Psychedelic Mushroom Tea Ceremony - Trippingly

A brew of mushroom tea can reduce nausea, improve flavor, speed absorption and add a grounding ritual to a psychedelic trip. Here are some of our favorite ways to brew magic mushroom tea.

The Basic Brew

The Grind.

Regardless of the brew method, start by grinding or chopping mushrooms into a fine powder. The easiest method is to use an inexpensive blade style coffee grinder, pulsing the mushrooms until an even fine powder results. However, simply finely chopping with a knife is effective with some elbow grease.

The Water.

We prefer the flavor of mushroom tea when made with filtered or bottled water. Unlike LSD, which will degrade when exposed to any chlorine, mushrooms do not suffer the same fate, and tap water can be used in your brew.

We prefer the flavor of mushroom tea steeped at 190 F.. Boiling water is also fine, and will not damage the efficacy of the tea. Some have argued boiling water damages the potency of the trip. To confirm that this is not true, simply boil your mushrooms for 30 minutes and then ingest; there will be no impact on the experience.

We typically use 1 cup water per participant, which produces a tea that is not overpowering. If the tea will have 2 grams or less of mushrooms, you could reduce the brew to 1/2 cup and still produce a mild tasting tea.

The Brew.

The mushrooms will need to steep for at least 10 minutes.

When you brew, you have a choice. Either to eat the mushroom residual or to strain it out. Because the active ingredients in mushrooms are water soluble, eating the mushrooms is not necessary, and can lead to stomach upset. However, when not consuming the mushrooms, we find a second steep ensures all psychedelic compounds are extracted.

We prefer using a one-use disposable tea bag for our brews, like the T-Sac Tea Filter (Size 4). The disposable tea bags keep the fine mushroom powder out of the tea better than metal strainers, and allow for good water circulation. Most metal infusers are too small, with too large holes to be effective.

Another option is to brew the tea with the mushroom powder floating freely, and then use a coffee filter to strain the brew.

In either case, ensure there is water circulating during the steep, by either stirring or agitating the tea bag.

Squeeze all the water out of the mushrooms.

We often will add additional flavor elements to our tea, including ginger, to help with nausea. Our favorite recipes are listed below.

When the tea is complete, we remove the tea bag and brew a second cup of tea, allowing it to steep while we consume our first cup.

Consuming.

As you drink the tea, sipping slowiy and allowing the brew to remain in your mouth will speed absorption, as the active ingredients will begin to be absorbed through your mouth. However, if you find the taste unpleasant, simply chugging the brew will be effective as well. If you have a nearly empty stomach, absorption will be quick and efficent.

Many find a personal ceremony helps with both the setting of the experience and the mindset with which one enters the trip. We love a little ritual to begin our journey.

While our seocnd steep will be finished by the time we have consumed our original cup, we take our time, consuming the second cup over the course of an hour or so. The tea has a mild flavor, and low levels of psychedelic compounds, and there is no need to rush to get it down.

A Few Ramdom Thoughts.

Myth #1: People often suggest that using boiling water for psychedelic mushroom tea will breakdown the psychoactive ingredients. Psilocybin remains stable when boiled at 212F. Don’t believe us? Just boil a cup of water with mushrooms for as long as you want and then consume. You will experience a full trip.

Myth #2: People suggest that you need to eat the mushrooms in tea to get the full effect. This is not exactly a myth, but close to it. A single, 10 minute steep of finely ground mushrooms dissolve most but not all psilocybin. As a result, absent a second steep, you will lose a small amoount of psilocybin by not eating the mushrooms. In contrast, a second steep is effective in removing the remaining psilocybin. Again, this is easily tested. Simply brew a good amount of mushroom tea a single time, and then eat the mushroom dregs. Eat enough, and you will feel the effects. In contrast, after a second steep, the same experiment will show no psychedelic effects.

Recipes.