Start Micro
Hey friends, it’s been a while! This one’s a recipe post, but yes, there’s a story before it, and you may find that interesting even if you’re not interested in participating in psychedelic culture through consumption.
If you need the recipe only, skip to the image below. For those who want to know before reading, I’m talking 120mg of psilocybin mushrooms per micro-dose, in a green tea with lemon & honey. My goal is a tea that doesn’t taste like mushrooms.
Obligatory contextual story before every recipe…
I throw a lot of events at my home. We’ve had a few networking/training mixers for the Decrim CA crowd (centered on a ballot measure to decriminalize psilocybin for 2022), as well as speakers, musical guests, sound-baths, networking/investor events for industries, themed events and more.
There were periods of time pre-pandemic when we’d have an event at least once a month, sometimes twice a month. Some as small as 20 people, some as large as 350 (truthfully, I never want more than 150 people in my house again).
For multiple decrim mixers, my birthday this year, and the last event (a live electronic musician called bvdub), I set out a little something extra at the snack table.
You see, my parties now rarely include alcohol. We used to have a full bar of hard liquor, with bartenders and bar backs, and about four years ago we started including a cannabis bud bar and started de-prioritizing alcohol (Judd doesn’t drink at all, I occasionally but rarely do).
At this point, very few of our parties include alcohol (more often wine if we do have alcohol), and all of them now include a set up for cannabis consumption (which is totally legal for the consumer here in California).
As we’ve gotten into the efforts to decriminalize psilocybin, the question becomes what we’ll do once that’s legal to consume - because a trip is a whole lot different than getting a little high on some weed. I’ve written about the best way to take psilocybin mushrooms for a transcendental trip, which you can find linked right here:
However I don’t ever want to throw a party with people tripping. I mean, I’ve been to those, with good friends, where there’s maybe a dozen close friends who are comfortable together… but I’m not throwing a general mixer for public access that commits people to 4-6 hours of visuals, hallucinations, and emotional experiences they may not come correct for or that I may need to babysit. That’s just not happening, and the biggest (real) fear as we get closer to mass public interest is simply that with access under decriminalization people may not realize what they’re getting into if they show up at some large party and “mushrooms” are the new cool thing to take — and they’re quite the commitment!
So I’m working on projects to educate the general public on how to trip responsibly but in the meantime, one thing that I’ve been experimenting with is an optional micro-dose at a few of my more intimate events, where the mood is appropriate.
There’s a lot of high quality psilocybin mushrooms floating around California right now, and so I started making micro-dose mushroom tea, which has various small and short-term effects. Studies have indicated that micro-dosing can improve mood, creativity, focus, cognition, interpersonal connection (social lubrication), and have other benefits, though it can occasionally make people feel minor physical discomfort or awkwardness/anxiety.
I personally enjoy a light micro-dose with a little bit of cannabis, it tends to make me feel more awake yet relaxed, and serves some similar purposes as alcohol in terms of lowered social inhibitions and general mood improvement, but nothing overwhelming or uncontrollable.
The reactions to me serving micro-dose tea have been pretty positive - people who aren’t interested will steer clear, but many people, even first-timers, will ask a few questions about the effects and take a drink and enjoy. It’s led a number of people to seek an actual transcendental dose in their future, and nobody has reported a bad time yet.
The most common question I’m asked afterwards is: how did I make it?
So let’s talk recipe.
This is what you came for…
Okay, the image sums it up, but read more for the explanation/logic.
First, what is a micro-dose?
My recommendations for an actual transcendental trip is 3.5 grams, but some people report trips at 1.5 - 2 grams (g), so I consider a micro-dose to be somewhere between 0.1g and 0.2g, which is equivalent to 100-200 milligrams (mg).
Quick note: if you put out micro-dosed (or dosed) food or drink at an event you must label it to inform people. People should never be dosed with any amount without their express consent! I always put my tea out away from everything else with a piece of paper announcing what it is, the ingredients and the dosage.
This recipe is for green tea with lemon & honey.
Things you’ll need:
An approximate guess at the number of people who will partake.
If throwing an event, I use the number of people RSVPing. Not everyone will try it, and some people might want two. I advise people not to do more than three. My last event, I prepared for 80, I’ll refer to that in these examples. Since most people aren’t throwing 80 person parties, my summarized image above includes a recipe for 8.
A small digital scale (or pre-measured mushrooms).
Mushrooms
Take your approximated number of participants, multiply by .15, round up or down to make a whole number (generally round down, but if it’s close you can go up). That’s how many grams you need. I prepared for 80, so 80*0.15 is 12, but I decided to be conservative and do 10 grams, so each ounce of liquid would be 0.12g/120mg of psilocybin. You can also backwards plan this with the weight of shrooms you have, divide by 0.15 to figure out how many ounces you should make and then limit the consumption that way.
Green tea bags
Take your number of guests. That’s how many ounces you’re going to make. Divide by 8, now you know how many cups of water you’re going to use. Use the same number of teabags as cups of water. My example the other night = 80/8 = 10.
Lemons
This varies on preference. I say use at least one, but I used 3 for 10 cups. I’d probably use 2 next time. This is a mix of flavor, helps reduce any possible nausea, and it helps break down the psilocybin into psilocin which is what actually has a psychotropic effects on your body.
Honey
Whatever your preference - organic, local, pick your favorite. You’ll want a lot probably, though it’s up to your taste.
Disposable shot glasses (1 oz size)
You can do this with 2oz too, but if you do I’d double your measurements of everything besides the mushrooms.
A coffee grinder ideally, or a weed grinder.
You can also use a hammer on the bag or just break them up with your hands, but the more finely ground the better.
A semi-large pot (this depends on how much you’re making, a teapot might be fine).
Water (one ounce per person, so for my 80 people I did 10 cups).
Directions:
As I said, I plan for one ounce of tea to equal the micro-dose, and then I provide other beverages (non-dosed) for people to enjoy.
Fill your pot with water (my example, 80 micro-doses means 10 cups), set burner on high.
Add green tea bags (I recommend 1 tea bag per cup of water, I used 10.)
Weigh out and grind up mushrooms, add to empty tea bags or tea steeper, add to pot of tea. (For 80 doses, I used 10 grams, which comes to 0.12g/120mg).
Let it get to a boil, stir periodically, once it’s boiling you can drop it to a simmer.
Add your honey. This is to taste, but I find mushrooms bitter so I err on the side of lots of honey. I use like a quarter of a honey bear, which is like 2+ oz.
Keep stirring it up.
Cut up your lemon(s), but don’t add them until you’re sure you’ll be serving it out within 20 minutes (I sometimes prep my tea an hour ahead of time).
Squeeze in a lemon or two, then add another “quarter of a bear” to taste (I hear that’s another 2+ oz of honey.)
Turn off the heat, stir, let sit.
Strain out all the bags and anything else in the pot (sometimes I find lemon seeds). You can do this will a spoon or a strainer. I recommend a strainer.
Pour the entire pot through a strainer into a pitcher, then pour little 1 oz shots in your cute little 1 oz shot-glasses.
Put up your sign saying the dosage and ingredients and warning people about that!
You can use other tea flavors - a lot of people love chai. I find green tea works for the other ingredients personally. You can do this in macro-doses as well, changing your ingredient amounts to accommodate it (though I remain the biggest fan of lemon tekking for regular dosing).
Also, this kind of marks my soft launch of a project I’ve been literally preparing for 6 months. I’m working on a psychedelic education channel, of primarily videos, but occasional memes, short articles and more teaching people about psychedelics. It’s not gonna be just woo heart-stuff, it’s not gonna be just hard science, not strictly medicinal, not just party-safe advice - it’s about accessible, understandable information to enable people to learn more about substances they may be exposed to or seek out, and make informed decisions about the effects, risks, and benefits.
If you’d like to support that effort, I’ll be including my long-form blog posts on this very blog alongside my personal essays, but I’ll be mostly making video and meme content on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. I’m not sure if the content itself will find itself pulled from platforms due to “drug-promoting” content, so I’ll be trying to put it as many places as possible, with personal drive backups and a website to keep track of any rebranding necessary.
The fact is, like sex education, it’s fucking stupid to only teach abstinence, and information is harder to get because of illegality, which only increases the risk and harm these substances potentially have. So I’m here to share & teach. You can even ask questions here.
Ultimately, the branding is Your Trip Sister - I’m like a big sister giving you advice your parents won’t tell you, or a “trip sitter”, guiding you on your psychedelic experience, and I’ve been writing scripts for video content for a while now, so I’m planning on debuting stuff very soon. (That’s one of two huge projects I’ve been very busy with).
Little joke: Drug Appreciation & Responsibility Education
DARE to check out my upcoming work!
Anyway, that’s my mushroom micro-dose recipe.
I’d appreciate if you’d post or share this content with others who may find it interesting!
Be safe, and imbibe responsibly.
You always find ways to amaze me!