This is one of the most common questions and there seems to be a lot of confusion so we would like to clear this up. Mother nature provides us with these wonderful herbs and Superfoods and because these are natural foods and not sprayed with synthetic chemicals and pesticides and they are not made in a lab (like synthetic vitamins and drugs) there will be natural differences from harvest to harvest and batch to batch. Variance from batch to batch can be caused by many factors, including the time of year it was harvested, farming techniques, the climate (especially rainfall), how quickly it was dried and milled into a powder after it was harvested, the drying temperature/technique, how fine the powder is milled, soil conditions and quality, time of year, how much moisture still remains in the dried powder (yes, dry powder still contains some moisture), how fresh it is, how it was stored after it was milled into a powder and various other factors. Beyond that powders will drastically vary if they are whole food powders, juice powders, or extract powders, each of which may be freeze dried, low temperature dried, or high temperature dried (see question 3 below for more details).
Alfalfa is a great example. We carry an alfalfa juice powder and a whole food alfalfa powder, each of which are 100% pure and low temperature dried. Alfalfa is usually grown and harvested 3 times a year and each season the taste, smell, color, and texture is slightly different due to multiple factors mentioned above. Both types of alfalfa are still 100% pure and dense in nutrients, but they will appear different depending on which harvest they come from.
Another example is our premium maca vs. our regular maca. Both types come from the same maca root, but there is a significant difference in smell and taste. The premium maca is harvested and immediately ground into a pulp without being dried first, while it is still fresh. The regular maca is first dried and then ground into a powder. Because both types of maca are dried in a different way the smell and taste is much different between the two types.
Milk thistle is a powder that we carry in both extract and whole food powder form. Both powders look and taste totally different and the extract powder is water soluble while the whole food powder will not totally dissolve in water. Both powders are excellent quality, but they taste and look totally different from each other even though they are both 100% pure with nothing else added.
Over the years we have seen thousands of different batches of different powders from all over the world. We are very familiar with the variance of each powder so you can rest assured that even if the powder looks different from what you are expecting we will not sell any product unless it meets our high quality standards and has passed laboratory testing.
Probably the easiest way to take most powders is to mix the powders with a little juice or water in a shaker cup. The shaker cup makes it easy to mix the powder and drink quickly. Different powders have different tastes and some can be pretty strong. Despite this, strong tastes can usually be covered up pretty well with a little trial and error. Powders are often incorporated into teas, smoothies, yogurts, salads, soups, fruit juices, or other foods etc. It may take some experimentation to find what works best for you.
In general the flavor of most of the vegetable, herb, root, leaf, and grass powders can be covered up pretty well using a vegetable juice like V8 which you can find in almost any grocery store. Grapefruit juice can be good for covering up strong tastes of some bitter tasting powders. You may also try some sweet juices to cover up other powder flavors. And if you make a smoothie in the blender with frozen fruit or ice cubes you can mask the flavor of many powders pretty well. Using cacao powder to make a chocolate drink can also be helpful. For instance, Reishi mushroom, Mucuna pruriens seed and make powders are well masked by the flavor of chocolate.
If you still don’t like the taste of a powder you can try getting empty capsules and putting the powder in capsules.
For each of these types of powders there can be dramatic differences in smell, taste, appearance, consistency, and cost between the 3 different types of powders.
Juice powders are water soluble because they are made up of the juice and do not contain other parts of the fruit so they will fully dissolve in water, or other liquids. A whole fruit powder is not water soluble because it contains the entire fruit which may include the fiber, cellulose, seeds, and sometimes skin of the fruit. An extract is usually water soluble and contains specific, concentrated nutrients from the botanical that have been extracted. While extracts may concentrate certain components of a botanical, some constituents may be destroyed or left out by the process. For this reason, extract powders may work differently in the body than their whole fruit or herb counterparts.
Each powder is a little bit different and some are more voluminous than others, but for most powders the measurements below are good approximations: 1 lb of powder = 50 tablespoons
1 lb of powder = 150 teaspoons
1 teaspoon = 3 grams (3000 mg)
1 tablespoon = 9 grams (9000 mg)
1 tablespoon = 3 teaspoons
1 lb – 454 grams (45,360 mg)
1 kg = 2.2 lbs
0 size empty capsules hold – 408 mg – 816 mg
00 size empty capsules hold – 546 mg – 1092 mg
000 size empty capsules hold – 822 mg – 1644 mg
If a product says organic in its name, then it has been certified organic under the USDA National Organic Program (NOP). All of the products we carry are grown organically without chemicals or pesticides, but some do not carry the USDA certification. These products are either certified in other countries, wildcrafted, or cultivated without chemicals, pesticides, genetic modification or radiation treatment. While we prefer USDA certified organic products, obtaining the USDA certification can be a lengthy and costly process for many suppliers that already practice organic farming and offer excellent quality products. We conduct additionally testing on products that have not been certified organic to ensure that they are free from chemicals, heavy metals and other contaminants.
Certain products must be freeze dried to preserve their nutrients and prevent them from spoiling. But the nutrients in most products can be preserved through low temperature drying. So when possible we use low temperature drying which means the product is still raw and retains all of the vital nutrients and enzymes.