Archives des Concentrates

BHO: the THC extract of all excesses

Published on 26 November 202427 August 2025

Health

While most countries are still hesitating to legalize weed in its simplest form, in the United States, the cannabis industry is outbidding its competitors with increasingly potent products that are dangerous to consumers’ health. Among them is BHO, a concentrate with a THC content of up to 80%. Zeweed reports on this extreme (and hardly recommended) extract.

BHO (Butane Hash Oil) is a cannabis flower extraction that first appeared in the 70s with The Brotherhood Of Eternal Love, the Orange County hippie mafia in the USA. This brotherhood of drug lovers produced its oil in Afghanistan and sold it in California. This highly lucrative operation was short-lived, as their plant exploded. It was only in the 90s that the technique really began to emerge, notably in Canada, South Africa and the Netherlands. From then on, BHO became a must, giving rise to other derivatives such as Shatter, Crumble and, more recently, Diamond Sauce.

Developed by the merry men of the Brotherhood of Eternal Love in the 70’s, BHO continues to blow up clandestine laboratories and the synapses of its regular consumers.

Butane Hash Oil is a Cannabis extract obtained using butane (liquefied gas or liquid solvent), with THC content sometimes reaching 80%! To obtain such a concentrate, it is essential to have good quality flowers and leaves. This plant material is then packed into a hermetically sealed tube with a valve at either end.
When butane is introduced into the tube, pressure builds up until the lower valve opens, releasing a liquid gas containing all the plant’s trichomes: flavonoids, terpenes and cannabinoids. On contact with heat, the gas evaporates, leaving a paste which is then vacuum-pumped to remove all gaseous residues. This last stage is decisive for the quality of the resulting product: the BHO.

Over time, this technique has evolved and been perfected, giving rise to other variations known as Shatter, Crumble or Diamond sauce. The principle is the same, it’s the material used that differs, or the way in which the finished product is cured.

Variants: Shatter, Crumble and Diamond Sauce

Shatter is the most popular extraction, but quality varies widely. This product quickly became popular in the United States for its therapeutic use, as it contains no vegetable matter and can be consumed by spraying. Dry manicure leaves are used to produce a handy, not very sticky, amber-colored paste containing between 70 and 80% THC.

Unlike Shatter, Crumble is made with fresh-frozen plant matter, meaning the THC is still in the form of THCA. Extraction is much less sticky, more crumbly, and much more concentrated in terpenes. When the plant is fresh, there is no oxidation, so the color is much lighter, tending towards yellow or white. THC concentration is the same as for Shatter, but its terpene profile is more complete.

100€ per gram

Diamond Sauce (Jar Tech) is the ultimate high-end gas extraction. This technique appeared less than 10 years ago. The principle is the same, except that once the product has been extracted, it is not purged with a vacuum pump, but placed in a closed glass jar in a cool place for a few days. This ensures constant pressure in the jar, as evaporation is controlled. THCA crystallizes and separates from the rest of the solution, hence the name diamond. The terpenes, flavonoids and other cannabinoids remain liquid, which is what we call the sauce. Once heated, THCA is transformed into THCB, which is active and therefore very strong, but tasteless. Terp Sauce, on the other hand, has a lot of taste but few psychoactive effects. It’s the most technical and expensive extraction on the market: over €100 a gram.

Hospitality guaranteed for budding cooks.

As cannabis cultivation is still illegal in many parts of the world, extraction sites are clandestine, often set up in enclosed, poorly ventilated areas (hotel rooms, garages, caravans). A large quantity of gas is needed to extract the oil, leading to many accidents, sometimes fatal, due to explosions.

A single spark of static electricity can cause serious injury. The accident that occurred in a Toulouse hotel in January 2020 illustrates just how dangerous this type of operation can be. Professionals, on the other hand, use high-performance machines that operate in closed circuits (very little gas evaporation) in appropriate infrastructures (large spaces, ventilation systems), which minimizes the risks.

The BHO craze is not without its dangers, so it’s best to avoid embarking on a project that can be highly explosive, as these videos demonstrate.

Rosin: healthy, homemade weed concentrate.

Published on 15 July 202322 July 2025

Health

In recent years, extracts or “dabs” have revolutionized the smoking market in the United States. In addition to a much stronger effect, it’s above all the concentration and restitution of terpenes that make the difference. Today, we zoom in on Rosin, a condensed blend of cannabinoids and flavonoids, a cannabic delicacy that will convert more than one weed veteran.

Ganja extracts such as wax and BHO (Butane Hash Oil) can be difficult to access outside legal markets, and are far from harmless to health, both in preparation (high chances of starting a fire) and consumption (high chances of burning out your neurons)
Rosin, on the other hand, is a most exceptional extract that you can easily make at home… without burning down the whole neighborhood.

What is rosin?

Rosin is like BHO’s cousin, but without the chemicals. It’s made using a combination of heat and pressure that extracts terpenes and cannabinoids from dried cannabis, hashish or kief. The result is a golden, translucent, sap-like extract with a rich flavor and around 50-70% THC.

Rosin produced from certified professional extractors is manufactured using specialized rosin presses. These machines cost between $1,000 and $10,000 and use pneumatic or electric pumps capable of delivering tons of press power. These professional presses also have precise heating elements to maximize their yield potential, and are capable of pressing large quantities of flower or kief at a time.

For example, Pure Pressure’s Long’s Peak is a pneumatic rosin press specially designed for commercial rosin production. It is capable of generating 8 tons of pressure and pressing up to 35 grams of flower or 70 grams of kief or hashish at a time.

What are the advantages of rosin?

Similar to other extracts, Rosin will provide a different effect from what you’d normally expect from a dried flower-based weed joint. Based on my humble experience, I’d say it’s more of a mental and clear “high”: an appreciation that can obviously vary according to the variety of weed from which your rosin is made and sensitivities, but that’s where the difference with “classic” marijuana lies.

In the USA and Canada, considered by some to be the frontiers of cannabis legalization, Rosin is a big hit: unlike BHO, which usually has to undergo a long, slow purge to remove any residual butane before extraction, Rosin is a solvent-free extract. It is manufactured using only heat and pressure, and is totally chemical-free.

How to make Rosin at home?

Some manufacturers sell small rosin presses designed for personal use. The MyPress, for example, is a popular manual rosin press that can exert up to 6 tons of pressure and is capable of pressing around 1 to 1.5 grams of flower at a time. According to some reviews, the MyPress can produce yields of 20-25%, which is very good for such a small press.

At USD 420, however, the MyPress can be an expensive investment for the recreational cannabis user. Then again, you don’t really want to pinch pennies when you buy a rosin press either. You’ll want a machine capable of delivering plenty of pressure and just the right temperatures to maximize your rosin yields.

Fortunately, if you don’t want to shell out $420 for a personal rosin press, you don’t have to. You can make your own rosin safely at home with a good hair straightener, parchment or parchment paper, some sort of makeshift stamping tool (a clean, sharp pocket knife works well enough) and heat-resistant gloves.

Ze instructions for a good Rosin DIY:

-Break off about 0.5 g of cannabis flower, kief or hashish and stick it between 2 pieces of parchment paper. Fold each side of the paper to create a kind of envelope.
-Preheat your straightening iron to its lowest setting.
-Place your wrapped flower between the hot plates of the straightener and press very firmly for at least 3-7 seconds. Once you hear a sizzling sound, release the pressure and remove the “envelope” from the straightener.
-Remove the sticky sap with your pocket knife and put it in a container to keep on hand, or load it directly into a bowl or joint and enjoy!
GOOD ADVICE
This is by far the best way to make Rosin, efficient enough if you want to make small batches of this delicious concentrate at home without investing in a proper press.
If you really want to create your own rosin and maximize your yields, however, you’ll need to dig deep into your pockets and invest in something like MyPress.

Enjoy!