | Intensity |
|---|---|---|
| Jar A and Jar B | 100 · Close match | 1.20% vs 3.60% |
| Jar A and Jar C | 33 · Different profile | 1.20% vs 1.20% |
Jar B is Jar A turned up: every value is three times higher, so every share is the same. Myrcene is 40% of the total in both, and NOSE scores them 100. Jar C has exactly the same total as Jar A, but its mix is led by α-pinene and terpinolene rather than myrcene and limonene, and it scores 33. Loudness said nothing about which jar resembles A. The mix did.
With only four measured compounds, NOSE would also label both comparisons low confidence. Most real reports list more.
Why NOSE compares shares
Converting each value to its share of the report’s own total takes loudness out of the comparison, so the score answers one question: is the character alike? It matters most when a palate is built from several jars you liked.
Say you liked a quiet jar at 0.80% total terpenes and a loud one at 3.20%, with different characters. NOSE averages their shares, so each jar has an equal say, and the resulting palate scores 85 against the quiet jar and 85 against the loud one. Average the raw numbers instead and the loud jar outvotes the quiet one four to one. That palate would score 98 against the loud jar and only 62 against the quiet one: your palate would quietly turn into a copy of your loudest jar.
| Palate built by averaging… | Quiet jar (0.80%) | Loud jar (3.20%) |
|---|---|---|
| Shares (what NOSE does) | 85 | 85 |
| Raw values | 62 | 98 |
Quiet jar: limonene 0.40, myrcene 0.20, β-caryophyllene 0.20. Loud jar: myrcene 1.60, α-pinene 0.96, β-caryophyllene 0.64. Scores computed with NOSE’s matcher.
Why a cutoff per terpene misleads
Some guides read a report one terpene at a time, against a fixed cutoff such as half a percent: a terpene above it counts, and one below it doesn’t. The trouble is that a cutoff reads loudness.
Take Jar A and Jar B from the top of this page. Jar A has no terpene above 0.5%. Jar B, the same jar three times louder, has three. By the cutoff they’re different jars. By their shares they’re identical, and NOSE scores the pair 100.
| Terpene | Jar A | Jar B | Share, both |
|---|---|---|---|
| Myrcene | 0.48% | 1.44% over | 40% |
| Limonene | 0.36% | 1.08% over | 30% |
| β-Caryophyllene | 0.24% | 0.72% over | 20% |
| Linalool | 0.12% | 0.36% | 10% |
| Over 0.5% | none | three | — |
The made-up jars from the top of this page. Shares and score computed with NOSE’s matcher.
The cutoff measures how loud a jar is, not what it smells like. A quieter jar, or an older one that has lost terpenes since its test, falls under it more often, whatever its character.
What intensity is good for
Loudness still matters; it answers a different question. Whenever NOSE reads a report, it shows the total terpene figure separately, labeled “intensity, not shape.” Read the two together:
- A strong match with a much lower total suggests a quieter version of a character you like.
- A strong match with a much higher total suggests the same character, louder.
- Two jars with similar totals can still be nothing alike, as Jar C shows.
Why intensity is only a rough guide
Treat the total as a hint, not a measurement of how strongly a jar will smell.
- Noses aren’t scales. The most abundant compounds aren’t always the ones you notice. In a 2021 study of cannabis’s classic skunky note, terpenoids were the most abundant aroma compounds, but the most pungent sample was the one with the most volatile sulfur compounds, a family that standard panels don’t measure (Oswald et al., 2021).
- Panels only add up what they measured. A report that tests fewer compounds prints a smaller total, even if the jar isn’t any quieter.
- Some distinctive aromas aren’t driven by terpenes. A 2023 study found terpene profiles remarkably similar across cultivars with very different aromas, and found that their sweet or savory differences tracked minor, non-terpene compounds instead (Oswald et al., 2023). That limits the character side of the comparison too, and it’s one reason NOSE calls every score a hypothesis rather than a prediction.
- The jar keeps changing. Terpenes evaporate and break down after testing. One storage study measured average terpenoid losses of more than half within four months (Milay et al., 2020), so an old report can describe a louder jar than the one you open.
How NOSE shows both
- Character is the fingerprint bar. Each segment’s width is an aroma family’s share of the measured total. The score itself compares compound by compound; the six families make the shape readable at a glance.
- Intensity is the report’s total terpenes, shown on its own and never folded into the score.
- Confidence tells you how many compounds the comparison rests on.
The math, including where it can be wrong, is on the methodology page.
Sources
The studies, standards and rules this guide draws on.
- Oswald IWH, Ojeda MA, Pobanz RJ, et al. (2021). Identification of a new family of prenylated volatile sulfur compounds in cannabis revealed by comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography. ACS Omega. doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.1c04196
- Oswald IWH, Paryani TR, Sosa ME, et al. (2023). Minor, nonterpenoid volatile compounds drive the aroma differences of exotic cannabis. ACS Omega. doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.3c04496
- Milay L, Berman P, Shapira A, Guberman O, Meiri D (2020). Metabolic profiling of Cannabis secondary metabolites for evaluation of optimal postharvest storage conditions. Frontiers in Plant Science 11:583605. doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.583605