When Life Gives You Lemons... Mix Them With Magic Mushrooms 🍋 (Lemon Tek Guide)

The lemon tek method of preparing magic mushrooms is very simple... Grind your shrooms into a fine powder, soak them in some lemon or lime juice for about 15 minutes, and knock it all back.

Jul 17, 2023

The lemon tek method of preparing psychedelic mushrooms has 4 main benefits:

Faster Onset of Effects — The lemon juice may help convert some of the psilocybin into psilocin, something our body does as well. Since psilocin is the tryptamine responsible for the trip, this may help “kick-start” the effects (in theory).
Stronger Psychedelic Effects — Along with a stronger onset comes a more intense experience (reportedly). Many report lemon-tekking dramatically enhances the effect.
Improved Taste — The sweet and citrusy flavor of lemon juice masks the bad taste of the mushrooms.
Less Nausea & Stomach Pain — The lemon juice soothes the stomach and reduces the chances of nausea or stomach aches from taking magic mushrooms.

Here’s how it works:

Grind your dried magic mushrooms into a fine powder
Soak them in lemon or lime juice for about 15 minutes
Knock the whole thing back like a shot (strain out the mushrooms if you want to, but it will also impact potency)

You can add some sugar or ice to further mask the taste of the shrooms but don’t expect it to taste quite like lemonade.

This post has been adapted from our lemon tek guide on Tripsitter.com

How Lemon Tek Intensifies Magic Mushrooms

Lemon tekking may increase the potency of magic mushrooms by up to 20%

There are two theories for why this may be:

The acidic nature of lemon juice converts psilocybin to psilocin and increases absorption through the digestive tract.
High vitamin C levels from lemon juice may protect the two compounds from oxidation (and deactivation) — thus preserving more of the active ingredients.

Don’t expect to double the intensity of your shrooms by any means, but lemon tekking definitely helps the mushrooms you have go just a little bit further.

Even with lemon tek, the most significant factors that affect your trip are things like dosage, diet, set/setting, metabolic makeup, and tolerance.

Lemon Tek Eliminates Common Side Effects of Magic Mushrooms

One of the main side effects of eating magic mushrooms is a symptom called “gut rot,” which involves a feeling of uncomfortable fullness and nausea about an hour after eating mushrooms.

This is largely caused by proteins and fibers in the dried mushrooms and can last anywhere from about 30 minutes to 3 hours.

Lemon trekking is one of the best ways to eliminate gut rot — especially if you choose to filter out the mushrooms before you drink it.

Drinking mushroom tea and eating food with your shrooms are also excellent ways of preventing gut rot.

Lemon Tek Kicks in More Quickly Than Raw Shrooms

Most people start noticing the effects after 20–45 minutes (compared to 30–60 minutes with dried mushrooms). The main reason for this is likely through the improved conversion of psilocybin to the active form — psilocin.

Normally we have to wait for the liver to process psilocybin into psilocin before the effects start to kick in. Just 15–20 minutes of exposure to the low pH of lemon juice is enough to convert much of it to the active form before it gets to the liver.

You can take lemon tek on an empty stomach to further reduce the onset time, although most people find this unnecessary.

How Do You Make Lemon Tek?

The only thing you need in addition to your regular shroom supply is a way to grind them (a coffee grinder, weed grinder, or mortar and pestle all work great), a fresh lemon, and a small glass.

Ingredients:

Dried magic mushrooms
1–2 lemons (limes also work)
Coffee grinder, herb grinder, or blender
A strainer or cheesecloth (optional)
A small glass cup
A spoon to stir

Step 1: Grind Your Shrooms

Grind the mushrooms into a fine espresso-like powder. The finer, the better, so take extra time to ensure you have an extremely fine and consistent grind.

A blender or coffee grinder will work fine, but a stone mortar and pestle work best to get the shrooms into a nice fine powder. If you do use a mechanical grinder, make sure to take frequent breaks so the blade doesn’t heat up and damage the mushrooms.

Step 2: Squeeze Some Fresh Lemons

You can squeeze lemons with your hands or use a juicer. Either way, collect as much of the lemon juice into a glass as possible and remove the seeds when you’re done.

You’ll want to use about 1 lemon per 2-3 gram dose. You can’t really overdo it, but you’ll have to drink all of it, so you probably don’t want to use more than necessary.

Step 3: Mix Your Lemon Juice With Your Powdered Shrooms & Wait

Combine your powdered shrooms and lemon juice together in one cup. Give it a stir so everything is mixed, and then leave it alone for about 15 minutes.

Make sure to wait the full 15 minutes so the citric acid has a chance to work its magic but don’t wait more than 30.

Step 4: Strain (Optional)

Some choose to strain the liquid through a mesh strainer or cheesecloth to remove the bits of mushies floating around. This will still provide strong psychoactive effects, but it will be slightly less potent.

For this reason, most people just knock the whole thing back as-is — ensuring the full dose of magic mushrooms.

Step 5: Drink Up!

No more wasting any time — drink up!

I recommend shooting the whole thing back quickly and following it up with a few sips of water or juice to wash it down.

Some Common Lemon Tek Questions

Lemon tek is becoming one of the most common methods of consuming magic mushrooms — and for good reason. It offers a perfect blend of convenience, potentiation, and elimination of common side effects like gut rot.

Here are some of the most common questions we get asked about the lemon tek method.

1. Which Shrooms Are Best For Lemon Tekking?

Any psilocybin-containing mushroom will work well with the lemon tek method. As with any other method, the higher the psilocybin level, the more dramatic the potentiating effects are going to be.

The most common species of magic mushroom used for preparing lemon tek is Psilocybe cubensis, but Panaeolus cyanescens, Psilocybe azurescens, and Psilocybe semilanceata work great too.

Magic truffles are a great option as well. Dried, powdered samples of Psilocybe tampensis and Psilocybe Mexicana, both of which form truffles rather than mushrooms, work perfectly fine with lemon tek.

Some of the strongest strains to consider are Tidal Wave, Penis Envy, and Fuzzy Balls.

You can also choose to use dried mushrooms or fresh mushrooms — both work great, but you’ll likely notice a bigger improvement in potency when using the fresh mushrooms with lemon tek.

2. How Long Does a Lemon Tek Shroom Trip Last?

The average lemon tek shroom trip lasts for several hours, although it’s typically shorter than the average shroom trip. Durations vary between lemon tek trip reports, but most people say their lemon tek trips last around 4–6 hours (compared to 4–7 hours).

Interestingly, many lemon tek trips end abruptly, forgoing the waves that many people experience during an ordinary shroom trip’s comedown phase. It’s unclear why this happens, although it is most likely related to the head start lemon tekking gives to the psilocybin-to-psilocin process.

Also see: How Long Do Magic Mushrooms Last?

3. Can You Microdose With Lemon Tek?

Yes, anything involving sub-perceptual doses is considered a microdose. So as long as you only consume around 0.2 grams or less equivalent of magic mushroom powder, it’s a microdose.

One method of preparing lemon tek microdoses is to use an ice cube tray and add 0.1 or 0.2 grams of mushroom powder to each cube. Then add enough lemon juice to each tray to cover the mushrooms. Let it sit for 15 minutes, then fill the rest of the way up with water and toss it in the freezer. Each cube is dosed as one microdose. Use one ice cube in a smoothie to dose.

4. Can I Mix Lemon Tek With Tea or Elixirs?

Yes! You can mix your prepared lemon tek with anything you like. It works especially well as an addition to teas containing herbs like lemongrass, ginger, or cinnamon.

The added citrus flavor compliments these teas very well, and the medicinal ingredients in these teas further help to reduce nausea or stomach discomfort.

You can also use lemon balm to make other concentrated elixirs. Extracts of ginseng, spirulina, ashwagandha, chaga, reishi, and cacao are all great synergistic ingredients for making your own psychedelic health elixir.

5. Can I Use Other Citrus Juices Instead?

You bet! Lemon or lime juices are the most popular juice for preparing lemon tek, but other citrus fruits will do a similar job too. Basically, any fruit that contains a high level of vitamin C and citric acid will do the trick. This includes oranges, kumquat, and grapefruit.

Some other (non-citrus) fruits that contain citric acid can also be used, but these won’t work quite as well as lemon or lime. These include pineapple and strawberry juice.

Enjoying the Trip? 🍄

Don’t Journey Alone! Tripsitter was built by a community of psychedelic advocates — but it’s people like you that allow us to thrive.

If you know someone who you think would find value in the Tripsitter newsletter, do us a solid and share the love using the link below.

Contributions & Shoutouts

Original Article by Dan Simms

Edited for Substack by J Gordon Curtis

Artwork by Diego Joka