Tea and Music in New Martinsville, WV
The recipe: 28 Top Tree Red Bali tea bags, a dozen lemons, a cup of concentrated lemon juice, five liters of boiling water and coconut sugar to taste. This was our iced Arnold Palmer that we sold at the Back Home Festival in New Martinsville, WV. After adding the already boiling water to the mix, it was kept hot for two hours in a crock-pot. As a classic garnish, we chopped up 90 fresh leaf kratom leaves and added them to the brew as well.
A Long Hot Weekend
Nestled along the Ohio Valley, the third annual Back Home Festival had over 10,000 in attendance. On the first night we all got down to Sam Bush. On Saturday we vibed to Melvin Seals and the Jerry Garcia Band. And on Sunday we rallied our energy to party one last time to the Larry Keel Experience. The entire three day weekend averaged 90 degrees fahrenheit. Our Red Bali Arnold Palmers helped to cool down the crowd.
In the 300-400 years of use of kratom in Thailand, it’s use has typically revolved around the Thai farmer and laborer. The crossover between farming and jamming at a festival may seem slight. However, both involve standing in the hot sun and running low on energy. Serving our tea to the crowd was half educating and half sharing stories. Of course, it was wonderful meeting the seasoned kratomites in the crowd.
Talking Tea, Kratom, and Kratom Tea
Many came to our stand already familiar with kratom. They expressed interest in our tea bag formulation, as they had only known kratom as a powder. Usually the first thing that those familiar with the plant asked was if the two trees that shrouded our canopy were kratom trees. Since the trees naturally grow only in tropical South East Asia, nobody had ever seen a living M. speciosa tree before.
After three days of connecting, sharing, and learning, we left more encouraged than ever to launch the first line of US-grown kratom tea bags into the market. The plan is in progress, but more on that later. Let’s get back to what people wanted to know about kratom tea!
Red Bali Kratom Effects
Red Bali kratom is currently the strongest kratom tea we offer. It contains, on average, 60.139 mg of kratom alkaloids per tea bag. The effects from red bali kratom vary from batch to batch, which is why we don’t like to make monolithic statements about strains. Looking at the alkaloids, however, gives a much better and more accurate picture of what the red bali kratom effects will be from this batch in particular. Since it is a red many would assume that it is primarily a body feeling. Reds, as they say, are for bed.
At the Back Home Festival, however, many of the customers came back to us saying it felt like a mental clarifier. Most everyone said it made them feel good. When dancing on tired legs, red bali kratom is a perfect way to extend your boogie time. Specifically as an Arnold Palmer, the red bali kratom effects were also hydrating. Coupled with kratom’s traditional use for withstanding the heat of the sun, the baking landscape of the festival was a perfect fit.
What is Red Bali Kratom?
As just mentioned, names of kratom strains are generally useless in figuring out what the effect will be. To understand the effect, you would need to look at a comprehensive alkaloidal analysis. Still, we can break down what Red Bali kratom is, or rather, what it is supposed to be.
In a previous blog post series about kratom strains, we described the myth of the kratom strain. In essence, the color denotes what vein type the kratom tree is. Most kratom trees have a red vein, and the color of the leaf is changed through a fermentation process. To make things even more difficult, colors outside of red, green, or white are the result of fermentation and blending.
As might be predicted, “Bali” in Red Bali kratom denotes where the strains was grown. Unfortunately, even this is misleading at times. When organizations like the American Kratom Association request that the industry become regulated, this is one of the reasons why. At the moment, the most important thing to consider when purchasing kratom, regardless of the strain, is its cleanliness. Given all this, we focus on getting clean, quality kratom in our tea products. And instead of relying on mythical strain names, we instead get comprehensive alkaloid panels to ensure you know what you are getting.
A Crowd Pleaser
Surprisingly, a lot of people wanted to learn about kratom. w Particularly common were the tea drinkers, simply curious to try a new herbal tea. Herbal tea drinkers wanted to try the herbal tea kratom blends. We were very pleased to receive positive feedback from those with refined palettes for tea. Especially since kratom is not usually known for its flavor.
The best thing was serving people who had never heard of kratom tea. Tons of attendees who first tried kratom through our tea came back more than once for refills. Being able to serve tea by the cup as well as sell our regular tea bag products provided incredible immediate feedback. People were excited by the opportunity to try something new!
The reviews for our Red Bali kratom were overwhelmingly positive. A customer, by the name of Creature, came by the stand every three hours or so for another cup. He was a daily kratom toss and washer. Unfortunately he had mistakenly left his kratom at home before traveling to the festival. He was thrilled to see us at the festival. As a regular kratom consumer, it was wonderful hearing his positive review of our red bali kratom tea.
White Maeng Da vs Red Bali
Above all, our iced Red Bali kratom tea and half lemonade beverage was the most popular item on our table. On Friday we brewed hot teas and kept them in aeropresses along with the iced arnold palmer. We served our Passion Fruit White Maeng Da as well as our Afternoon blend. While both were delicious, the hordes of sweating and dancing festival attendees reached for the iced option a vast majority of the time. So, on Saturday and Sunday we doubled our Red Bali Arnold Palmer option and gave the people what they wanted!
Originally we thought that the white maeng da would be great for the festival. White veins are generally energizing. Since music festivals often start early and end late, we figured it was a perfect fit. However, sometimes the temperature of the beverage is more important to people than what the optimal effect is. Instead of alternating our Red Bali kratom arnold palmer and using white maeng da on different days, we decided to be consistent. We stuck with Red Bali kratom in our iced Arnold Palmers.
Next music festival we will come more prepared. We will learn from our experience at the Back Home Festival and provide more iced options. Stay tuned to Top Tree Herbs channels as we begin to pick the next music festivals on our route.
Kratom near me
After reading all of this, you might be wondering where you can get red bali kratom online. Well, we got you. We have three wonderful red bali teas, each with some unique features worth noting. As a quick aside, we originally started using red bali crushed leaf based on a recommendation from one of our earliest customers!
We say this to highlight two things. First, Top Tree is a brand for kratom tea drinkers. Our community deserves to have an option for kratom tea that is convenient, affordable, and reliable. Making this happen bring us to the second point: we promise to do our best to support your kratom tea journey! If there’s a strain you’ve found to be particularly helpful that we don’t carry, just let us know. Although lead times vary, we can get most strains as crushed leaf, so the sooner you ask the better.
That said, here’s what we currently have when it comes to Red Bali kratom tea:
Raw Leaf Tea Bags: our 100% crushed leaf red bali tea bags are our best option for the purists. You get 14 three-gram red bali tea bags per pouch, 42 grams total. If you’re using our tea bags with another tea (for flavor), we recommend starting with these.
Lemon Tea Bags: our flavored red bali tea bags are 100% crushed leaf and we’ve flavored them with all lemon-lime flavoring. The citrus undertones work with the natural bitterness of the crushed leaf, creating a balanced flavor that’s earthy and tart. Citrus is a versatile flavor, so these tea bags go great with many popular green tea based herbal blends.
Afternoon Herbal Blend: and lastly, we have our Peach Red Bali Afternoon Blend. We start by infusing the crushed leaf with all-natural peach flavoring. Then we combine the kratom with our afternoon herbal blend, made from gotu kola, ginseng, sage, and red clover. As we learned at the Back Home Festival, if you’re looking for a delicious caffeine-free mood boost, you can’t go wrong with our red bali afternoon blend.
Note: if you’re a daily kratom user looking to switch to kratom tea, we recommend getting one pouch of raw leaf tea bags and one of the blends. We designed our blends as the flavor component, but the raw leaf bags are where the magic happens. They determine the potency. If you’re new to kratom, we recommend starting with 2 raw leaf tea bags.
And remember, regardless of how strong you make your tea, you should always double brew! In practice, that means adding boiling water to your Top Tree tea thermos twice before switching to new tea bags.
Exhausted, Excited
By the end of the Back Home Festival we were hot, beat, and worn out. Yet it was a success. Anytime we have the opportunity to meet with other kratom consumers and point them toward tea we are happy. Our whole journey of starting Top Tree is dedicated to establishing a delicious, traditional, and more pleasant way to utilizing this wonderful leaf. To see the smiling faces and get immediate feedback on our tea blends that we’ve labored over was immensely gratifying.
