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Mushroom Tea Vs Eating Mushrooms
Tea can be an enjoyable daily ritual. Making or sipping it at home or enjoying it when out and about can be especially relaxing when made from functional mushrooms.
Mushroom tea is made by steeping (infusing) hot water with mushroom powders. Some brands blend different mushroom varieties for different effects.
Benefits of Mushroom Tea
Tea has long been enjoyed as a relaxing and rewarding way to start their day, or wind down after work and relax at the end of each evening. From yerba mate and golden milk teas to detox tea, hot herbal infusions have long been known for their health-giving benefits; mushroom tea has recently joined them, providing various potential wellbeing advantages with every sip taken.
Similar to regular herbal tea, mushroom tea is made using ingredients other than Camellia sinensis plant leaves. Common varieties include Chaga, Lion’s Mane Cordyceps Reishi Maitake and Turkey Tail mushroom tea infusions that don’t contain caffeine yet still offer similar health benefits like relieving stress, improving sleep quality and increasing energy.
Although mushroom tea comes in powder form and can easily be mixed into drinks, for optimal health benefits it should be prepared as tea. Like other herbal infusions, mushrooms need to be steeped at specific temperatures in order to break down water-soluble medicinal components – typically, use hot water heated between 130-170 degrees Fahrenheit for best results when steeping mushroom tea as tea.
Once your tea is brewed, you can enhance its enjoyment with herbs like hibiscus, licorice or chai for extra enjoyment. Or try mushroom tea as part of a daily wellness ritual by brewing as normal then using it to meditate while sipping or use as part of an evening routine to help calm and ground yourself before sleeping.
Mushroom teas have become increasingly popular as health boosters. Reishi tea can help relieve stress and boost immunity while chaga tea helps lower cholesterol, while lion’s mane tea can make you feel younger by increasing cognitive function. Mushroom tea makes an ideal base for creating custom wellness blends using multiple herbal extracts for additional effects.
How to Make Mushroom Tea
Mushroom tea is easy to prepare: just boil some hot water and steep your desired mushroom in it for several minutes before drinking! Traditional medicinal mushrooms such as chaga, reishi, turkey tail and lion’s mane have long been used for their therapeutic benefits in traditional medicine and may help boost immunity, reduce inflammation, regulate stress levels and promote cardiovascular wellbeing – adding mushroom tea into daily life routine could significantly enhance these outcomes.
Loose-leaf tea is the go-to method of mushroom tea brewing, offering the opportunity to experiment with various flavors and ingredients that complement its earthy aroma. Try cinnamon, star anise, ginger, cardamom pepper juniper berries turmeric as ingredients to elevate its earthiness further. Additionally, some mushroom tea recipes even incorporate natural sweeteners that help mask its taste!
One simple and time-saving way of making mushroom tea is using pre-packaged sachets. These pouches contain both tea and mushroom powder for quick brewing on-the-go; simply take out from its packaging, pour hot water over it, and enjoy your cup in minutes!
Making homemade mushroom tea requires drying and powdering the fungi yourself, followed by finely chopping in either a grinder or food processor, before mixing into hot water for an aromatic beverage. Although this requires more work than using pre-packaged sachets, making your own mushroom tea will allow for personalized blends!
If you want a quick, easy, and delicious mushroom tea experience without all of the work of grinding and prepping the mushrooms yourself, consider Nature Lion’s raw mushroom powder instead. Not only is this an economical solution for trying different types of mushroom tea but it is also helpful if you are allergic to mushrooms which may become off-putting when combined with other ingredients.
Mushroom Tea Blends
Mushroom tea blends offer an easy way to reap the many benefits of mushrooms at once. Available both powdered and liquid extract forms, mushroom tea blends can be enjoyed either straight up or steeped like regular herbal tea for maximum effectiveness.
Mushroom teas tend to possess an earthy, umami flavor; however, their exact characteristics vary depending on which mushrooms were used to craft the brew. Some mushrooms may produce slightly bitter or woody notes while others will have more complex savory or woody nuances. Additional ingredients like spices, lemon peel or honey may also be added for more complex and rounded flavors to appeal to a wider range of palates.
When purchasing powdered mushroom tea, it’s essential that it comes from locally sourced and organic sources. Non-local and non-organic mushrooms may have been grown in soil contaminated by chemicals or in unsanitary environments that have an impactful result on both their quality as well as overall healthfulness of your tea.
When selecting a mushroom tea, it’s essential to take its intended purpose and effects into consideration. There are various mushroom tea varieties designed for specific tasks; whether that means helping wake you up in the morning, giving an energy boost during the daytime, or aiding sleep at night – some contain high levels of caffeine while others provide soothing properties.
Mushroom tea offers many advantages, with mixing and matching as you see fit to find the optimal blend for you and your unique needs. For instance, using chaga and reishi as an adrenal support remedy or mixing up Lion’s Mane cordyceps may help with concentration and focus – either way a cup of warm mushroom tea could be just what is necessary!
Storage
Although mushroom tea should ideally be consumed immediately after being brewed, if you wish to store it for later consumption keep in mind that its quality can degrade over time if left in storage for too long – for best results store it no more than two days post brewing in your refrigerator’s temperature-controlled environment to ensure freshness.
Plastic containers may work for short term storage of mushroom tea, but Yixing clay or similar unglazed ceramic jars offer superior long term storage solutions. By regulating humidity and temperature fluctuations gradually over time, these ceramic jars help regulate airflow that helps ensure potency and flavor for longer. Enjoy it either hot or cold; adding ice cubes adds an additional refreshing dimension! Some people even add lemon slices for an added pop.