Lemon Tek is an extraction process that uses 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, but find that a microdose will not bother them. Why is this?
To metabolize psilocybin, your body must first break it down and convert it into psilocin. The hard coating of the mushroom cell walls is called chitin and can be quite difficult for our stomachs to process, causing digestive discomfort. But citric acid breaks down chitin and preps the active compounds for easy stomach absorption. Lemon tek is known to have much stronger effects to an equivalent dose of dried mushrooms, but the duration is 20-40% shorter than just consuming dried mushrooms.
Fresh squeezed lemon juice contains the highest amount of citric acid. Substitute with fresh squeezed lime juice or lemon juice concentrate (do not dilute). You can choose your own dosage, but if using more than 2 grams, add another lemon to the recipe. Basically, you want enough lemon juice to just cover all of the mushroom matter.
Lemonade drink mix (like Crystal Light or Country Time) is not effective, as it does not contain enough citric acid for the extraction.
Processing Your Mushrooms
Before you can begin following a recipe, you will need to prep your mushrooms for use.
Crushing your mushrooms for extraction:
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.
- Coffee or spice grinder
- Mortar and pestle
- Chef’s knife to just roughly chop
- Plastic bag + something heavy, like a meat mallet or rolling pin
- Food processor or blender – just pulse a few times
No matter which method you use to reduce the mushrooms into a powder, there is one universal rule to follow:
Less is more. When working with dried mushrooms, it is important to keep the powder dry. When pulverizing the dried fruits, friction is generated, which causes heat to build up making a conduit for moisture. To avoid this, it’s best to work quickly and in small batches. Manual processing like rough chopping or crushing will generate less friction in contrast to mechanical methods, but with a little bit of care, you can produce a quality dried powder. For consistent powder in a coffee grinder or blender, just add enough fruits to reach the height of the blades, run in 3 second pulses until you reach your desired coarseness. As you complete your batches, transfer the powder to a small glass container with some moisture absorbers and a lid.
Straining 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. If you have ground mushrooms, you can use one of the following:
- Fine mesh filter
- New pantyhose – put your ground mushrooms in a small cut of pantyhose material and tie to secure
- Fine tea bags – disposable paper or reusable cloth with drawstring
- Reusable filter basket – I love this product!
- Cone or basket coffee filter and portable filter holder
- Mason jar, basket coffee filter and ring lid
- Several layers of cheesecloth
- Old tshirt
- Paper towels in coffee filter
OR don’t strain at all! Just drink the entire thing, grounds and all.
