Where to Buy Maca Root
Posted by The Maca Team on 24th Feb 2023
Maca is a popular superfood in Peru and around the world, but you can’t expect to find it on the shelf at your local grocery store. Though it might not be as commonly used as other nutritional supplements, it’s no less valuable for its reported properties, which include increased fertility, hormone balance, and stress release. So what do you need to know when you’re looking to purchase some maca root for yourself?
Well, one important question stands out: where can you find a good, reliable source of quality maca product?
The Rules and Regulations of Maca
Did you know that it’s illegal to transport whole maca root out of Peru? As the popularity of maca has increased, so has demand. Grown high in the Andes mountains, maca root is something of a hot commodity. With so much pressure to harvest and export maca products, it’s inevitable that the market would be impacted by people who are only looking to make a quick buck.
In the interests of preserving a food of historical and economical importance, Peru has banned the export of whole maca root from the country. You can’t even transport the seeds out of the country. Despite this, maca has been smuggled out of Peru in the past, and it’s been cultivated in other areas of the world with less regulations on the quality of food products available on the market.
Which is to say that it isn’t easy to obtain whole maca root, and it’s even harder still to make sure that you’re buying maca that hasn’t been altered or adulterated in some way to cut corners. So how can you be sure that you’re really ingesting maca that’s as safe and healthy as the seller claims it to be?
What Makes The Maca Team’s Maca Special
We aren’t just any vendors of maca products. Our maca is organically grown and sustainably harvested in our fields in Junin, Peru by a local cooperative of farmers committed to their work. They take good care of their land, and we believe that care shows in the quality of the maca we offer.
So how do we get this product to you? After harvesting, our maca is either sundried or immediately dried in low-temperature dehydrators. Remember when we said that it’s against the law to transport whole maca root from Peru? That is true! Which is why we acquire our maca products in small batches in order to ensure a good shelf life.
Where Can You Buy Maca?
We offer our fair-trade maca on our website at themacateam.com in four basic preparations: powder, capsules, liquid extract, and gelatinized (pre-cooked) maca root chips. We also have some proprietary maca superfood blends including maca coffee and maca blue. Whatever formulation works best for you, you can be confident that you’re purchasing only 100% maca products with no fillers or additives.
Which Maca is the Best For Me?
The “best” maca will vary from one individual to the next. Regardless of serving size, the different colors of maca root - red, yellow, and black - are all reported to have their own unique properties. We also offer tricolor maca, ground without separating the colors of root, which is how it’s been historically consumed in Peru.
Our raw maca powders are perhaps the easiest way to incorporate maca into your diet. Mix it into your oatmeal or smoothie in the morning, and you’re good to go. We also offer premium maca powder, which is lighter in color and a little more spicy than raw maca
In terms of convenience, especially if you travel regularly, you can choose to buy our maca root in vegan capsules or as a liquid extract. They’re quick, easy, and perfect for a lifestyle on the go.
What about those maca chips? They’re the closest thing you’ll get to whole maca roots in the US. This “gelatinized” maca is pre-cooked, reducing the starch content and boosting the glucosinolates, which have been said to possess anti-inflammatory and cancer-fighting benefits. Consisting of whole maca roots that have been washed, dried, and cut into smaller pieces, our maca root trips are great mixed into porridge - you could even pickle them, if you really wanted to!
Still have questions?
We’d love to hear from you. Contact us using our webform, or give us a call at 888-919-8616. We stand behind our maca root products - so why not give them a try?
Enjoy the day!