How to Make Mushroom Tea: Simmering, Amounts and Species Differences

How do you make mushroom tea? For tough, woody mushrooms like reishi, chaga and turkey tail, you don't steep them like a tea bag. You simmer them. Put the dried mushroom in water, keep it at a gentle simmer for 30 minutes to a couple of hours, strain it and drink the liquid. Powders can simply be stirred into hot water. The method changes by species, though, and Amanita is a different case altogether: its active compounds move into the water fast, so a tea concentrates them rather than diluting them.

This is the hub for our species tea guides. It covers the general method, which mushrooms suit tea, and where each species needs its own approach. If you're still choosing a format, our comparison of mushroom tinctures, capsules and powder sets tea against the alternatives.

What Does Hot Water Actually Extract From a Mushroom?

Mushroom cell walls are built from chitin, a tough fibre that your gut can't break down well. That's why eating a piece of dried reishi does very little. Hot water helps release what's locked inside, and the two groups it pulls out best are polysaccharides and phenolic compounds.

Polysaccharides include the beta-glucans that most functional mushroom research focuses on. They're large, water-soluble sugars, and long simmering is the traditional way to get them out. Turkey tail's PSK and PSP, for example, are hot-water extracts. Our guide to turkey tail tea vs extract explains why that species suits long simmering.

Triterpenes are a different story. These are the bitter compounds in reishi, such as ganoderic acids. They dissolve poorly in water. In a comparison of red and purple lingzhi extracts, the 70% ethanol extract of reishi held the most ganoderic acids, while the hot-water extracts held more phenolics (Tang 2016). A chaga study found the same split: hot-water and ethanol extracts behaved differently in lab tests because they contained different compounds (Hu 2009).

So a mug of reishi tea isn't the same as a reishi tincture. It's richer in polysaccharides and poorer in triterpenes. Neither is "better" in general. They're simply different extracts.

How Do You Make a Basic Mushroom Decoction?

The method works for most woody or leathery mushrooms. Here's the simple version:

• Weigh it. Use about 2 to 5 g of dried mushroom per mug of finished tea. A kitchen scale that reads to 0.1 g makes this easy.
• Break it up. Smaller pieces give more surface area. Snap slices or chunks into pieces the size of a fingernail.
• Add water. Use about 500 ml of water for every mug you want, because some will evaporate.
• Simmer gently. Bring it to the boil, then turn it down so it barely bubbles. Put a lid on, slightly open.
• Give it time. Simmer for 30 minutes at the very least. One to two hours is common for reishi and turkey tail.
• Strain and drink. Pour it through a fine sieve or a coffee filter. Drink it warm, or keep it in the fridge.

Why simmer instead of boil hard? A rolling boil drives off water fast, scorches the bottom of the pan and turns the taste harsh. A slow simmer gives the water time to work into the pieces. It's also much easier to leave alone.

A slow cooker works well too. Set it on low with the mushroom and water and leave it for four to eight hours. That's the closest home version of a long traditional decoction.

Can You Reuse the Mushroom Pieces?

Yes, for woody species. Reishi slices, chaga chunks and turkey tail pieces can usually be simmered two or three times. Each brew comes out lighter in colour and taste, which tells you there's less left to extract. When the water stays pale after a full simmer, throw the pieces away.

Some people combine the brews. They simmer the pieces once, pour off the liquid, simmer them again in fresh water, and then mix both batches. This gives a more even result than drinking a strong first cup and a weak third one.

Don't reuse soft mushrooms like shiitake or lion's mane this way. They break down into the water quickly and are better eaten after cooking. Our guide to taking lion's mane covers better formats for it.

Which Mushrooms Make Good Tea?

Each species behaves differently in water. Here's a quick guide:

• Reishi: very bitter, woody, best simmered for one to two hours. Pairs well with ginger, cinnamon or liquorice root. See our reishi dosage guide for amounts.
• Chaga: dark, earthy, almost coffee-like, with a faint vanilla note. Simmer chunks for 30 to 60 minutes. Our guide to making chaga tea covers brewing and reuse in detail.
• Turkey tail: mild and slightly earthy. Simmer for at least 45 minutes.
• Maitake and shiitake: savoury and broth-like. They work better as a soup base than as a sweet tea. See maitake tea vs extract vs capsules.
• Cordyceps: mild and slightly sweet. The fruiting bodies need only 20 to 30 minutes.
• Lion's mane: mild, but soft. Powder in hot water or cooking suits it better than a long simmer.

You can also mix species. A blend of reishi and chaga is common, and ginger helps with the bitterness. Keep each species in the amount you'd use on its own, rather than doubling the total.

Is Powder Tea as Good as a Simmered Decoction?

It's different. Stirring a mushroom powder into hot water is quick, but you drink the whole powder, chitin and all. Nothing is filtered out and no long extraction has happened. Some of the polysaccharides will dissolve, but much of the material simply settles at the bottom of the mug.

An extract powder is another thing again. Extract powders have already been through hot water, ethanol or both, and then been dried. They dissolve better and are more concentrated by weight. Labels vary a lot, though. A Megazyme analysis showed that many mycelial products contain large amounts of starch, measured as alpha-glucan, which isn't the same as mushroom beta-glucan (McCleary 2016). Read the label for beta-glucan, not just "polysaccharides".

For powders like our reishi powder, a simple approach is to simmer half a teaspoon in a small pan of water for 10 to 20 minutes, then strain or drink it as it is. That gets you part of the way to a decoction with almost no effort.

Why Is Chaga Tea Different?

Because of oxalate. Chaga is one of the richest known dietary sources of it. In a Korean case report, a man developed end-stage kidney disease after years of taking chaga powder, and the leftover chaga measured 14.2 g of oxalate per 100 g (Lee 2020). Several other cases exist.

Those were heavy, long-term intakes. One or two cups of chaga tea a day is a much smaller amount. Still, chaga isn't a tea to drink by the pot all day. People with kidney disease or a history of kidney stones should avoid it. Our article on mushrooms, oxalates and kidney health explains the risk.

What About Amanita Tea?

Amanita tea isn't a wellness drink, and it needs its own rules. The compounds in fly agaric, ibotenic acid and muscimol, dissolve readily in water. A Japanese food-safety study found that boiling or soaking fly agaric released most of them into the liquid quickly (Tsunoda 1993). So the tea holds the active compounds. It doesn't leave them behind in the strainer.

The same study found more conversion of ibotenic acid to muscimol under acidic conditions. That's why some recipes add lemon juice. It changes the chemistry, and it doesn't make the tea weaker.

Because of this, never use the general method above with Amanita. Weigh carefully, follow a species-specific guide, and label any leftover tea so no one drinks it by mistake. For fly agaric, start with our guide on how to take Amanita muscaria. For the panther cap, read Amanita pantherina tea preparation first. We don't publish a dose for that species.

How Long Does Mushroom Tea Keep?

Treat it like homemade broth. Strained mushroom tea keeps for about two to three days in a closed jar in the fridge. Reheat it gently in a pan. If it smells sour, looks cloudy in a new way or grows mould, throw it out.

You can freeze it for longer. Ice-cube trays work well, because you can drop a cube or two into hot water when you want a cup. Keep dried mushroom pieces in an airtight jar, away from light and moisture, until you brew them. Our guide to mushroom supplement shelf life covers storage of the dried forms.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should I simmer mushroom tea?

At least 30 minutes for woody species like reishi, chaga and turkey tail. One to two hours is common, and a slow cooker can run for several hours. Short steeps of five minutes extract only a small part of what a long simmer does.

Can I add mushroom tea to coffee or other drinks?

Yes. A strong decoction can be mixed into coffee, cocoa, broth or smoothies. That's an easy way to hide the bitterness of reishi. Keep track of how much mushroom you're using in total.

Does boiling destroy the benefits of mushrooms?

No. Hot water is the traditional way to extract mushroom polysaccharides, and it's how many commercial extracts are made. Very long, hard boiling may change some compounds, but a gentle simmer is the standard method.

Is mushroom tea better than capsules?

Not necessarily. Tea is a hot-water extract, rich in polysaccharides. Capsules may contain whole powder or a concentrated extract. A good extract capsule can deliver more than a weak home tea. Choose by what you'll actually use every day.

Can I make tea from fresh mushrooms?

You can, but you'll need more of them, because fresh mushrooms are mostly water. About ten times the dried weight is a rough guide. Fresh soft mushrooms are usually better cooked and eaten.

Related Articles

• How to Make Chaga Tea
• Turkey Tail Tea vs Extract
• Maitake Tea vs Extract vs Capsules
• Amanita Pantherina Tea Preparation
• Mushroom Tincture vs Capsules vs Powder

Sources

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2. Hu H, Zhang Z, Lei Z, Yang Y, Sugiura N. Comparative study of antioxidant activity and antiproliferative effect of hot water and ethanol extracts from the mushroom Inonotus obliquus. J Biosci Bioeng. 2009;107(1):42-48. PubMed 19147108
3. McCleary BV, Draga A. Measurement of β-glucan in mushrooms and mycelial products. J AOAC Int. 2016;99(2):364-373. PubMed 26957216
4. Lee S, Lee HY, Park Y, et al. Development of end stage renal disease after long-term ingestion of Chaga mushroom: case report and review of literature. J Korean Med Sci. 2020;35(19):e122. PubMed 32419395
5. Tsunoda K, Inoue N, Aoyagi Y, Sugahara T. Change in ibotenic acid and muscimol contents in Amanita muscaria during drying, storing or cooking. J Food Hyg Soc Jpn. 1993;34(2):153-160. doi:10.3358/shokueishi.34.153