Let’s break down what real kratom tea is, why some individuals and companies stretch the definition, and why using the correct term for different kratom products actually matters.
Imagine this: you’re watching a video of a person mix a spoonful of powder into a glass of orange juice. When they finally finish stirring it, they pinch their nose and chug the speckled green-brown liquid as quickly as possible.
They set the empty glass on their countertop and make an “agh” face—the same one you made as a kid when your pediatrician stuck a tongue depressor down your throat to check your tonsils.
What the world is that stuff? You look at the caption. It says: “how I take my kratom tea 🍃.”
You think to yourself, there’s no way in hell that’s a type of tea… And we wholeheartedly agree with you.
Misleading Terminology: What People Mean When They Say “Kratom Tea”
The term “kratom tea” used to mean exactly what it sounds like—tea made by steeping the leaves of kratom trees in water. But over the past few years, people have started to twist the meaning of kratom tea to fit their business marketing needs or their personal brand.
Depending on who you’re talking to, “kratom tea” could mean:
- Actual tea made by steeping kratom leaves
- Powder used for toss and wash
- Powder stirred into hot water, orange juice, or another drink
- Tablets pressed from powder
- Alkaloid extracts in mini shots or canned drinks
In our view, only the first one—steeped kratom leaf tea—is truly kratom tea. Not chalky slurries, not extract shots, not pressed tablets.
By steeping the leaves, you can make an iced or hot brew that tastes a lot better than most plain leaf kratom products—and it can provide you with more comfortable, smooth, not-so-over-the-top effects.
How Did the Kratom Tea Confusion Start?
About a decade ago, plain ‘ol ground-up kratom leaf powder was the main kratom product companies sold. Extracts, tea bags, gummies, and seltzers weren’t available.
Many people mixed their powder into hot water—similar to how you’d make matcha—so it was easier to consume quickly without tasting the bitter leaf powder.
Understandably, some people would call this powder and water mixture “tea.” (Many people also refer to this preparation as a kratom slurry, or swamp water.)
In 2020, we founded Top Tree and created the first crushed-leaf kratom tea bags. At that time, far fewer people were using the term kratom tea. If you searched for it on Google, you’d typically find us right away.
Now, you have to sift through links to irrelevant company websites and review articles. Why? Because since 2020, vendors, consumers, and advocates have taken the term “kratom tea” and run with it—even though the majority of them don’t sell kratom tea bags or loose leaf tea.
Why Do People Use the Term “Kratom Tea” to Refer to Things that Aren’t Tea?
Why are people doing this? It mainly comes down to marketing.
What do you think of when you hear the word tea? A cup of warm chai spices that feels like a blanket on a chilly winter day… An icy glass of sweet tea that makes a sweltering summer afternoon bearable… A frothy matcha latte that helps you stay laser focused at work…
It’s a pretty nice picture—and it’s a very different picture than the one the general public used to have of kratom.
The average American’s perception of kratom hasn’t been great over the last decade. Media outlets sometimes incorrectly portrayed kratom as a synthetic substance; until a few years ago, manufacturers rarely lab tested their products for potential contaminants; smoke shops sold kratom in poorly labeled, low-quality packaging; and on top of that, the demographic of people who used kratom was a heavily stigmatized one.
The kratom community justifiably wanted to change this perception. By marketing the products they used or sold as “tea,” people have been able to:
- Soften the public perception of kratom and reduce stigma
- Make kratom sound more natural, wellness-focused, and mainstream when trying to appeal to new customers or to stay under the radar with regulators.
From one perspective, this push to destigmatize kratom (and the people who use it) is admirable. But from another, it’s blurring the truth about what some kratom products actually are. It can slip into “wellness-washing.”
Why Do We Care? Risks of Using the Wrong Terms
Here are three notable downsides to referring to random kratom products as tea (beyond just making it harder for us to explain to people what our kratom tea bags are):
1. Wellness-washing hides potential risks.
When you call everything “kratom tea,” you may convince other people that every type of kratom product—no matter how it’s formulated and how you consume it—is gentle and harmless. But like any plant that has noticeable psychoactive effects, kratom deserves real respect and education prior to use.
Just because something is a natural product doesn’t mean it’s inherently safe (and just because a product is refined or processed doesn’t mean it’s inherently bad). Kratom can be safe and beneficial in your life, but that depends on the formulation you choose, the serving size you consume, and a handful of other factors.
2. Using distinct terms helps people understand product strength.
For many herbs, you’d likely assume that a tea option is mild compared to extract shots, tinctures, or pills. That’s true for kratom. Crushed-leaf kratom tea bags are one of the most mild kratom product options available.
On the other hand, kratom extracts are typically extremely concentrated. Referring to a concentrated mitragynine extract as “kratom tea” is kind of like referring to a super-strength caffeine pill as “matcha.”
3. Safety data for brewed kratom tea shouldn’t be used to promote other formulations.
Much of the evidence showing kratom’s safety comes from its traditional use as a brewed tea, where the leaves are steeped in boiling water and filtered out. Communities in Southeast Asia have practiced this method of consuming kratom for hundreds of years.
Many companies have appropriated that safety data to market product formulations that are very different from traditional tea and carry different risks (including concentrated extracts, enhanced powders, and kratom mixed with other psychoactive substances).
Even when comparing steeped kratom tea and plain powder slurries, there are important differences:
- The same amount of leaf will have different effects. Drinking a slurry with 3 grams of kratom powder and drinking brewed tea made with 3 grams of crushed leaf kratom won’t give you the same exact effects.
- Tea tastes very different than powder slurries. Powder slurries are gritty and bitter—they’re often hard to drink. Real tea is smooth and light, and the flavor is easy to customize with add-ins like lemon, cinnamon, or vanilla.
- Raw powder can be difficult for some people to digest. Many people find brewed, filtered tea to be easier on the GI tract.
Steeped, Not Stirred—Ready to Taste the Real Thing?
Real kratom tea—steeped, filtered, and shared by communities for generations—deserves to be understood for what it actually is. The meaning shouldn’t be watered down as part of kratom vendors’ marketing tactics to sell more products.
If you want to experience for yourself how Top Tree’s kratom tea is different, you can check out our premium crushed-leaf tea bags right here.
Cheers to better brewing, everyone.
A Big Asterisk for the True Tea Fanatics Out There
Okay, for the record… we know that technically, “tea” refers to drinks made from the Camellia sinensis plant, like black tea or green tea. If you’re being a stickler about it, a drink made by steeping Mitragyna speciosa leaves is really an herbal infusion, not a tea. The same is true for drinks made by steeping chamomile flowers, mint leaves, and other herbs.
So if you’re a true tea lover who is currently shouting at your computer screen that we’re giant hypocrites and we shouldn’t even be using the word tea to describe our steeped crushed-leaf kratom drinks…
We hear you. We’re reeeeally sorry. Can you forgive us if we keep using the term kratom tea for our brews?
Because let’s be honest… the “tea” vs. “herbal infusion” ship sailed a long time ago. But the “kratom powder” vs. “kratom tea” ship is still in the harbor, and we want to make sure it doesn’t leave.
