Heroin color/smell... explain it, anyone?

[RaverMadness]

I'm refering to the powdered heroin here, which ranges from tan to white. Is one color better, purer, or stronger than the other? What's responsible for the color difference, anyway?
And what about that coffee/vinegar smell heroin has? Does a stronger odor mean anything?
And yes, I've been looking for good info on this for about 2 hours. If internet drug culture wasn't so Opiphobic I'd have been able to find some good info now.

 

[RaverMadness]

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[Sonny]

ey
i saw all sorts of colors... its really hard to say which is stronger.. i usually got more of a dark brown which was better that the other more white-ish ones. it usually came in a rock.
never smelled like coffee though ..
i guess it oughta be more dark so its less cut...
it seemed to be so in my case...
the last one i did smelled like that weird odor in hospitals and it was the best ..
[ 26 January 2002: Message edited by: Sonny ]

 

[vodka314]

That bump is pretty sweet, just thought Id say that.

 

[xylo-]

Couldn't say for sure about the color, god knows how many thing you can cut heroin with.
The vinegar smell, however, comes from the acetic anhydride used to process the morphine into heroin.

 

[zorn]

IIRC, there are a few common extraction/processing methods using to get heroin from poppies, and diff colored heroin reflects a different method (and hence different impurities giving it the color.) Sometimes these are referred to by #, as in heroin #1 or heroin #4.
Of course any of these can be cut, so you can't really tell purity from color, I would guess.
Pure heroin is a white, bitter crystal. So are many other things...

 

[PhreeX]

Heroin #7, by Calvin Klein ..
You can't really tell much from color - generally a light color is good, but you will rarely if never see white heroin - you might see fentanyl ("China white") but to refine heroin to a pure white powder is simply extra work that is not being done by the large heroin producing groups... ideally, a tan to light brown color is good, but I have had all differn't shades, from almost snow white to something that looked like charcoal - the latter was some of the best shit I ever slammed ..
To detect good smack you can go by taste, as GOOD HEROIN has one of the most distinct smells/tastes known to man.. it's obviously not something that can easily be explained, but it will have a strong alkaline taste - then again, lack of said taste doesn't mean you're dealing with bunk shit..
Whats responsible for the color/taste/smell - easy, the route taken to go from being the latex of a poppy to being a potent narcotic powder.. the large-scale jungle operations usually yeild that tan smakc with the strong alkaline taste.. if you're looking for specific information about what chemicals are used in one synth vs another (not actually a synth, more of an extraction/conversion) I am sure you could find your answer over at ODU..
I know this is common sense, but the only real way to get an idea how good it is, well, is to sample it!
Nice ASCII, finally someone is being creative with their bumps..

 

[Aja909]

when i go to the ghetto to get black tar.. it's just that.... black.. sometimes if it is more brownish then it is weaker (from my experience).. also that vingar smell doesn't really mean anything but *is* usually a good indicator of how strong it is.. I also noticed that the good stuff usually melts down faster than the weaker stuff... sorry this is all I know also I know you asked about powdered... never had that around here..

 

[RaverMadness]

I know this is common sense, but the only real way to get an idea how good it is, well, is to sample it!
Which I intend to do... Hey, I've already ingested an unhealthy amount of angel dust in the name of science (well, also 'cos it was free, but mostly in the interest of science).
Research chemicals aside, I haven't seen a lot of really white drugs - "I know the guy who knows the guy who makes it meth" would be the exception here. So, I'm not asking for lower quality by getting tan or brown heroin, right?
Every time I've seen it used, that smell has just been "heroin", but the unreacted acetic anhydride does make sense...