A Stealthier Honey?

[camMyco]

Hi, my name is Camm and I am a Honey freak!
It's no secret I am a huge fan of TV's
http://forums.mycotopia.net/feasts-f...ngi-honey.html (TV Guide: Storing Your Fungi in Honey)
But it does at times draw a few questions when people notice the appearance.
So, as necessity is the Mother of invention, I want to be a bit stealthier (sp)
with my favorite stash.
I am looking for advice on you think it will work? or Damn you are already high!
I was going to do an Everclear extract on my next harvest and then blend the
extract with honey. This should get the psilocybe out of the mushrooms into the
alcohol and after mixing the alcohol and honey a quick cool evaporation period
later leave the magic in the honey.
I have honey over a year old now and still very active thanks to honeys preservative
(anti oxidant) powers and a freezer. I am trying for a cleaner looks like Plain 'ol honey
look.
It will take me some time to try this experiment as I am in a life tornado right now.
Love to hear your thoughts and or Ideas.

[golly]

Interesting experiment..Do you plan to avap down the extract to a wet sludge before mixing with honey...?

[camMyco]

Yes and no. I am trying to keep the Psilocybe air contact to a minimum. I the time to evaporate to sludge may be too long but reduce it enough as to not thin the honey out completely, and let it finish reducing in the honey.

[duaut]

everclear extract need to be a little wet to mix it ito the honey. SWIM tried this a few years ago when mushie goo was the rage at SCI shows. It sorta works, not very well to disperse the molecules through the honey.
SWIM likes the dried evercler better than the honey, as little as a gram equals about 3g dried mushies

[camMyco]

I have to wonder why it wouldn't work, lack of mixing?
as the TV recipe works great 1tsp= 1 gram dry

Is there separation during the alcohol evap. causing
stratification? Would a remix before storage help?

[twoguysupnorth]

you are cammy and you love tv's? lol, i guess i wont go there. the alcohol shouldnt change the color at all, or much anyways. i just tried it my first time with 100 proof vodka, it turned a slight tan or amber color. i imagine if you dont want liquid honey you will probably have to reduce it or make the extraction really strong/concentrated to begin with. this is a guess though. good luck. we hope things start calming down for you soon, take it easy.

[Hippie3]

toss a few blueberries in it
voila! blueberry honey.

camo .

[camMyco]

Hipp. has the honey pictured been blended
with an evercler extraction? If I use the
TV_Guide honey recipe it makes the honey
look like a paste with particulate. This is what
I am trying to avoid.

Magic Honey that looks like honey is my goal.

Thanks!

[Hippie3]

paste ?
try heating it up

[camMyco]

It is still fluid enough to flow but due to the content it has lost the clear amber color.

[psylence]

would you really want it that discreet? what if someone decided to have some of know very-discreet looking hiney without realising it's active? why not just dry your shrooms, turn them to a fine powder and mix them with a very dark honey?

[TVCasualty]

I've been after this too, of course!

I tried putting everclear extract into warm honey, and kept stirring it until I guesstimated that the alcohol was pretty much gone. At room temp, it was a creamy-whitish, opaque solid. Looked more like butter, actually. I think it might have been partly caused by unfiltered mushroom solids in the everclear, but it looked like it was going to work great when I added the extract but before the alcohol had evaporated. Not very appetizing, either. I'm not ruling it out as doable, but it didn't look promising.

A different strategy I'd pursued was packaging the honey paste into a container of something weird or ambiguous; I've filled empty jars of Royal Jelly with the mush honey since most people (esp. cops) don't know what the hell "Royal Jelly" is, and it frankly sounds kind of gross. One airport screener asked a friend about his weird looking "Royal Jelly" and he proceeded to act very excited about a chance to explain all the arcane details of beekeeping (in other words, he had a "geek moment"). The screener rolled their eyes and urged him along, not wanting a Discovery Channel lecture to hold up the line at the metal detector.

Making the honey at your final destination might be an option, and a way to carry dried mushies I like is to first carefully open a new box of cereal, making sure to avoid tearing or damaging the box at all, crunch up some dry fungi (don't smash 'em up too small, maybe corn-flake size), put them in the bag the original cereal came in (if the right type) or a new heat-sealable bag and seal it. Put the sealed bag in the cereal box and carefully re-glue the box tops and put it in a local supermarket grocery bag with some other new stuff. A Foodsaver can seal the bag, or use an impulse bag sealer. The grocery bag could contain all the rest of the ingredients.

My craziest idea is to make lemon lollipops, using everclear extract and lemon juice in a regular hard-candy recipe by heating the sugar solution until the alcohol is gone, then pouring it into molds to make psychedelic suckers. Those might backfire, however, as they look like you were trying to dose the kiddies so I'd use X-rated lollipop molds if I ever get this to work.

[camMyco]

Originally Posted by psylence

would you really want it that discreet? what if someone decided to have some of know very-discreet looking hiney without realising it's active? why not just dry your shrooms, turn them to a fine powder and mix them with a very dark honey?

I'm ahead of you on this one. The packaging I use for active honey is clearly marked "Not for Human Consumption" while in storage or unattended with Icon and wording.

I am looking to be incognito while traveling.
</IMG>

[golly]

I wonder if you could just chop the dry shrooms and extract directly into boiling hot honey.
Then filter while the honey is still hot and very fluid, thru a coarse mesh..
The result may contain some small particles but the acidity of the honey could really aid in the extraction mebbe...
I figure your going to lose 25% potency in the everclear extraction alone, so going direct to the honey pot could save time, money and efficiency...
Any one tried this..??
I have some old stash i could test...

[twoguysupnorth]

i didnt grind my mushy stem butts either so that may have been why the liquid was really light. i let them soak for a week and was just about as potent as i thought it would be. 10 grams of butts and 200 ml of vodka. i might like it a little stronger for transporting and stuff but this did the trick. the jar did look kind of disgusting though, with a bunch of very blue balls floating around in it. make a regular cocktail with OJ and you are there,lol. i havnt tried honey yet but hopefully soon. i like the candy idea too, that would be great. the original plan was to make a concentrated form that i could add to a pint or something and then take it camping or whatever.

[golly]

Ok, here's the result from a 40min honey extraction as described above..
A few particles passed thru ,,,but 22g in 5 oz honey, so 4g per oz would be the extreme maximum efficiency..
I think, having done this ,that realistically 50% is more likely but it's quick n' dirty...
I'll try some tmrw..

[Hippie3]

Originally Posted by golly

I wonder if you could just chop the dry shrooms and extract directly into boiling hot honey.
Then filter while the honey is still hot and very fluid, thru a corse mesh..
The result may contain some small particals but the acidity of the honey could really aid in the extraction mebbe...
I figure your going to lose 25% potency in the everclear extraction alone, so going direct to the honey pot could save time, money and efficiency...
Any one tried this..??
I have some old stash i could test...

[TVCasualty]

Originally Posted by golly

I wonder if you could just chop the dry shrooms and extract directly into boiling hot honey.

Any one tried this..??
I have some old stash i could test...

Then a mere 4 hours later, you posted pics of your finished product. That's awesome. It's a great idea, and I can't wait to hear how it turned out.


As far as traveling with mushrooms in honey using the recipe I posted, it does look weird, but that works both ways. Since it doesn't look like anything someone is familiar with, that means it also does not look like "drugs" to them. It certainly doesn't smell weird, and among my friends and I we've had several instances of it being scrutinized by various LEO's and their suspicions were never raised even though the people carrying it often look a bit suspicious even on a good day.

I think it's all about the attitude we have toward it; I try to look at it and think about it like it's any other thing I might have bought at the store rather than a secret I don't want revealed. These kinds of thoughts leave traces in our expressions and body language that can be detected by others, but it's mostly subconscious unless you're dealing with Customs officers, who are trained for this. The LEO might not know exactly why he doesn't trust someone, but once he has that "feeling" it gets a lot harder to convince him to let you go. It gives us an advantage when we know this, because they (especially Customs agents) get a bit arrogant, thinking no one can possibly slip anything by their sharp, well-trained eyes. Well, just read up on what they look for and adjust accordingly; it's not a supernatural ability, and being able to spoon-feed them the cues they interpret as "truthfulness" or "calm" brings great advantage.

I have been through Customs and regular airport security with all sorts of awkward cargo, and even been searched at Customs every single time, (no rubber gloves or anything, just my stuff out everywhere) and I've never had anything discovered though I did sweat bullets a few times. I know in my heart with unshakable confidence that acid, hash, seeds, mushrooms, and other things are wholesome and good and pure, and that I'm a pillar of my community and a productive and upstanding citizen, at least according to how I define those terms .

If a cop picks up your container of hummus, or your bag of Cool Ranch Doritos, and menacingly asks "What is this?!?" how would you respond? That's how we should respond to queries about our stash, IMO, even down to the smallest details like eyebrow twitches and exuding a subtle feeling of righteous indignation (the innocent are annoyed at being searched, the guilty are fearful).

Still, clear honey would be better than coarse, pasty honey for stealth purposes, so any improvements are most welcome!

[Hippie3]

seems one would want about 160*F honey temperature for this.

[camMyco]

Originally Posted by Hippie3

seems one would want about 160*F honey temperature for this.

Is there a way to quantify potency loss with high temperature? Yes I want my cake and eat it too.

[Hippie3]

from what i've been reading
[about mead but principles apply]
the simmering temp of 160*F
would only be needed a few minutes,
honey could be heated up in advance,
shroomage chopped fine / powdered stirred in
simmer ~ 5 minutes at heat
then allow to cool.
if one wanted one could
while still hot enough to flow freely
vacume-filter the honey to get it clear.
you'd want to avoid caramelization at higher temps
as it would turn the honey granular and cloudy.

[camMyco]

So the time at simmer should not effect potency?

[golly]

Yeah, you def have to keep an eye on heating the honey as it will bubble up in no time..
There is a minor problem with getting the honey to drain off the mush completely,even when hot..
I poured a little hot water over the remains and drained into a seperate jar..This jar won't keep though, unless frozen...
Ideally if the mush was extracted into acidified water then evap'd down to a wet sludge fast enough - then that would be the least expensive method of mixing into a honey jar.

Water based teas are the best for the rapid and efficient seperation of goods..If it could be reduced with minimal loss before stirring into the honey - might have something..

Going to try a spoonful from that jar ,we'll see what's up...

[golly]

Well damn -i'm impressed ...1 level tbsp and have nice strong buzzz going..
This measure is equal to 1 dry gram originally..
I guestimate 75-80% efficiency in transfer to the honey..

Only drawback would be having to eat 3-4 tbsps to get a real triplike dose..
The flavour only had a hint of shroomyness, so would have to be clearly labeled..heh....

I'll let 'er sit in the fridge for a month or two - see if it holds up..

[Hippie3]

[troutlips]

That's cool golly, a little peanut butter and honey on toast in the morning could make for an interesting day.

[golly]

PB n' honey sounds good to me Trout..

Doing this method with a more potent mushroom could be interesting..Hmmm

[Hippie3]

you may also be able to boost it by doing multiple extractions

[camMyco]

Thanks Golly!

[twoguysupnorth]

good stuff golly!

[golly]

Thnx guys..After having thought about it , you may be able to nearly double the consentration
with the help of a vacuum filter as Hip suggested..
If about 10% of water was added to the honey b4 the dry mush was added, then cooked and filtered, you could use more mush - mebbe 35 grams per 150ml honey water...
The filtered honey could be reduced to it's original density with a bit more heating...

I think i will try the other method though ,where a regular tea is prepped and rapidly reduced, then mixed with honey..
The whole deal should take less than 1 hour and would create a much higher consentration of psilly with no visible particals suspended..
This will be done with the stronger P. Ovoids....

[TVCasualty]

Looks like it's getting close to the point where I'll be ditching my old recipe!

I'd still recommend adding ginkgo biloba, and it's available as a tincture as well as powdered leaf, so it could be added without adding visible particulates to the honey.

Nice work!