Yes — we’re really doing it. We’re talking about Penis Envy. And before your mind goes anywhere inappropriate…

I mean the mushroom strain.

It’s been around for decades and is probably one of the most talked about strains in the mushroom world — partly because of the name (obviously), partly because of the look, and partly because people swear it hits deeper and harder than your average mushroom.

So let’s walk through what this strain actually is, where it came from, why it’s so popular, and what makes Penis Envy… Penis Envy.

Where Penis Envy Came From (The Short version)

Back in the early 1970s, legendary psychonaut Terence McKenna allegedly discovered the strain in the Amazon rainforest.

From there, mycologists and growers became obsessed.

They crossed it and created the variations people now know as:

• Albino Penis Envy

• Penis Envy 6

• Bi-Frost

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What Makes Penis Envy Different?

Penis Envy is famous for two main things:

1. The look

Thick stems, bulbous cap, and yes… the shape.

It’s unmistakable.

2. The potency

Across the board, people report that PE feels stronger, deeper, and more introspective. Some say it’s because of the psilocybin content. Others say it’s the supporting compounds (like baeocystin, norpsilocin, etc.)

There’s a whole debate in the mushroom world about this.

Some people say:

“All cubensis strains are the same. A cube is a cube.”

Other people swear each strain has its own personality, vibe, and energetic signature because of the other compounds besides psilocybin.

Personally?

I’m somewhere in the middle.

Yes, dosage matters.

Yes, environment matters.

Yes, your mindset matters more than anything.

But I also think there’s something to be said about chemistry.

Compounds like baeocystin and norpsilocin might not be fully understood yet, but people consistently report feeling differences among strains.

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Penis Envy is the Michael Jordan of mushroom strains; it’s iconic, dominant, and still talked about all these years later.

What makes it even more interesting is that it’s genetics are constantly borrowed, crossed, reworked, and blended into new strains. Growers love it so much that they keep using it as a parent strain, creating whole new variations that still carry a little bit of that PE personality.

It’s not the base of everything, but it is one of the most influential players in the genetic lineup.

So whether you’re into the history, the effects, the look, or the way it keeps showing up in new crosses, Penis Envy has earned its legendary status. It’s a strain that refuses to fade into the background — and honestly, that says everything.

To be honest, I’m on a mission to find as many things as I can put magic mushrooms in…because, for me, they taste horrible. I know some people are like, “just eat them raw,” but honestly? You couldn’t pay me to. I hate the taste. So if I can hide it in something sweet (and nostalgic), that’s perfect for me.

These Magic Rice Krispie Treats are my go-to. They’re simple, buttery, and the perfect way to share a little magic with friends during the holidays.

Ingredients

• ¼ cup butter

• 4 cups miniature marshmallows

• 5 cups crispy rice cereal

• Magic mushrooms – this part’s up to you. The recipe makes 24 servings, so you can decide how strong you want each one to be. For example, if you want each square to contain 200 mg, you’ll add 4.8 g total of finely ground mushrooms to the batch (200 mg × 24 = 4800 mg = 4.8 g).

• Optional: mini peanut butter cups, chocolate chips, or whatever you like, I used mini Reese’s because I’m a peanut butter girl through and through.

Directions

1. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over low heat.

2. Add marshmallows and stir until smooth and fully melted. Continue stirring for about 2 minutes to make sure everything’s combined.

3. Add your mushroom powder.
   I sift mine in slowly while stirring so it doesn’t clump and spreads evenly through the mix.

4. Remove from heat and stir in the crispy rice cereal until everything is well coated.

5. Add your extras, this is where I throw in the mini Reese’s or any other mix-ins.

6. Press the mixture evenly into a buttered 9×13‑inch pan using a buttered spatula or a piece of wax paper.

7. Let cool completely, then cut into 24 squares.

Storing

• Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days, or refrigerate for up to 5 days.

• If you refrigerate them, let them sit out for 5–10 minutes before serving so they soften up again.

Nutrition (without add-ins):
65 calories • 2 g fat • 12 g carbs • 1 g protein

Until next time,
The girl who grows magic 🍄

Grain prep is one of the most important steps in the whole growing process. Before you ever build a monotub or see pins forming, you need healthy, clean, hydrated grain, because grain is the food source for your mycelium. There’s more than one way to prep grain, but this is what works best for us.

Why Grain Matters

Grain acts as the starting point for your grow. You inoculate it using either liquid culture or a spore syringe, though they work a bit differently. Liquid culture contains live mycelium and typically colonizes grain faster and more reliably. Spore syringes are also used, especially by beginners, but they can be slower and carry a higher risk of contamination. We’ll cover the pros and cons of each in a future post.

Once inoculated, the grain becomes a nutrient rich base that the mycelium fully colonizes before it’s transferred to bulk substrate for fruiting.

We use organic long grain brown rice, but there are lots of options out there like rye, millet, oats, wild bird seed, etc. We like brown rice because it’s easy to source, super consistent, and when prepped well, it leads to strong, clean colonization.

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What You'll Need

• 1800g organic brown rice

• 6L water

• Large pot with lid

• Timer

• Strainer

• Drying rack

• 1–2 fans (optional, but helpful)

• 2 mushroom grow bags (0.2 micron filter patch)

• Spray alcohol (for cleaning)

• A spatula and scooper

Why Cook the Rice?

There are two key reasons:

1. Hydration

Cooking ensures the rice absorbs water evenly and reaches the ideal internal moisture level. You want grains that are soft on the inside, but dry to the touch on the outside. That balance helps prevent clumping and lowers the risk of bacterial contamination. Too wet = contamination risk. Too dry = slow or patchy colonization.

2. Accessibility

Brown rice contains complex carbohydrates like starch. When you cook it, those starches gelatinize, meaning they swell, soften, and become more available to the mycelium. Fungi release enzymes to break down those starches into usable sugars. Cooking doesn’t “add nutrients,” but it makes what’s already there easier to digest.

Our Step-by-Step Grain Prep

1. Bring 6L of water to a boil.
Make sure you’re using a large enough pot to prevent spillover when you add the rice.

2. Add 1800g of brown rice.
Stir it once to prevent clumping, and set a timer for 16 minutes.

3. Wait for the water to return to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium. Stir occasionally so the rice doesn’t stick.

4. When the timer goes off, strain the rice immediately.
You want it fully cooked but not mushy. Drain off as much water as possible.

5. Spread the rice out to dry.
We built a simple DIY drying rack using mesh and wooden slats ( we will cover how to build one in a future post).

6. Set up 1–2 fans to blow cool air over the rice.
This step speeds up the drying process and helps prevent excess surface moisture, which is one of the most common causes of contamination.

7. Move the rice around every so often.
The goal is for all grains to feel cool and dry to the touch, but still hydrated inside. If they’re sticking together or feel damp, keep drying.

8. Once dry, transfer the rice into grow bags.
With this recipe, you’ll fill two standard-sized mushroom grow bags. Try not to handle the rice too much with your hands.

A Few Extra Tips

• Avoid rinsing the rice before or after cooking.
  You actually want some starch left on the surface, it helps the mycelium grip and spread.

• Use fresh grain.
  Don’t prep grain days in advance. The longer it sits, the higher the risk of contamination.

• Always inspect your bags before moving to sterilization.
  If the rice feels too wet or you spot pooling moisture, pause and let it dry a bit longer. It’s worth the wait.

What’s Next?

Once your bags are filled and sealed, the next step is pressure cooking—which we’ll cover in the next post. This is how you sterilize your grain and prepare it for inoculation with spores or liquid culture.

If you’ve made it this far, you’re well on your way. Grain prep can feel intimidating at first, but once you dial in your method, it becomes second nature.

Until next time,
The girl who grows magic 🍄

Let’s talk about substrate…because we get asked about this all the time.

Substrate is the material you mix with your colonized grain to give your mushrooms the right environment to grow and fruit. But here’s the important part: unlike plant soil, substrate isn’t there to provide nutrients. Mushrooms aren’t plants, and they don’t feed on the substrate the way a tomato plant feeds on soil.

Instead, substrate is really just a base. It holds moisture, provides structure, and gives the mycelium space to spread out and do its thing. That’s it. There are no nutrients in this mix, just the right texture and moisture balance to support healthy fruiting.

Our 3‑Ingredient Substrate Recipe 🍄

We keep it simple. Here’s exactly what we use:

• 600g coco coir
  This is shredded and dehydrated coconut husk. It holds water extremely well and stays airy. You’ll usually find it in compressed bricks.

• 400g vermiculite
  A mineral-based material that helps retain moisture and gives the substrate a fluffy, workable texture.

• 6L boiling water
  Used to hydrate the mix and bring the temperature high enough to reduce the risk of contamination through a process called pasteurization.

What is Pasteurization ?

Pasteurization is the process of using heat to reduce the number of potentially harmful microorganisms, without completely sterilizing the material. This is appropriate for bulk substrates like this one because coco coir and vermiculite don’t contain nutrients and aren't likely to harbor high levels of contaminants.

By using boiling water and sealing the bucket, we reduce the chance of contamination while keeping the process simple and effective. Full sterilization isn’t necessary here, this low-tech method works beautifully when done right.

How to make your substrate

1. In a clean 5-gallon bucket, add 600g coco coir and 400g vermiculite.

2. Pour in 6L of boiling water, making sure the entire mix is saturated.

3. (Optional) Spray the inside of the lid with alcohol before closing.

4. Close the lid and let it sit for 24 hours.

After 24 hours, the substrate will be fully hydrated and cooled, ready to be mixed with colonized grain.

So You Want to Grow Like Us? Here’s Everything You’ll Need 🍄

I’ve been growing mushrooms for four years now. It started with curiosity, turned into trial and error, and eventually became a rhythm I know like the back of my hand. These days, the process feels easy, but that came with time, mistakes, and figuring out what really works.

The method I use isn’t the only way to grow mushrooms… although I do think it’s pretty amazing! It’s not the most beginner-friendly, and it does require more equipment, but it gives me consistent, clean, high-quality results and that’s what matters most to me.

The truth is, there’s not a lot of solid growing info out there. And most companies don’t share how their mushrooms are actually grown. So I wanted to offer a bit of transparency for anyone who’s curious, or maybe thinking about starting their own growing journey. Here’s the full breakdown of what we use, step by step

1. The Grow Room Setup

Shelving Unit

Optional, but helpful for stacking tubs. A table works too. We use this to run multiple tubs at the same time. It helps us stay organized and keeps the space clean and efficient. If you're short on space, vertical storage is your best friend.

Air Purifier

A clean space is everything. An air purifier helps keep out dust, mold spores, and bacteria that can compete with your mycelium. We’re trying to give our spores the best possible chance to thrive, clean air makes a big difference.

Laminar Flow Hood

This is where the magic (and science) really happens. A laminar flow hood creates a sterile workspace when you're inoculating your grain bags. It protects your culture from airborne contaminants and gives you much better odds of success. This isn’t a must-have for beginners, but if you’re getting serious about growing, it’s 100% worth the investment.

2. Prepping Your Grain

Mushroom Grow Bags (0.2 Micron Filter Patch)

These bags are where your grain will colonize. The 0.2 micron filter allows for air exchange while keeping contaminants out. We like using bags because they’re space-efficient and easy to handle during sterilization and inoculation.

Buckets

You'll need a few of these for mixing your substrate. Nothing fancy - just basic, clean 5 gallon buckets.

DIY Drying Rack

Before sterilizing your grain, it’s important to get the moisture just right. Too wet and you risk contamination. We built a simple drying rack to lay out our boiled grain and let it air dry evenly. Two fans help speed this up (see below).

Fans (x2 or one works fine too)

Used to circulate air and dry grain faster before pressure cooking. This step makes a huge difference in reducing excess moisture and helping the grain reach that perfect texture, slightly dry on the outside, but still hydrated on the inside.

Presto Pressure Cooker

This is how we sterilize the grain bags. You’ll want to run it at 15 PSI for at least 90 minutes. Sterilization is non-negotiable, this is how you kill off anything that could compete with your mycelium later on.

Heat Sealer

Once your grain bags are inoculated, you’ll need to seal them shut.

3. Inoculation & Colonization

Liquid Culture

This is your starting point for life. Liquid culture contains living mycelium, which you’ll inject into your sterilized grain bags. Make sure you’re working in a clean, sterile environment during this step, this is where contamination risk is highest.

Alcohol Spray

An absolute must. Spray down your gloves, tools, work surface, everything! Sterility is everything here. Even a small slip-up can ruin a bag, so stay mindful and keep things clean.

This step is all about giving your mycelium the best chance to take hold and grow strong. Patience is key. Once your grain bags are inoculated, you’ll need to wait for full colonization before moving on to the next phase. (You’ll know they’re ready when the grain is fully covered in bright white mycelium.)

4. Building & Fruiting Your Tubs

Sterilite Clear View Totes

These are our go-to fruiting chambers. They're durable, stackable, and easy to modify. We drill holes into them for airflow (we’ll break that down in another post). They’re spacious enough to hold a good amount of substrate while still maintaining the right environment for fruiting.

Black Garbage Bags

Used to line the inside of your tubs. This helps prevent side pins. It also makes cleanup way easier later on.

Substrate (Coco Coir + Vermiculite)

This is what you’ll mix with your colonized grain before fruiting. We use a simple mix of coco coir and vermiculite. It holds moisture well and creates a great environment for mushrooms to grow.

Tub-Building Tools

Scissors, gloves, painters tape, micropore tape, polyfill and alcohol.
These are all essentials for assembling and sealing your tubs. Micropore tape and polyfill help with airflow while keeping contaminants out. Scissors to cut your bag. Painters tape to secure it. Gloves to keep your hands clean.

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I’m probably missing a few things, but this is what comes to mind as I’m writing. Everyone’s setup looks a little different, and it took us a while to get all of these pieces in place. We didn’t start with everything either, we built it slowly, one step at a time.

We’ll break down each phase in future posts. And if this setup feels out of reach right now, don’t worry. I’ll also be sharing beginner-friendly options soon. There’s more than one way to grow magic.

Got questions? Want us to go deeper on something specific? Drop a comment!

In March 2020, right before the world went into lockdown, I found myself in the Santa Cruz mountains with four grams of magic mushrooms. It wasn't my first journey into the psychedelic realm but it was to be my deepest yet. What followed was a profound encounter with my Self, the Void, and the very fabric of the universe. This is my humble and perhaps futile attempt to explain the ineffable.

The Inherent Limitations of Language

In the psychedelic state, it was made clear to me that any later attempt to rationalize or interpret the experience through the conventional devices of the intellect would be futile. The parameters of the experience extend far beyond the jurisdiction of the intellect, and in order to even discuss it in these linguistic terms, it must be simplified a great deal.

This experience showed me, among many things, that ordinary language is an insufficient medium for conveying a true image of the psychedelic experience. Our language is far too logical and arbitrary, whereas the psychedelic experience is anything but. In fact, it transgresses every intellectual boundary and takes place in a kind of “no man’s land” which is inaccessible to the human intellect. Therefore I must disclaim that this verbal account is but a fragmented recollection of the total experience—leaving much of the weirdness unaccounted for.

As is said of the Buddhist monk,

“His depths are mysterious and unfathomable, the best one can do is describe his appearance.”

—Tao Te Ching

The Onset of Absurdity

A feminine, serpent-like presence could be felt in the beginning. It was as if the mushroom spirit herself took me by the hand, guiding me into the underworld. Beyond this initial glimpse, there were no other interactions with so-called “entities” during the experience. The mushroom did not allow me time to pause and say hello to my inter-dimensional neighbours. Only a brief glance was offered into their world of morphing, spiralling, extrasensory forms—a world of utter weirdness and incomprehension. I sped right past the usual attractions and ended up somewhere beyond.

The visions accelerated in both intensity and absurdity until they eventually gave way to the absolute dissolution of “I” (the ego). The unique sense of self-identity that normally forms the center of my human experience, the center-point around which normal awareness revolves. The “I” was consumed by the bizarreness of it all, dissolving into the basic source energy of the universe; disappearing into the eternal vibration of pure, undifferentiated consciousness.

Into the Void

This is where the limitations of our language become especially apparent. To communicate in these terms normally requires us to introduce a distinction between subject and object, however this experience did not contain any such distinctions. There was a visceral, almost overwhelming sense of cosmic unity, an intuitive awareness of the interconnectedness of all things. I was plunged into a void beyond all separation.

The void is Divine Communion, Singularity, God experiencing Itself directly and completely. It’s absolute unity, the root of everything that exists and does not exist. The subjective sense of identity—of being a separate “I” who operates independently in the world—merged into the heart of the universe.

In the midst of it all, I came to the understanding that this is always happening “everything, everywhere, all at once” but in the ordinary state of human consciousness we simply do not have the eyes to see it. Unbeknownst to us, everything is everything else.

“In the final stage of egolessness there is an obscure knowledge that All is in All—that All is actually each. This is as near, I take it, as a finite mind can ever come to perceiving everything that is happening everywhere in the universe.”

—Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception.

This experience cannot be conveyed by the (relatively) unsophisticated language of our time. It’s pure feeling.Undifferentiated sensation. It doesn’t make sense to the mind, but it resonates profoundly with some other intuitive sense of ours. Perhaps the most accurate explanation is complete silence.

“He who speaks does not know, he who knows does not speak.”

Wrestling with the “I”

In the void, there is no emotion. When the “I” sense is absent, there is neither good nor bad, only neutrality. Or tranquility, bliss, peace. Yet the pesky “I” kept trying to force its way back into the equation. Each time it reappeared, it brought emotion with it—particularly fear.

The ego’s instinctual reaction to the Void (ie. the infinite nature of the universe) is fear. It shatters the whole illusion upon which the ego is based (separation, finiteness, individuality) and that’s terrifying. It’s a direct confrontation with its own demise.

How can the ego survive if there’s nothing to distinguish it from everything else? Is the ego just the mind’s attempt to make sense of the “chaos” of reality? Something to cling to in the infinite abyss…

To remain in the neutral feeling of the Void, unaffected by emotional disturbances, requires a certain finesse. Call it mental flexibility or spiritual agility. It’s a very subtle and nuanced effort to remain completely disengaged from the ego-identity. It’s as though you’re floating in a vacuum; the unseen realm from which birth and death emerge. The omega point at which all things find their common origin.

Only by radical acceptance and absolute surrender can you inhabit that space. The same degree of surrender as if throwing your body out of an airplane and plummeting helplessly into the abyss. When you’ve relinquished all control, you arrive at a point of utter acceptance. It’s the ultimate letting go. Only then can you truly relax into the universe and be one with the sheer absurdity of it all. There is no sense to be made of the situation, so the mind or ego have no part to play. All you can do is feel it.

As Terence McKenna said of the DMT experience,

“The only real risk is death by astonishment.”

The Mushroom Speaks

Through the faculties of my organism the mushroom communicated. It remarked upon the comedy of the human situation:

“How funny it is that humans have developed this sense of self; a unique identity presumed to be independent from the world around them. It’s as if one of your fingers had proclaimed itself to be a sovereign entity, declaring independen

ce from the rest of your hand. This is what humans have done: they’ve detached themselves from the unity of the entire organism. From this separation has emerged a sense of chronic individuality; they believe themselves to be unique and distinct from one another. But it’s just an illusion. Your finger is connected to your hand which is connected to your arm which is connected to the entire universe. So it is with mankind.”

A Game of Hide and Seek

The “I, me, myself” identity is a character, a persona, that the cosmos at large is playing on the stage of space and time. We’re playing a game of hide and seek. We pretend to forget our true nature in order to have the pleasure of rediscovering it. Perhaps humanity would be a more balanced and harmonious species if this was more commonly acknowledged, then we may not take this human experience so seriously. Yet this lack of awareness is itself part of the game.

“That which is the knower—the ground of all knowledge—is never itself an object of knowledge, just as fire does not burn itself.”

— Shankara, Kena Upanishad.

Making Sense of the Ineffable

Immediately afterwards, my rational, sense-making capacity was virtually nonexistent. The sheer bizarreness of the experience had knocked my rational faculties offline. Any effort to interpret what had happened in a logical, intellectual way was impossible. I was at a loss to begin to describe the experience, nor did I even want to try. It seemed futile because its content was truly ineffable.

It wasn’t until a week later that I began to finally make sense of everything that happened. It took that long for the dust to settle after such a tremendous input of data. I’m convinced now that the process of interpreting, rationalizing, and integrating is the most important part of the entire experience.

I know that in “making sense” of the experience now, so much of it is not taken into account—simply because in this state of normal consciousness I do not have the “authority” to access the distant planes upon which the experience took place. My brain lacks the capacity to fully commit those events to memory because they transgress the limits of my ordinary conscious state. I can, at best, glimpse the feeling of those intoxicated hours. If the moment is ripe, I may recall a vague sense of how it felt to be in that trance. But that’s it. The actual memory eludes me.

Was It Worth It?

Due to my faint recollection of what happened, I have sometimes felt a bit frustrated and perhaps cheated. If I’m unable to retain the reality-shattering insights, was it just a waste of time? If I can’t remember it nor make sense of the experience, what did I really get out of it? Was it anything more than just a bizarre hallucination?

However, I soon settle into the assurance that I have indeed been changed by this experience. My psychological framework has been adjusted. In fact, everything about me has been adjusted as a result of this experience. Every cell in my organism has been altered by these events. They’re very subtle and nuanced but incredibly profound at the same time. My body looks the same, my voice sounds the same. My mind still thinks, my heart still feels. But somehow everything is just slightly different—a little more aligned with the harmonic frequency of the cosmos.

I may have glimpsed something akin to “ego-death” or “self-realization” under the influence of the mushroom but I understand that it alone—or any psychedelic, for that matter—can never deliver me there permanently. I am convinced that psychedelics are short-term, temporary aids on the spiritual path. They can be incredibly valuable insofar as they are used in tandem with other, more long-term efforts to expand consciousness—such as meditation. When used in isolation, psychedelics simply provide an immediate boost in consciousness—afterwards leaving you right back where you started. Without a strong spiritual ground upon which to integrate the experience, it will have been little more than just fun and games. But as an aid to self-inquiry, their effectiveness is unmatched.

“The mystery of life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”

— Gerard van der Leeuw

Okay, let’s talk about Lemon Tek. If you’ve been around here for a minute, you’ve probably heard me mention it. It’s the foundation behind a lot of the drinks and mushroom cocktails I make and honestly, it’s kind of magic. Simple, sour, and effective.

For those who are new here (hi!), Lemon Tek is a method of preparing dried mushrooms that basically helps your body absorb them more quickly. Instead of waiting for your stomach acids to break everything down, the lemon juice starts the process for you. The idea is that the acidity helps convert psilocybin into psilocin, the compound your body actually uses to produce the effects.

Now, is there official research backing this up? Not really. Most of what we know comes from the internet, Reddit threads, and Shroomery forums from the early 2000s. But the consistency of experiences from people (myself included) is hard to ignore. It kicks in faster, hits a little harder, and tastes... awful. Let’s be real about that part.

But that’s also where the creativity comes in. I started experimenting with flavors and mixing different ingredients, and that’s how our mushroom cocktails were born. Lemon Tek is the base, but what you build on top of that is up to you. You can turn something strong and sour into something smooth and uplifting.

Ingredients

• 0.5g dried mushrooms, ground into a powder

• Juice of one fresh lemon (not the bottled stuff!)

Steps

1. Add your mushroom powder to the lemon juice. Stir!

2. Let it sit for 15–30 minutes

3. Drink it (strain optional)

4. Optional: Mix into your favorite mocktail

Heads up: Lemon Tek can hit harder and faster than eating dried mushrooms. The effects might feel more intense, but they usually don’t last as long. Start low if it’s your first time.

This method has become a staple for me, not just because it works, but because I have a sensitive stomach and this makes a big difference. It’s gentler, faster, and feels a lot smoother than eating dried mushrooms on their own. But what I really love is how many directions you can take it. With just a simple lemon tek, there are endless ways to make it your own. You can keep it raw and simple, or turn it into something beautiful and complex, like a cocktail. That freedom to experiment is a big part of why I love working with mushrooms. There’s always something new to try, and even after all this time, I’m still learning.

If you end up trying it, I’d love to hear what you think. Or if you’ve got your own spin on a mushroom cocktail, send it my way, I’m always looking for new inspiration.

The simple answer is: You don’t know unless they’ve been tested! But what exactly are we testing for? What makes a mushroom strong, weak, or somewhere in between? Before we get into the specifics, let’s first appreciate the importance of testing. If you want to know how intense your experience will be, you need to know how strong the mushrooms are. It’s not just about avoiding taking too much.

Imagine planning for the ultimate transformative experience - creating the perfect environment, setting aside the ideal time - only to take the mushrooms and feel... nothing. Weak mushrooms can turn what could have been a life-changing, mystical trip into a huge letdown, leaving you with a sense of lost opportunity.

When it comes to microdosing, the risk of weak mushrooms is even harder to spot. Since the effects are meant to be sub-perceptual, you may never realize that you’re not getting the medicine that works, missing out on the subtle yet powerful benefits altogether.

So, how do we define strong, medium, or weak mushrooms? To answer that, we need to understand what the average mushroom strength looks like. Fortunately, we have some incredibly detailed data from a major event in the world of mushrooms: the 2023 Colorado Psychedelic Cup put on by the Psychedelic Club of Denver.

What Is the 2023 Colorado Psychedelic Cup?

The Colorado Psychedelic Cup is a prestigious event where professional mushroom growers submit their strongest and best-grown mushroom samples to compete for gold. These aren’t just random mushrooms; they represent the best of the best, grown under optimal conditions by some of the most experienced cultivators in the industry.

Each sample submitted is tested using HPLC technology (High-Performance Liquid Chromatography), which gives us precise concentrations of the active ingredients - psilocybin and psilocin. This means we get accurate data on just how potent these mushrooms really are. When you’re looking at data from the Psychedelic Cup, you’re essentially seeing the upper limits of potency from top-tier professional growers who are competing to grow the strongest mushrooms possible.

So, with this in mind, let's dive into the data. Below, you’ll find a chart showing the distribution of potency across 466 cubensis magic mushroom samples from the Colorado Psychedelic Cup.

Understanding Mushroom Potency: The Data Behind Strength

The first graph above shows the distribution of total active compounds (psilocybin + psilocin) per gram across 466 samples of magic mushrooms. These compounds are the key to understanding how strong your mushrooms are. Here’s what the data tells us:

• The average concentration of psilocybin and psilocin in these samples is 8.10 mg/g, but the median (the middle value) is 7.20 mg/g. That’s a good indicator that most mushrooms fall into a potency range around this median value.

• What’s particularly important to notice is the spread of potency values. While most mushrooms are clustered around the 7-8 mg/g range, some samples go as low as 2-3 mg/g and others spike up to 25 mg/g or more!

Why is this important? Well, the variability in potency means that if you're not testing your mushrooms, you might be rolling the dice every time you take them. A mushroom weighing the same could have drastically different effects depending on its potency. Testing helps you know whether your dose is going to hit you like a moderate walk in the park or blast you off into the cosmos.

The Median and Mean: Why Most Mushrooms Aren’t Extreme

Let’s focus a little more on that median number. The median tells us that half of the mushrooms tested had a potency of 7.2 mg/g or lower. This means that for a large number of people, mushrooms will be in the same general potency range. However, if you get mushrooms from the tail end of the distribution, which are much stronger than the median, your experience could be vastly different.

This spread is exactly why testing for potency is essential. A mushroom that contains 10 mg/g or more of active ingredients is much stronger than the average one and could lead to unexpectedly intense effects, especially if you’re not prepared.

Comparing Strains: Golden Teacher vs P. Envy

Now that we’ve looked at the overall potency of magic mushrooms, let’s dig into the specific differences between two popular strains: Golden Teacher and Penis Envy of which there were 19 and 49 samples respectively.

Potency Differences Between Strains

Golden Teacher has an average strength of 6 mg/g, with most samples falling around this number. The range for Golden Teacher mushrooms typically spans from 3.6 mg/g to 10.7 mg/g. This makes them fairly consistent in terms of potency, which is one reason why they are so popular among both beginners and experienced users.

On the other hand, Penis Envy is known for being stronger, and the data backs this up. The average potency is 10.5 mg/g, and some samples reach up to a staggering 25.9 mg/g! However, the median potency for Penis Envy is 7.5 mg/g, which is only slightly higher than Golden Teacher’s median of 5.9 mg/g. This means that if you take Penis Envy, they will likely be slightly stronger than Golden Teacher but they could be double or three times as strong. It’s like an unhelpful weather report saying “mostly sunny with the chance of hurricanes”, do you wear shorts and a t-shirt or… prepare for a possible earth shattering spiritual awakening.

Key Takeaway

In the end, whether you choose Penis Envy or Golden Teacher, the real lesson is that without proper testing, you can never know how strong your mushrooms truly are. A Golden Teacher mushroom could be much stronger than a Penis Envy mushroom, and you would never know it until you took it. Even though growers often believe their mushrooms are potent, based on anecdotal reports, the testing shows that this isn’t something you can rely on. If anecdotal evidence were reliable, we'd expect the mushrooms submitted to cluster on the stronger end of the spectrum. However, what we actually see is the opposite, the mushrooms tend to cluster on the weaker side. If you want to be confident about the strength of the mushrooms you're taking, whether it's Golden Teacher or Penis Envy, testing is the only real solution. Trusting scientifically verified results over speculation ensures a consistent and safer experience.

I’ve been thinking about how to start this first post, and I figured—why not just talk to you like I’m catching up with an old friend? Because that’s what this feels like.

For years, I poured my heart and soul into an Instagram account called We Grow Magic. There, I shared videos of how I grow magic mushrooms, tips, insights about how they work, and updates on the evolving psychedelic space. Slowly but surely, that little corner of the internet grew into a community of nearly 220,000 people. It was incredible! People were curious, open, and so supportive. For many, it was the first time they even heard about magic mushrooms.

Then, just last week, it was gone. Poof. Instagram took it down. It hurt, more than I’d like to admit. All the work, the connections, the conversations, wiped out in an instant. I always knew this was a possibility, but I hoped that if I was careful enough, using code words and finding new ways to share the same message without triggering any alarms, maybe we’d be safe.

It blows my mind that in 2025, it’s still taboo to talk about magic mushrooms. Countless studies are showing their incredible benefits, and yet we’re still not allowed to have open conversations about them.

So that’s how I landed here, on Substack. A place where I can speak openly about what I love and what I know. Where I can share my thoughts and insights, and keep that conversation going with you, without the fear of it all vanishing overnight.

I’m excited to see where this goes

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