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How to Make Shroom Tea: The Ultimate Mushroom Tea Guide
Mushroom tea is easy to make, but what are the benefits of drinking psilocybin extract rather than eating shrooms whole?
DoubleBlind Mag is devoted to fair, rigorous reporting by leading experts and journalists in the field of psychedelics. Read more about our editorial process and fact-checking here.Editorially reviewed by Madison Margolin.
Staring into the inky indigo depths of a psilocybin mushroom tea is exhilarating. Breathing in the earthy steam as I let my shroom tea steep, I mentally prepare myself for what lies ahead. Drinking magic mushrooms as a tea has become my go-to method of consumption and one I recommend in my book, Your Psilocybin Mushroom Companion. The reasoning is two-fold: The tea is definitely more pleasant to consume than chewing dried mushrooms and it’s much easier on my stomach. And, the time it takes to prepare the psychedelic brew has evolved into a precious ritual that focuses my busy mind and gets me in the mushroom mood.
Why Magic Mushroom Tea? Making Shroom Tea vs Eating
Is there really a difference between making mushroom tea and eating shrooms? For the more than 50 people who filled out a survey I created on magic mushroom tea, there was an important distinction: Shroom tea is much easier on the stomach than chewing and swallowing raw magic mushrooms. And I can attest personally as someone who gets nauseated easily, mushroom tea really does reduce nausea and the possibility of vomiting, at least for a large majority of people.
That’s because making shrooms into tea is in essence cooking your raw mushrooms and making them into a homemade psilocybin extract. Part of the reason mushrooms make us nauseous is all the hard to digest, raw mushroom material we’re consuming, such as chitin which makes up fungi’s cell walls. But by letting them sit in hot water for 10 to 15 minutes, the chitin and other components of the mushroom begin to break down while the psilocybin is extracted into the water, making a tea that’s both psychedelic and easier on the stomach.
But similar to lemon tek, mushroom tea can make the trip come on faster, causing it to be a bit more intense, and have a slightly shorter overall duration. However, lemon tekking goes an extra mile by potentiating the magic mushroom experience with the addition of citric acid, while a shroom tea won’t intensify the trip as much.
For both a mushroom tea and lemon tek, if you’re grinding down your mushrooms into a powder first, part of the reason it absorbs faster and feels stronger has to do with surface area. “Basically the way your gastrointestinal system and intestines that absorb drugs are set up is to maximize surface area,” says board certified psychiatric pharmacist Benjamin Malcom, a.k.a. the Spirit Pharmacist. “So if you have ground it down into a fine powder or put it into some type of aqueous solution like hot water, then it’s probably more evenly dispersed and able to be absorbed more rapidly.”
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On the other hand, when you chew and swallow dried mushrooms, you’re simply not creating as much surface area as powdered mushrooms, and so it takes your stomach longer to absorb and digest all the psychoactive content. While many people who filled out the survey found the increased strength and shorter come-up to be a benefit of making mushroom tea, some folks found it a bit intense and learned they needed a smaller dose with the tea than consuming raw mushrooms the old fashioned way.
Shroom Tea Benefits Another downside to chewing and swallowing dried mushrooms is the taste. To many, it’s not the most pleasant experience in the world and it can be hard to get down without gagging. But to side step this, many folks make their shrooms into a tea and add other tea bags to mask the earthy mushroom taste. While I recommend adding ginger and honey for taste and digestion in Your Psilocybin Mushroom Companion, many of my survey participants are taking mushroom tea fusions to new flavorful levels by adding things like hibiscus and licorice root. Popular household favorites also include green or chamomile tea bags, and many folks reported adding lemon, lemon peel, a splash of orange juice, or other citrus for both the taste and the extra kick. A 65-year-old who filled out the survey and has taken mushroom tea “hundreds of times” reported they mix mushrooms with “Berry Red Zinger” tea bags and “never had anyone dislike the taste.” Aside from making shrooms easier to digest, many of my survey participants reported they also enjoy the ritual of making their mushrooms into a tea. The process of breaking up their shrooms and brewing them has become its own ceremony to many, one that helps them prepare their mindset and set intention for the upcoming journey. Shroom Tea Effects: Does Mushroom Tea Change the Experience? Besides making the magic mushrooms come on a little faster and possibly stronger, some folks report that the type of tea bag, herbs, or fruit they mix with their shroom tea can also have an effect on their mushroom experience. “Anytime you drink a tea it changes your subjective experience,” says James W. Jesso, host of the Adventures Through the Mind podcast and author of
Decomposing the Shadow: Lessons from the Psilocybin Mushroom.
He explains that when you drink a tea, it has a certain effect on your experience: Whether that’s a calming sensation from lavender or an arousal effect from Catuaba bark,” says Jesso, “the art of tea is the art of herbal alchemy.” Jesso also brings up psilocybin’s ability to change one’s “feeling state” to one where “feeling is an act of perception.” And that, perhaps, we’re extra perceptive to how our herbal teas are affecting us when we mix them with psilocybin. Lindsey Bartlett, cannabis industry writer and editor at Green Entrepreneur reports something similar: “I add in other tea ingredients for digestion and happiness, like tangerine, turmeric, white tea, marshmallow root, or peppermint.” Bartlett also says that she’ll add some seasonal fruit to her brew, and the trip itself can feel seasonal in turn. “In winter I was using blood orange juice and peels. The tea turned this deep, deep red and the trip was equally deep.”
Jesso also takes this idea one step further, that psilocybin-containing mushrooms are intelligent and speak to us in a way. Therefore, by combining psilocybin mushrooms with other plants in the form of a tea, we’re essentially opening up a line of communication with the intelligence of these other plants. “If I’m working and living with a plant, if I’m consuming ashwagandha every day, for example, and I’ve been really trying to bring its effects into my body and change myself on some deeper level by having a relationship, then at some point, it might make sense to explicitly combine it with psilocybin to more deeply explore what that impact is,” explains Jesso. “Because I’m able to think and feel into myself in a deeper way [on psilocybin]. And like I said before about the intelligence of psilocybin, I think there’s a deeper capacity for the psilocybin to facilitate a dialogue between myself and the ashwagandha that otherwise wouldn’t be there, because ashwagandha doesn’t talk in human language the same way psilocybin seems to do when you take it.” Photo of magic mushroom tea via Wikimedia Commons. Mushroom Tea Tek: How to Make Shroom Tea There are lots of different mushroom tea recipes online, but I like to keep it simple. I’ve followed the recipe below many times with great results and no loss of potency as far as I can tell. In fact, the majority of my survey respondents also reported a similar method with some minor alterations. Simple Shroom Tea Recipe Step One: Weigh out the dose of mushrooms. 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 hours in. Step Two: Grind mushrooms into a powder. You can use a cannabis grinder or coffee grinder for this. Step Three: Chop up some ginger and add to mushroom powder Step Four: Pour hot water over mushrooms and ginger (and optional tea bag) Step Five: Let sit for 10-15 mins Step Six: Add honey to taste and enjoy!Optional if nausea is your main concern: Strain out mushroom bits with a strainer and only consume the tea. In the end, making your magic mushrooms into a tea can slightly alter the experience and make consumption a little easier on your taste buds and digestive system, but be prepared for it to come on a little faster and possibly stronger than eating raw mushrooms. And remember, for the safest psilocybin mushroom journeys, always take safe use practices into consideration like we outline in our guide to taking shrooms. Enjoy and safe travels! The main ingredients for making mushroom tea. Shrooms: Addiction Potential In the early 2000s, Johns Hopkins University began conducting investigating the potential of psilocybin—the psychoactive component in magic mushrooms—for end-of-life distress, or anxiety and depression in terminally ill patients. Prior to administering psilocybin to terminally ill patients, they had to conduct studies, required by the FDA, to ensure that psilocybin was safe for healthy adults. Since then, there’s been numerous studies at prominent institutions such as New York University, UCLA, Imperial College London, and others, that have confirmed that psilocybin is not only not addictive, but that it actually holds promise for treating substance use disorders, including and cocaine addiction.
Risks of Shrooms and Psilocybin Tea When drinking shroom tea, it’s important to recognize that your trip will likely be stronger and kick in sooner. Make sure that you are in an environment where you feel safe and supported if it’s your first time drinking shroom tea. In general, as mentioned, studies have found that psilocybin is relatively safe, but there are exceptions. People with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, a personal or family history of psychosis, or a heart condition should not do shrooms, unless they’ve consulted with a psychedelic integration therapist or physician first. DoubleBlind’s Essentials for Making Shroom Tea As mentioned before, the qualities of the tea you choose—whether it’s relaxing, energizing, clarifying—will combine with the effects of the mushrooms and shape your trip. So be mindful about the type of tea you choose. There’s also a few different ways, in addition to our basic recipe above, that you can do this, depending on how ritualistic you want to get. A scale. Whether you’re making shroom tea, lemon tekking, or just eating mushrooms whole, a scale is absolutely necessary to make sure you know how many shrooms you’re doing. A cannabis grinder or coffee grinder. Grinding your mushrooms well is going to help with digestion. The removable bowl on this one makes it a lot easier to clean Strainer. If you’re making shroom tea or lemon tekking, you’re going to want a small strainer. It’ll help avoid nausea, and just make the whole drinking experience better. Alternatively, we love to make shroom tea by playing around with different combinations of loose leaf herbs, other medicinal mushrooms, and teas in an empty tea bag. If you’re looking to feel centered before you trip and to prevent nausea, we love a beautiful loose leaf chamomile. Also, more on microdosing in other articles on our site, but this is also a great way to microdose. You can weigh out your shrooms, put .1 or .2 grams in each bag, and drink it in the morning, every third day, according to Jim Fadiman’s microdosing protocol.Best Teas for Shroom Tea Whether you’re going to combine your shrooms and tea—or you’re going to just eat your shrooms whole and perhaps drink tea separately, these teas all have incredible qualities which can make your trip better on the way up or on the way down. Chamomile helps with many of the potential side effects of a shroom trip. It calms your digestive system to help prevent nausea and it calms your mind to help with anxiety. As mentioned in the above section, you can buy a chamomile tea bag and throw it in a cup with some ground up shrooms. For a more sophisticated experience, buy some empty tea bags, and put a beautiful loose leaf chamomile like this one in with the shrooms. Chamomile is also incredible with dried lavender, dried rose, and your favorite honey. Tulsi is so underrated. If you’ve been following mycologist Paul Stamets, you’ve probably read about the power of combining shrooms with other mushrooms and herbs. You can read more about (non-psychedelic ones) on our site, but Tulsi is one of our favorites. Also known as Holy Basil, it’s a gentle adaptogen that improves mood and calms the nervous system. It can be beautiful tea to drink before, after or even during a trip. Skullcap and Passionflower. They’re frequently consumed together. These nervine herbs help with anxiety and negative thought loops. Of course, there’s no guarantee—and it’s best to be prepared to surrender to whatever comes up during your trip, but these beautiful flowers can put your trip on the right start, be drunk during your trip to help you relax, or afterwards while you’re processing the experience. You can also experiment with taking these flowers out of their tea bags and combining them together, with your ground psilocybin mushrooms, in an empty tea bag. Ginger. Ginger is an absolute must for anyone tripping for the first time, especially if you’re concerned about nausea. Even if you don’t make , you might consider making yourself a cup of hot ginger root tea with honey to sip on while the shrooms are kicking in to get ahead of any potential nausea and to help with digestion. I also like to keep ginger shots in the fridge just in case. If you’re going to take a ginger shot, make sure you feel you really need it, because they’re pretty strong in flavor, especially when all your senses are heightened from tripping. Also be sure you get one that is nearly 100% cold pressed ginger (which you can also buy at a lot of nicer bodegas and grocery stores if you don’t want to buy the whole pack on Amazon). Trader Joe’s has a good, affordable one, too. A lot of ginger shots are mostly coconut water, cane sugar, apple cider vinegar, and other things, so they might not do the trick. Lavender. Lavender is never a bad idea, really. It combats stress and helps with relaxation, which is good if you’re nervous about tripping. Essential oils are also a great way to set the mood for a trip or change the direction of a trip. I like to keep some by me if I’m going deep, with my eyes closed, or in my purse/ backpack if I am going to be outside somewhere while tripping. Even just taking a whiff can help ground you—or also consider giving yourself a massage, rubbing some into your scalp or onto your stomach while you take deep breaths if you need to relax while tripping. This could even be something to ask your trip sitter to do for you, if you’re comfortable enough with the person.Mushroom Drink Varieties Of course, psilocybin mushrooms aren’t the only kinds of mushrooms with which you can make shroom tea or tinctures. Indeed, ancient Chinese and Tibetan medicine, for instance, integrate other fungi varieties like Cordyceps in combination with herbs like ginger. Traditional healers recommend C. sinensisspecies like Yarsa gumba or Keera jhar for disease treatment alone, or with other herbs. Other like shiitake, reishi, or maitake have also been used in , in combination with lemon juice, coconut milk, green tea, vanilla, and more.
How to Make the Best Magic Mushroom Tea: Recipe, Dosage & Effects
Over the past several decades, acceptance for utilizing psychedelic mushrooms in and for the purposes of medical treatment has burgeoned steadily in mainstream North American media, among wellness experts, and even in clinical laboratories. Notwithstanding the marginal potential risks of ingesting Psilocybin, the bioactive ingredient in the soil-bound hallucinogenic fungi, but in general it has been acknowledged that – in small amounts (microdosing, for example, refers to the consumption of about one tenth of a hallucinogenic dose of magic mushrooms and has become very popular in recent years) – as possessing anxiolytic and antidepressant properties for some patients, and as possibly aiding in the cessation of smoking and other addictions. So-called “magic mushrooms” are also perceived to aid in mental clarity, wellness, and creativity in small, managed doses over time.
There is, of course, a pervasive problem with raw mushrooms – to put it simply, they don’t taste particularly good. Further, they can be pretty tough on the stomach, particularly for those who are prone to nausea. For some, the temporary discomfort of munching on magic mushrooms is worth the ultimate trip and the long or short-term positive effects, but those with delicate stomachs often wish to pursue methods of mushroom consumption that ameliorate intestinal distress. One such method is brewing so-called “shroom tea”.
Tea alone has been demonstrated to yield numerous health benefits on its own in clinical trials. Such beneficial effects can be immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, cardioprotective, and even anti-cancerous. Green tea may even reduce the risk of Type II Diabetes, Alzheimer’s Disease, and Parkinson’s Disease. So aside from tasting great, tea can serve as a healthful beverage as an addition to the benefits of consuming mushrooms.
Various types of functional mushrooms – from Reishi to Chaga to Turkey Tail – taste pleasant in tea and aid in supporting a healthy immune system, controlling blood pressure and cholesterol, and improving gut health, among many other possible benefits. For these reasons, mushroom tea in various forms has become very popular in general over the past decade or so. However, the aforementioned fungi, of course, do not offer the psychedelic experience Psilocybin mushrooms can. If you elect to opt for Psilocybin mushrooms in your tea, you have the option of microdosing – in which case, you will enjoy the positive, clarifying, cognitively expansive benefits of magic mushrooms without a hallucinogenic experience – or using a psychedelic dose (or if you’re brave a heroic dose) which will hopefully result in a pleasant trip. The nice thing about this experience is that brewing tea can be additionally meditative and relaxing, so it serves as great preparation for a positive shroom trip. For the purposes of this article, we will be focusing on magic mushroom tea specifically, as many interested consumers may be wary of trying Psilocybin tea for the first time.
Why Shroom Tea?
Shroom Tea vs Eating
As was mentioned previously, shroom tea is quite a bit more pleasant to consume than dried mushrooms on their own and it is also much easier on the stomach. In an analysis of an anonymous 2020 survey of 50 participants, Michelle Janikian of Double Blind points out an important distinction – shroom tea significantly reduced nausea and the possibility of vomiting for a statistically significant majority of the consumers. Bear in mind that this was not a clinical survey; however, much anecdotal evidence supports these findings.
The primary reason why shroom tea is easier on the stomach relates to the fact that the mushrooms are essentially cooked into an extract. Dried mushrooms make consumers nauseous because the raw chitin that makes up the fungi’s cell walls is notoriously difficult to digest. By letting the mushrooms steep in hot water for 10 to 15 minutes, chitin and other hard-to-digest components of the mushrooms’ fruiting bodies begin to break down. Further, in brewing shroom tea, you will more than likely be grinding the mushrooms into a powder, breaking down the chitin into consumable pieces even further.
Mushroom tea is also quite efficacious in bringing on a faster, more intense shroom trip. However, the duration of the trip also tends to be marginally shorter. Essentially, if you are grinding down your mushrooms into a powder and steeping it in hot water, the components are more evenly dispersed in the gastrointestinal system and absorb more quickly. In consuming dried mushrooms, absorption and digestion simply takes longer.
Shroom Tea Benefits
To reiterate, chewing and swallowing dried mushrooms can be a somewhat unpleasant experience, whereas with shroom tea, the components simply go down easier, are absorbed faster, and taste better. Many also enjoy the ritualistic aspect of stewing mushroom powder into a tea. It is important to set one’s mindset and intention before consuming mushrooms; if one is in a negative headspace or environment, the trip can cause paranoia, anxiety, dread, and a whole variety of unpleasant emotions. Brewing tea can be a gentle, meditative experience, placing individuals in calm and reflective states before embarking on a trip. Finally, shroom tea possesses all of the health benefits of tea alongside the enjoyable effects of Psilocybin in one beverage. Even if you’re not interested in consuming a hallucinatory dose of Psilocybin in your tea, you will still benefit from the clarifying and focus-enhancing benefits that can come with microdosing magic mushrooms over time.
Shroom Tea Effects
If all goes well, the consumption of shroom tea will result in a good trip (if, that is, you elect to consume a psychedelic dose), which can result in several effects including a peaceful high, giddiness, a sense of well-being, euphoria, audiovisual hallucinations, and other perceptual distortions. A negative trip generally entails paranoia, high anxiety, stomach discomfort and nausea, a fast or irregular heartbeat, and at the very worst, transient psychosis and seizures. To avoid a bad trip, do not exceed the gram and a half limit and drink your shroom tea very slowly. It should take 20-30 minutes to finish it, allowing effects to come upon you gradually and reducing nausea to a minimum.
How to Make Shroom Tea
Easy Shroom Tea Recipe
You will need a few ingredients to brew shroom tea. These include:
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1-3 g of dry Psilocybin mushrooms (or 0.1 to 0.5 if microdosing). This is our favorite place to get Magic Mushrooms.
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2 cups of water (around 350-400ml). Distilled water is preferable, this is our favorite.
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2 teabags of decaffeinated tea or herbal tea. Our favorite Herbal Tea, a lot of different flavors here you can try out and find the one you like.
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A spoonful of honey if you like, for flavor
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Optionally, a few pieces of ginger, especially if you struggle with nausea
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Optionally, lemon juice, which can accelerate the onset of the trip if you are eager to get going (See: Lemon Tek)
There are many different ways to brew shroom tea, so we will provide a relatively simple recipe here. The easiest, best way to make shroom tea can be achieved in just six steps.
Step One: Weigh out the desired dose of mushrooms. A low hallucinogenic dose is considered to be around 1 gram and will result in a sense of euphoria and enhanced senses. A high dose is considered to be around 3 grams and will likely result in heavy perceptual distortions and, potentially, a sense of ego dissolution. If you are just starting out, we recommend that you opt for a lower dose. If you are microdosing, you’ll only need about 0.1 to 0.5 grams of mushroom.
Step Two: Grind the mushrooms into a fine powder, or, alternatively, into slightly thicker, tiny pieces with a coffee grinder. Then place the ground mushrooms into a cup.
Step Three: Boil 2 cups of water in a kettle or saucepan. Take the water off the heat and let it cool for around 20 seconds after it boils.
Step Four: Add a teabag and leave it to infuse the hot water for about 10 minutes.
Step Five: Remove the teabag. Filter the remnants of mushroom from the cup you placed it in, pouring the resulting liquid into a bowl. Finally, put the filtered mushrooms back into the cup.
Step Six: Bring the second cup of water to a boil again, with your kettle or saucepan. Once it boils, take it off the heat and let it cool for about 20 seconds.
Step Seven: Pour the water into the cup with your ground mushrooms.
Step Eight: Add a teabag. Let it brew for about 10 minutes.
Step Nine: Mix up a tablespoon of honey, some bits of ginger, and/or a splash of lemon juice.
Step Ten: Drink up and enjoy!
Of course, you will need a few particular items in order to brew shroom tea this way. These include:
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A scale. It is very important to know how many grams of mushroom you are consuming for any given trip, so invest in a good scale!. Our Favorite Scale for Mushrooms.
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A kettle or saucepan to boil water in.
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A Good Grinder. This can be used to grind the fruiting body of the mushrooms into a powder. This step in particular will help with digestion.
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A strainer. This is an optional item, but we recommend it, particularly if you are concerned about nausea. The strainer can help remove excess bits of the mushroom’s fruiting body that are difficult to digest and can cause stomach upset. Alternatively, you can place different combinations of loose-leaf herbs and teas with your mushroom powder in an empty tea bag.
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Your favorite cup or mug. But how could you resist some of these amazing mushroom mugs?
Side Effects & Safety
When drinking mushroom tea, it is important to be cognizant of the fact that your trip will likely come on sooner and be somewhat more intense. As is the case with any Psilocybin trip, consumers will want to make sure that they are in an environment where they feel safe and calm (See: Best things to do on shrooms). Otherwise, unpleasant side effects can occur, including paranoia, depersonalization, panic attacks, or even transient psychosis if Psilocybin is ingested in very high quantities.
In general, Psilocybin has a negligible addiction potential and even holds promise for treating some substance abuse disorders, from alcoholism to nicotine addiction. However, this substance is contraindicated with individuals who suffer from particular psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, a personal or family history of psychosis, or any kind of heart condition that might cause hypertension and/or tachycardia. Do not ingest Psilocybin in any form if you are pregnant or nursing, as there is no research regarding its safety or efficacy in this context.
Do not ever inject yourself with shroom tea or an extract of magic mushrooms in any form. An article published by Live Science in 2021 chronicled the frightening experience of a 30-year-old man who injected shroom tea directly into his veins and ended up in the emergency department with the fungus growing in his blood. He required treatment for multisystem organ failure and remained in long-term treatment for several months. Fortunately, we rarely hear of cases like this, but it is worth repeating for the purposes of public safety – never, ever inject Psilocybin extract or shroom tea into your bloodstream.
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
How Long Does Shroom Tea Take to Kick In?
The onset of a shroom tea trip varies in terms of time. However, 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 the conversion of Psilocybin in the gut to occur faster).
How Long does Shroom Tea Last?
Again, this really depends on the dosage and a few other factors, but in a general sense one can count on the trip to last for between 10 to 12 hours. Anecdotally, some have even cited that they feel the effects up to 24 hours post-consumption.
What do I do with the leftover Shrooms after I make Tea?
You can consume mushroom leftovers if you like, but most opt out of doing so simply because the remaining fruiting bodies can cause nausea and lack potency, or they simply don’t like the taste/texture. Typically, people just throw the extras away.
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 (Ex. Golden Teachers), Psilocybe semilanceata (Liberty Caps), Psilocybe azurescens (Flying Saucer Mushrooms), Psilocybe Mexicana (Conical Caps), and Psilocybe cyanescens (Wavy Caps). The most common type consumed globally is Psilocybe cubensis, which is commonly found in the United States, Central America, Southeast Asia, and Northern parts of South America. They are not necessarily the most potent mushrooms of them all, but if you’re not sure which species of magic mushroom you’d like to try, Psilocybe cubensis is probably your best bet. We highly recommend doing extremely thorough research on the type of mushroom you are ingesting, even if you are growing it yourself (in other words, research the supplier of the growing kit and make sure it is legitimate). It’s important to note that depending on which magic mushroom you decide to ingest it will require a different dose, try our magic mushroom dose calculator.
Should I use dry or Fresh Mushrooms for Shroom Tea?
Since you will be grinding up your mushrooms in a coffee grinder or a similar apparatus, you’ll want to keep the fruiting bodies dry and away from humidity.