Despite its desired and sought-after strong psychedelic effects, psilocybin mushrooms can take a long time to hit. The come-on sometimes results in stomachache or feeling nauseated. However, it is possible to prevent these negative reactions. Time to talk about lemon tek, arguably the ultimate solution to optimize your magic mushroom trip.
What is Lemon Tekking?
“Tek” is a slang term drug users employ community to describe a “technique” for growing or synthesizing psychedelic substances. Consequently, “lemon tekking” implies a technique requiring the use of lemons. The concept of lemon tekking involves letting a dose of psilocybin mushrooms sit in lemon, or in some cases lime, juice before consuming them.
This method of cultivating magic mushrooms requires “cooking” the substance, as the citric acid starts to break down the mushroom material. Many psychedelic consumers have argued that lemon tekking is the best way to consume psilocybin mushrooms.
How Lemon Tekking Works
As much as the technique sounds simple, its process is rather complex. In simple terms, lemon tekking converts the magic mushroom’s psychoactive substance much quicker. This enables an earlier onset hallucinogenic effect to take place, preventing an upset stomach and a longer trip. These are effects which people often complain about when consuming psilocybin mushrooms.
Magic mushrooms comprise psilocybin, a naturally occurring compound found in various species of mushrooms. Surprisingly enough, psilocybin is non-psychoactive and only generates mind-altering effects once our bodies convert it into psilocin after its consumption. In this case, the specific chemical process is called dephosphorylation, and can take up to two hours.
Dephosphorylation can take place in two distinctive ways:
The “traditional” way: after eating shrooms, psilocybin will convert into psilocin via the alkaline phosphatase enzyme in the intestine and kidney, or in acidic environments like the stomach.
Lemon tek: as lemon juice contains a pH of around two, it is acidic enough to convert psilocybin in the same way that the stomach can.
By lemon tekking, the psilocybin gets converted into psilocin before being consumed. As a result, you will have a much earlier onset trip than you would consume psychedelic mushrooms traditionally.
How To Lemon Tek
Ingredients
- Lemon
- Psilocybin mushrooms or truffles
- 420 Vapezone recommends 1 g as a first dose, and then ingesting more after an hour or two if desired. For more experienced users, they recommend two to five grams.
Steps
- Make your plan. We recommend having a trip sitter and reviewing harm reduction for the best trip possible.
- Slice a lemon in parts for easy juicing.
- Grind your magic mushrooms or truffles into a powder, and put in a glass or mug.
- Squeeze the lemons over your mushrooms/truffles. Be sure the magic mushrooms or truffles are covered completely to soak.
- Let soak in lemon juice for 20 to 25 minutes. Mix about every five minutes.
- Bottoms up! Drink the full mixture. It may taste gross and will be very sour.
- Wait for the psilocybin experience to ensue. Remember come up time will most likely be faster than your past mushroom trips so be trip ready before drinking the mixture.
According to Psychonaut Wiki, these are factors that can contribute to improved absorption of the substance:
- The mushrooms are ground up.
- The mushrooms are soaked in water.
- Acids extract the alkaloids into the solution. The stomach absorbs these more quickly than if it has to break down fungus material to extract the active ingredients.
What Should the Lemon Juice Look Like After Tekking?
Depending on how much water you want to add to your mixture, your lemon juice should look like a darker version of a traditional lemonade. Some may find it looks like muddy water, with yellow tones.
Effects and Feelings with Lemon Tek
After ingesting magic mushrooms, your body breaks down the mushrooms and metabolizes their psilocybin into psilocin, the active psychoactive compound in magic mushrooms. During digestion, highly acidic gastric juices cleave the phosphate group off psilocybin, converting it into psilocin. When mushrooms are eaten whole, this process typically takes about 30 minutes to 2 hours for effects to begin, and the trip lasts roughly 4–6 hours, depending on your metabolism and sensitivity to psilocin.
The lemon tek is purported to drastically speed up this process and reduce the come-up time to as little as 15 minutes, reducing the overall trip duration by one to two hours. Some users even report having a “smoother” trip with less of a body load. The faster onset and shorter peak lead users to anecdotally report a much more intense experience when using the lemon tek. Some psychonauts warn that the effects can feel up to twice as strong, so you may want to consider lowering your usual dose to avoid feeling overwhelmed.
How Long Does Lemon Tek Take to Peak?
Caine Barlow, a mycologist and fungi educator, and Seth Warner, the founder of a mushroom education resource, says that lemon tekking converts the psilocybin, psilocin, and other compounds with more bioavailability.
Therefore, when these compounds hit the stomach as an extract, the wished-for psychedelic effects will take effect faster than when raw magic mushrooms are eaten, as the mushrooms can take up to two hours to digest.
As opposed to the traditional consumption of psilocybin mushrooms, lemon tek typically reaches a peak between 30 to 60 minutes after consumption.
How Long Does Lemon Tek Last?
A typical psychedelic mushroom trip lasts between six to eight hours when the fungus is ingested raw. However, reports suggest that with the lemon tek method, a trip will last between four to five hours. The overall magic mushroom experience is reportedly slightly shorter.
FAQ
Will the Lemon Tek Increase the Trip’s Effects?
The intensity of a trip from lemon trekking is often debated in the psychedelic community. Some psychedelic users have pointed to lemon tek’s increasing the effects of a magic mushroom trip. In an article published by Truffle Magic, some users said that they have felt a “stronger trip.” However, the reasons were ultimately considered to be debatable.
Various users have also explained as follows:
“Your trip is probably stronger because of the larger surface area (powdered shroom or truffle in a fluid), which also happens if you make tea with your truffles.”
“Other people claim that the lemon dephosphorylates the psilocybin, turning it into psilocin, which makes you trip [sooner] because it can be absorbed faster. This may be true, and if so, it would result in your trip starting 15–20 minutes earlier. But it’s not likely to make your trip stronger.”
Can Other Fruits Be Used in Place of Lemon?
Depending on the pH levels of the fruit, you might be able to use another fresh citrus fruit. Lemon is the most popular choice for tekking because it replicates the same pH level as our stomachs. However, limes also seem to be a good substitute.
Oranges and pineapples could be used, but they will not be as effective as lemon. This is because their pH ranges from around 3.2 to 4.3. However, people have reported using pomegranates, which have a 2.9 to 3.2 pH. Moreover, other suggestions for tekking include using red wine, and even balsamic vinegar (which is delicious).
There are many alternatives suitable for any preference and access. In general, any substance with a pH of 3.5 and below should work.
How Long Does Lemon Tek Keep You Awake?
Psychonauts have reported that the effects from lemon tek can be up to three times stronger than regular consumption of your preferred dose of shrooms. People have also said that their experiences while lemon tekking have resulted in greater impact, with crazier peaks.
However, according to experts, lemon tekking seems to concentrate the overall psychedelic shroom journey. The total length of a magic mushroom trip from lemon tekking will depend on the dosage of the substance. Moreover, if we consider that a typical shroom trip will last between six to eight hours, with lemon tek, it will last between four to six hours.
