tea

Kratom for the Holidays: Great Gifts For Kratom Lovers

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Every year, planning out what you are going to buy for your friends and family can be very stressful. It can even be stressful to be asked what you want for Christmas because you then need to come up with a list for yourself, too!

Here at Phytoextractum, we want to help make the holidays a little bit easier this year. If you like kratom and want to ask for some kratom-related gifts or perhaps you have a few friends that use kratom, we are here to help.

Our complete list today is going to be focused on kratom gift ideas for the winter holidays or any time! Hopefully, we’ll help you find the inspiration that you’ve been searching for.

1: Kitchen Scale

The first item that you might want to consider getting for a friend that loves kratom is a digital kitchen scale. Having a scale on hand is a great way to ensure that every serving of kratom is the same and accurate. When consistency is key, a scale is a necessity.

Plus, a kitchen scale can be used for more than just kratom! While it is incredibly useful for measuring out servings, it can also be useful for baking, portioning meals, and much more. You can even use a kitchen scale to help figure out postage for any packages or letters that you need to mail out.

A lot of people won’t want to invest in a kitchen scale for themselves, so buying one for a friend that is interested in kratom is a great way to treat them to something super special!

2: Capsule Prepping Kit

If you know a bit more about how your friend takes their kratom, you might be able to get them a specialized kit to help with their kratom consumption. Many people use kratom in capsule form, but buying pre-made capsules is usually much more expensive than it is to make your own capsules. 

To help your friend save a bit of money and take control of their specific servings, you can set them up with a capsule prepping kit. Try including the following items:

With these tools, your friend will be able to easily and efficiently fill up their own capsules. Some people might already do this, but few will have the full capsule making tool that makes it quick and easy. Gifting this to your friend gifts them a lot of convenience.

3: Flavor Set

Does your friend make their own kratom tea? Do they mix kratom liquids or tea concentrates into other beverages? If so, you might want to consider gifting them a kit of various things to make these drinks taste better!

It’s no secret that kratom tea isn’t the best-tasting thing out there. In fact, it can be pretty hard to get down for some. Finding ways to flavor tea is key, so why not put together a basket of fun flavors that they can use on their next concoction?

Try using some of the following items in your flavor gift basket to help them flavor their tea:

All of these items are very easy to add to kratom tea to improve the flavor. Often, kratom users just get used to the rough taste, but they don’t need to if you can gift them something lovely to enjoy it with!

4: Tea Supplies

If you think that your friend prefers to keep things classic, you can still gift them some items to help with their kratom tea production. Making tea requires a number of tools to make sure you get a clean, filtered final product.

Consider purchasing any of the following items for your kratom-loving friend:

One of the coolest things about gifting a friend some of these tea-making supplies is that they can use them to make other types of tea as well. It is, after all, possible to enjoy other types of tea besides kratom tea!

5: Apparel

This idea won’t work for everyone, but there are some people out there that just can’t get enough ball caps, themed hoodies, and customized T-shirts. Believe it or not, there are some organizations that sell kratom apparel. Any local shop that your friend likes to buy their kratom from might have some apparel, too!

This type of gift is best for the type of friend that enjoys showing their public support for kratom. Not everyone feels confident enough to rock this type of apparel, and that’s okay. Consider your friend’s personality before you commit to this type of gift.

6: Donation

Does your friend support any Kratom-focused nonprofits, such as the American Kratom Association? Are they concerned about the risk of kratom becoming an illegal substance in the US? If so, you may want to consider gifting them something a little out of the box: a donation!

By donating to kratom research and support organizations in your friend’s name, you’ll be helping them support the future of a botanical they love to use. And that is a great gift for any occasion!

7: Storage System

If the friend that you are searching for a gift for is a prolific kratom user or a veteran user that loves to rotate which strain they are using, the chances are pretty high that they have a large shelf for all their kratom products.

Have you ever seen this shelf? Is it organized, or is it a complete mess? 

If your friend hasn’t quite figured out how to keep all their kratom stored yet, you might want to consider purchasing some storage containers for them. Kratom leaves and powder are best stored in dark, air-tight containers where heat, air, and sunlight cannot affect them.

We love dark-colored glass containers as the best Kratom storage type. Purchasing a few jars or containers like that for your friend will help them get organized!

5 Ways To Make Kratom Tea Taste Better Than Ever Before

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Those of us that use kratom regularly may be able to agree that it has big benefits, but that isn’t the only thing that we can agree upon. Most of us will also agree that kratom tea simply doesn’t taste that great! Sure, you can get it down, but who wants to drink something regularly that just isn’t good?

While you could think of this problem as a simple fact of using kratom, we like to be more creative about things around here at Phytoextractum. As a sort of inspiration, we’re gearing up today to share with your our top five methods for making kratom tea taste better than ever before.

If you have any other great suggestions for how to improve the tea’s flavor, be sure to let us know!

Making Kratom Tea

While it’s important to learn how to flavor your kratom tea in new and interesting ways, it is also important for you to learn how to make kratom tea the right way! Kratom tea needs to taste as good as possible when you get started so that there is a chance to make it taste even better.

This is a bare-bones guide on how to make some great kratom tea:

  1. 1. Start with a liter of water.
  2. 2. Bring the water to a full boil in the pot.
  3. 3. Lower the heat, and let the water come off of the boil for at least three minutes.
  4. 4. Put the kratom powder or leaves in a mesh strainer.
  5. 5. Add to the water.
  6. 6. Let the kratom simmer in the water for about 20 minutes.
  7. 7. Remove the mesh strainer or use the cheesecloth to get the powder out of the leftover kratom tea.

Once finished, kratom tea can be consumed hot, cold, or even after it has been refrigerated for up to five days. This means that you can make a bigger batch of kratom once or twice a week so that you don’t have to make it every single time you want to drink your kratom tea.

How To Make Kratom Tea Taste Better

Now that you know all of the basics of how to make kratom tea, it is time to learn how to make kratom tea taste better! There are a lot of different solutions that you can use, but these are the five different ways that we prefer to improve the flavor of our kratom tea.

Add Flavored Tea Bags

When you’re brewing kratom tea, taking a minute to brew up another flavor of tea as well can be the key to making your kratom tea taste better! Combining the earthiness of kratom tea with a sweet, fruity tea can make it taste incredible. You can even mix up multiple different kinds of tea in the batch so that you can have your own special concoction.

There are many flavors of tea that go well with the taste of kratom:

  • • Green tea
  • • Citrus tea
  • • Raspberry tea
  • • Vanilla tea
  • • Chai tea
  • • Any fruit tea
  • • Sweet tea
  • • Spice teas
  • • Tea lemonades
  • • … and much more!

The possibilities are as limitless as your tea cabinet, so get creative and try out different combinations to figure out what will taste the best. Once you choose a tea, choose twice as many tea bags as you usually use and then brew it up. This will help to make a concentrated enough flavor to compete with the flavor of the kratom tea.

Mix With Milk

When many people drink coffee or a traditional tea, they like to add milk and sweetener to it so that it fits with their favorite taste profiles. For kratom tea, you can do the same thing!

Many sweetened milk products, such as vanilla creamer, can be added to kratom tea to help cut into the bitterness and add a bit of sweetness to the final drink. Adding milk makes everything taste just a little bit better than the usual earthiness that kratom tea offers.

There are many types of milk that you can add to kratom tea to try to balance out the flavor:

  • • Dairy creamers (they come in lots of flavors!)
  • • Soy milk (flavored or plain, but we prefer vanilla)
  • • Oat milk (vanilla is best)
  • • Straight milk (not as flavored, but good for those who don’t want to add more sugar)

Many kratom lovers have found that using almond milk as an easy addition to kratom tea. Not only is it delicious, but it also has a lot of alkaloids which makes it work well with the standard chemical composition of kratom tea.

Mix With Citrus

Adding citrus to kratom tea is a great way to cut through the earthy flavor of kratom. Many find the richness to be way too heavy to easily drink, so cutting through that is a key part of improving the flavor of kratom.

In particular, we love to add honey, sugar, and lemon to kratom tea in order to make it more palatable. Of course, those aren’t the only things that you can add to tea to make it better.

We love adding lemon for a few reasons:

  • • Citric acid helps to balance out alkaline content to help it be more efficient.
  • • Citric acid also helps to keep kratom tea stored in your refrigerator last for even longer.

If you aren’t a big fan of lemons, you could also use other fruits like orange or grapefruit instead. If you want to mix kratom powder into a full glass of citrus juice, you can do that as well. There are a lot of different ways to incorporate citrus flavor into your tea, so experiment a little bit.

Add Flavored Syrups

Have you ever gotten a flavored coffee or latte before? To make the latte taste that way, flavored syrups are used. These syrups come in lots of different flavors such as sweet and fruity flavors. Those flavors, in particular, can help to make kratom tea taste much better.

Sweeten Everything

This is a simple solution, but it is one that works for some people! Adding honey, sugar, or another sweetener to your kratom tea will immediately help to cut through the rich, dark flavor of the kratom. We recommend starting with one teaspoon of your favorite sweetener for each mug of kratom tea, but you can add more until the balance is just right.

How To Start Making Your Own Kratom Tea: Step-by-Step Guide

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There are a lot of different ways to consume kratom. No one way is more right than the other ways, but it is important that you know what method you are using and how to do it properly if you want to have the best effects.

Kratom users frequently turn kratom into a tea to consume it. This method has a lot of benefits, and many find that it is one of the most efficient ways to enjoy kratom. When you’re first trying kratom, there’s a good chance that this is the preparation method people will recommend to you!

Today’s step-by-step guide about how to brew kratom tea will get you started on the process. Once you’ve learned the basics, you’ll be able to work in your own personalizations to suit your needs, tastes, and skills.

The Teapot Method

The first way that we will talk about making kratom tea is via the teapot method. Like other tea products, kratom tea is essentially made by mixing the powder or leaves with hot water. Kratom tea can thus be made with a teapot just like any other tea!

We recommend using this method whenever you want to use the tea immediately. If you want to make a large batch of tea to save for a few days, you will want to skip ahead to the batch method right away. Otherwise, stick around!

All that you need to make kratom via the teapot method is a teapot, water, kratom leaves or powder, and some type of strainer. You can use either tea bags or a mesh strainer; both work perfectly well.

The Process

Measure out your kratom serving. Serving size is going to depend on you and the variety, so pay attention to the recommended serving size and start there. Put the kratom into the mesh strainer or tea bags that you have prepared. Users making tea from powder will get better results from a tea bag while leaves work best in a strainer.

Now, start boiling your tea water in a teapot. Once it has boiled, take the teapot off the heat and let the water cool for a little while. 

Once the water has cooled, put your tea bag or strainer into a mug and add water. Depending on the particular strain of kratom that you are using, you will want to let it strain for between five and twenty minutes.

The Pot Method

If you’re more interested in making large batches of kratom or just don’t own a teapot at this time, don’t worry! The pot method of making kratom tea will also work very well, and you can store any extra product in the refrigerator for up to five days to enjoy at a later time. 

For this method, you’ll need a pot, water, kratom powder, and some type of strainer. We find that a small mesh strainer is great for kratom leaves while cheesecloth is the best option when you want to use kratom powder to brew your kratom tea.

The Process

First, add the desired amount of water to your pot and bring it to a boil. The amount of water used will depend on how much tea you are making, and you will need to calculate this based on your preferred serving size.

After the water comes to a boil, let it cool down for at least three minutes so that the water doesn’t deactivate the kratom. Then, add your kratom leaves or kratom powder to the water. Allow the water to keep simmering for up to 20 minutes to create your tea.

Once you are finished simmering, you can remove the tea leaves using a mesh strainer. If you used kratom powder, a cheesecloth is going to be much more effective than a mesh strainer. Alternatively, you can let the powder settle and then pour the liquid off the top to keep the powdery sludge out of your tea.

Drinking Your Tea

Once you’ve completed the steps of either of those tea brewing methods, you’ll have your kratom tea ready to go! You can add sweeteners like sugar or honey to your tea, and many kratom users like to add citrus notes like lemon or orange to help improve the flavor.

Regardless of what you add to your tea to make it taste good, it’s important that we note that kratom tea is unlikely to be enjoyed as a sipping tea. It’s the kind of tea drink that you chug for the benefits; don’t try to sip it!

If you want to try kratom tea as an iced variety, simply pour the tea over ice once it is done brewing. Alternatively, store the prepared tea in the refrigerator overnight so that you can enjoy it the next day.

Bonus Tips

As you start experimenting with brewing your own kratom tea, you’ll want to keep some of our favorite tips in mind. These tips will help you to move through the different options that kratom offers with ease and without ruining the botanical benefits.

Tip #1: Avoid Boiling Water

The first thing that you need to know is that the alkaloids in kratom are what makes it effective, and those alkaloids can be ruined by boiling water. Adding kratom powder or leaves to water that is at a rolling boil is going to make it much less effective.

Always let the hot water cool down for a minimum of two minutes before you add any kratom to it. This helps reduce any potential damage that the hot water causes.

Tip #2: Don’t Keep It Too Long

Kratom tea can be stored in the refrigerator for up to five days without any significant quality loss, but you won’t want to try keeping kratom tea in there for eight, nine, or even 10 days and then expect it to still taste great. Plan for small, five-day batches.

Tip #3: Citrus Juice Boost

Studies are still being done to confirm why this happens, but many kratom users report that mixing citrus juice to kratom tea helps to boost the efficiency of the kratom alkaloids because it prevents them from breaking down during the brewing process. Try adding lemon slices to your tea while it is brewing.

Tip #4: Brew Time

If you find the taste of your kratom tea to be too powerful, try brewing for a shorter amount of time. If you find that you need the flavor to be stronger, up the brew time instead. By making these small adjustments, you’ll be able to find the perfect brew time for your body.

4 Best Ways to Take Kratom: Which Do You Prefer?

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Kratom, officially known as mitragyna speciosa, is a very special plant extract. It’s a tropical tree that can be taken in many forms, and those forms have been used by societies where Kratom is native for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

From teas to powders to capsules, Kratom users around the world are mixing up how they will take their Kratom every single day! And really, there are a lot of different products and methods that they can try.

When you’re new to Kratom, you might not know how which method you want to try or what the difference between those types of Kratom really is. How can you know without spending months trying them all?

We’ll introduce all the pros and cons to you today so that you can make that choice for yourself!

Teas

One of the most common ways for people to take Kratom is by making it into a tea. You can use both loose leaf and powder to make tea, but you’ll need to spend a good bit of time figuring out the exact brew that you like and will enjoy drinking.

When buying loose leaf Kratom, it’s often known as crushed leaf.

Most people find that taking tea is the most effective way to enjoy Kratom. The basics of making tea are simple. All that you need to do is allow them to steep in boiling water for about 20 minutes before straining, but this isn’t the only way to make Kratom tea! In time, you’ll learn many methods.

There are a lot of different things that you can add to tea, but the most common ones that people find to improve the general flavor of Kratom tea are:

  • • Fruits (particularly citrus fruits)
  • • Honey
  • • Sweeteners
  • • Juice (lemon, orange, and pineapple are all great choices)

Regardless of what people recommend that you add to your tea, don’t be afraid to experiment! Only you can decide what flavors you like, and the only way that you’ll find the perfect combination is to change it up every single time that you make a batch of tea until you get it right.

Pros of Kratom Tea

  • • Easier on your stomach than other preparations
  • • Can add your own ingredients to change the taste
  • • Can be batch prepared in advance

Cons of Kratom Tea

  • • Takes time to prepare
  • • Can be very bitter
  • • Will need to try various adjustments to get the flavor right

Powder

The other most popular way to take Kratom is to use Kratom powder. Powder can be used as an additive to other drinks or smoothies, or it can be used more directly if taken by using capsules instead.

Because of how convenient taking powder Kratom is, this is quickly becoming the most popular form. It’s simple to buy in bulk, can be taken discreetly, and doesn’t require an acquired taste like tea does!

Some of our favorite ways to combine Kratom powder are into yogurt, smoothies, drinks, dressings, and more!

Kratom Powder Pros

  • • Tends to be more affordable
  • • Easier to buy and store in bulk
  • • Versatile
  • • Can be put into capsules for easy digestion & storage

Kratom Powder Cons

  • • Can cause upset stomachs due to increased amount of plant matter
  • • Powders can be messy
  • • Can be harder to measure unless using capsules

Tablets

If you are looking for a very easy and discreet way to take Kratom, you might want to try Kratom tablets or gum.

Kratom tablets are made when high-pressure machinery creates a tablet by simply squeezing the powder together as hard as possible. They stay together without any binding agents as long as the proper machinery is used to make the tablets. Plus, you don’t have to make them yourself as you might need to do with powder capsules!

Kratom gum is also available. You should keep in mind that gum will likely have binding additives, so you should decide if you are okay with that or not.

Tablet Pros

  • • Very discreet
  • • Easy to carry around with you as needed
  • • Easy to measure

Tablet Cons

  • • Might contain additives
  • • Might contain chemicals
  • • Might contain added flavors

Extracts

Like CBD extracts, it is possible to create a pure extract from Kratom plants. These Kratom extracts have been used for many years in some areas of the world and can be a great way to take a concentrated amount of Kratom.

The extracts are often called full spectrum kratom because as many alkaloids as possible are pulled from the plants. If you want an easy intake method, full spectrum Kratom extract is a great way to do just that.

The extraction method usually goes something like this:

  • • Ethanol, water, or CO2 solvents are used to soak the plant and begin the extraction method. Usually, this involves a certain amount of soaking and heating as well.
  • • The plant’s alkaloids are pulled out of the plants.
  • • The alkaloids solvents are blended with the base extraction, and other natural flavors may be added as well.

If you want to avoid taking any type of extraction that includes alcohol, you can always check in with us about which extracts do and do not contain alcohol!

Extract Pros

  • • Very easy to take
  • • Can be dissolved into other liquids
  • • Typically contain more alkaloids
  • • Need to take less product to be effective due to higher concentration

Extract Cons

  • • Missing balanced plant extract; contains most alkaloids
  • • Can upset some people’s stomachs

Kratom: The Choice is Yours

There’s not a single way that you have to take Kratom. Powders can be mixed into smoothies, or teas can be brewed with honey and lemon flavors to make a tasty concoction that you can enjoy when needed. Or, you can simply take a capsule or tablet to get a direct serving of Kratom powder.

The point is that there are no specific rules about how you have to take Kratom. You can try these different ways; you might even find that you enjoy more than one ingestion method! In the end, the choice is yours.

How to Prepare Kava Tea: 5 Methods To Try At Home

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Kava is one of those fascinating substances that has been around for a very long time. Once used medicinally and for ceremonies in Polynesian, Micronesian, and Melanesian countries, kava has grown in popularity as a type of supplement in recent years.

With a 3,00 year long history, there are sure to be a lot of different ways that this substance can be prepared! The tradition methods can still be used, but there are also more efficient and effective ways to prep kava as technology has improved.

Today, we’ll introduce the various ways of making kava tea and help you understand how to prepare the tea properly.

Method #1: Traditional Kava Tea Preparation

The first way that you should learn how to prepare kava tea is via the traditional method. This is how the tea was brewed in many areas for hundreds of years. While it may be a less practical brewing method in today’s world, the rich history of this brewing method makes it a great choice.

This method might sound a bit wild at first, but this is really how the tea was prepared!

Kava root would be gathered. Then, female virgins were to chew this root into a pulp. Because the root is so tough to chew, it would be very difficult to do this, and it caused a lot of damage to the teeth.

Once the root was broken into a pulp, this was spit into a leaf. Water would be strained through the pulp in order to brew the tea.

As you can imagine, many young women did not want to have to keep doing this. Once they got married, they were no longer required to do this duty as it was something that only unmarried women were meant to do.

Method #2: Brewing Modern Kava Tea in Traditional Areas

If you visit areas where kava tea is still very popular due to its history in the area, you are not likely to see a team of virgin women chewing up the root. In addition to this not being very practical, it would be nearly impossible to make enough kava pulp for bars and visitors.

Today, fresh kava root is ground up using a manual grinder. Once the pulp is made, it is mixed with water and then strained through a fine, mesh strainer. This method, which is much more sanitary than the previous method, is much more manageable on a large scale.

Method #3: Kava Tea At Home with Strainer Bags

This is what you’ve been waiting for, right? How to make your own kava tea at home; coming right up!

Here’s what you should do:

  1. Put one part kava into a strainer bag.
  2. Put three parts warm water (not hot!) into a large bowl, and then put the strainer bag into the water.
  3. Reach your hands into the bowl and begin to knead and squeeze the strainer bag for at least 10 minutes. Be sure to use a lot of pressure.
  4. After the time is up, squeeze the bag as dry as possible.
  5. Consume it as quickly as possible!

As you can see, this method of brewing at home can be a bit labor intensive. Still, kneading the dry root with warm water in this way helps to break it down and release the beneficial antioxidants of kava more effectively than a short soaking.

Method #4: No-Kneading At Home Method

If you want to make kava tea at home but aren’t keen on the idea of kneading a strainer bag for 10 minutes, this is the method for you.

Here’s what you need to do:

  1. Get a fine mesh strainer for dry pressed root or a muslin tea bag for powdered kava.
  2. Add this strainer to your beverage of choice which should be cold or room temperature. Brewing in a hot liquid will ruin the beneficial properties of kava!
  3. Let it brew for at least 10 minutes; the longer, the better.
  4. Once brewing is complete, squeeze any remaining liquid out of the kava grounds before discarding them.
  5. Enjoy your drink!

If this still sounds like too much work for you, you may want to invest in instant kava. Instant kava mixes are made from pre-extracted kava. You can simply mix these into a beverage and be on your way to feeling better!

Method #5: Bulk Brewing Kava Tea

When you make kava in this way, you can make it in nearly any drink that you would like. While many people just use water, adding some type of fat can improve the extraction process. Try using all milk or mixing in one part milk to two parts water before brewing. You can even brew in a juice like a pineapple or a papaya juice!

Some companies that brew kava tea to sell it in bulk use a different method. In this method, the root is never ground up. Instead, the dry root is put into huge strainer bags with a lot of water. After it soaks for a designated about of time, big press machines press the liquid out of the bag to complete the delicious and efficient tea brewing.

This, of course, isn’t a method that you’ll be able to do at home. You can replicate something similar with a french press at home. Add kava and water to the press and let it soak for up to 10 hours. Press the kava tea, strain it, and then restrain the kava until it is not gritty. That’s it!

Explore Kava Tea Preparations!

Most kava tea preparations will have similar results as long as you do not accidentally deactivate the kava by using water that is too hot. Keep the water cold and explore different brewing methods until you find the one that is the easiest for you to do at home.

Remember, no matter how you brew it, kava tea doesn’t have the best taste on its own! Most people follow the tea with a chaser of fruit juice or another acidic and potent flavor that can cut away the earthy flavor of kava tea. Enjoy!