Reishi and other Functional Mushroom Tea Directions

These updated instructions serve for tea-making using any fresh or dried functional mushroom, providing you with a 1 week supply of fresh tea and soaking mushroom pieces that can be kept in your refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Always consult with your doctor before beginning any new health or dietary regimen.

First, shred or cut your mushroom pieces into roughly 1/4 inch (5mm) strips or chunks, known as a 'tea-cut'. Depending on your mushroom and its dehydration, they could be be corky and tough, in places, so a heavy-bladed knife, cleaver or rocking herb cutter will be beneficial. Every mushroom is different, so get your weekly dose recommendations from us at Moxie! If you obtain more than a 1 week supply, you might need a digital scale to separate your supply accurately.

Using a 2 litre or larger saucepan, add your mushroom pieces and a little less than 2 litres fresh water, bring to a boil on your stovetop then reduce to simmer for 1 hour. You'll only need to do this once a week, so the rest of the time it'll only take a few minutes to reheat a cup. If you don't have a whole hour, less time is okay, as your mushroom pieces will still be soaking and get reheated a few times through the rest of the week.

Pour your functional mushroom tea, or 'extract', through a strainer into a 2 litre measuring jug and adjust the level to 1.75 litres. Pour out 250ml (1 cup and daily dose) to a drinking receptacle for immediate use after cooling. You may add any sweetener, flavouring, ice or additional water to your drinking receptacle, at this point, with the daily dose contained in the original 250ml you poured. Some mushroom teas are an acquired taste - Reishi is found to be particularly bitter-tasting.

Add your strained mushroom pieces to clean, empty, lidded containers, which should be thermal shock-resistant and ideally microwave-safe, and cover with the remaining tea. 3 x 500ml or 2 x 750ml Mason jars should be sufficient. Store your mushroom pieces in their tea in the refrigerator for up to 1 week - label, e.g. with painter's tape, and the date, in case you forget.

For the next 6 days, re-boil one of your mushroom tea jars (microwaving a mason jar is quick and easy, just remember to remove the metal lid!) to make sure you extract as much of the compounds you're after as possible. Pour out your 1 cup through a strainer for immediate use, as above, returning any strained pieces of mushroom to the jar, and the jar to the refrigerator.

As mentioned, every mushroom is different, but so is every person; some people are more or less sensitive to certain functional mushrooms, and although a 'standard adult dose' may be described, this is for an adult of 'average weight' (68kg). Significantly smaller or larger people may need less or more, with many effective medicinal doses in Western medicine being calculated per kilogram of the patient. As a general rule, if you find the standard dose profoundly effective, try halving the amount for future use and see if the effects are still sufficient - you may be more sensitive. If you find it's not working for you, do not increase the dose without consulting your doctor, but instead consider trying a different functional mushroom variety which will contain a different suite of compounds with a similar 'entourage effect' that might suit you better, e.g. if you have tried Reishi/Lingzhi, consider trying Zizhi instead, as it is often used interchangeably with Lingzhi in Traditional Chinese Medicine ("TCM").

Functional mushrooms are those recognized as possessing compounds which have been used folk-medicinally (e.g. in Traditional Chinese Medicine or other traditional medicine system) and have been studied scientifically to determine the nature, effects and dose requirements of those compounds. They are not offered to diagnose or treat any illness, but rather to support your personal quality of life choices. Some, but not all, contain some compounds which are mostly insoluble in hot water, benefitting from a secondary alcohol extraction. Common functional mushrooms and their various names include:

Reishi/Lingzhi - Ganoderma sichuanense

Purple Reishi/Zizhi - Ganoderma sinense

Turkey Tail/Yunzhi/'Blue Reishi' - Trametes versicolor

Imazeki/'Black Reishi' - Ganoderma neo-japonicum

Sanghuang Lingzhi/'Yellow Reishi' - Sanghuangporus sanghuang

Agarikon/Alihong/Eburiko/'White Reishi' - Laricifomes officinalis

Shu She Lingzhi/'Gorilla Reishi' - Ganoderma applanatum

Hemlock Reishi - Ganoderma tsugae

Chaga - Inonotus obliquus

Cordyceps miltaris

Golden Thread Cordyceps - Tolypocladium ophioglossoides

and even gourmet edible mushrooms such as Lion's Mane (Hericium erinaceus), Maitake (Grifola frondosa) and Shiitake (Lentinula edodes)!

Some would argue that mushrooms with psychoactive compounds should also be included in this list, especially since they have found clinical use in recent years, and are popularly used in 'microdosing' practices:

'Magic Mushrooms' - most famously, Psilocybe species, but many other genera of mushrooms also contain the pro-drug, Psilocybin.

'Fly Agaric Mushrooms' - Amanita muscaria, with a long history of use amongst shamanic peoples as an entheogen.

Whole, Red Reishi/Lingzhi, ready for chopping.

Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor) growing on Birch log, ready to harvest.

Most of the functional mushrooms listed above are 'polypores' (having 'many pores', rather than 'gills' or 'teeth' to distribute spores) - even when fresh, they have a firm texture, and a relatively low moisture content. When fresh, they typically weigh only 2 times more (approx 60% water) than when 'dried' (still containing 10% water, considered safe for long-term storage). Fresh Maitake, Shiitake and Lion's Mane, though, have a higher moisture content, and can weigh 4 (Maitake, 80% water) or 5 times (Shiitake, Lion's Mane, 90% water) more than when dried. If you are following dose calculations for dried mushrooms, remember to use these numbers to divide your fresh mushroom's weight to provide the equivalent dry weight (i.e. the weight of your fresh mushroom if it had been dehydrated) before you use it to make tea or tinctures.