Comment · Thu, March 21, 2024 · ND Owner
Korean Ginseng Corp VS ND Panax Ginseng
Original post in this thread
Tillerfen · 7 points
The KGC has been around for 125 years researching and optimizing panax ginseng per their website. I haven’t tried their products but it looks to be of extremely high quality.
On the other hand ND ginseng has been extremely underwhelming for me. I trust I am getting what I pay for with ND, always, but I fear what I pay for may itself not be of the best value if it’s something not in ND’s expertise, like ginseng, which has been used in traditional Asian culture for thousands of years and over time has developed much like a master craft does.
KGC has special harvest and processing techniques which are probably hard to know the specifics about unless you’re an industry insider. I think ND doesn’t do any of this for their ginseng which is why it has been underwhelming, as you are just getting the bare bones ginsenosides as promised. I don’t know where the line lies between science and bullshit, but I feel like there is something ND doesn’t know about with processing ginseng.
Has anyone tried KGC ginseng and can compare and contrast with ND?
What they were answering
Tillerfen · 2 points
I will buy some and run through the lab to see what we see
Please please do and update us on the results! KGC is the most popular and well established ginseng company in Asia. Highly curious how they hold up in lab testing.
Also, if I may offer a viewpoint from a consumer's perspective: My interest in ginseng stemmed from the TCM use of it, which is always Korean Red Ginseng. I didn't even know there was such a thing is white panax ginseng till you guys said. I never knew till recently that ND's only red panax ginseng was the root powder, which isn't helped by its inconspicuous wrapping that is shaded a light blue/(green?) color. A nice red color on the container would've tipped me off toward it much sooner. I think it would help to more clearly label which is white ginseng and which is red.
Also, bonus question, could you tell me how long the ND root powder is grown for before harvesting? Apparently that matters too.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · ND Owner
I will admit, we suck at branding and marketing. Straight up. We just don't do a good job of explaining the details of our products in simplified forms that resonate with people. It's all buried in paragraphs and comments of mine over the years. I've always been more focused on the science and lab in the background, with selling products as a secondary thing. I do recognize that shortcoming, which is why we are in the process of completely redesigning our site and marketing strategy. We are simplifying things down, and making it easier to find all the data on every product. We are going to to do a better job of presenting our products to customers.
1) could you tell me how long the ND root powder is grown for before harvesting? Apparently that matters too.
Our red ginseng is harvested after 6 years. Our GS15-4 is harvested at 4-5 years. Our white ginseng is harvested between 4-6 years.
I can check with the team, but it's a slow seller. That's likely because we never really marketed it properly. Our history is a bit strange compared to most brands. Some people call us a lab that happens to sell products, and that is a good way to put it. I've always been more focused on the science and the lab, with selling products as a way to fund that. I just enjoy that part of the business more, so I focus on that. It leads to us not marketing or branding things like they should, though. We also did a lot more novel synthetic nootropics for many years, with the natural extracts as side projects. Now things have shifted, and we are still readjusting to the new reality. This site redesign is part of a larger project of us looking internally at what we are not doing so well, and adjusting our whole operation to fix that. addressing some of our labeling, branding, and marketing for products like Panax ginseng is a big part of that.