Zion Herbals Review
Most kratom brands put a leaf in their logo. Zion Herbals does too, a bright green leaf inside a circle. But scroll to the very bottom of its website and you will find a second emblem: a white lion’s head wearing a crown. Hold onto that lion. We think it explains the name.
Zion Herbals is a Richmond, Virginia company with a very long catalog and a very short motto. It has been on our shelf since our early days, and we are grateful for it. We’re grateful for the company, and just as grateful for how it looks after people. So this page is our thank you.
Who is behind Zion Herbals?
A Virginia company called Botanaway, and its founder, David Reynolds Derian.
Zion Herbals is Botanaway’s flagship brand, and David Derian is the company’s founder and chief executive. Botanaway keeps its lab and offices in Goochland County, just west of Richmond, and it says it makes all of its products in house.
That lab is busier than one brand. Botanaway also makes products that other companies sell under their own names, which is called white label manufacturing. In a 2021 feature the company sponsored in Cannabis Now magazine, the count was about 40 brands. So there’s a fair chance you’ve held something from Goochland without ever seeing the Zion name on it.
Is Zion really the oldest kratom brand in America?
That’s what Zion says, and it has been around long enough to make the case.
Zion dates itself to 2010. Its Instagram bio reads “Trusted Since 2010,” and its website calls it the oldest kratom brand in the United States. Nobody keeps an official list, so no one can settle that for certain. What we can say is that 2010 is early. The American Kratom Association did not form until 2014.
The motto is about as short as a motto gets: “Strictly the best.”
So what’s with the lion?
It’s a clue, and we think we’ve solved it.
In that 2021 feature, Zion said its hemp farms follow Ital, the Rastafarian way of keeping things pure and natural. Now look at the rest. Zion is the promised land in Rastafari. A crowned lion is the Lion of Judah, one of its best-known symbols. One of the hemp varieties grown on the company’s Virginia farm was named White Lion. And Botanaway has a second brand called Nine Mile Botanicals. Nine Mile is the village in Jamaica where Bob Marley was born.
We have never asked Zion about it, and we don’t think we need to. It all fits.
If you’ve read our KR8OM profile, you’ve seen the word Ital before. KR8OM put it on a trademark filing for its ingredient list back in 2012. That makes two kratom companies with an Ital connection. We love that.
What does Zion make?
Just about everything, and then some.
Zion sells kratom in nearly every format there is: powders, capsules, tablets, soft gels, liquids, gummies, drink mixes and ready-to-drink sodas. Its Speciosa Soda won Best of Show at the Champs trade show in 2021.
Zion reaches past kratom, too. It makes kava drinks and liquids under a brand called Kavaly, and its Nine Mile Botanicals line covers other plants, including kanna and blue lotus. If you have wondered how those plants compare with kratom, we’ve written about kratom and kava and kanna and kratom.
Extracts are a big part of the Zion story, so here’s our standing note. Extracts are concentrated, and we never recommend them to anyone new to kratom. Kratom Extract explains how a concentrated product differs from the leaf.
Can you visit Zion in person?
Yes, if you are in Richmond.
Botanaway runs a walk-in shop called Zion Apothecary on Lake Avenue, near Willow Lawn. It has an herb room where loose herbs are weighed and bagged by the gram, beside shelves of teas, extracts and handmade goods. Plenty of kratom brands never open a storefront. Zion has a front door.
Where has Zion stood on kratom’s future?
On the public record, with its name on it.
In 2023, Virginia passed its version of the Kratom Consumer Protection Act. It made 21 the minimum age to buy kratom and required labels to list every ingredient. Our page on the Kratom Consumer Protection Act explains what laws like that one do.
About a year later, a petitioner asked the Virginia Board of Pharmacy to put kratom’s two main alkaloids in Schedule I, the state’s strictest drug category. The board opened the question to public comment, and 2,920 comments came in. One of them came from David Derian. He pointed the board to the new state law and argued that Virginia had already chosen sensible rules. On June 25, 2024, the board voted to take no action on the petition.
How careful is Zion with its customers?
Careful enough to put the warnings where you’ll see them.
Every page of Zion’s website closes with the same set of warnings. Keep it out of the reach of children. Do not use it if you are pregnant or nursing. Do not use it while operating heavy machinery. It may interact with medications or other substances. It may be harmful to your health, and it may be habit forming. Talk to your physician before use. Zion sells only to adults 21 and over, and it keeps a list of states and counties it will not ship kratom to.
Zion sends its products to outside labs for testing, and our lab tests page posts a Zion report. Kratom Lab Testing explains how to read one.
What’s it like to work with Zion?
Easy, and it has been from the start.
Every person we have worked with at Zion has been nice, knowledgeable and professional. They know their products, they give straight answers, and we have never had a single problem. Most of all, Zion has always taken care of its customers. That is the reason we keep carrying them. Every Zion product we carry is on our Zion Herbals page.
Thank you, Zion Herbals
A crowned lion, a promised land and a village in Jamaica. A lab in Goochland County and a front door on Lake Avenue. And a three-word motto that says exactly what the company is aiming for.
So thank you, Zion Herbals, for the lion, the long catalog and the good people. And thank you to David Derian, who built it.
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