hcl is the good shit. It's properties allow more active ingredient to get into your system than the other versions. There's also a noticeable difference between pure ephedrine hcl(single ingredient) than the more readily available Ephedrine w/ 200 mg guafenisin. Guafenisin is total shit. It gives you lots of boogers and can make you lethargic. It seems to take some of the kick away from the ephedrine too. They just add it to the ephedrine to require one extra step in meth production. By having to remove the guafenisin before the ephedrine can be used to cook meth it adds about 24 hrs to the amount of time it takes to finish each batch. Otherwise a skilled chemist could cook up a batch of meth in a few hours-maybe less with the right preperation.