Kats Botanicals

[Kruh-Tom]

These strains were all from orders back in January. So while generally not all that relevant, something peculiar happened which is worth noting.

Kats Botanicals:
Green Maeng Da: 5/10 Average leaf. No negative side effects.
Crushed Leaf: 6/10? Hard for me to rate this one since I don't have a lot of experience with crushed leaf. Difficult to gauge potency since more leaf has to be used anyways when making tea. With that said though, it seemed like decent quality to me.
The Wedge: 8.5/10 to 5/10 This was a weird one. If i recall correctly, The Wedge is a blend of 50% white, 30% green, and 20% red. It was a brand new blend at the time. When I first opened the 250g bag, the effects were great. No negative side effects. Strong mood lift with a head rush if you could call it that. I also noticed there were little red/brown spots in the powder. Now about 1/4 of the way through the bag, the great effects became just average effects. Coincidentally, the little red/brown spots stopped appearing as well. I'm well aware of strains losing their effects after awhile due to tolerance. I could be wrong but I think this was something different. Especially since the effect change coincided with the red/brown spot disappearance. One might argue that maybe the red/brown spots were from the red strain and the red strain was responsible for the great effects. However, the red/brown spots made up a tiny portion of the bag. Maybe 1%-5%. Not 20%. Now, we all know how incredibly un-scientific personal reports on strains can be, so take my experience with a grain of salt. There could be multiple variables that I'm not accounting for. But hypothetically, let's assume that's not the case. Is it possible that a vendor could be bold enough to throw in an extract to the top quarter of a bag to boost the reputation of a new blend? Remember, this is basically just speculation. It wouldn't be right to defame Kats with such little evidence. Also, I have never had a powder extract. I've only seen pictures in which it is shown as being rather red/brown/black. Maybe someone here can shed some light on my experience with The Wedge.

[BobDylanKratom]

That is odd. I’d be surprised if Justin did that to his product. Along with Re-leaf, Kats was my first go-to vendor after discovering kratom. At the time I loved their leaf, because it was kratom and did what I needed it to do. Since I found Double M and MeWe I haven’t ordered from them. I found equal or better leaf at much lower prices.

I recall they had a spot on their website for extracts, but it was always unavailable when I was frequenting it. And a quick check shows it's not even listed as an option now.

I mean anything is possible. I don’t know Justin or the team there, but I got the sense they were honest and caring, and that has to count for something these days. I never bought a 250g bag from them, but acquired about 20 1oz bags over the course of a few weeks. There were a couple blends I really liked at the time (Above the Waves, Digital Buddha). I think The Wedge is their newest blend so I haven’t tried it. I still dip into some of them on occasionally just to mix things up. But none of those strains has wowed me lately. I think I’m getting spoiled with so much good leaf from a handful of MeWe vendors (Soul, LOE, Heavenleaf, Goldfumed, Fused Flora, Rhino, MitraMan) and others I’m just discovering after reading so many good things about them here (denette, 7ohm, DGB, SOSA, TFH, Benni, Smiley).

All of which is to say it’s a competitive industry and I’m sure such practices exist, but I never got the sense Kats would resort to such deception. I hope I’m right, but I’m curious to hear what others think about this. I don’t see much discussion about Kats here.

If nothing else, your post will make me look at my Kats leaf for red spots the next time I pull a bag out of storage!

[Kruh-Tom]

@BobDylanKratom
Yeah, you're probably right. From the outside, the Owner of Kats seems to be putting a good faith effort into operating a respectable business. Doubt they would do anything unethical. And in further defense of Kats, one explanation could be that the strain causing the red spots just wasn't mixed uniformly at the top of the bag. Therefore being present throughout the whole bag but only visible at the top portion. Would also explain why the dots "seemed" like they made up only 1%-5% of the bag. Anyways, I'm probably reading into this too much...

But yeah Kats was also the first kratom vendor I found that I actually liked. I still order their cbd oil from time to time too. As of late though, I've been getting leaf from Botanical Bunny. Been very happy with a few of their strains.

Glad you have experience with Kats though, like you said, they aren't mentioned here as much as others.

[Lokey]

I just checked my pack of Kat's The Wedge received recently, no little specks of red or black. I used it for the first time this week in the AM and thought it was great! I was pleasantly surprised because even though I started around January I'm beginning to feel tolerance building up so I find myself re-dosing more often. Nothing worse than not getting any results! I've been sticking to whites and greens for energy. Reds don't sedate me the way it does others, it seems to keep me awake also. This is my first time trying Kat's. Anyway, just wanted to confirm my pack of The Wedge looks clean, but I have heard of vendors selling enhanced powder by adding extracts, they're upfront about it and of course it costs more.

[kratomKonnie]

I really like their Spacebird blend. Good energy and mood elevation, long legs. Their CBD oil is good also.

[Zeedra]

These strains were all from orders back in January. So while generally not all that relevant, something peculiar happened which is worth noting.

Kats Botanicals:
Green Maeng Da: 5/10 Average leaf. No negative side effects.
Crushed Leaf: 6/10? Hard for me to rate this one since I don't have a lot of experience with crushed leaf. Difficult to gauge potency since more leaf has to be used anyways when making tea. With that said though, it seemed like decent quality to me.
The Wedge: 8.5/10 to 5/10 This was a weird one. If i recall correctly, The Wedge is a blend of 50% white, 30% green, and 20% red. It was a brand new blend at the time. When I first opened the 250g bag, the effects were great. No negative side effects. Strong mood lift with a head rush if you could call it that. I also noticed there were little red/brown spots in the powder. Now about 1/4 of the way through the bag, the great effects became just average effects. Coincidentally, the little red/brown spots stopped appearing as well. I'm well aware of strains losing their effects after awhile due to tolerance. I could be wrong but I think this was something different. Especially since the effect change coincided with the red/brown spot disappearance. One might argue that maybe the red/brown spots were from the red strain and the red strain was responsible for the great effects. However, the red/brown spots made up a tiny portion of the bag. Maybe 1%-5%. Not 20%. Now, we all know how incredibly un-scientific personal reports on strains can be, so take my experience with a grain of salt. There could be multiple variables that I'm not accounting for. But hypothetically, let's assume that's not the case. Is it possible that a vendor could be bold enough to throw in an extract to the top quarter of a bag to boost the reputation of a new blend? Remember, this is basically just speculation. It wouldn't be right to defame Kats with such little evidence. Also, I have never had a powder extract. I've only seen pictures in which it is shown as being rather red/brown/black. Maybe someone here can shed some light on my experience with The Wedge.

I have also noticed little reddish brown spots in a batch of wild red borneo from sth and my most recent order of red bali from mitra. I just figured it was some fermented kratom that didnt blend all the way. Most strains are just blends these days. Although I will say that these two strains from two different vendors are Indistinguishable from one another. So maybe all of them are getting the same stuff from one supplier, at least for this one batch? When I'm able I'll take a pic and upload it, as the clumps of brown are fairly noticeable