by Mister Leaf
Out of a several months long process with hundreds of kratom powders sampled, nothing stood out to us quite like the Plantation Maeng Da over at All Natural Artisan. There is something to be said for the freshness, or the ease at which the micronized powder blends perfectly into water. It hits all the notes and consistently provided a truly pleasurable experience. Many of the judges even kept their samples, I must admit myself included. The aroma is reminiscent of what you would expect from chewing fresh leaves pulled right off the tree in its native habitat, nothing lost in the drying or sterilization process. The effect was brilliant, on average we only needed about 75% of our typical dosage amount.
A bit about the judging process..
We started by researching forums and the kratom subreddit (before they disallowed vendor reviews) to find the most seemingly reliable vendors and what their best strains are. Out of those vendors we sifted through the ones that lab tested their kratom for safety. Ideally, a vendor who sterilizes their kratom. Out of those vendors we anonymously placed about 50 orders over the first half of 2020, 1-3 strains per vendor.
When we received the samples we ruled out anything that looked burnt from excessive heat sterilization, poorly ground powder, and just general dodgy looking kratom.
We found that hands down All Natural Artisan consistently had the highest quality, most aesthetically appealing, and freshest tasting kratom. Another factor worth mentioning, their prices are really good, I mean reeeallly good. Prices of kratom can vary from $60-$400 per kg, and this is another case that price and quality do not always correlate. In our research we have found some of the most expensive vendors have the lowest quality and cleanliness.
Vendors like All Natural Artisan seem to be able to provide such value because they have been purchasing direct from the source for over 10 years.
When we informed them of their Kratom Cup Victory for 2020, they said they couldn’t be happier. “ We are always trying different kratom, you have to sift through a lot of duds until you find the right plant source. Weather is always changing, it helps to have locals on the ground who know the terrior like winemakers. You must never skimp with processing, the more of the small stems that can be filtered the better. We make sure everything is ideal before we go to the next step of production. That alone gives a huge bump in quality, but the product is pampered every step of the way” (All Natural Artisan, Kratom Cup 2020 Best Strain Winner)
Before I sign off, I would like to give you our honorable mention runner up, left-coast-kratom.com green thai. Consider All Natural Artisan’s Green Thai if you are going that route, quality is unbeatable and it is almost half the price
Thank you all for your support, and we want to thank all the contestants, KEEP IT COMING! Let’s get Kratom out to the mainstream, let’s preserve the plants genetics, and most of all KEEP KRATOM LEGAL