What’s With the Different Colors?

If you are new to Kratom, you will find this guide to be helpful and informative. If you are an experienced Kratom user, buckle up because I’m going to explain some things that are going to make you want to yell, “Liar!” You may not want to hear or believe what I’m telling you at first, but trust me, it’s the REAL TRUTH about Kratom vein colors.

The bottom line is that THERE IS NO RELIABLE DIFFERENCE IN KRATOM COLORS OR STRAINS! I know, I know, I struggled with this at first too. I mean, I know for a fact that White Kratom gives me more energy and Red Kratom is more sedating. Well, sometimes. Sometimes I get a batch of Red that keeps me up all night and a batch of White that wipes me out. So, what gives?

Firstly, YES, there ARE differences between batches of Kratom. In fact, no two batches you buy are very likely to be exactly the same! But this is due to alkaloid profile, NOT vein color. (Learn more about Kratom Alkaloids here).

What Are Kratom Vein Colors Really?

It’s complicated. What we call Kratom (Cray-tom, or Kra-tome depending upon who you ask) is a tropical tree known as Mitragyna speciosa that grows wild in the rainforests of Southeast Asia. These trees have green leaves with green veins.

Due to various environmental factors like age of the leaf, season of the year, time of day, humidity level, etc., those veins and leaves may be a different color like red or white.

Think of a maple tree; the leaves are green, except when they aren’t. Then they are yellow, red, and orange. But you wouldn’t say a maple tree has orange leaves, would you?

The Myth: Different Trees Produce Different Colors

There is a common misconception that there are separate Kratom trees that have leaves with either Green, Red, or White veined leaves. But this is not true.

Any Kratom tree can have any vein color, or combination of vein colors, at any given time. The alkaloid levels of all leaves are not the same either. Larger, more mature leaves will have a richer alkaloid profile than smaller, less mature leaves.

Local farmers harvest the leaves from the trees and put them all in one big pile. They do not meticulously pick through huge piles of leaves and separate them by color.

Imagine raking your front yard of all those Autumn maple leaves and making nice neat piles of orange, red, and yellow leaves! It all gets bunched together and then dried.

If there are more red leaves in a pile, that batch will be more red; if more young white leaves, then it will be lighter, etc. But that’s not the whole story.

How Drying Actually Determines Kratom Color

Once the leaves are harvested, they undergo a drying process, and this is where the real distinction in color happens.

Drying Factors That Change Kratom Color

• UV exposure
• Heat
• Humidity
• Fermentation
• Oxidation

Leaves that ferment in bags for a few days before being dried directly in the sun oxidize and turn a more reddish color.

Leaves dried indoors receive less UV light and therefore oxidize less and have a brighter green tint.

Drying usually produces only red and green variations of dried Kratom. Other colors such as white, yellow, or gold are simply mixes of those red and green dried leaves.

(Some vendors claim proprietary processes that also produce white powder, but we do not know the authenticity of these claims.)

Does Drying Affect Alkaloid Profiles?

Yes — but not in a simple, predictable way.

Fermentation and oxidization can convert small amounts of Mitragynine (MG) into 7-Hydroxymitragynine (7-OH). (Learn more about Kratom Alkaloids here).

This shift can change the experience of the final product. However, this alone is not enough to define the characteristics of a certain color.

Every batch of Kratom has a unique alkaloid profile, so being red doesn’t guarantee higher 7-OH than another color.

Why Vendors Still Label Kratom Colors

In a word: marketing.

Variation in batches occurs naturally, and these variations can produce varying effects. So, in the early 2000s vendors started assigning vein colors to their Kratom products to help explain these differences and to market one product as multiple distinct SKUs.

If you are unaware, this is an EXTREMELY common practice. Just go to your local drug store and look at the aisle of cold medicine. Read the labels. You’ll find the exact same product labeled as serving different purposes.

Is It All Just a Placebo Effect?

Not necessarily — although placebo does play a role.

If you are convinced that a certain strain or color of Kratom provides you with a certain effect, you may find this to be consistently true.

However, actual differences between batches and drying methods can slightly alter the alkaloid profile.

But the BOTTOM LINE is that it is the ALKALOID PROFILE, NOT THE COLOR, that determines the effect of any particular batch of Kratom.

Why Purest Kratom Sells 3 Colors Anyway

To be honest, it’s marketing. We know that many experienced Kratom users believe (even after reading this) that a certain color provides, for them, a certain effect. And if that’s you, that’s cool. We want your business too.

But we just have to be as honest and as transparent as possible. After all, it’s the main reason we started Purest Kratom: to replace the stigma and confusion surrounding Kratom with truth and clarity.

How to Choose the Right Kratom

If you are an experienced user, please grab your favorite color. We filter out the lower-quality crap and let someone else sell that. We only sell the Kratom with the best alkaloid profiles.

We label those DR Downer’s Maeng Da.

We don’t bother with the other BS strains like Borneo, Bali, Super Indo, etc., because just like color, the strains don’t really exist (Learn more about the Truth About Kratom Strains here).

Even knowing all this, I always go for White. It’s just the color that provides the results I want (I know, placebo effect).

Best Kratom for Beginners

If you are new to Kratom, may we recommend starting with our Green Maeng Da? It is a customer favorite and our best seller.

Each batch has a unique alkaloid profile which is clearly listed on every label of Purest Kratom along with a full lab report listing total alkaloid content, which comes in every package you receive from Purest Kratom (Learn more about COAs here).

Final Thoughts

We appreciate you being on this journey with us and hope this article helped answer some of your questions (or maybe it just raised more, in which case you should check out our blog for more Kratom news, truth, and updates).

We’re sorry if you’re a long-time Kratom enthusiast and we burst your bubble. But don’t just take our word on it. Below are some links to back up our statements.

Until next time,

DR Downer

“I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV”