the articles cited in the first post make it crystal clear that water curing method eliminates all smell and taste (terps). that's what is it meant to do, like baron said.
but at least one of the articles also states that the resulting herb can be used not only for edibles, where it makes most sense, but also for those who are looking for a more 'stealth' smoke to avoid the noses of parents, cops and other authorita from taking notice.
yet another reason is an overall faster dry/cure than air dried, approx 7 days vs 3 weeks or more. one negative aspect of water cure, and you know there would be at least one more, is that the nugz come out with lower bag appeal...something that a dealer or dispensary would want to avoid.
for people like us here, we adore the wonderful smells and complex tastes of air dried nugz. so water cure makes less sense for the connoisseur. i feel it is recommended for virgin/newbie smokers because the resulting herb smokes so smoothly (in some cases almost too smoothly, per the articles) and their senses aren't in tune yet anyway as compared with those people who have been smoking for years (my wife is a great example, she doesn't understand nor can she discern the wide range of complex smells and tastes...but she wants a smoke that won't make her cough). according to the articles, water cure is also useful for buds that are too dry or have been dried/cured the wrong way. YMMV on that point.
i discovered another interesting side effect of water cure that i didn't know. water cure creates higher overall THC percentages. according to the articles, this occurs because water cure results in lower overall dry yield than air cure, reason being the water nugz lose more unwanted ingredients (chlorophyll and salts) than air dry, making the THC and probably CBD more concentrated.
here's a snippet from the 3rd article talking about this.
How potency is increased through the water cure?
I should explain this so that the conspiracy theory kooks don’t land on me like a ton of bricks. Here’s the “magic” behind the increased potency you get by water curing.
For the sake of making it simple, I’ll use an example of 100 grams of bud going into the pot.
Now, you had this bud assayed and know that 15% of it is pure THC.
15% of 100 grams is 15 grams. So in our example the 100 grams of fresh bud has 15 grams of THC in it.
You water cure it and dry it. Now you have only 70 grams of bud left. WTF? But you are deceived because the 15 grams of THC is part of the remaining 70 grams of bud. 15 divided by 70 equals 21.42%.
Sooo….The mass didn’t change, just some of the things that were there – aren’t there anymore, so what is left becomes a bigger proportion of the entirety.
You go assay your water cured bud and find out it has 21.42% THC content – a 50% increase in potency.
have to say i got schooled in this thread on water cure, which i poo-poo'd for years due to its removal of water soluble terps we love. I've got a small harvest on its way and am going to try this out on a couple of nugz in a quart jar as an experiment. nothing fancy.
bottom line IMHO is that water cure is good for your personal smoke and or edibles, but probably not recommended for retail sale. since i work from home most days changing out the water 2x a day isn't going to be too complicated (the post-water drying process looks to be the hardest part, but people here all know how to dry and cure their stash ;)
re-reading what i wrote, and i know it came out sounding preachy. which wasn't my intent. seems that water cure isn't for everybody, but it has its positive attributes nevertheless.
