Gaia?

[livi2fly]

I got an email about their sale, but are they safe to order from? I know about the incident a little while back and the payment system seems a little weird. Any input?

[Psilocyberdemon]

Bought 5 or 6 samples, including 250 of w horn and only 1 or 2 did much of anything. The horn was bunk. That’s all it takes for me to look elsewhere. Maybe you’ll have better luck or a fresher batch.

[Trailmix]

I’ll just say that any one who wants to try Kratom I give them some of my left over Gaia stuff for free. It was the first online vendor I tried, as soon as I tried another one there was just no going back. I doubt the sale is good enough to justify it.

[herbalhippie]

I saw many posts at Reddit earlier this year that Gaia has really gone downhill. I probably wouldn't order from them myself.

[whiffypants]

It was the first online vendor I tried, as soon as I tried another one there was just no going back.

Ditto. It was great at the beginning when I had tried no other leaf and was honeymooning with kratom anyway, but now even the strain I enjoyed at first -- Super Green Malay -- has next to no effect. I use it in blends when I'm using another strain that's jittery on its own, almost as a placeholder or buffer, and I have an experimental pint jar of it sitting in a windowsill waiting for the sun to potentiate it, if that says anything.

I think the last time I tried it as a single strain was when we were out of town for a day and those were the caps I had on me -- that was a big fat meh dose of nearly nothing. I also got a sample of Elephant because people were saying it was extraordinarily sedative... nope. That ended up in my extract along with all my other meh strains and leftover samples where it could actually do some good.

Gaia used to be good, but something happened last year to change that. I don't know what, but unless I heard a lot more good from regulars I know, I can't imagine I'd be buying there again.

[herbalhippie]

That reminds me I've had three Ziplocs of three different strains out sitting in the hot summer sun for weeks. every time I go out to look at them and smoosh them around and turn them the layer on top has turned from bright green to a brownish rust color. I should give one of them a try! I think I'll do that when I get home from work today!

[whiffypants]

Right on, HH! Mine haven't turned color but they're not getting a lot of -direct- sunlight either. Let us know how your experiment turns out!

[labdog03]

It's sad really...back when I first started out, Dan was the MAN. Now, not so much. I got leaf from him before he was even Gaia, and he was a really great guy. Back 3-4 years ago, I would put his leaf up against anyone's. I still have a few excellent bags from back then. Gold Bali, his original green Malay and Elephant, White MD, Ganesh MD, Green and Red Dragons when they first came out, man, some GOOD leaf. It seemed to get hit or miss when he got really big. Then went to more often a complete miss, just one too many times. I just had to stop ordering from him.

[BallzDeep9]

Gaia? They've been OFF the vendor list for a while now .. Too many reports of bunk. That's totally separate, individual, reviews of crappy leaf. Put 2+2 together... They run some weird partnership with a head-shop supplier called Triangle Pharma Naturals out of Las Vegas. Which is involved in Chameleon extract products "Legal High" bullshit for retail gas stations. Sold at huge markups of course .. Appears like a pattern of getting too big, putting profits before quality control .. and ordering HUGE loads of product from Indo.

Let's say they ordered 10 tons. Container shipment. Very likely considering their business volume. Smaller vendors are known to order 5 tons. OK so... suppose Gaia orders 10 tons/ 20,000 pounds, over 9000 kilos all strains. But! Indo sources are selling to more US suppliers now, Demand exceeds Supply. Creating .. a Sellers market, what happens then?

Sure we'll supply your 10 tons... We don't have enough good kratom, so we'll just mix in a bunch of monkey dung, to "make weight". Easy! Scrape the jungle floor for piles of dirt leaf. Bingo! Are they going to TEST each of 9,000 kilos for quality ? Of course not.

Avoid head-shop vendors and BIG vendors who lose quality control .. Buy from small batch vendors, before they get too BIG.

[Maxxx]

Gaia was one of the first places I bought samples from a couple months ago, and I wasn't all that impressed even when my tolerance was new.

I would HIGHLY recommend Stan David. His Yellow Vietnam and Yellow Gold are outstanding - mellow and chill and wonderful. His Red Kali, Red Malay, and Red Chocolate are also very nice, and his Green MD, and Super Duper Green are fantastic... I've actually never had a bad experience with anything from him.

[DirtyRadish]

I ordered 2 kilos in the spring time without hesitation because the previous year the same 4 strains were just fantastic. For me to get anything from any of these strains I literally have to double my dose. And I don’t want to do that, that’s gross. I was told the leaf is the same as it’s always been, it must be because of my tolerance. Now, my tolerance is certainly as high as it’s ever been, but one shouldn’t have to double dose to get barely noticeable effect. I have always liked Dan and his customer service was great. But it’s not the same as it used to be, there’s no way i could stand up if I took 9 grams of Super Green Malay or Elephant....

[MetalMamaRocks]

It's sad really...back when I first started out, Dan was the MAN. Now, not so much. I got leaf from him before he was even Gaia, and he was a really great guy. Back 3-4 years ago, I would put his leaf up against anyone's. I still have a few excellent bags from back then. Gold Bali, his original green Malay and Elephant, White MD, Ganesh MD, Green and Red Dragons when they first came out, man, some GOOD leaf. It seemed to get hit or miss when he got really big. Then went to more often a complete miss, just one too many times. I just had to stop ordering from him.

He had some really good Ganesh MD a couple of years ago. I ordered some back last fall and didnt get much out of it. It's a shame.

[whiffypants]

They run some weird partnership with a head-shop supplier called Triangle Pharma Naturals out of Las Vegas.

IIRC, Triangle was one of the suppliers specifically called out by name in the CDC reports on that salmonella thing a few months back.

EDITED TO ADD: Yup, I remembered right: https://www.fda.gov/Food/RecallsOutbrea ... 597265.htm

Avoid head-shop vendors and BIG vendors who lose quality control .. Buy from small batch vendors, before they get too BIG.

Truer words were never spoken!

I would HIGHLY recommend Stan David. His Yellow Vietnam and Yellow Gold are outstanding - mellow and chill and wonderful. His Red Kali, Red Malay, and Red Chocolate are also very nice, and his Green MD, and Super Duper Green are fantastic... I've actually never had a bad experience with anything from him.

Hey Maxxx, I've never heard of him but he sounds great and I wouldn't mind hearing more. Do you have a link or can you tell us more about him? Thanks!

[Maxxx]

Hey Maxxx, I've never heard of him but he sounds great and I wouldn't mind hearing more. Do you have a link or can you tell us more about him? Thanks!

He's out of North Carolina. I picked up some samples from him on a whim after someone recommended him, and they were great. I've ordered samples from 7 or 8 different places, and while some have been really good, I keep going back to SD. I can't recommend him highly enough.

Here's a link to his site: https://www.standavidbotanicals.com

He also has a facebook group where people discuss the different strains and their experiences. If you do a search on FB you'll find it.

You can get a 4-way split kilo for $89, which I don't think is too bad, and the quality seems to be great. 1oz samplers are $5. The strains that have stuck out to me are Yellow Vietnam, Yellow Gold, Green MD, Red Malay, and Red Kali. I stay clear of whites, but people rave about them in the FB group. He also has crushed leaf, which is the best I've found, and S&V, but I haven't tried that yet.

I called him a few days ago to change an order and talked to him for about 10 minutes. Very nice guy, gets new shipments every week. We talked about the panic of 2016, and the testing he does on his product, etc. He's open and friendly and he has a very good reputation among his customers. Definitely worth trying, IMO.

Hope this helps.

[whiffypants]

Really great information -- thanks for taking the time! I'm also going to copy that post to the Vendor and Strain Reviews so others can see it too, outside the shadow of Gaia. Thanks!

[WhiteAngelica]

I will say I got a half kilo of Ganesh MD and Gold Bali and those are two consistent winners for me. I ordered these last month or two, and they were solid as ever. For me, that is...my tolerance is extremely high.

[Devil_Dog21]

Like most people on this thread, I started with Gaia last year and it was good (not great but not bunk either). Since at the time I was looking for caps and they sold at a good price and because of the threat of banning kratom I bought 4 kilos of caps from him. I'm still have roughly 1.5 Kilos and I mix it in with some of my more current purchases so I don't notice any difference. But again this was from last year and when I heard all the bad press on them I resign to move away from them and eventually went to capping my own.

Net / Net, don't buy from them as others have said.

[livi2fly]

Thanks to everyone for the input! I ended up using Botanical Bunny because of the sale this past weekend. I'll probably just stick with Ronnie at Seven Breezes, he's had consistently good leaf.

[whiffypants]

Yeah, Seven Breezes is definitely on my personal "next up to try" vendor list -- never heard a bad word, consistently good leaf and customer service reviews, AND he actively participates in the community, which is a huge plus for me.

Most of our favorite vendors here used to, before business got brisk and the Reddit ban came down: BB, K-OG, RVA... which is part of how they came to be favorites, I think. Interestingly, I heard that the owner of Gaia is a really good guy in person, but I never saw him on the Reddit kratom subs. Coincidence?

[labdog03]

Dan was a good guy and probably still is...stuff happens I guess. I sure don't know what his issues of late my be from? But I do remember back before Dan was actually "Gaia" I placed a BIG order...for me at that time anyway. It included 2 kilos of his Elephant. It did NOTHING for me? (Elephant is very hit or miss for me for some reason?)...So I let him know, thinking I was just stuck with it...He immediately credited my credit card for that amount and even PAID for shipping for me to send it back to him. I was so new back then, that it just blew my mind, and Dan became one of my most trusted Vendors for a long while after (and because) of that.

[whiffypants]

Wow, great story. Yeah, that's the kind of thing I used to hear about him before he got big. Interesting tidbit, I know exactly where his shop is and probably could have met him easily, but that was before I knew about kratom.

[BallzDeep9]

AND he actively participates in the community, which is a huge plus for me.

Same. Ronnie gets extra points for spending his time on MeWe, always helpful, and he steers clear of most BS there I think .. lol

Seven Breezes is moving up my List as well. He's sourcing some fine leaf. He's got multiple, small batch, suppliers.. And getting great reviews. Has some video on YouTube even And he runs specials pretty often on MeWe... what more do ya want!

Compare that with GAIA who's gotten way too big, had FDA problems, etc.. Or a guy like DG Botanicals who, obviously, gets high quality but never EVER appears online to hang out w/ the folks. I know DG (and others) feel there is a liability/ paranoid about FDA tracking online .. Ronnie and most good vendors, don't worry about that BS. Customers appreciate the service.