A lot of medicinal mushrooms help us build up our ability to handle stressors, with our ability to process that which is ‘not-self’, be it a tumour, a virus, a deadline, the noise of the city around us. My friend Renee who speaks Biochem explains it with regards to beta glucans and the way they challenge the immune system (this concept of antifragility when applied to the immune system is called ‘hormesis’). My language, however, isn’t Biochemistry, it is energetics, and elements, and patterns, but underneath, regardless of language, the principle is the same: something in the mushroom triggers us to increase our tolerance and ability to process things.

Mushrooms tap us into that connectedness, the openness. They raise the threshold of what we can handle, so that we can remain open and connected in more situations. So that when we are faced with more stimulus, we can process it more easily, because we have been absorbing that ability to be open and connected and still separate.

They obviously don’t have the same energetics across the board— reishi affects the psyche, nervous and circulatory system more than, say, turkey tail which acts more on the immune system. Chaga affects the lymphatics slightly more; cordyceps, our ability to handle stress loads, both physical and nervous, with our firey reserves. That said, there is that similarity. The underlying thread of tolerance, reserve-building, building our capacity for stress in response to stressors. The ones I use the most often are reishi, cordyceps, chaga and turkey tail. Which isn’t to say that they’re the best, but that I like them the best right now, which is why they’re in this recipe.

A note on powdered mushrooms: 

If you can buy turkey tail and reishi already powdered. The process of running them through a Vitamix turns them to fluff, making extracting any usable amount of powder from them painstaking and hair-pulling. Chaga is so hard that it might break your blender, so I’d recommend buying that pre-powdered too.

Porcinis and chanterelles are available dried at speciality food shops, and *those* can be run through the blender to be powdered quite easily. Lion’s mane also powders easily, though is much more difficult to find commercially. My favourite source for powdered mushrooms is Mushroom Harvest, where the powders are excellent quality.

Black Cocoa with Medicinal Mushrooms

(Makes enough to last a while)

1 lb black cocoa (King Arthur makes a black cocoa, I got mine at Savory Spice Shop) 1/2 lb dutch cocoa (Droste is my favourite, but the Valrhona one is also excellent) 2oz powdered turkey tail mushroom 2oz powdered lion’s mane mushroom 1/2 oz powdered reishi mushroom 2oz powdered porcini mushroom 2oz powdered chanterelle mushroom 2oz powdered chaga mushroom

Mix ingredients together thoroughly. Keep in an airtight container.

To brew: Serves 2

2 cups milk 1/2 cup cream 2 tb hot chocolate blend 1 tb sugar

Warm the milk and cream on the stovetop, and once warm add the hot chocolate blend and sugar, whisk until dissolved, remove from heat and serve.

Sources:

Renee Davis’ Turkey Tail and Antifragility article Guido Mase’s *brilliant* lecture on Mithridates

http://thornandwonder.com/blog/2015/02/porcini-chaga-black-cocoa