Staring into the inky indigo depths of a psilocybin mushroom tea is exhilarating.
Drinking magic mushrooms as tea has become our go-to method of consumption, and one we recommend to the curious and inquiring mind. The reasons are two-fold:
- the tea is more pleasant to consume than chewing dried mushrooms — and it’s much easier on your stomach
- the time it takes to prepare the psychedelic brew can evolve into a precious ritual that focuses your busy mind and gets you in the mushroom mood
This being said, using quality ingredients is essential — and magic mushrooms are no exception:
- Use only the best dried Psilocybin mushrooms available. All mushrooms at My Supply Co. are organic, locally grown, and contaminant-free.
- Steer clear of caffeinated tea. Caffeine alters vital brain chemistry to mask fatigue, which could make you restless, agitated, or anxious. The presence of uppers adds nothing to the psychedelic experience, apart from possible discomfort on both a physical and emotional level.
If you're here for the recipe, you’ll find step-by-step instructions in the first half of this article.
If you're here to learn about the benefits of shroom tea, skip to the second half of this article. We answer the most frequently asked questions on this mode of consumption so you can figure out whether or not mushroom tea is right for you.
How you drink mushroom tea alters the effect.
If you drink Psilocybin tea slowly, savoring it and taking your time with finishing it, you’ll experience a slow, steady onset, or come-up. Conversely, the rise will be decidedly quicker if you drink it in a hurry.
A very speedy onset, which starts at around 5-10 minutes tops and reaches its peak much more rapidly, could scare some people. Some people love a quick start while others don’t. Either way, it’s good to know beforehand and sip slowly.
Some people maintain that tea produces a much shorter trip, but many more deny this claim.
Perhaps it’s merely a subjective psychological reaction, but as an individual, you’ll only know for sure if you try it.
First time with magic mushrooms? Read this.
Magic mushroom tea is a method of particular interest for those trying psilocybin mushrooms for the first time.
If this is true for you, it’s best to enter the magic world of mushrooms incrementally. If you take the “right” dose and the effects still rise a little faster than expected, that alone could be scary. It might go that way, and it might not. Just remember, you’re not racing anyone — there’s always time for future experiences which will help you understand, bit by bit, how mushrooms work with your system.
Here are a few things to keep in mind though:
- Start low. If you're looking to enter the realms of psychedelia, we recommend starting with 1 – 1.5 grams max.
- Drink slowly. Ideally, it takes 20–30 minutes to finish the tea, allowing the effects to come up progressively and reducing the risk of nausea to a minimum (or even ruling out sickness altogether).
And now, here’s the recipe you’ll need for an optimal magic mushroom tea.
How to make magic mushroom tea that hits the *spot*.
Servings: 2
This recipe works well for doses of up to 3.5 grams of dried Psilocybin mushrooms. If you up the magic mushroom dosage, we'd recommend upping the quantity of water, as well. Too little water combined with a large mushroom quantity tends to form more of a dense, frothy cream that’s difficult to filter.
You'll need:
- Kettle or saucepan
- Weed grinder, coffee grinder, mortar and pestle, or a knife and chopping board to break up the dry mushrooms
- Coffee filter, sieve, or fine mesh filter
- Teapot
Ingredients:
- Dry Psilocybe Cubensis mushrooms
- 350-400ml Water, preferably distilled
- 2 Teabags of quality decaffeinated tea or herbal tea, something which pairs well with the flavour of ginger as well as the eventual lemon juice
- ½ tbsp Honey
- ½ Lemon, for juice. This covers the flavour of the mushrooms and helps break down mushroom cell walls
- Ginger slices, which reduces the chance of nausea even further and helps to cover the mushroom taste
Step 1. Weigh out your preferred mushroom dose.
If you don’t have a scale, please get one! There’s nothing worse than taking fewer shrooms or more shrooms than you meant to, only to find out a couple of hours in. A nootropic microdose ranges from 25mg – 300mg. A low hallucinogenic dose starts at around 1g and will result in a sense of euphoria and enhanced senses. A high dose starts at around 3g+ and will likely result in heavy perceptual distortions and, potentially, a sense of ego dissolution. We cover the different doses, their effects, and their benefits in The Ultimate Magic Mushroom Dosage Guide.
Step 2. Grind mushrooms into a powder.
Use the cannabis grinder if you have one. If not, use a coffee grinder, mortar and pestle, or chop them up as finely as possible. Place the ground mushrooms into a cup.
Step 3. Bring water to a boil.
Pour 2 cups of water into the kettle or saucepan and bring it to a boil. Take the water off the heat and leave it to cool down for up to 20 seconds.
Step 4. Chop up some ginger.
While waiting for the water to boil, prepare the ginger and lemon juice. You only need enough to cover the flavor and relieve nausea. Add to the cup with the mushroom powder.
Step 5. Add hot water and infuse.
Add half of the water, around 1 cup, to the cup containing the ground mushrooms. Add the tea bag and leave to infuse for 10–13 minutes.
Step 6. Filter mushroom tea out (1/2).
Remove the tea bag. Pour the contents of the mug through a filter into a teapot. Finally, put the filtered mushroom remains back into the empty cup.
Step 7. Bring water to a boil (again).
Bring the remaining cup of water to a boil, again with a kettle or saucepan. Once the water has boiled, take it off the heat and leave it to cool for 20 seconds max.
Step 8. Add hot water and infuse (again).
Pour the water into the cup that contains the once-filtered ground mushrooms. Add the second teabag and leave it to brew for 10-12 minutes.
Step 9. Filter mushroom tea out (2/2).
Take the tea bag out and filter everything once more, pouring the resulting liquid into a teapot with the tea you prepared in Step 6.
Step 10. Extract the remaining liquid from the mushroom grounds.
Squeeze the mushrooms to extract all the liquid. We recommend putting the grounds in the coffee filter and twisting the open end until the grounds are tightly packed and the juices are easy to squeeze out. Compost the filter and mushroom grounds when you're done.
Step 10. Garnish with love, sip in bliss.
Now, in your teapot, you have a fully prepared helping of magic mushroom tea. Pour it into the mug of your choosing – filtering it in the process once again, if you want to – and drink it up. The result should be potent and taste as good as it can.
Add a tablespoon of honey, some bits of ginger, and a splash of lemon juice.
Now you have two fully prepared helpings of magic mushroom tea. Pour it into the mug of your choice and sip in bliss.
The result should be potent and taste as good as it can.
Do mushrooms lose their strength when boiled?
The most recurring question about this recipe is: will the mushrooms lose potency if placed in boiling water?
The answer is: nobody is sure.
If you place the mushrooms directly in boiling water, at 100ºC or above, the less stable psilocin, Psilocybin's psychoactive metabolite, degrades right away. Psilocybin is thought to be more resistant, and should not lose its potency when placed in the rapidly-cooling cup infused with the tea bag.
The authors known as Virginia Haze and Dr. K Mandrake, who wrote The Psilocybin Mushroom Bible and the upcoming Psilocybin Chef Cookbook, say there’s currently no hard proof that heat degrades the potency of psilocybin.
“The advice to stay away from heat is largely anecdotal – that’s not to say that it’s wrong, but it is far from a proven fact,” the authors wrote in a recent Q&A.
“Our own experiences — we have made a lot of shroom tea over the years, and have even baked it into brownies and things — have convinced us that any potency degradation with short heating is minimal, and even with longer baking times it doesn’t seem to affect it too badly, if at all.”
While the answer is unclear, the procedure described above is designed to safeguard the mushrooms’ potency as much as possible. Differences in potency is completely imperceptible, as our and the experience of many users demonstrates.
As a matter of fact, you gain something in flavor — and the reduction in nausea is an added bonus too.
If you’re someone who finds the flavor of mushrooms hard to stomach, or who feels nauseous easily, tea is a solution to consider.
Should I throw out the mushroom powder after preparation?
Another question we frequently answer is: should I throw the filtered ground mushrooms away, or eat them?
Making tea makes sense as a way to avoid eating the magic mushrooms, as the time they sit in your stomach before becoming effective is the period in which you risk nausea. So, if nausea is what you’re trying to avoid, you can throw them away without a second thought. They will be of very little use anyway.
I only have a few mushrooms left. Will the tea be worth it?
If you only have a few mushrooms at your disposal, and they’re sufficient to deliver the effect you desire, we’d suggest another method: Lemon Tek.
We've written a step-by-step guide to lemon teking psilocybin mushrooms, but the instructions can be summarized as follows:
- grind the mushrooms finely
- in a small bowl or cup, mix the ground mushrooms well with plenty of freshly squeezed lemon juice
- wait 25 minutes and ingest
The lemon will somewhat help with covering the mushroom taste. More importantly, it accelerates the magic mushroom's onset and, in doing so, reduces the timespan in which you might feel nauseous.
Moreover, it being in a liquid form is advantageous as you can swallow it down much faster. The longer you have to chew, the longer you have to taste.
How long does shroom tea take to kick in?
The onset of a mushroom tea trip varies in terms of time. In general, it takes around 30 minutes to an hour for the full effects to kick in.
There are several factors that might impact how long it takes for Psilocybin’s effects to set in, including the type of magic mushroom being brewed, the dose of shrooms, and the potentiator (meaning the reactive agent, like lemon juice or another citrus substance, which can help break down the fungus's cell walls faster, resulting in higher bioavailability.
How long does shroom tea Last?
Again, this really depends on the dosage and a few other factors. However, one can count on the trip to last for between 6 to 8 hours, and sometimes 10 to 12 hours.
What Magic Mushroom is best for Shroom Tea?
There are over 180 different species of magic mushrooms that grow wild around the globe. Some of the most popular include:
- Psilocybe cubensis, like Golden Teachers, African Transkei, Penis Envy 6 (PE6), and Daddy Long Legs
- Psilocybe mexicana
- Panaeolus cyanescens, AKA Blue Meanies
Psilocybe cubensis is the most ubiquitously consumed strain globally. It's commonly found in the United States, Central America, Southeast Asia, and Northern parts of South America.
They are not necessarily the most potent mushrooms, but if you’re not sure which species of magic mushroom you’d like to try, Psilocybe cubensis is probably your best bet.
We wrote the article "How to Choose a Mushroom Strain and How to Use Them Therapeutically" to simplify the strain selection process by providing a step-by-step guide.
A note on nausea.
Many people don’t actually experience nausea as a side effect. Some of us at My Supply Co. have, but some of us have never — not once.
Some people get it the first few times, but not after that.
The problem might largely be caused by whatever people have eaten for their last meal and how many hours they’ve fasted before consumption. We've written about the types of food to eat and how long to fast for in our article, "How to Prepare for a Magic Mushroom Trip."
Take note of these factors before your trip, and you might be able to resolve the issue quickly and easily.
For some, nausea may be a result of the nasty taste of dry magic mushrooms. If that’s the case, the solution is to camouflage the taste and prepare some kind of liquid concoction that can be drunk quickly — maybe even while holding your nose. Given that scent accounts for so much of what we experience as taste, this helps you avoid detecting any flavor at all.
Read: The Ultimate Guide to Magic Mushroom Microdosing
Read: The Ultimate Magic Mushroom Dosage Guide
Read: Microdose Cycling: What It Is, and Why You Should Be Doing It
Read: The Benefits of Microdosing Psilocybin — Without the Fluff
Read: How to Make Magic Mushroom Gummies
Read: How to Make Magic Mushroom Brownies
Read: How to Lemon Tek Magic Mushrooms
