The Truth about Kratom Strains​

The linked article reproduced with permission thanks to The Kratom Shop.

Are you a veteran of Kratom?

Have a look at this list of strains, how many of them have you received?

  Guess again!

The truth is. you most likely have NEVER tried the strains you have asked for… the reality is quite different.

 The truth is that there is NO TRUTH in THE LABELING OF KRATOM STRAINS!

The Truth about Kratom "Strains"

We have come to learn that almost every single Kratom vendor and farmer, mislabels their Kratom purposefully.

The explanation from the vendors is it is for “marketing” purposes, but ultimately its to drive up their sales and to take advantage of the uninformed customer.

Example 1

A Kratom vendor or farmer claims to have 5 – 10 different strains of Red Vein Kratom. An example list below. 

  • Red Borneo / Κόκκινο Βόρνεο
  • Red Cambodian / Κόκκινο Καμποτζιανό
  • Red Indo / Κόκκινο Ινδο
  • Red Malay / Κόκκινο Μαλαιά
  • Red Papua / Κόκκινη Παπούα
  • Red Sulaweisi / Κόκκινο Σουλαουέζι
  • Red Sumatra / Κόκκινη Σουμάτρα
  • Red Sunda / Κόκκινο Sunda
  • Red Thai / Κόκκινο Ταϊλάνδη

Supposedly the names of the Kratom are from the region in where grown, and therefore each of these strains are different. 

Unfortunately, it turns out that the names of Kratom do not actually reflect where the Kratom is from. Or even a specific strain.

In fact, if purchasing from a specific source, there is a good chance ALL of the reds in this example could be EXACTLY the same Kratom.

For each individual farmer, they truly make at the most 3-4 strains. Any additional “strains” are actually the same strain renamed to seem like there is more variety than there truly is.

 

The Truth

  • A Kratom seller has one or many farmers and each of these farmers may produce the four main strain types (leaf and leaf vein colors) Red / Green / White / Yellow. Not every farmer produces Kratom from each color.
  • Some farmers do not even categorize their Kratom by the leaf / vein color at all. All leafs no matter what color go in the same batch. In this case all differences between their strains, even if named by color is actually from the Farmers drying and processing techniques.
  • The region in a name of a Kratom strain, almost never really indicates where the Kratom was grown.  For example, Red Malay is probably grown in Borneo. And in fact, are the same exact strain.
  • So, Even though the farmers are in the same region, and they are producing the same “color” powder, the Kratom can be quite different! How can this be?
  • The main reason for a Kratom’s effects and quality has EVERYTHING to do with the Farmer who produces it!
  • Some of the major variables that a farmer can affect:
    • The selection and sorting of leaves and vein colors. A farmers experience and eye makes a huge difference!
    • How the leaves are dried and prepared!
    • How does the specific farmer dry the leaves, fast or slow drying.
    • How often are the leaves turned over and mixed during the drying process.
    • How much light the leaves are given during the drying process
    • Also whether the farmer dries the leaves indoors or outdoors.

In this example a Kratom Distributor has 4 main farmers. 

All farmers are in the region of Sulawesi (A/B/C/D)

Farmer
COLORS THEY PRODUCE
FarmerA
RED
GREEN
WHITE
YELLOW
FarmerB
RED
GREEN
FarmerC
RED
WHITE
YELLOW
FarmerD
RED

Problem 1:

The Kratom vendor mislabels the region in which a Kratom is grown & not accurately represents the area in which the Kratom in grown.

Example:
The Kratom distributor renames 

  • Farmer A – Red Vein to “Red Vein Sumatra”
  • Farmer B – Red Vein to “Red Vein Borneo”
  • Farmer C – Red Vein to “Red Bali”
  • and so on…

None of these are actually grown in those places, and in fact, all farmers are growing in near the same area.

This mislabeling is VERY common! Close to 100%

In fact, most people that believes they have had Kratom from a specific region are very wrong, an in fact NOT had Kratom exactly from that region. 

Problem 2:

The Kratom distributor names the same strain from a Farmer with MULTIPLE names in order to have people purchase more Kratom.

This mislabeling, fools the customers into thinking they are getting variety of different strains but are in fact buying the exact same strain with a different name.

Example: 

  • Farmer A – Red Vein, is sold as “Red Bali” & “Red Cambodia” & “Red Sulawesi”
  • Farmer B – Red Vein, is sold as “Red Maeng Da” & “Red Elephant” & “Red Sunda”

So you as a customer would purchase 6 different strains of Red Kratom, which would in fact be only two different types of Kratom. Very dishonest.