A Kratom User’s Guide to Buying Online

It amounts to this: there are no real rules about how ethnobotanical companies throw around the word “extract”. Companies that shall remain unnamed make it sound as if there is a scientific process involved in making Kratom “extract”, and put terms like 15x and 10x (I’ll explain the difference later) in front to make it appear that the concentration is increased in multiples. But all “extract” means in this case is that it was taken from something else; namely, the Kratom leaf. So they are capitalizing on a bit of a misnomer. Referring to some extracts as such is accurate in some cases, but not here.

The difference between powder and leaf is obvious, right? You can find a source for Kratom leaf, package it, and sell it at a little bit of a mark-up. But the difference between powder and “extract” is not so obvious. Say you and I buy a bag of Kratom leaves and mulch them in a coffee bean grinder. Now we have somewhat powdered our Kratom, but since a coffee grinder isn’t made for grinding leaves there are still some big chunks that we can’t break up. Even the particles that appear small to you and I could still be broken apart much more. For the sake of understanding, we’ll just say that the problem with this is that these big chunks and particles aren’t as easily absorbed by water, or digested by your stomach. Bigger particles mean that some active ingredients are wasted when they are not being absorbed, and since they take up more space, it will appear that you have to eat more Kratom to get the same effects as a more finely ground leaf.

But say you and I find a better tool to grind the leaf. Say we can grind the particles into a really fine dust. Your bag of leaves went from a bag to a bowlful to just a cupful of powder. Now (obviously) the same material is still there, it just takes up half as much space. Meaning that with the fine dusty powder you only need half as much to get the same effect. The smaller the particle, the more the overall surface area, and the faster and better the absorption.

Now that we’ve “extracted” our powder from the leaf, lets you and I start an ethnobotanicals business. We’ll call the coffee ground leaf just plain ‘ol “Kratom powder”. The slightly more ground leaf we’ll call 10x, implying that it is 10 times stronger. (Calling it 10x also gives us an advantage because it implies that we went through an involved scientific process to get it.) Hmm… so lets charge double for that, because people will think we have special knowledge and they can only get it from us. Now the really fine stuff… let’s charge triple what the material is actually worth, and we’ll call it 15x or 20x. *cough cough* Shaman *cough*

So here’s what it boils down to. Taken literally, making Kratom extract is like boiling a pot of coffee down into a single shot of espresso. You and I probably don’t have the same grinding tools the shops do, so in a way they have every right to charge us for that service. But just know that the “extract” you recieve for your precious dollar is being marked up by obscene amounts. 112 grams of extremely fine powdered leaf could be sold fairly for about 100-110 bucks. But the prices in most commercial ethno-venders are much, much higher. Probably about triple that. You could powder your own cheap leaf with a mortar and pestle, and I’m sure you would be quite content with its performance.

The other thing Kratom users need to know is that shops will tell you, “Active at just one gram!” This is also an inflation of the truth. Think of coffee, or caffeine. If you were tired and I give you a shot glass full of coffee you would probably say, “Jeez man! That’s not going to do anything! I need to wake up!” Well the fact is, that a shot glass full of coffee is active, isn’t it? That little bit of caffeine does something, right? But the fact that I can say regular coffee is active at a shot isn’t the point, is it? You wanted a full cup–maybe even two–to help you really wake up. That was your whole reason for drinking the somewhat vile bean water in the first place. This is essentially what the online ethnobotanical shops are doing when they tell you their “extracts” are “active at only one gram!” You throw down your hard-earned cash for 50 grams thinking: “Now I’m set. With 50 grams I can try Kratom 50 times. But then… knowing me I will double the dose so I can really feel it. That’s still 25 times though, so it’s completely worth it.” Wrong! The ethno companies’ tricky wording makes their extracts sound like a practical deal, but it’s really not the case. There aren’t 50 or 25, or even 10 doses in fifty grams of Kratom extract. To get the effects I’m assuming you are looking for you will need to take between 2 teaspoons and 1 whole tablespoon of very finely ground powder. (There are 3 teaspoons in one tablespoon.) Guestimating that there are between 9 and 14 grams of Kratom powder per tablespoon, that will give you between 4 and 6 doses of Kratom for your 50 grams.

Pretty slick, huh? The ethno-venders, I mean. They manipulate our wallets and perceptions with their words, and at the same time protect their own hindsides from someone overdoing it with one of their products. It’s like Big Government for the drug culture. And the sad thing is that, when disappointed, we drug people always come back for more, don’t we? They know we chase the dragon, and smartly hedge their bets on its evasive wings.

If you really want to experience Kratom, I have learned the following things from thinking about it and burning it as incense; not, of course, from experience and experimentation. If you’ve already been screwed with some 15x extract, I’m sure it will still be “good”, usable Kratom. For your first time, start low. Two teaspoons or so would be enough, as more would likely make you feel like crap (and be a waste to boot). Heat some water well in the microwave. You might even boil it, but it takes a long time for boiled water to be drinkable. I haven’t noticed a difference between the two. Then, into a glass bottle with a cover (Sobe bottles work well) pour the desired dosage of Kratom. Fill it 2/3 full with hot water, and shake it for as long as you can stand to for the next half hour. Use a towel if the bottle is too hot, and crack open the cover once in a while to relieve pressure. Be careful it doesn’t slip out of your hands when shaking. Good advice on many fronts.

Now, this is the great thing about finely powdered Kratom. The traditional tea takes forever to make, but having powdered Kratom speeds up the process. Can you just dump some in a bottle of soda or water like the ethno-venders say? Maybe, but… you can waste your supply trying, because this method really works well for me. I absolutely love Kratom and wish you well on your adventure, but one last thing: be careful. Dosing like this is not child’s play. Kratom is undeniably addictive, and the more often you use it, the more you will have to take to get the same effects. Even taking the drug weekly is pushing your luck as it has a way of sneaking into the rest of the week if you aren’t careful. A monthly indulgence is your safest bet.

In the future, if you like Kratom and are serious about making it a part of your repertoire, try this shop: http://www.flaglercafe.com/

The website might not look like much, but the prices are very fair. They don’t bullshit you, and the Kratom makes for great incense! Good day!