GardenersCardiff answers:

Try www.redeyefrog.co.uk They sell kits for growing mushrooms, and the syringes of spore for the magic kind. Kits are £16.99 and the spore syringes are a further £12.95

The kits are pre-sterile grain in hermetically sealed bags. Cultivation is simple, clean the area in which you are going to be using wipe down your counter with bleach and wash your hands. Wipe the injection port with the alcohol wipe provided. Without touching the hypodermic needle, inject the spore into the bag and place in a dark, warm place. In a bread bin, inside a cupboard works perfectly. The grain should become white, that is the mycelia. It must be white, any other color means another mould has breached the bag. Magic Mushroom spores can be easily over run by other moulds, which is why it is so important to be so clean when injecting the spore.

Once the bags are covered in white mycelia you then cut off the top of the bag, and insert it in the growing bag, and the substrate which holds the moisture. Place the bags in a corner, keep the area warm, but not too hot. Lighting should be 12 hours light 12 hours dark for best results. In about a week to two weeks the pinheads should begin appearing, growing into full mushrooms in a few days.
The kits will grow 5-6 flushes about 500g fresh (50g dry) per kit.

Doses should be weighed with prior experiences and mushroom strains in mind. Generally doses of 20-30g are moderately high doses giving you a level 3-4 trip. (see youtube video 5 levels of psychedellics for more info) 30-50g will give you a level 4-5 trip, but it depends on your level of tolerance and your weight.

Mushrooms can be made into a tea, cut the fresh mushrooms up, sit the mushrooms in room temperature water for 20 minutes, then slowly bring the heat up to a drinking temperature. Do not boil as the heat will kill some of the psilocybin. You may also wish to put the teabag in the water and drain it off before putting the mushrooms in. This will save loosing anything in the teabag.pour into a cup through a small sieve or tea strainer, and squeeze out all the moisture you can. Add some lemon juice to increase potency and get rid of the mushroomy taste. Alternatives are eating the fresh mushrooms or drying them and grinding them into a power, adding to a small glass of orange and lemon juice.

For the best tripping experience, a dark familiar room, soft music (I find music with no vocals gives the very best visuals) get yourself comfortable, close your eyes or use an eye mask. Taking mushrooms and going out is a bad idea, it is just far too confusing and you run the risk of bad trips or getting injured. Do not try and watch movies either as again it is just far too confusing and is a waste of a trip. Close your eyes and let the mushroom show you the visions, don’t try and find them yourself. The main trip will last between 1-3 hours with a “body high” and low level visuals for a further 3 hours or so. So arrange for no disruptions. Turn off all phones close the curtains.

Growing your own mushrooms are very safe. You have zero risk of picking the wrong mushroom there will be no bugs or other contaminants. You cannot overdose on Magic Mushrooms, would take about 3.5 lbs of fresh mushrooms to overdose, but you would be sick from eating anywhere near that much.

Hope this helps.

GardenersCardiff answers:

This is a tricky industry, but it is growing. There are a lot of new companies starting up, including Canadian ones. While this shows that it’s a good market to get into, it also shows that there’s a lot of competition. Companies can be a bit cagey about where they source their teas; it’s a bit of a protected trade secret, but with some digging, you can learn a lot. Are you active on twitter?

It’s been my experience that the best tea companies source their own teas to some degree, even if they use wholesalers for certain of their teas. Also…if you’re going to get into blending, you really need to carve out a niche. There are so many companies that just sell private label tea repackaged from a wholesaler as-is, and unless you have considerably-above-average business sense, you’re just going to be another little fish in a big sea. You need to put a unique spin on things if you’re going to succeed as a blender: unique flavors, presented in a novel way, reaching an untapped market. It’s great that you are looking to go an all-natural (non-GMO) route. This is easy with tea, as tea is not genetically engineered so it’s just additives you need to watch. There are so many companies out there that are already leading in sustainability, so the bar is set pretty high, but I think things are moving in this direction so if you’re committed to sustainability (and not just by picking organic + fair trade but also looking to buy from smaller farmer-owned cooperatives, use sustainable packaging, and do other things to set yourself above) you will attract additional attention.

I run a tea rating and review website, while it’s oriented primarily to tea drinkers, you might find it to be a valuable informational resource; I’ve put a lot of effort into researching different brands and providing information about their suppliers, when possible. You may also get a sense of how people are responding to various newly launched companies and their teas by reading reviews.

I also attached a link to one wholesaler, I think US based and I honestly don’t know much about them but they seem to be oriented somewhat along the lines of what you were thinking.

Also…if your operation is small…you might even consider buying from a company that also does retail. A number of companies, such as SpecialTeas, sell wholesale. You don’t necessarily need to buy from a dedicated wholesaler. Sometimes I think even some primarily retail companies (like Upton Tea Imports) have prices on certain teas that put some wholesalers to shame. If your operation is small, these companies might be worth looking at.

I’ve attached several links that I hope you will find useful!

Good luck!

GardenersCardiff answers:

Tea comes from the plant Camellia sinensis. Unfortunately, in most regions of the U.S, it is not a suitable climate to grow this plant. It needs a climate that has mild winters and is humid during most of the growing season. The only two regions that commercially grow tea are coastal South Carolina, and a small valley in Washington state near the coast. You can probably also grow the tea plant if you live along the gulf coast or in parts of Florida.

Growing herb tea is much easier. If you want a caffeinated drink, the most cold-hardy caffeinated drink is called Yaupon; it is a type of holly tree. It can produce a drink somewhat similar to Yerba Mate. You may be able to buy that at esoteric nurseries. In cold temperate climates like the northeast and upper midwest, the easiest herbs to grow for tea are mints, like spearmint, peppermint, lemon balm, and the like. If you want some more exotic or unusual herbal teas, I wrote a post where I explain four of my favorites, and talk a little about gardening: http://cazort.blogspot.com/2010/03/four-herbal-teas-you-may-not-know-about.html

Growing herbs for tea is a great idea, BUT if you just want cheaper tea, there are other options.

* Tea looks expensive by weight but keep in mind you need very little leaf per cup. A pound of tea can easily brew up 150-200 cups, so if you spend $20 per pound that can be only 20 cents per cup of tea…cheaper than milk, juice, or coffee.
* You can buy very inexpensive teas in Ethnic import stores, such as Middle Eastern stores, Asian stores (Chinese, Japanese, etc.), Indian stores. Indian and Middle Eastern stores tend to have black teas, Chinese stores tend to have green and oolong teas, Japanese stores tend to only have green teas. I actually wrote a blog post about brands of loose-leaf tea that I bought in stores, that were really good deals:

http://cazort.blogspot.com/2011/10/cheap-tea-loose-leaf-teas-offering.html

* BUY ONLINE. Seriously…there are some really great places to get tea online, including very cheap tea. One of my favorite companies that has a very large catalogue and very reasonable prices is Upton Tea Imports. They have a wide range of prices, but they sell single-estate teas for as low as $5-7 for 125 grams (enough for about 50 cups). That’s 50-70 cents a cup…for pretty high-end tea. They also have a few cheaper teas. ALSO, they sell samplers so you can try things (for as low as $1 for a sample that’s enough to brew 5-8 cups) before buying a lot of it.

If you want ideas, want to read reviews, or want to learn more, I run a site, http://ratetea.net where anyone can review teas. You can read my reviews on the site (I’m Alex Zorach) or read others’ as well. But Upton is a good place to start if you buy online.

Growing the tea plant can be fun, but you’re unlikely to ever grow enough to drink more than a few cups of tea. Growing mint or other herbs, on the other hand, can get you an inexhaustible supply of fresh or dried herbs to brew herbal teas!

Good luck!

GardenersCardiff answers:

Sure you can. Look at this website: http://www.greenteaplants.com/

They are in Florida. Black tea is just fermented green tea.