How to Brew Kratom Tea with Fresh Leaves In 9 Steps

In this following guide, we’ll be showing you a behind the scenes at Top Tree Herbs research and development.  We are always striving to bring you the best quality kratom tea possible. Here, we’ll show you how to brew kratom tea with whole dried leaves or fresh leaves.

Today, I want to tell you about the best cup of kratom tea I have ever made.  Due to the incredible flavor of this tea, we are now working to incorporate this product into our inventory.  Its delicacy, demand, and limited stock, however, will make it more expensive, there is no way around it. We’re working to find the best balance to get this luxury out to everyone who wants it, at an affordable price.

Because it is so rare and expensive, I urge you to be fully present for the brewing and drinking of this tea.  Let the brewing process be the meditation that primes you for the experience of tasting this delicate, floral, and downright delicious tea.

This is not a replacement for the convenience of tea bags, this is a special occasion—a ritual, a treat.

Step 1: Pick Your Kratom Leaves Off Of Your Mitragyna speciosa Tree

Don’t have a tree? Keep checking back to the site for updates on sapling availabilities. We’re also working on making fresh leaf an option on our shop!

 

Step 2: Lay Your Kratom Leaves Out To Dry

A lot of people like making fresh leaf kratom tea with the green leaves. This is delicious in it’s own right, but leaving the leaves out to dry is thought to contribute to the percentage of 7-OH-mitragynine in the leaf.

I like to let them brown and curl before I make a tea with them.

Step 3: Transport Your Kratom Leaves To Your Kitchen

Use your hat for this if you forgot to plan ahead and bring a basket.

Step 4: Hand Crush Your Kratom Leaves


Take this time to appreciate the shape, texture, and character of the brittle leaf.  Listen to the snap as you crush it between your fingers. Soft, earthly scents flood your nostrils as the cracking distributes the aromatics into the air.

Recognize and appreciate just how lucky we are to have this symbiotic relationship with the kratom tree. All the good that has come of kratom, is contained within this leaf. Work it between your fingers.  Let this intimacy be the message of your appreciation.

Step 5: Place The Crushed Leaves In A Tea Steep

I used a kettle with an elevated container.  Mine works by directing boiling water through the interior spout which continuously flows over the leaves.

You can use any appropriate tea steeping device you have on hand.  A simple metal mesh ball will do the job.

Step 6: Pour Lemon Juice Over Your Dry Leaves


I like to do this before I add any water, that way the leaves and the lemon juice have more time to do their magic.  Given that the water is added shortly after, the order of this step is not that important. 

The lesson to distill from this: add an acid. Lemon juice is my go to, but I love the occasional fresh squeezed grapefruit!

Step 7: Add Water

Well, you can’t make tea without water. 

Water is probably the most underrated thing, period.  There, I said it.  We’d be nowhere without water. We really shouldn’t take our current relationship with water for granted.  Anyways… I digress.

Step 8: Bring To A Boil and Steep For 30+ Minutes

You’re almost there.  Soon you’ll have the best tasting kratom tea possible.  It is the best practice to let your kratom leaves steep on the longer side if you want a stronger beverage.  Traditionally, the leaves are steeped for almost 4 hours in Thailand!

If you steep them for anything less than that, you can save your leaves for a second brew as there are still active alkaloids left!

Step 9: Enjoy

This is the easy part!  Finally, you can enjoy your cup of fresh leaf kratom tea.  You’ll notice that the bitterness is much less apparent, and plays with the other flavors instead of overpowering them. When you brew kratom tea with fresh leaves, you will start to understand why kratom has been traditionally consumed this way.

(Bonus Step: Brew Again!)

Given that mitragynine has a relatively low water solubility, chances are you didn’t get all of the alkaloids the first time around! 

I like to let the second pull steep longer than I did my first time.  Since this often results in the evaporation of a portion of your water, you’ll be left with a more concentrated beverage.  While you can enjoy a small cup of tea, there are other options.  

A great option is to make ice cubes! Use them to cool down your next cup of kratom tea without diluting it!

April 2021 Update:

Bob, our resident Top Tree Herbs botanist, informed us that our 50+ 3-year old kratom trees will be moved outside into the warm Appalachian air on May 15th. In the greenhouse, the kratom trees are fed a restricted diet to prevent them from outgrowing the space during the winter. Come May 1st, our trees will be put back on an organic fertilizer diet that satisfies all their biosynthesis requirements.

Keep your eye’s peeled for updates on the site regarding fresh leaf availability. Sign up for our newsletter to be the first to know!

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Soren Shade
Soren Shade is the Founder and CEO of Top Tree Herbs. He was the producer for Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia, and continues to produce the Hamilton Morris Podcast. He writes with a holistic look at natural and synthetic pharmacology, traditions-of-use, and a love for freedom of consciousness. You can find Soren rock climbing or advocating for sensible drug reform and anti-prohibition.

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