Posted by pinksharkmark (64.32.116.232) on September 08, 2001 at 21:15:35:
In Reply to: Oy vey! Where to start? posted by pinksharkmark on September 08, 2001 at 21:09:49:
Here is the absolute best way to make tea, bar none:
First thing to do is to make sure the mushroom pieces you have are finely divided. WAIT UNTIL JUST BEFORE YOU MAKE THE TEA before chopping them, as the more finely diced they are, the quicker the psilocybin will degrade due to exposure to oxygen. On the other hand, the smaller they are, the more easily they will give up the psilocybin to the extracting liquid. Dice them into fairly fine pieces... maybe twice the size of a sesame seed.
Heat a cup or a cup and a half of water in a pot until it is boiling. Add about a teaspoon of lemon juice, remove pot from heat, wait about thirty seconds and toss in the shroom bits and 1500 mg of crushed up vitamin C tablets (any kind, but the chewable variety will probably taste better). Stir it every few minutes, squishing the mushroom bits against the bottom of the cup or the sides as you do so.
After ten or fifteen minutes, strain out the bits of mushroom from your tea, and toss them into a SECOND batch of almost-boiling water and half a teaspoon of lemon juice (no vitamin C this time). You won't need a full cup of water this time... maybe a half cup. Put the first cup of "tea" aside to cool further. As before, stir the new water/shroom mixture every few minutes, squish them up well. After ten or fifteen minutes, strain out the shroom bits, pressing out as much water as you can, and discard the shroom bits. By this time there should be very little, if any, active ingredients in the bits, it will all be in the water/lemon juice mixture.
Combine the two portions of "tea" into one big mug, toss in a spoonful or two of instant coffee and add enough sugar so that you don't gag when you drink the mix. NO MILK or CREAM, though, or anything fatty.
Wait until the resulting mix is cool enough that you can drink it within five to ten minutes. The idea is to get all of the psilocybin/psilocin into your bloodstream at the same time.
Essentially, you are extracting the psilocybin and psilocin from the mushroom tissue. The hot water does most of the work, but the lemon juice acidifies the water so that the extraction is more thorough. The coffee is to provide caffeine, which allows the body to absorb the psilocybin/psilocin more rapidly and completely. The vitamin C is an anti-oxidant keeps the more fragile psilocin molecule from breaking down too rapidly.
Anyways... it is not necessary to make tea to have them work. If you dice them up really finely and swallow them in a glob of honey or molasses or something to kill the taste they will still get the job done. Some people find the mushrooms a little bit nauseating, and use the tea to reduce this gastric upset, but either method will work. The key is to do them on an EMPTY stomach. No food for two hours before, and the meal before taking the mushrooms must be fat free. No cream, no peanut butter, no olive oil, no cheese, no nuts, no avocados. Pasta and veggies or fruit seems to be the best. No glass of milk with the meal.
Also, no food until the mushrooms have kicked in completely. About 90 minutes after taking the mushrooms you can eat again if you feel like it, because all of the psilocybin and psilocin will be in your system by then.
pinky