ReverendMyc said:

I let the mush heat up in the water and then took it off after it was boiling for the steeps. That worked fine.

My belief is that the only problem with letting it boil is the loss of water. More water leads to better transfer. So in theory, if you start with more water and boil it down to the same amount as the finished steeped tea you should get at least as good as just steeping. But that hasn't been tested yet.

So based solely on the data so far, yes. Steep, strain, and use the dregs to steep some more.

I will keep testing and come up with the definitive best method. But each test I have done has answered some things while leading to more questions.

One tip I haven't mentioned yet is that I got a french press and it is by far the easiest way to extract the maximum tea from the dregs.

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QuantumZ00 said:

For me it's the smell associated with cooking shrooms tea that gets me. It's to the point I get nausea just smelling it now. I wear a face mask to hide the smell some, not to protect from contam lol

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eilauver said:

I guess Aeropress might be pretty good too. Maybe a bit small, though? I don’t like cleaning the french press.

Edit. It might even be easier to press out all the “juices” with the aeropress, then it is with french press.

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SevR said:

It might be worth investing in an actual press to extract as much fluid as possible.
This is what I use for herbal tinctures (something like it at least, a bit heavier duty- can find on amazon): Might be a bit large unless you're making a huge amount of tea- but smaller versions are available.

A french press is a good idea, but it's not going to allow for the amount of compressive force an actual press will- how much of a  difference it would make for this type of experiment is a question.

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eilauver said:

All that talk about coffee (french presses) and pressure (PC), makes me think about espresso. After all isn’t espresso a great way do extract bunch of stuff from coffee using less water, using a bunch of pressure.

Chuck finely ground shrooms into a portafilter and pull a shot, or a double.

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ReverendMyc said:

I got an Aeropress before getting the french press and it is MUCH more difficult to use the Aeropress for extracting the mushroom tea. The Aeropress filter is very fine and is designed to use medium grind coffee. The dried mushrooms produce too much powder that clogs the filter up very quickly making it nearly impossible to move any liquid through. I used both the paper and the stainless steal filter with the same results. I tried cheese cloth cut to size but that was not much better. And cleaning the Aeropress was only a bit less difficult than my french press.

The Aeropress does make about the best cup of coffee that I have ever, though.

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Great to know, and great that you’ve already tested it. Maybe that saved me from embarrassingly trying to squeeze mushroom tea through mine.

LadysKnight said:

To throw a wrench into your hypothesis, fwiw, PrimalSoup makes concentrated tea with very little water addition, relying more on the water content of the fruits.

https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/12494141#12494141

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eilauver said:

All that talk about coffee (french presses) and pressure (PC), makes me think about espresso. After all isn’t espresso a great way do extract bunch of stuff from coffee using less water, using a bunch of pressure.

Chuck finely ground shrooms into a portafilter and pull a shot, or a double.

Edit. For my own encyclopaedic tendencies I had to find out if it’s discussed before. Found one thread that doesn’t say much. Mushroom Espresso?

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ReverendMyc said:

eilauver said:

I guess Aeropress might be pretty good too. Maybe a bit small, though? I don’t like cleaning the french press.

Edit. It might even be easier to press out all the “juices” with the aeropress, then it is with french press.

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I got an Aeropress before getting the french press and it is MUCH more difficult to use the Aeropress for extracting the mushroom tea. The Aeropress filter is very fine and is designed to use medium grind coffee. The dried mushrooms produce too much powder that clogs the filter up very quickly making it nearly impossible to move any liquid through. I used both the paper and the stainless steal filter with the same results. I tried cheese cloth cut to size but that was not much better. And cleaning the Aeropress was only a bit less difficult than my french press.

The Aeropress does make about the best cup of coffee that I have ever tasted, though.

SevR said:

It might be worth investing in an actual press to extract as much fluid as possible.
This is what I use for herbal tinctures (something like it at least, a bit heavier duty- can find on amazon): Might be a bit large unless you're making a huge amount of tea- but smaller versions are available.

A french press is a good idea, but it's not going to allow for the amount of compressive force an actual press will- how much of a  difference it would make for this type of experiment is a question.

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This is intriguing. If I step up production I will definitely be looking into one of these. Looks like it might be great for myceliated grains as well as mushrooms if the holes are not too large.

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ReverendMyc said:

LadysKnight said:

To throw a wrench into your hypothesis, fwiw, PrimalSoup makes concentrated tea with very little water addition, relying more on the water content of the fruits.

https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/12494141#12494141

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That is interesting, too. Since PrimalSoup is starting from fresh, the total water may be similar. Again, the only way to know which method is actually more effective would be side by side testing. I see that he says that it is the strongest way to make tea, but do not see any backing data. So we have to rely on subjective information. I don't doubt that it makes a potent tea, I just want to know the most effective way to do it. So testing the resulting dregs from each method should give a fair determination.

Using acid will certainly be part of the upcoming experiments, but I don't plan to work with fresh because that doesn't fit into my workflow, at this time. If I could be prepared to make and dehydrate tea in smaller batches at every harvest it might make sense. I love working with fresh, it is just not always feasible to be ready when the mush are for me. Need to quit my day job, but gotta pay the bills.

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Primals tek is the tek I used earlier in this thread that made the strongest tea.

Citric acid with a steep period. But also made with fresh

Nimpo said:

You could line it with a beer grain brew bag, they’re made of a fine weave synthetic organza and are very durable. Works great for tea. Or if you can sew, it’d be easy to make a custom sized one yourself. You could use silk or nylon organza.

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