What are Golden Teacher mushrooms?

Golden Teacher mushrooms are a variety of Psilocybe Cubensis that generally create a more euphoric and gentle tripping experience than the more intense Penis Envy shrooms.

What is a species strain of shrooms? 

Species are distinct genetic lineages that usually cannot interbreed. So think humans, Homo Sapiens are a species that are distinct from Homo Erectus, an early hominid that came before. There are exceptions to the interbreeding rule that give us hybrids like you might have heard about the liger, which is a lion and a tiger or the mule which is a horse and a donkey. We don’t usually see interbreeding between species, and we don’t know of any hybrids of psychedelic mushroom species. 

Most of our current understanding of the difference between species is related to their specific genetic composition, which is determined in a lab and used to make comparisons between how similar species are genetically. However, even at the species level, there’s still a lot to learn about genetics and potency, with reclassifications of species names or conflicting reports on alkaloid content. Oftentimes, when we talk about psychedelic mushrooms, we talk about psilocybin, which people think of as the primary compound that makes you trip, but psychedelic mushrooms and different species of psychedelic mushrooms have many different alkaloids that all work synergistically together. 

How should I decide what shrooms to buy?

Whether you’re purchasing shrooms, or you’re purchasing spores and you’re thinking about growing mushrooms, the first thing that you want to look at is the Latin name. The name will usually be Psilocybe Cubensis because that is the most commonly cultivated magic mushroom. Golden teachers and Penis Envy are both types of Psilocybe Cubensis. 

How are new strains of mushrooms created?

Usually Psilocybe Cubensis and strains can be interbred, which is how new strains are created. A good example of the deliberate interbreeding of strains would be Penis Envy plus two other Psilocybe Cubensis strains that gave rise to the Tidal Wave strain, which was noted for winning the April 2021 Oakland Hyphae Psilocybin Cup. 

Deliberate interbreeding of strains by skilled growers can give rise to albino and scoreless versions of Psilocybe Cubensis and other mutations, but it’s important to point out that a truly distinct strain should display stable characteristics that can be reproduced in every grow project. If you grow mushrooms and a mushroom pops up out of your substrate that doesn’t look anything like a mushroom that you have seen before does not necessarily mean that you’ve isolated a new strain. You have to be able to prove that you can grow the same characteristics repeatedly. That’s why strains can only really be maintained through cloning. 

What are cultivars?

Cultivar is short for cultivated variety. Rather than being a genetically identical clone, these are usually grown from spores. As each individual spore contains a random mix of half the parent mushrooms genetic material, any mycelium produced from the spores of a defined strain will develop their own distinct genetic characteristics. Repeat this process enough times, taking spores from each successful grow in turn, and your mushroom genetics can drift away far enough that the defined characteristics of the original strain may end up being lost. This process can give rise to new and interesting mutations. It’s possible to stabilize cultivars through multiple rounds of selective breeding by taking spores from each generation and deliberately selecting for specific characteristics. Such as growth rate, substrate preference, and with enough testing, even potency.

Which mushrooms are the strongest?

If you are trying to learn more about different varieties of mushrooms you’ve probably heard that Penis Envy are really strong and when you take Penis Envy you’re gonna have an intense trip with great visuals. Which can definitely be true! But it’s important to note that there is a ton of variation in the potency of mushroom varieties, and the variations are due to differences in growing conditions and how the mushrooms have been handled after they were harvested. 

Because of this variation, the best thing with tripping is to start low and go slow. You can always take more but you can’t take less. It’s best to just familiarize yourself with whatever mushrooms you have by taking a little bit and seeing how they make you feel. 

What is the difference between Penis Envy and Golden Teacher mushrooms?

Both Penis Envy and Golden Teachers are derived from Psilocybe Cubensis so that means that the growing conditions are very similar. Some have reported longer colonization times when growing Penis Envy. Others have found they grow just as quickly as any other variety but the difference is not significant. At the end of the day choose the variety you want to choose, the growing conditions are similar. 

The biggest difference between Penis Envy and Golden Teachers, or one of the biggest differences might simply be how they look. Golden teachers look a lot more like this Psilocybe Cubensis mushrooms that you might find growing in the wild. They have golden caps whereas Penis Envy has been subjected to decades of selective breeding and looks a lot different than mushrooms that you might find in the wild. One of the side effects of this is that Penis Envy produces far fewer spores which can make taking spore prints more difficult. By contrast, Golden Teachers will happily dump a thick carpet of purple black spores making it a good choice for people who want to export prints. 

What’s the difference between B+ and Golden Teacher mushrooms?

Let’s also talk about the difference between the plus and Golden Teacher because the plus is also a really common variety of Psilocybe Cubensis that you might have encountered and again, they share a lot of similarities across a range of characteristics. growth conditions, growth requirements, potency pretty similar. Due to how long they’ve been cultivated for how widespread they’re cultivated, both Golden Teachers and B plus are highly recommended for new growers looking for a starter variety. As most growers start with spores, there can be a fair amount of variation and appearance of Golden Teachers and B plus, which can sometimes overlap to the point that even really experienced growers cannot tell them apart, unlike with Penis Envy. 

How strong are Golden Teacher shrooms?

Until recently, as mentioned, very little was known about the potency between the strains, though many people have had experiences with Penis Envy and believed it to be the strongest species of mushroom. In April of 2021 at the first Psilocybin Cup, which was a community led science project which quantified psilocybin and solution and over 60 strains supplied by growers added important data to back up all of these anecdotal potency claims across all the strains submitted. Psilocybin content ranged from as low as 0.14% up to 2.26% psilocybin by dry weight. The general potency of Golden Teachers was around 0.627% psilocybin by dry weight. This amount is a noticeable dose, and you would start to feel some psychedelic effects around one gram dried. 

How much Golden Teacher shrooms should I take?

It is not recommended to start at anything above three and a half grams if you’re new to mushrooms, because you might find it overwhelming.