While some people don’t like eating shrooms because of the texture or taste, drinking could be a tastier alternative. Making shroom tea can be a really exciting experience. Besides being a faster way to feel the effects, it also allows plenty of room for innovation.
So if you’re curious about drinking a “magic” concoction and spicing up your shroom ritual, we’ve got you covered. In this article we highlight a raft of issues about psilocybin tea, including its benefits, side effects, drinking vs eating experience, and best of all, our easy shroom tea recipe.
Shroom Tea Benefits
One of the biggest downsides of prepackaged mushrooms is the texture. Most shrooms dry due to packaging logistics, more so when it involves a super concentrated taste. To many users, the texture and concentrated flavor can be a little unpleasant.
To help with this, some people prefer mushroom tea. If you're wondering if there's a difference in potency and experience between eating shrooms or drinking shroom tea, we share some valuable insights.
Generally, using shroom tea infusions can transform the experience. Some users prefer adding oolong, green, or even chamomile tea bags to the mix. Others add lemon slices, orange juice, or even ginger. Regardless, drinking shroom tea has two big advantages.
First, not only does drinking make the shroom a little easier to digest, it also spices up the flavor. Making shroom tea infusions has become a whole ritual on its own, but let’s explore the two main effects of this tea.
Speed
One way of making shroom tea change your experience is by drinking. Though Reddit users confess that it can hit stronger this way, warm drinks generally make for easier and faster digestion.
A 2022 study found that green tea could help with digestion and the overall bioavailability of phenols. However, this depends on the pH and temperature change. By using an in-vitro version of simulated stomach acid, the researchers found that green tea's effectiveness could be enhanced by how it is consumed.
While there is still much to learn about how teas work, it appears warm drinks can help with faster digestive action. When consumed in tea, psilocybin is absorbed faster thanks to the temperature. This, in turn, increases its bioavailability.
Of course, these are mostly anecdotal experiences and general knowledge. Still, they give us an idea how drinking psilocybin could be great for faster beneficial effects.
Taste
While speed is a pretty good perk, shroom tea can create a whole different taste experience. First, you get a much better texture. Whether you're going for boba-like chewiness or just plain liquid taste, the experience is much better.
Users add different things to the infusion to help with the earthy and musky flavor that shrooms usually have. Here’s a small list of the ingredients commonly added to infusions to enhance the taste:
- Green, Black, and Chamomile Tea: A small tea bag can add your favorite flavor to your magic concoction as well.
- Cinnamon: A pinch of spice can also change the usual earthy flavors from shroom tea.
- Chai Tea: Okay, hear us out. If you like tea and spice, adding some chai tea and some milk to your shroom tea can be a game changer.
- Hibiscus and floral infusions: Some people like to add a slight floral touch to make the tea a little acidic flavor.
- Honey: Of course, you can skip this if you don’t like the flavor, but it's pretty remarkable especially with citrus or ginger.
- Ginger or Citrus peels: Add some lemon slices or a few ginger pieces when boiling to give the tea a little kick while also aiding with general digestion.
Besides these, you could try making a warm infusion and adding it to some ice for something cold, or even get creative with cocoa or milk tea. While taste and texture change with shroom tea, it is also an incredible creative outlet to explore.
Mushrooms Tea Side Effects
Now, there is one noticeable side effect of psilocybin tea: nausea. Some users say that the rapid effect and digestion of liquids can promote this side effect. While this can happen, it also depends on your diet and whether you fasted before consumption.
In the first case, we recommend having a non-fat heavy diet and if possible, try eating a lighter meal before the tea. We don’t recommend fasting for stronger effects, as this may lead to stronger peaking, which could cause other adverse effects.
Some people might find dry mushrooms nasty, so nausea can be related to that. Also, don’t try to munch the residual shrooms or infusion, as the flavor can also come as too strong for some. If the smell or taste bothers you, try drinking something strong to overpower the shroom’s taste.
Eating Mushroom Benefits
Eating psilocybin mushrooms might have several benefits. Of course, the recreational effects could be helpful for relaxation and general wellness, but there are science-backed benefits as well.
Some of the potential therapeutic benefits of using “magic” shrooms include supporting abstention from smoking, helping with cancer-related psychological distress, and helping with certain depression symptoms.
For example, a Johns Hopkins University study noted that therapy with psilocybin could improve withdrawal symptoms of smoking. Though small, this study highlights the potential of this compound in addiction cases, including alcohol and cocaine. Of course, more clinical research would be needed to talk about a systemic treatment.
In addition, the effect of psilocybin in treating anxiety has also been studied. A study noted that psilocybin could improve the quality of life and decrease certain symptoms in people with cancer diagnoses. Some of these include anxiety and depression, which can be pretty strong with such diseases.
Moreover, there is evidence that shrooms could hold potential therapeutic benefits for depression. Indeed, a 2017 study showed that psilocybin, the psychoactive compound in mushrooms, could improve certain depressive symptoms.
Though preliminary, the researchers concluded that the compound could trigger a 'reset button' in brain mechanisms that contribute to depression. They also noted that the psychoactive effects could reduce certain symptoms.
Shrooms Side Effects
While psilocybin is not dangerous in smaller doses, a few side effects have been noted controlled studies. Some of the most common ones according to scientific research include:
- General confusion
- Headaches and tension
- High blood pressure, increased heart rate, and temperature
- Nausea
- Paranoia
- Hallucinations
- Fear
- Dilated pupils
- Yawning and overall grogginess
Despite this, there's evidence that microdosing mushrooms could be safer. In smaller doses, shrooms are noted to relieve cluster headaches while having minor psychoactive effects.
That said, more clinical trials are needed to understand their side effects and therapeutic strongpoints.
Can You Overdose On Mushrooms?
It is unlikely to overdose on one of the many known strains and species of shrooms with psilocybin. However, there could be strong adverse effects, including a psychological overdose.
The most common symptoms of this are psychosis, extreme paranoia, and intense panic attacks. However, according to the DEA’s Drug of Abuse Resource Guide, you would need to consume fairly large quantities of mushrooms to actually overdose.
A 2017 survey noted that of the 12,000 users who used mushrooms, specifically psilocybin mushrooms, only 0.2% needed medical treatment. This rate is 5 times lower than for drugs like LSB or cocaine.
Generally, users report that a typical overdose can last anywhere between 6 and 8 hours. Some of the psychological effects can take a few days to dissipate, though.
Mushroom Tea Dosage
Okay, here’s something important that will need a balance. If you are just starting in the psilocybin world, we recommend a dose lower than a gram. A regular dose of dry shrooms varies between 1g and 2.5g, so we recommend this dose for a standard experience.
If you want to microdose the tea, use below 0.25g of dried shrooms per dose. And for more experienced users, anywhere between 2.5 and 5g should do the trick.
Although there is not much information about the actual toxic dose of psilocybin, we don’t recommend going further than 5g when dosing.
How To Make Mushroom Tea
Now that you know about shrooms, let’s get into the recipe! There are several ways of doing this but here's the easiest way to make mushroom tea.
Step 1: Weigh your mushrooms. We recommend starting with a lower dose and slowly building it up as you see fit. Once you’ve established your tolerance, you’ll know when to increase the dose.
Step 2: Grind your mushrooms into a powder. Do not add the water yet, use the dried shrooms and grind them with a cannabis or coffee grinder. If you don’t have any of those available, you can also try at least chopping them to the smallest size possible. For this process if you don’t have a fine mesh, we recommend adding everything to the water and skipping the grinding altogether. Though not as strong as a fine powder concoction, it can still hit pretty strong.
Step 3: Add your extras. To the fine powder, add any 'extras' like honey, ginger, or even a full bag of tea. You can then pour hot water over the mushrooms and extras, and let the mixture sit for 10-15 minutes.
Step 4: Sift the tea with a fine mesh strainer, and you are done! You can add your favorite sweeteners, but our top choice is honey or some monk fruit for the earthy notes. Once you’ve got this basic tea recipe, you can be as creative as you want. Citrus and honey make a delightful infusion 100%. You could also add chai and milk to turn your regular afternoon Chai Latte into something magical (quite literally).
