Turkey Tail Mushroom

Trametes versicolor

TL;DR: How to make a ~potentially~ cancer fighting mushroom tea.

This leathery polypore mushroom is most useful when it’s young (as pictured). It gets hard as a rock and darker when it’s old. I was surprised to learn that it has been used in eastern medicine for millennia as an immune system booster and perceived anticarcinogen.

While clinical trials have been inconclusive up to 2016, it’s worth noting that these common mushrooms have been used in standard cancer treatments in Japan (kawaratake) and China for over 40 years. The active agent is said to be a molecule known as polysaccharide-K. Look into it.

I went ahead and sampled some of these for a tea at home by using 1 gram of fresh mushroom to 8 oz. of water. Be warned, it tastes exactly like mushroom tea. Maybe that’s a good thing to you.