Help me understand Fermented strains.

[boomjr]

Whats up with Fermented Kratom. I got some Red Banjar from BB in Feb of this year and it did absolute zero. Same happened with the recent S. Royal Bent from STH. Both of these are almost brown in color, fine like sand, and gritty with a strange taste. I am assuming these are the characteristics of fermented Kratom. I don't have a high tolerance or anything, normal green strains work just great for me. It confuses me that I hear such rave reviews for some bents with my experience. I Know everybody's biology is different but I was wondering if any experts can shine some light on what is up with the fermented stuff! Also does anyone have the 411 on what strain is absolute fire right now? Looking for that euphoric greatness.

Thanks!!

[BallzDeep9]

I got some Red Banjar from BB in Feb of this year and it did absolute zero. Same happened with the recent S. Royal Bent from STH. Both of these are almost brown in color, ...

ya know I got that BB Red Banjar, when they first stocked it, 1st 2017 batch was lights out.. very strong !! Since then, later batches.. not so great.. Just goes to show ya, it's all about the bee-yatch . Not the so-called strain! Do a Reddit Search "Red Banjar" see dozens of rave reviews. Example, note the Reddit search time line shows about 1 year ago but I'm sure those reviews are late 17, to early 2018.

A GOOD quality fermented Bentuangie, can be potent with a nice red buzz & strong pain relieving effects.. BUT, seems like it's hard to do it right. Suppliers / farmers / keep it in bags too long and the leaves get too oxidized, and the batch gets ruined.. So whadda they do? Sell it anyway lol

[boomjr]

The consistency problem with Kratom really sucks. Even the same strain at the same time has a mixture of leaf from multiple farmers and god knows what non-Kratom matter in the bag. SO is red banjar always fermented? Is it possible to determine if a strain is fermented by color? I notice that every fermented strain I have tried has been like a brown or dirt color. Now that I think of it all those strains tasted like dirt. Maybe I have been toss and washing 3 grams of premo Indonesian dirt every time.

Thanks for your input.

[BurntEnds]

IME bents are more often underwhelming by themselves than they are spectacular because as Ballz said it's easy for the farmer to overdo some step of the fermentation process or possibly they just start with mediocre leaf to begin with and the oxidation doesn't improve the overall quality.

The process of fermentation is supposed to increase at least the 7ohm content among who knows how many of the other lesser known alkaloids that haven't adequately been researched. However I've found that high 7ohm without some decent mitragynine falls rather flat for my tastes.

For me personally I find they're often much better blended into another strain, that's where they shine. I can add some bent to a strain that wouldn't normally knock me out and viola I have a sleepy blend. I like blending them with slower greens or even lower mid greens or adding some to a faster strain for during the daytime to mellow it out. It all depends on time of day and what my goal is.
There's been a number of strains I thought were duds but when I started blending with them they surprised me with what they added.

[fusedflora]

Short, most strains are not different; they're just mixes of reds and greens. See below. This chart depicts most of the mainstream kratom strains in the US. Now I'm not talking Soul, Simple, some of my strains, or some other vendors here, I'm talking most of the big company and big vendor strains. White kratom is actually very rare, so most you see, unfortunately, are mixes of reds and greens. Kratom doesn't even grow on Bali. And Borneo is the size of Texas (Hulu, Kapuas, Banjar, Jongkong, etc. are all areas in Borneo, as well as part of Malaysia and Brunei); so what makes a Borneo a Borneo? Alas, we're talking colors here, so short 95% of what you see are just blends of red (what we'd call bent) and original green. Next time you get bugged by an indonesian, ask about the original strains they use, most are very open about it.




It is very rare, but you get some people that sole source that actually do the colors right. In which case, I'll defer to Simple_TFH post here :viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2931&p=26571&hilit=driveway#p26571

What I'd add is that there is also what is known to indonesians as "white bones." As Simple_TFH points out, whites are rare, but you can find them. They are the veins from white kratom leaves and it is usually from very very old growth trees or in special conditions. If you have sole sourcing, one could have all three, red, white, and green, but this is very rare (think like 3-5% of kratom imported to USA). In which case, the process of fully fermenting a red (bent), ferment indoors a green (gold), and fermenting indoors "white bones," (yellow) could lead to those colors. It really just depends on your vendor.