Psilocybin 101: How to Store Magic Mushrooms

Magic mushrooms allow consumers to have life-altering spiritual experiences. People are psilocybin mushrooms for all sorts of occasions, everything from healing depression to trippy sex to hallucinatory entertainment.

If magic mushrooms aren’t stored correctly, they can break down, lose potency, and even become highly susceptible to bacteria or mold – a major danger to your body. 

Fresh magic mushrooms will start to rot after just a few days if you don’t store them properly. If you store them in the fridge in a paper bag, you may be able to store fresh shrooms for up to two weeks  — but rarely any longer than this.

Fresh magic truffles will store for longer — usually lasting between 2 and three months in the fridge or longer in the freezer.

Dried mushrooms and truffles will last the longest (a year or more). They don’t need to be refrigerated, but they may lose some potency after about 6 months or so.

Properly storing magic mushrooms can make the difference from having a three-month shelf-life (non-airtight container) — to surviving two years or longer (vacuum-sealed bags with desiccant and O2 absorber).

Even if you don’t plan to store your mushrooms for two years, you’ll want to make sure they’re stored properly to minimize the loss of potency.

Thankfully, knowing how to store magic mushrooms is a pretty straightforward process once you get it down, and it doesn’t need to be very expensive at all. The Bluntness has broken down everything you need to know about storing shrooms, whether they’re dried or fresh. 

How to Store Shrooms: Everything You Need to Know

Before we get into all of the things you need to know about storing magic mushrooms properly, you’ll first need to determine whether you’re storing fresh magic mushrooms or magic truffles – which can last up to three months in a sufficiently-cool environment – or dried shrooms or truffles, which can last over a year if you play your cards right.

For any form of fungi, you run a potentially dangerous risk if you’re not taking proper storage precautions. There are four main factors you have to be aware of when trying to get the longest shelf life possible for your shrooms: 

• Oxygen
• Heat
• UV light
• Mold & bacteria

If any of these four factors aren’t closely monitored and considered, your shrooms will lose potency, break down, or rot, and if you slip up and consume shrooms that have grown mold or bacteria on them, you are risking your health. 

Consuming shrooms can already result in an upset stomach or feelings of nausea, and throwing mold or bacteria in the mix can wreak some serious havoc on your digestive system, which won’t be fun at all to experience mid-trip. 

Keeping these four important factors in mind, here are some of the most convenient and cost-effective ways to store magic mushrooms, both dried and fresh, for maximum long-term potential:

1. Mason Jars

This method is the most straightforward way to store dried shrooms. Mason jars are easy to find at your local grocery store, and they provide an airtight, oxygen-free environment for your fungi to hang out in for up to 12 months. (We highly recommend writing the date you stored the shrooms on the jar for future reference). 

For best results, make sure to keep your shroom-filled mason jars in a dry, dark, cool environment. Also, keep in mind that although the shrooms will remain active and mold-and-bacteria-free for up to 12 months, they will likely lose some of their potency after about six months of storage.

2. Ziplock Bags

Ziplock bags are another incredibly cost-effective method for storing dried shrooms, and they offer about the same amount of protection that mason jars do, if you’re careful.

When storing magic mushrooms in a ziplock bag, make sure you squeeze out as much air as possible before sealing it, and double check for any holes or openings in the bag before putting it away. 

For added protection, some consumers will combine both methods by first placing their shrooms in a ziplock bag, and then storing the bag in a mason jar.

3. Make Chocolate

If stored properly, chocolate can stay good for up to 18 months, and combining the food product with psilocybin is a great way to ensure your shrooms don’t go bad. 

You can easily create your own psilocybin chocolate by grinding your dried shrooms into powder, melting some chocolate on a stove, and combining the two. Just make sure you don’t add the powder until the chocolate has cooled down a bit, or you may damage the psilocybin content and reduce potency.

This is a great (and tasty) method for protecting your magic shrooms from the elements, as chocolate seals out oxygen and UV light.

4. Combine Dried Shrooms w/ Honey

If the edible route seems to work best for you and your preferences, another great option is to combine your dried shrooms with honey. Shroom-infused honey can last up to 18 months or longer if stored properly – in many cases, up to two years.

To do this, simply place your dried shrooms in a mason jar and cover them with honey. Make sure they’re immersed by at least half an inch, and opt for raw honey if you can.

It doesn’t matter if you grind the shrooms into powder first or place them in whole – either method will store well in the honey. Throughout their time in the jar, the shrooms’ active ingredients will diffuse into the honey, which will eventually allow you to just eat the honey directly to experience the fungi’s effects.

5. Try Capsules and Microdosing

Having shrooms in capsule form is becoming increasingly popular, especially in the brave new world world of microdosing. Believe it or not, capsulized mushrooms are quite simple to create at home, and can store safely for up to 12 months without losing much potency.

The key is to fill up the capsules as much as possible, because any empty spaces will result in oxygen making its way in and breaking down the fungi much quicker. 

A pro tip for capsule storage is to utilize an oxygen absorber or desiccant, which will help ensure there is no drop in potency over time.

Storing Fresh Magic Mushrooms

If you’ve come across fresh magic mushrooms or truffles, which are still somewhat rare in the market, you’ll quickly learn they’re much more finicky and can mold and rot in just a few days if they aren’t stored properly.

If you plan to use them within 5-10 days, fresh shrooms or truffles can be stored in the fridge in a brown paper bag. However, if you’re planning to store them any longer, you’ll have to dry them out.

This can be done by: air drying – a.k.a., placing the shrooms on a paper towel for about 72 hours; dehydrating them with a food dehydrator; or freeze-drying, which is effective, but definitely the most complicated and costly method to utilize. 

How To Tell If Shrooms Have Gone Bad?

You’ll know almost immediately if fresh mushrooms have spoiled because they'll have a nasty musty odor, and you’ll likely see blue or green fuzzy growths on the caps and stem. Although, it's worth noting that some white fuzziness on the stems is normal — this is the mycelial threads from the fungi trying to grow outwards from the harvested mushrooms.

For dried mushrooms, it’s not so easy to tell if they've gone bad. Obvious signs your shrooms went bad include green or blue mold growth, moisture or sogginess, and an awful smell. It’s no longer safe to use shrooms that look or smell like this. Throw them away.

If you store your mushrooms correctly, they will remain edible for many, many years. It’s more likely your shrooms will lose their potency than it is for them to go moldy if stored correctly. If you eat your stored mushrooms beyond their “expiration date”, they might just not work as well or at all. As long as they’re not moldy, they’re very unlikely to make you feel ill.

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