Podcast 416: All about Maca

Maca root (Lepidium Meyenii) grows high in the Andes of Peru, as high as 11,000 feet above sea level. It is one of the oldest and most resilient plants on the planet. It grows in places where no other plants survive, because of extreme climatic conditions in high altitudes. For centuries, Maca was a regular part of the Peruvian diet, believed to bring strength, resilience, stamina, and immunity.

Jorge Ureña, founder of the company UHTCO, producer and manufacturer of the highest quality maca on the market, is with us today once again to tell us more about this peruvian treasure! Learn about different colors of maca root, their benefits and nutritional value, and how UHTCO products are different from the rest of the market.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this fascinating interview to learn about more UHTCO products, including Camu Camu and 7Root!

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MARTIN: Hello, everybody! This is Martin Pytela for Life Enthusiast Podcast! And today I have with me Jorge Ureña, or George Urena, as the Canadians would call him. He comes to us with a company called UHTCO, and he is a phenomenal fellow. He knows so much about Peruvian agriculture, and especially about the crops that we can get from Peru, that are so unique and powerful, and to be found nowhere else. Jorge, welcome!

JORGE: Martin, thank you so much! I am glad to be here with you again and share all this information on the proven products with your customers. I think it is very important to educate our consumers on these products because they are basically different from anybody else’s.

MARTIN: That is what thrills me the most! When I first met you, I remember learning about the black and the purple maca, and then finally getting the maca concentrate, and it was just amazing. I only knew about the ‘ordinary’ maca, I didn’t know there were different color varieties, I had used it before, and it was like: well, whatever, maca. And then I finally got your product and I thought to myself: Oh, now I understand the hype! It was a significant difference! I would like to have you explain it, Jorge

JORGE: Okay! It gets to the point where many people, for example, go to the store, buy a maca product, and feel nothing. There is no effect. All the benefits that are supposed to happen never happen. Obviously, there is a reason behind it, and I would like to explain it to your customers. We already talked about it in detail last time, we discussed all about maca, so I will just go over it quickly now. Obviously, we can extend to a longer version later. So, what is maca? Maca is the root that grows in Peru at 14,000 feet altitude. It grows in the region of Junin. This is where these roots evolved for thousands of years to what we have right now. Maca wasn’t farmed until 1998, we were the first ones farming maca in Peru. I don’t know if you remember, but probably back in 2003 or 2004, maca was a new player on the market, a relatively new ingredient, and there were only a few brands on the market, including us. We launched in Canada first, at the end of 2003.

So I would like to show your customers what does maca root looks like. I hope you can see it now on the screen. We have a nice black maca root, a purple maca root, and we have also a yellow maca root.