PeeBee:
They convert the sugars and other stuff in the weed into organic compounds that, when you smoke 'em, get you all trippin' an' everything, so you end up
thinkin' the weed tastes sweeter. It's like this:
- Fry: I wanna go out with a movie star.
Bender: I could beat you over the head with this pipe until you think that's what happened...
Fry: OK!
See, we're all just willing accomplices in our own self-delusion.
Actually, I don't know WTF happens in the weed, exactly. I do know that the "anaerobic fermentation" processes that happen in weed are similar to what happens in wine, sort of. Depending on what's there to begin with, some of the stuff the little weedbuggers poop out is classified under a group of compounds called "aromatic organics", meaning they have carbon-hydrogen bonds (the "organic" part), and they smell purty...like apricots, and stuff. It's those smells—which we normally associate with "sweet" stuff, like fruit—that contributes in part to the
perception of "sweetness". But it's not really a taste (something we sense with our tastebuds...on the tongue); rather, it's actually a smell (something we sense with our olfactory nerves, up in the nosal area). The intimate link between tastes and their accompanying smells often tricks us into thinking we taste things that we're really smelling.
Now, that doesn't mean you're not actually tasting sweetness. Maybe you are. I think it depends on the weed. Maybe it was pretty sweet to begin with, but the sweetness was offset (meaning, reduced...or maybe masked) by other, stronger flavors in the young weed that are tamed and toned down by the aging process. There's no question that weed "mellows" with age, wherein it's smooth as silk after it's had a few years of tin time, but when it's all young and feisty it doesn't know whether it's a pipe tobacco or a belt sander. We've all smoked those weedages.
The real answer to your question shouldn't be too hard to pin down, though. I could probably do it if I had a sufficiently sensitive Brix meter and enough patience. I haven't done this, mind you, but I think it should be possible to make up aqueous infusions of young and aged versions of the same weedage (or maybe use some other solvent besides water that would extract the sugars more effectively, like alcohol...something that wouldn't interfere with the sugar measurement), and then take Brix readings.
Even so, there are bound to be interferences—inconsistent sugar content in the blending tobaccos, or in the amount of sugar added by the manufacturer. Many, many tobaccos have sugar added, especially Burleyweeds, but I guess it wouldn't matter if you're willing to start with the same tobacco when it's young, take the Brix measurement, and then wait (years) until the same stuff ages and then take the Brix readings again. Might as well use multiple jars and check them at 1, 2, 3, 4...x-year intervals, if you're going to go to all the trouble.
I made all of this up, of course, based on a little bit of knowledge—prolly just enough to make me dangerous. Zero has undoubtedly forgotten more about this subject than I ever knew. I would instantly defer to his knowledge. :mrgreen:
irat: :tongue:
