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.

1. 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.
2. 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 using herbs while tripping, and the benefits of medicinal mushrooms (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.
3. 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.
4. 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 shroom tea, 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.  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.
5. 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. sinensis species like Yarsa gumba or Keera jhar for disease treatment alone, or with other herbs. Other medicinal mushrooms like shiitake, reishi, or maitake have also been used in cancer treatments, in combination with lemon juice, coconut milk, green tea, vanilla, and more.