The two most widespread ways of ingesting kratom (If it's not capsuled) are extracting the plants active alkaloids into a tea, and the infamous toss and wash (placing a spoonful of powder into your mouth and swallowing it with water). I've now tried both methods a fair amount of times and can differentiate between the two pretty easily, and I'm here to share my experience as to which is the best ROA.
I've only used powdered kratom, never thought to purchase any whole leaves.
Toss and Wash
I've seen two separate ways of ingesting the plant being referred to as "tossing and washing" by the internet. One being what I think is the more 'official' meaning, which is tossing a spoonful of powder into your mouth and washing it down with water. With the other being the mixing of the powder into water and chugging it. I'd suggest to anyone attempting to toss and wash to use the former method. Kratom tastes disgusting, and mixing it into water and drinking it isn't the most pleasant of experiences. You taste it far less if you just put it under your tongue and chase it with a nice big gulp of water.
Tea
Making a tea is far gentler on the stomach, and tastes slightly better than the raw powder does, although it's still rather repulsive. While tossing and washing the powder has made me sick a few times, tea never has. It makes me wonder how large of a role all of that plant matter plays in the nausea kratom can give you, and how much of it is due to the opioid agonists you're taking. In my research I've found that most people will tell you to either freeze your kratom before brewing it into a tea, or to add in an acid such as lemon juice, as this is supposed to assist the active alkaloids in the extraction process. Now due to me being lazy, and not having any lemons on hand the days I happened to brew in bulk, I did neither of those things. So my tried and true process of brewing some delectable kratom tea is as follows:
1. Measure out approximately 5 - 8 grams of powder, and mix it in a pot with just shy of a 16.9 FL OZ water bottle.
2. Bring it to a light boil and allow it to simmer for about 20 minutes.
3. Strain out the powder and store the tea.
4. Re add the already used powder to the pot and mix it with more fresh plant matter/water
5. Repeat steps until an acceptable amount of tea has been made.
I like making multiple doses at once, all individually sorted into water bottles. This method may sacrifice a bit of potency for convenience, but it without question works.
The Effects
My findings have generally been consistent with the common consensus, with slight differences. Tea for me comes on quicker and peaks harder, leaving you at baseline before the toss and wash would. I think the difference in duration is greatly exaggerated though. Either that, or my body chemistry just differs in a great way. The tea will last 30, maybe 45 minutes less than tossing and washing does. So it's not too big of a difference. It's worth noting though that even when I toss and wash, kratom's effects wear off quicker for me than others. The biggest difference in the effects I've noted is that the toss and wash is slightly more sedating. Regardless of the strain, tea will usually leave me with higher levels of energy than tossing and washing does.
Overall, I'd suggest going with the tea. Either way kratom doesn't taste too pleasant, but with a sweet n low or two it's bearable. The benefits to using tea, which are mainly digestive (for me) greatly outweigh the negatives. The biggest reason I prefer tea over just tossing the powder is (TMI warning) that ingesting the powder leaves me with very hard and dry stools which are very uncomfortable on the way out. So if you're sensitive to constipation, hemorrhoids, or anything of the sort then that's even more of a reason to stick to the tea.
What's your favorite way to take kratom? I'd love to hear all about it.