Why do turkey tail mushroom experts say to tear up the turkey tail, and not powder it?
I've seen a few videos on making turkey tail mushroom tea, and they suggest ripping it up. Why rip it up, and not blend it into a powder so you can have the whole mushroom effect?
Best Answer
We have a few Q/As about cinnamon in liquids ([1], [2] et al.) that can help answer your question:
If you grind the mushrooms to a powder, it will form a sludge in hot water that is nearly impossible to filter out and likely unwanted in a “tea”. Without personal experience I can not say for sure (but strongly suspect) that the flavor profile is different than from small pieces - but the phenomenon is known for example from black tea, where different leaf / cut sizes or amount of “dust” matter. From what I heard of turkey tail mushroom tea, it’s rather bitter and that’s likely even more so if cut super finely or powdered. If the majority of sources recommend tearing them up, it’s probably the best balance of extraction, flavor and texture. But you can always run a few experiments yourselves and decide according to your taste and preferences.
If you want the “full” mushroom compounds, you could look into other preparations, e.g. powder in capsules, but that’s way outside this site’s scope.
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What is the difference between turkey tail and false turkey tail?
As a polypore, turkey's tail holds its spores in tubes, so its underside should display tiny holes visible to the naked eye. As a crust fungus, the false turkey's tail has a smooth to slightly wrinkly underside with no visible pores.Can you eat dried turkey tail mushroom?
Turkey Tail mushrooms are edible and generally safe to eat or take in supplement form, and there are few side effects. Begin by taking small doses of this mushroom to make sure you do not have any adverse reactions.What is turkey tail powder?
Turkey tail is a medicinal mushroom with an impressive range of benefits. It contains a variety of powerful antioxidants and other compounds that may help boost your immune system and even help fight certain cancers. Plus, turkey tail may improve gut bacteria balance, which can positively impact your immunity.What is the best way to take turkey tail mushroom?
The taste of turkey tail mushrooms isn't particularly palatable or something that you want to ingest for the flavor. So people also add the dried mushroom powder to smoothies, oatmeal, soups or salad dressings to help mask the flavor. You can extract most of the beneficial compounds in turkey tails with just water.Turkey Tail Mushroom and Cancer
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