I'm usually quite the lurker but feel like chiming in tonight. Everyone is different. But link from from the sidebar may help a bit.

DO NOT take with soda.

Not going into too much detail on my story. But I spent a lot of time and trial and error trying to find the right strains that work best for me. I have a small supply of at least 4 strains of white, 4 of red and 4 of green. (and a couple of yellows). I've learned I cannot take Bali because it gives me a stomach ache for some reason. I've tried Bali from 3 different vendors with the same results.... Anyway...

For night-time reds, I do tea (ie: hot water from a keurig, honey and a bit of sugar and let steep at least 15 minutes). Add a bit of ice if it's still too warm. Then gulp it down sediment and all. Keep stirring so you don't end up with a bunch of sediment at the bottom. It's a nasty texture near the end but the honey and sugar take care of the taste. 3.5 g of a Red Maeng Da and Red Borneo mix and I'm good a few hours. I used to mix cinnamon. But the hot or the sitting in liquid for a while makes the cinnamon slimy and compounds the nastiness of the texture...

For workday mornings I do 2.3 to 2.5 g of green in self-made 000 capsules. Green Maeng Da with some Green Malay, Indo or Nam is my favorite. On an basically empty stomach I'm good until lunch. I honestly see little difference in toss and wash and capsules aside from the capsules take longer to kick in. But the effects for me are pretty much the same. I don't think I take that much at a time anyway, so I don't worry about how much more I use with capsules. Nominal. My best purchase was a small digital scale. I really like knowing exactly how much I'm taking.

Grapefruit juice is good to counter the taste. But I don't mess with that much. If it's too cold, it gets all foamy and still have to deal with the sediment.

Weekends (for some reason only on weekends) I toss and wash. Usually break from the greens with some whites or yellow strains I like. For me the whites and yellows are just the right spot of mellow between the green and reds.

If you spend any amount of time here or the other kratom sub, you'll see a wide variety of variations that people use to ingest. Smoothies, yogurt, applesauce, orange juice and much more. Like I said in the beginning NO SODA. I would avoid wine or other alcohols.