How To Make Lemon Tek
By Jaden Rae
*Disclaimer: We do not encourage illegal activity, nor the sale or trade of illegal substances. Check with and adhere to your local laws. We do not claim plant medicine to be a substitute for professional medical care. Always consult with your doctor. The goal of this article is to promote safety and education.
If you’ve ever tried psilocybin, you’re probably aware of just how terrible magic mushrooms taste. The experience just isn’t that pleasant, with many reporting nausea and stomach pain.
That’s why I love the Lemon Tek extraction method.
You’re more than likely already perform extractions in your kitchen on a regular basis. Brewing coffee and tea are perfect examples of simple hot water extractions. The ultimate goal of extraction is to keep what you want and leave behind the less desirable bits. In this case, the best way to consume mushrooms is to simply isolate the psychedelic alkaloids from the rest of the compounds that make up the mushroom fruit body.
What is Lemon Tek?
Lemon Tek (short for “technique”) is an extraction process that uses the juice from lemons to break down the active compounds of mushrooms so they can be more easily absorbed by the body.
Why Use Lemon Tek?
People often experience stomach discomfort while consuming trip-inducing doses. The hard coating of the mushroom cell walls is called chitin and can be quite difficult for our stomachs to process, causing digestive discomfort.
Also, to metabolize psilocybin, your body must first break it down and convert it into psilocin. Psilocin is the compound that your body uses to experience the “trip”. Normally, your stomach acid will do the job, converting psilocybin to psilocin, and breaking down chitin.
Citric acid from lemon juice has a similar pH as stomach acid – and can also break down chitin and prep the active compounds for easy stomach absorption. Doing this step prior to consuming will make the experience come on faster, and stronger. However, the duration is 20-40% shorter than just eating the dried mushrooms.
In short, Lemon Tek does the heavy lifting, giving you a faster, stronger, shorter trip — and with less nausea and stomach discomfort.
How to Dose
Measure out your desired dosage of ground or crushed mushroom first:
- A microdose is 100mg-300mg of mushrooms, and is for an everyday “vitamin” for those seeking relief from anxiety, depression, and overall emotional wellness. You may have a slight tingle on your skin, an uptick in energy, and a sense of wonder and ease throughout the day. Most function normally about their day, with no impairment.
- A low dose is 300mg – 1 gram, which will give you a little bit of the visuals: sharper vision and more vivid colors, introspection and connection to nature and people.
- A medium dose is 1 – 3.5 grams. You’ll experience of the above, with a sense of euphoria, distorted visuals, time warping, synesthesia (hearing colors, seeing sounds) and a deep spiritual connection.
- A large dose is 3.5 grams – 5 grams, and a heroic dose for experienced psychonauts is anything above 5 grams. You’ll want to have a sober “trip sitter” as you may experience intense psychedelic effects like hallucination, profound spiritual insights, and the feeling of, “everything, everywhere, all at once.”
Anything above a micro or low dose is considered a “trip” dose. Please take caution and do not drive, climb tall ladders or juggle knives.
Remember that the Lemon Tek will make the experience stronger, so calculate a slightly lower dosage than normal. You can expect onset to be between 10-20 minutes, and the duration to last 3-5 hours (but may be more, depending on your individual metabolism).
Always start low and slow. If after an hour, you feel like you want more, consume a little bit more (20% of your initial dose).
3 Steps To Easy Lemon Tek
Step 1 – Prep Your Mushrooms
Crushing or grinding your dried mushrooms will allow for a more efficient extraction, but the finer you grind the mushrooms, the more difficult it will be to strain the solids. Use a coffee/spice grinder, chef’s knife, mortar and pestle, or pulse a few times in a blender or food processor.
Step 2 – Juice Lemons
You only need enough lemon juice to just barely cover the mushroom matter. Generally 1-2 lemons will make enough juice for 5 grams or less of ground mushrooms. Juice the lemons and pour it over the ground mushroom — make sure that you cover it completely. Leave this to sit for about 25 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes or so.
Note: Substitute with lime juice or bottled lemon juice concentrate. Lemonade drink mix (like Crystal Light or Country Time) is not effective, as it does not contain enough citric acid for the extraction.
Step 3 – Strain Your Mushrooms
The easiest way to strain the mushrooms out of the lemon juice is with a normal tea strainer. If the mushrooms are in bigger pieces, you can just scoop them out with a slotted spoon. OR don’t strain at all! Just drink the entire thing, grounds and all (though I find that larger pieces of the mushroom taste disgusting!) You can simply down the shot of Lemon Tek, or add hot water and honey to make a tea.
We are here to promote safety and education. If you feel like you’ve consumed too much, or are having a bad trip, there are free resources such as Fireside Project (62-FIRESIDE). If you are experiencing a medical emergency, call 911.
In next month’s column, I’ll be teaching you a new tek that I created to super-charge your Lemon Tek, using a whipping siphon or “whippit” and whipped cream nitrous chargers to enhance the extraction. If you’re into mushrooms, you won’t want to miss this!
If you enjoyed this article, be sure to check out our other column about psychedelics and plant medicines here in Vegas Cannabis Magazine.
About the Author:
Jaden Rae is a Las Vegas resident, International best-selling author of the Microdosing Guide And Journal, cookbook author and a television chef. She hosts a free weekly Microdosing Mondays zoom call at MagicandGlow.com, a safe space to educate, inspire and support those on their psychedelic and plant medicine journey. She provides tools to enhance emotional well-being, find meaning, create magic, nourish souls and enrich lives. Jaden has been featured on the Today Show, The Early Show, Martha Stewart Radio, Fox Business News, Parents Magazine, and more. You can reach her on Instagram @magicandglowco.
