i actually tried kratom a few weeks ago but i haven't had a chance to post about it until now. i ordered the 10 gram (ahem) sampler online [snip]. from what i read, there are different types of kratom that come from different leaves in various regions (thai, malaysian, indonesian, etc.). the one i ordered, bali kratom, is supposedly one of the stronger varieties.
based on what i read [online], and also based on my non-existant tolerance for opiates, i decided to start out with a small threshold dose. i eyeballed about a third of my 10 gram bag of powder and dumped it into a plastic cup of water that was mixed with some green superfood powder. if you've ever had the green superfood odwalla drink, it was almost identical to that. i thought it would help mask the reportedly gross taste, and i could mentally blame any "planty" flavor on the superfood. plus both powders are green so it was pretty
i drank the mixture while walking to [a park] with some friends. the park is only a few blocks away from where i was staying, so the drink went down quickly. the first thing i noticed was an absence of the horribly foul taste that was described in so many reviews. it wasn't even nasty. i was a little bit surprised.
i waited it out for a while and nothing happened for so long that i forgot i had even consumed the powder. at least an hour went by, maybe even two. nothing really happened. i smoked a little bit of weed around this time, and once i got home i thought there *might* have been a tiny bit of something going on, but honestly it was probably just the weed. i decided i had been too conservative with my dose and that i'd just do the rest of the bag next time.
i think i elected to hit the rest of the powder (~6+ grams) a couple of days later. the same mixture (kratom, water, superfood powder) was used. i pounded the drink and then started some laundry. by the time i was ready to put the clothes in the dryer, my hands were shaking. i was definitely feeling the stimulant effects. unfortunately the stimulant side of kratom was not what i was looking forward to - i was hoping for more of the chilled out opiate properties of the drug. i mostly avoid stimulants (i don't even drink caffeine) but i've done a bit of coke, and kratom gave me kind of a similar shaky/antsy/maladjusted feeling.
i waited for the shakes to give way to some type of warm contentment but it never happened. i guess i did get a little bit of a body buzz for an hour or so, but it wore off and the shakes persisted. many hours later, i was in the east bay smoking joints with some friends and my hands were still shaking when i was passing the joint even though i wasn't otherwise feeling anything from the kratom. it was actually kind of annoying.
there are a few possible explanations for my lukewarm review:
- kratom has too much of a stimulant effect for me to enjoy it.
- i got some low quality (weak) powder. maybe this would explain why it didn't taste like much?
- i didn't dose correctly.
in any event, i don't really see myself spending any money on kratom again. i'd probably give it 2 stars out of 10, entrenching it firmly into the "meh" category.
