Test everything
Every batch of Garuda Kratom is tested by an independent, ISO-accredited lab before it is packaged. Alkaloid profile, heavy metals, microbials. Results are public and searchable by batch number. No gatekeeping.
2017
One-person start
The Founding Story
It started with one person, not a boardroom.
In 2017, Scott was buying kratom like everyone else, through a handful of US-based vendors who published sparse lab results, switched suppliers without notice, and treated customer questions like a nuisance. He kept a spreadsheet of batches, vendors, and complaints. The pattern was obvious. The industry had a transparency problem, and nobody seemed in a hurry to fix it.
Hudson Valley Botanicals started the way a lot of small, stubborn businesses do. One person, a first purchase from a family farm halfway around the world, and a promise to himself that every batch leaving his hands would come with a lab report. No exceptions, no "we are between tests right now", no hidden screenshots of a single clean COA on a product page while the actual shipment came from somewhere else.
The first year was brutal. A one-person operation packing pouches by hand, negotiating with suppliers by video call in the middle of the night, and shipping to a customer base small enough that Scott knew most of them by name. The rule held. Every batch, tested. Every result, published. Every question, answered by him personally.
Nine years later, a lot has changed. The supplier network is wider, the lab program is on an ISO 17025 standard, and every batch leaving the facility ships with its own COA published to the public archive. One thing has not changed. It is still one person. Scott still reviews every harvest, signs off on every batch release, and writes back to customers from the same email address he has used since the beginning.
