The color of Kratom

[Suleyken]

Hi guys, I might have asked this question before. I know there are the three strains of Kratom, white , red and green. In the early days, a few years ago, they all looked green, and of course the plants themselves are green. I used to love the red strains, but now whenever I buy red, the stuff is actually reddish in color, meaning fermented, if I am not mistaken.

Now I have found that the only Kratom I like is the fresh green stuff. I really don’t like fermented. It tastes bad and it doesn’t do anything for me.
So my question is: are the sellers now selling fermented stuff as “red strain”? If it is airdried and not fermented, it shouldn’t be red in color. I used to buy red Bali and it looked bright green.
I’m so confused. Maybe one of you specialistst can shed some light on the issue.
Thanks xoxo

[Lokey]

From what I've learned indoor dried reds are green and not fermented. Outdoor sun dried are oxidized and browner or redder in color and fermented is similar only dried longer in bags or something, I'm not sure how its fermented. I heard fermented can have more molds although we know fermented foods like pickles are good for you, and kratom is dry unlike pickles, saurkraut and kombucha. I heard fermented and oxidized are more relaxing and sedating and great for pain relief and green reds are daytime reds, maybe better for pain and less energizing than a white or green. I don't know where string dried falls in here, maybe there's indoor and outdoor string dried, nice to know it's not outside on the ground maybe. Some are a combo of indoor, outdoor, sun or no sun. Try the search feature for other threads using the word fermented. Sometimes a vendor participates and explains much better!

[X-Pup]

I'm not sure if this will answer your question but as a newbie myself I found this particular thread shed some light on the subject. Different colors and how they are produced. The latest May 2021 update shed some light on fermented kratom and the fact that most of it is not actually fermented. Towards the end of the first page.
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2931

[mivanqua]

Oxidized is good. Fermented is what you guys are talking about. You can smell the difference easily, and oxidized has a more gold tone in my opinion..

[Suleyken]

Thanks you guys! Your answers got me searching for more information. So there is an difference between fermented and oxydized. Sometimes I come across something valled “chocolate” and usually it is brownish in color. I tried some and didn’t really like it. However around 2017 when i first started I bought strain called “Red chocolate, it was green in color and AMAZING. Relaxing a real happymaker. In any case , back in the day everything seemed to be green, I think the growers are experimenting with different ways of drying and processing. I do like sauerkraut ok with my sausages, but I like my Kratom unfermented

[gumbyke1]

I broke down the difference between oxidized and fermented in my "Behind the Scenes of the Kratom Industry" post. Just scroll down to one of the last sections on the first page in the section titled "Are any of those fermented"" Link is below:

viewtopic.php?t=2931


I hope that helps!

[HalcyonicFrankfurter]

I totally agree with you about red "strains". They don't do much for me and have actually had some that precipitated withdrawal. It's the actual fermented reds that I'm talking about though - the ones that appear dark brown. There are other reds that aren't fermented and appear light brown or green and those are hit or miss (but some do work).
I learned from personal experience that dry heat over a period of time is what causes kratom to turn light brown. I had a few bags of bright green that I stored on top of a heated floor during the winter months. When I opened them, they had turned light brown, whereas all my other kratom bags stored at room temp for years are still green. Despite them turning brown, they all still had good potency. The effects might have mellowed out a bit though, but I can't be sure.

Overall, I only use greens. I want to be as close to the natural leaf as possible. Reds, if fermented, could possibly have more contaminants. And whites are just kind of jittery and put me on edge.