Severance13 said:

I had someone in one of my edible groups get back to me on it. Pectin seems to be the best option though its set time is really fast and the separate citric acid solution is tough. A lot of CBD and cannabis gummy makers use this particular brand too. Here's the recipe. Figuring out how to split the tea correctly will be tough: https://pacificpectin.com/pacific-hm-100-gummy-recipe/

It looks like they have a whole crash course on it too: https://pacificpectin.com/the-gummy-vault/gummy-pectin-crash-course/

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Mycodemus said:

Mycodemus said:

I made another batch today, with the aforementioned tweaks. I will come back and edit in my entire process step by step but I’m pretty exhausted now. Making the tea seems like the longest process, so the idea to make tea into ice cubes for later candy making is one I’ll consider if I don’t want to spend the whole day in the kitchen. But I also started out making ginger tea from fresh ginger, to use as the water for the mushroom tea. So that added some time to the process as well.

I made note of and made an effort to take care with temperature, so I aimed for 121C with the syrup/agar, although it got out of hand at the end and went up to about 130. Need to have an ice bath on hand for next time.

Also this time my timing with everything was much better. Mise en place is the way to go with this.

This time I added the gelatin mixture to the hot sugar bit by bit, slowly by tablespoons (like tempering eggs), stirring with each addition, and that made incorporating into the hot sugar easier. I tried not to go below 55 or above 70, but I think I might have accidentally have gone above 70 C at the very end, above which gelatin breaks down. After pouring they weren’t setting up as quickly as yesterday’s batch; however, at the end of the pour I again noticed some undissolved clear chunks which I’m not sure were gelatin or agar. I’m starting to suspect it’s probably agar, not sure what to do about that, but next time I’ll try heating the agar in water first, and then adding the syrup to that. Anyway, those chunks went into my little overflow cup on the side, after I filled the whole silicone tray, so they are denser than the rest of the mixture.

I checked on them after they went into the fridge, worried that they wouldn’t set up, but luckily they seemed firm like the last batch. If they end up melting at room temperature then I guess I’ll keep them in the fridge for home consumption only.

I’m having fun with this! It’s very satisfying.

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Delayed update, here’s the recipe for my second batch of gummies. My aim was to make one full tray of 126 gummies at 2 ml each, at a microdose level of 0.3 wet grams of semperviva each.

30 g grated fresh frozen ginger (next time will try 45 g)
500 ml water

Made tea from ginger, reduced to half then adding water 3 times. Strained out ginger, then used liquid for the mushroom tea.

4.2 grams dried semperviva fruits
Ginger tea, topped up with water to 500 ml
MCT oil

Crumbled up mushrooms by hand, then ground up a bit in a mortar and pestle.

Add liquid to pot, reserving ~100 ml. Add mushrooms to pot, carefully so not to kick up dust into the air. Rinse out mortar and pestle with remaining liquid to get all the bits. Scrape out with silicone spatula. Add 2 drops MCT oil to help prevent foaming. Bring to boil, reduce to high simmer. Cook uncovered, scraping down sides occasionally with spatula. Reduce to half over about 30 minutes. Strain through a fine brewers bag, squeeze out mush, and cool tea in ice bath. Then return to pot with 300 ml water and repeat process. Discard mush solids. Return all filtered tea to pot and reduce to 100 ml. Cool in ice bath.

While tea is simmering, prepare the following:

Grease gummy silicone molds with carnauba wax/oil mixture. Fuck using a brush, a gloved finger is the fastest and best method, at least for the cube shape kind.

2 g potassium sorbate
11 g 2:1:1 acid blend (2:1:1 citric:malic:tartaric) (or just use citric, but this gives more complexity)
1 g table salt

Grind finely in mortar and pestle. I still had issues with this dissolving, next time I will try dissolving in 25 ml hot water first before using in the recipe.

100 ml mushroom tea, cooled in ice bath
85 ml black currant flavored drink cordial, undiluted (for drinks, is diluted 1:4 with water)
54 g unflavored gelatin powder

Mix cordial into the tea. Sprinkle over gelatin and let sit 5 minutes. Then gently fold together so that all liquid is in contact with gelatin. Let sit 15 minutes. Should be like a solid rubber puck with no liquid pooling.

4 g agar agar (I had issues with the agar not dissolving properly, will try cooking it up in liquid first next time)
165 g white syrup
Thermometer

Add syrup to small pot. Sprinkle over agar and let sit 15 minutes (this didn’t help the dissolving issue, will cook the agar with water first next time)
Stick thermometer to pot and heat the syrup to 120 C, stirring and gently scraping down sides with silicone spatula. Remove from heat and cool immediately to 70 C. By tablespoons, add gelatin mixture to the pot, stirring gently but continuously and thoroughly after each addition. Keep the temperature below 70 C but above 60 (although you can go to 45-50 really). Crucial part is to not go above 70 C as you will break down the gelatin and it won’t set properly. Scrape down the sides as you go until all the gelatin is added and incorporated. Remove from heat and transfer to a spouted vessel for pouring into the molds.  Working quickly but carefully, pour into prepared mold. For me, this made a whole tray of 126 gummy cubes at 2 ml each, with an overflow of 15 ml.

Let set for 15 minutes, then transfer to the fridge. This next day, remove from molds, massage with a few drops of carnauba oil blend, and store in glass jar with desiccant packs.

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Now, these came out delicious, but somewhere along the line I didn’t get the potency I wanted. I’d aimed for microdoses at ~ 0.3 wet grams of semperviva each. But when I took 8 gummies a few days after I made them, it seemed more like about 1-1.2 wet gram than the expected 2.6. The mushrooms were dried properly and were fresh having only been dried the week before and stored in glass with desiccant.

I saw on another thread to expect a loss of potency of about 1:6, whatever that means.

I’m not sure if it’s due to the mushrooms, the tea process, the acid addition, or the heat from the sugar which didn’t go above 70 C.

It could’ve been some tolerance so I’ve cut back on the microdosing, but even after taking a break I tried my first batch again (which I wrote up a few posts ago) and though I aimed for 0.3, I’d say they’re maybe more like 0.1 or 0.15. I took 8 to start, then after 40 minutes which is when I usually feel effects coming on, I ate 3 more. The redose seemed to actually decrease any psychedelic effect. So although I got the mood elevation of a microdose, somewhere along the line I’m doing something wrong.

Fresh, the semperviva are very potent. I’ve tried the dried ones at very careful low doses and they seem fine. But the gummies almost seem like something special is missing. I dunno, like the soul is gone or something. So I wonder if multiple essential chemicals are being destroyed in the process somewhere. That said, I wouldn’t eat them like candy, they’re certainly not completely ineffective.

Next I might try a cold water extraction and see what happens.

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Tsinaglou said:

I just used the original tek with 475 gms of stones with 4 cups of water in each extration. I need to use quite a bit more water to get everything suspended. This time when boiling it down to .75 cups I got about a quarter cup of thick, caramel-like precipitate. Thoughts? It seems insoluble so I'm hoping the goodies are in the tea. But I'll hold on to it for the moment.  These stones were held in the refrigerator for two months, while others I worked with were used fresh.

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Sorry for the late response, Tsinaglou. Sometimes the reduction does get syrupy, especially with stones. With grain spawn it can be pasty. Both have still worked fine when making them into gummies using the same recipe or upping the unflavored gelatin a bit if needed. I am not quite happy with the grain tea reduction yet, but hope to get some work in this weekend to see if I can improve my results with grain. As well as a few other varieties and species.