Read the first couple of paragraphs and skip to bottom one if you don't wanna read it all; I always seem to end up with long posts even when I try and stay brief.
I have tried many vendors over the years of taking kratom and very few I find have good red strains. Often what they market as 'red bali/borneo' ends up being some very light almost sand color kratom and it usually gives me anxiety. I am very prone to anxiety on kratom and only the deepest color reds will suffice for me to be able to enjoy.
There were a couple of good vendors pre ban which had great reds but they went down with the ban. Since then the absolute best and most reliable bar non have been kraatje. Their kratom is top notch 9/10, only 1 time I have gotten a not so good batch of red borneo from them over several years using them but otherwise fantastic. I hear that they are resellers of bikhuk, not that is matters but good to know as they are one of the biggest distributors.
Another quality about bad quality kratom which I have found is a telltale sign I won't like it is that it will look almost damp and be very fine and the smell it has reminds me of pva glue. The good stuff from kraatje is very matt and neutral in smell of tea and the red borneo is a real deep green/reddish that I would expect. The same can be said of the good ones I remember pre ban. Low in smell, very dry, and a deep rich red/green color. Anything else has usually spelled trouble for me when I came to try them. So I am wondering what you guys could recommend in that 'vein' which are catering to UK or ideally ship domestic because I am so sick of wasting money on kratom I end up not liking and throwing down the toilet.
Anyway kraatje are great quality wise it is just their shipping is incredibly expensive to ship to uk with dhl as the only option.
I had been reading around and saw a couple of ones who ship from within UK apparently. This would be great also for peace of mind since kratom is still supposedly not legal to import though I have still yet to hear of anyone being prosecuted for personal use it does cause me nervousness every time I order from mainland until I receive my shipment.
So kratom.co.uk and also mitragenie kratom (the UK one as I have read the confusion of there being up to 3 active genies) both seem to say they ship from uk.
Kratom.co.uk I actually tried the other day and sadly I really didn't like their kratom. The bali I ordered was of the 'sand color' variety and really didn't look or feel like a red vein at all. Nothing like the waves of relaxation I get from kraatje's red vein borneo. I also had red thai which was even lighter and the little I tried had just the same unpleasant effects. I ended up just throwing it out as was not impressed whatsoever.
So to the genie...there seems to be a lot of mixed reviews about them of what little there is. I also tried emailing them a couple of times and they just ignored me after a couple of emails which doesn't inspire confidence though I read on here they had been both busy and do not like speaking on email, preferring whatsapp or such, which I don't use. Also on trustpilot there is a terrible review from some woman moaning about the insurance charges, although she concedes the kratom quality was excellent, however I looked at her reviews and every single review she gave on trustpilot was 1 star or similar bad reviews of all 8 she gave of unrelated companies. So I suspect either professional negative reviewer or some mental issues.
There was also a spate of positive reviews of the genie again on trustpilot which all came in the same day (5 I counted) which also raises suspicion as it seems they are also shill reviews to try and overthrow that other negative review.
However, it seems the reviews on this forum are genuine of them and people speak highly of the quality but the question I would like to know is what their red vein is like? Most people probably don't have the same demands of red strains that I do since I am so sensitive to the anxiety kratom brings.
So I wonder what others say of what the red of the (UK) genie is like, if they can recommend it given the qualities I stated I like in reds above or whether it would likely be another dud for me (would be good to see a pic or two if any personal user has some of their stuff as the ones they have on their sites just look like stock photos and not even real - what is with all the glistening of the particles on those pics!). I think they are the only 2 vendors who ship domestic in UK now aren't they? and I have ruled out kratom.co.uk for product that works for me. Ideally I would find a domestic vendor with kratom I like but I realize that is a tall order now post ban so welcome suggestions for mainland europe vendors who might have 'proper' red vein stuff with maybe more reasonable shipping costs than kraatje.