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Tea Flower Mushroom – How to Cook and Store the Delicate Mushroom
Psilocybe mushroom combined with all-natural jasmine green tea and hibiscus provides the ideal blend for soothing mornings and rainy afternoons. This soothing beverage makes an excellent companion on cozy mornings or rainy days alike!
Hibiscus sabadiriffa calyces can be sun-dried to create this delicate floral tea that pairs beautifully with steamed fish or light meals.
Nutritional Benefits
Mushrooms contain essential vitamins and minerals essential to our overall wellbeing, such as potassium, niacin and copper. Plus they’re full of vitamin D, which plays an essential role in immune function and bone health. Many mushrooms are considered adaptogens – helping us deal with stress more effectively by lowering cortisol levels while simultaneously increasing energy. Furthermore, mushrooms may improve blood flow, lower cholesterol and protect against cardiovascular disease by preventing plaque buildup in arteries.
Mushroom nutrition contains anti-inflammatory compounds that may help reduce inflammation in our bodies, potentially decreasing our risk of chronic illnesses such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes. They can also provide natural protein sources essential to building cells.
Certain mushroom varieties have long been recognized for their ability to strengthen immunity and protect against disease-causing bacteria and viruses. This is thanks to their natural antibiotic and antiviral properties which kill dangerous microbes while stopping their multiplication. Furthermore, certain mushrooms help our bodies more readily absorb and utilize commonly prescribed antibiotics, thus decreasing our exposure to drug-resistant strains of bacteria.
Mushroom tea is one of the easiest ways to incorporate functional mushrooms into our diets, providing us with an extremely nutritous beverage. Mushroom tea consists of herbs, spices and mushrooms steeped together for maximum nutritive benefit in hot water for maximum effectiveness.
Finding the ideal tea for you depends on your individual needs and taste preferences. Some mushroom tea brands come powdered and ready to mix with hot water directly, without needing to actually brew anything first. These options tend to provide additional nutrition thanks to ingesting mushrooms directly – some examples being Buddha Teas’ Mushroom Immunity Blend or Antioxi’s Gut Tea are examples of such products.
Others use organic mushroom powder steeped in hot water to produce a tea that provides all of its potential health benefits. Zoom Out Mycology offers blends such as Lion’s Mane tea that contain compounds believed to promote cognitive health; research suggests these herbs such as hericenones and erinacines may improve memory, focus and mental well-being.
Medicinal Benefits
Mushrooms provide numerous medicinal benefits that are beneficial to almost every aspect of health, ranging from improving immunity system function and relieving oxidative stress to supporting heart health. Mushrooms contain compounds and complex substances with antidiabetic, antihyperlipidemic, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, antioxidant, hepatoprotective, antiviral and anticancer properties – these properties can even extend into protecting liver cells against disease!
Beets are packed with nutrients such as protein, essential fatty acids, vitamins and minerals such as iron, potassium, calcium, zinc and copper – not to mention they’re an excellent natural source of vitamin D that may help address vitamin D deficiency linked to low immunity and mood disorders.
Traditional medicine holds that mushrooms have considerable immunomodulatory and adaptogen properties that make them stand out as therapeutic agents. By stimulating macrophages and activating immune response mechanisms, mushrooms prepare the body to better endure physical and psychological stresses. Furthermore, mushrooms provide metabolic balance by normalizing cholesterol, triglyceride, blood sugar levels as well as acting as prebiotics for intestinal flora – encouraging beneficial bacteria while restricting harmful ones from flourishing.
Medicinal mushroom teas are created using hot water that has been mixed with various species or combinations of mushrooms and other ingredients, usually consumed as a nutritious beverage and sometimes considered to be tonics that restore balance to all aspects of body wellness.
Mushroom teas can be prepared using various medicinal mushrooms, including Reishi (Ganoderma Lucidum), Chaga (Inonotus Obliquus), Shiitake (Lentinula Edodes), Lion’s Mane (Hericium Erinaceus) and Cordyceps Sinensis). Some mushroom teas come in powdered form that can easily be mixed directly into hot water while others need more traditional preparation as an herbal infusion.
Though functional teas may be considered safe for most individuals, it is still wise to consult a healthcare provider prior to starting any new supplement regiment that could have an effect on underlying conditions. Furthermore, to maximize effectiveness of mycotherapy treatment plans it is vital that an individual consumes a balanced diet with regular physical activity in combination with mycotherapy sessions.
Cooking Tips
No matter your level of experience when it comes to eating mushrooms, it’s always advisable to familiarize yourself with basic cooking tips to maximize both their flavor and nutritional benefits. This is particularly important when using tea flower mushrooms which require special care in preparation in order for it to be tasty and succulent.
Because this mushroom’s cap is thick with deep white fissures, rehydrating and cooking without losing texture can be challenging. To speed up rehydration and decrease risk of grittiness in final dishes, it is recommended that cold water should be used to soak your mushroom overnight instead of hot. This will cut back time required and minimize chances of any gritty residue being present afterward.
Be mindful when handling mushrooms to avoid damaging its delicate interior. A sharp knife may help here; use its tip to indent its surface so you can easily peel away its skin without disturbing its delicate interior, known as “julienne or ribbon cutting”.
Once your mushrooms have been rehydrated, it is wise to remove their stems as these can become stringy when cooked. Also consider straining their soaking liquid since this contains many of their natural flavors that should be used to enhance your recipe with mushrooms.
As an easy and nutritious breakfast or snack, try brewing some Bravo Tea’s Lion’s Mane mushroom tea in hot water for 3-4 minutes and mixing with some steamed milk to create an exquisite creamy beverage. Additionally, adding toppings like granola or other nutritious food items makes for an extra delicious bite-size treat!
Find our mushroom teas at Sprouts Farmers Market, Fresh Thyme Market and independent health food stores nationwide using our Store Locator tool.
Storage
A great way to preserve mushrooms is to store them in a cool and dry location for up to one year in an airtight container. Check for bugs or contaminants before placing your mushrooms away – or freeze if not planing on eating soon enough!
Three samples of Five Flowers Tea were gathered from 13 districts in Hong Kong through grocery stores, herb retailers, and market stalls. Each sample was identified with its voucher number; its herbal materials used, their claims for making tea with it, the total weight of parcel and species of herbs recorded (Additional file 1). Macroscopic and molecular identification techniques were employed to authenticate Five Flowers Tea samples; 23 herbs were identified (Bombax ceiba and Chrysanthemum morifolium were the two most frequently found). However 10 samples contained adulterants while one pest Lasioderma serricorne was detected within one parcel (Additional file 2).
As part of their Five Flowers Tea formulations, many tea shops and vendors often add additional herbs for specific functions. For instance, Siraitia grosvenorii (rock sugar) can enhance sweetness in tea beverages while some use herbs to strengthen its heat clearing and dampness expulsion properties – without standardisation among sellers can lead to inconsistency between therapeutic effects and their clinical impacts.
The Five Flowers Tea has its origins in China and is widely recognized for its heat clearing, dampness expulsion, and antidiarrheal properties. Popularly used in folk medicine to treat colds, coughs and insomnia; rich in antioxidants it’s also been shown to improve blood circulation while decreasing high cholesterol levels and blood pressure – all helping reduce coronary heart disease risks and diabetes risks as well.