Cooking is an art. Baking is a science. But what is brewing kratom tea?
Making kratom tea is both an art and a science. (And honestly, cooking and baking are often both, too.) Below, we’re going to stick to the science side of brewing: what kratom alkaloids are, why the amounts vary in different kratom batches, and how steeping in water impacts them.
- Key Compounds in Kratom Leaves
- Why Some Kratom Products Are Stronger than Others
- Brewing Chemistry: How Making Tea Affects Alkaloid Levels
- Ongoing Research
Why Is Understanding Kratom Alkaloid Chemistry Helpful when Brewing?
If you want to make the most out of your kratom, it helps to understand a bit about kratom’s active compounds and what happens to them before they enter your body, not just after.
If you’re a tea drinker, you probably already know a bit about tea chemistry. Here are some basics:
- You can use the same plant species to make teas that taste very different and have different health benefits depending on how you grow or process them (e.g., matcha and black tea).
- While you can extract some compounds with water easily and quickly, other compounds need extra attention (like high heat, a long steep time, or acidity).
The same factors—what’s naturally in the leaf, and how well you extract those compounds when brewing—determine what you get out of your kratom leaf tea.
1. Key Compounds in Kratom Leaves
Plants’ leaves contain a wide range of compounds, such as terpenes, flavonoids, tannins, and alkaloids.
Alkaloids are naturally occurring compounds found in a wide range of plants and fungi. They’re often responsible for a plant or mushroom’s physiological effects. Examples of alkaloids you’ve likely tried (or heard of) are:
- Caffeine (in coffee and other plants)
- Theobromine (in cacao)
- Psilocybin (in certain mushrooms)
- Nicotine (in tobacco leaves)
Kratom leaves contain over 40 alkaloids, many of which have a similar chemical structure. These alkaloids play a central role in kratom’s overall effects.
- The most abundant alkaloid in kratom is typically mitragynine. Other alkaloids that occur in larger amounts in kratom leaves include speciogynine, paynantheine, and speciociliatine. These are commonly referred to as kratom’s major alkaloids.
- You’ll also commonly hear about alkaloids that are found only in trace quantities in kratom leaves. These minor alkaloids include mitraphylline, 7-hydroxymitragynine, and mitragynine pseudoindoxyl.
2. Why Are Some Kratom Products Stronger than Others?
You’ll often hear people say that “not all kratom is equal.” Why does kratom feel different depending on the batch and the product type?
Alkaloid Differences in the Leaves
In whole kratom leaves, the alkaloid content varies—the same way the caffeine content in coffee beans or tea leaves isn’t the same in every batch.
Typically, total alkaloid content makes up around 1–4% of the weight of a (dried) kratom leaf. That may sound small, but these compounds have noticeable effects in milligram amounts.
A particular product’s kratom alkaloid content is influenced by factors like:
- Plant genetics
- Growing region (e.g., Indonesia vs. Thailand, regional climate, soil type)
- Harvesting time (e.g., young vs. mature leaves, summer vs. winter)
- Fermentation and drying methods
- Sanitization methods
- Storage methods
Alkaloid Differences Due to Manufacturing
After harvesting, fresh and dried kratom leaves can be used to make minimally processed products like tea or powder. Powder used to be the most common type of kratom product sold in the U.S.
But nowadays, companies frequently use raw leaves to manufacture more concentrated products like kratom extracts, resins, or “advanced” and “enhanced” products. These methods often aim to isolate or amplify certain alkaloids for use in capsules, tinctures, or shots.
3. Brewing Chemistry: How Kratom Alkaloids’ Chemical Structures Impact Brewing Methods
Kratom’s major alkaloids (like mitragynine, paynantheine, speciogynine, and speciociliatine) are monoterpene indole alkaloids.
The indole core is relatively non-polar, which means the alkaloids have low inherent water solubility. When you simply steep kratom in a mug of hot water, most alkaloids won’t be dissolved.
Brewing Chemistry Analogy: Coffee-Making Methods
It’s helpful to think about the chemistry of brewing coffee, because you’re probably already familiar with a range of ways to make coffee. The various categories have a different time frame and result.
- Cold brew: It takes 12+ hours to steep coffee beans at room temp. Cold brew is less acidic, because lower-temp water doesn’t extract some of the harsher-tasting compounds in coffee beans (including the acids that are likely responsible for hot coffee’s antioxidant activity).
- Drip coffee: You can make a regular cup of coffee in minutes by running hot water through grounds.
- Espresso: Espresso can be made in seconds by using hot water and high pressure.
So how do we make a good, strong cup of tea in spite of the alkaloids’ low solubility?
Here are chemistry-backed brewing tips to increase the kratom alkaloid content in your tea:
- Increase Water Temperature: Researchers have found that when you start with boiling or near-boiling water (205-212°F), you’ll extract more alkaloids than using lower water temps. Heat helps break down plant cell walls and free the alkaloids within. Higher temperatures also increase molecular motion and help release the alkaloids from the fibrous leaf material.
- Increase Steeping Time: Kratom leaves are tough. A longer steep time (at least 15–25 minutes) will get you a stronger brew.
- Increase Acidity (With Care): A small amount of lemon, lime, or apple cider vinegar can help protonate certain parts of the alkaloid molecules, making them more water-friendly. However, some of kratom’s primary alkaloids, like mitragynine, are acid-labile, meaning they slowly degrades in acidic environments. This is ok if you’re going to drink your tea soon after brewing, but very acidic teas shouldn’t be stored for long.
- Resteep: Since you won’t extract all of the alkaloids from the leaves when making a cup of kratom tea, you can resteep your tea bags (or loose leaf tea) a second time to get more out of them.
- Storage: If you’re making a large batch, it’s best to brew and store it plain. If you like adding lemon juice or anything else acidic, add it to each cup when you serve it.
- Fats: Kratom alkaloids like mitragynine are mildly lipophilic, but adding a small amount of fat to your brew probably won’t do much to increase the extraction of alkaloids from the leaves. You can add some oat milk or coconut milk to your tea simply because it tastes good, though! (Just don’t combine your milk of choice with lemon juice or any other acids, because it’ll cause curdling.)
4. Ongoing Kratom Alkaloid Research
Kratom scientists are actively researching many of the aspects of kratom chemistry we discussed above, from how the growing region affects kratom’s alkaloid composition, to the stability of various alkaloids in different temperatures or acidity levels.
In a recent study, researchers determined that many kratom alkaloids were stable in a moderately acidic environment at high temperatures, but they only studied the alkaloids in water up to 80°C, not boiling water. So we’re hoping to see more studies in the future that reflect traditional tea brewing methods in Southeast Asia and the novel ways that people are preparing kratom across the globe.
This field is developing rapidly, and we’ll update this guide as often as possible with more details.
Ready to Brew?
Check out our beginner-friendly kratom tea brewing guide and grab some lab-tested kratom tea bags if you want to put this chemistry into practice.
Plus, try one of our kratom tea recipes to add a little bit of art to all of the science you just learned.
