What are the best magic mushroom strains to try in Toronto?
There are over 200 strains of magic mushrooms. So how come we only hear about the same 5 strains? I break down some myths & facts about different strains of magic mushrooms.
Let’s start at the beginning. What is so “magic” about these mushrooms?
Magic mushrooms (also known as shrooms or mushies) are naturally growing fungi which contain the psychedelic compound psilocybin. Psilocybin is the compound responsible for the euphoric feelings & the audio & visual hallucinations that accompany a shrooms trip.
Did you know psilocybin has some medicinal benefits?
Low doses of psilocybin can improve your mood & focus, as well as give you an energy boost. To be clear, we’re not talking about a Venti-black-coffee-from-Starbucks kind of caffeine boost, but most people “get more things done” and tend to be “more productive”.
Slightly higher doses of psilocybin help certain people cope with depression & PTSD symptoms. A lot of users find that these slightly higher doses of psilocybin also help them with alcohol, benzo & opiate withdrawal symptoms.
Medicinal dosing of magic mushrooms is also referred to as “microdosing”.
Microdosing is the consumption of a small, non-hallucinogenic dose of magic mushrooms, to experience the medicinal benefits of psilocybin. A typical microdose is between 50mg - 300mg.
With the recent popularity of magic mushrooms and increased interest in microdosing, most magic mushrooms companies now produce their own microdosing shrooms capsules. Some dispensaries in Toronto even sell 2-3 different doses of microdose capsules. It’s now easier than every to buy microdosing capsules in Toronto.
While I’m a huge fan of microdosing, the rest of this post will delve into recreational magic mushrooms.
So are there really 200 different strains of magic mushrooms?
Yes there are.
However, most people (including myself) wouldn’t notice a big difference between most of them. That’s not to say that they aren’t different, but it would be like describing the differences between two different champagnes. “Sweet, fruity & bubbly” would probably describe both of them accurately.
Magic mushrooms trips can be as different as the experiences of drinking champagne, drinking beer, or drinking tequila.
Some magic mushrooms strains cause more of a body buzz. Other strains are more spiritual & mind-awakening. Certain strains are more visually-intense. There are even strains that produce a psychedelic trip with all of the above effects combined, usually with an overall higher intensity.
So does each of the 200 strains have a unique experience?
No. But like I just said, most magic mushrooms strains tend to fall into the categories I just mentioned (body, spiritual, visual, etc.)
So what does this mean?
While there are 200+ strains of magic mushrooms, there’s a reason why we tend to hear about the same 5-7 strains. In fact, if you visited 5 different magic mushrooms dispensaries in Toronto, you’d likely see at least 3 of the same strains.
Below, I discuss three of the most popular shroom strains. Each falls into a different category, and I’ll share my thoughts, experiences & personal recommendations for each strain.
Golden Teachers
This is the world’s most popular magic mushrooms strain. When people talk about how they “laughed for hours” on their shrooms trip … this is the strain they are usually talking about.
Golden Teachers appearance:
Golden Teachers generally have golden or black caps, and brown or golden stems.
Golden Teachers mushrooms are usually small to medium sized. What does that mean? A 3.5g bag of Golden Teachers might have 7-9 individual mushrooms (caps & stems).
Golden Teachers effects:
At low doses, most people experience a pleasant body buzz (meaning you feel really good). Like I said above, next comes the laughter. Everything is funny, and you’re generally in a very good mood for the next few hours.
Slightly higher doses of Golden Teachers brings on some mild visuals. Usually, walls will develop patterns, and phone screens will start to vibrate. Colours will become more vivid, and this is just the beginning.
Higher doses of Golden Teachers (usually 3 grams and above), causes everything to sparkle & glow. Stationary objects tend to move, and plain walls will suddenly develop patterns. The colours of the room will change with your mood or with the music.
During a Golden Teachers trip, most users tend to experience some deep introspective thoughts. Basically, you’re peeking inside your own mind.
A friend of mine describes a Golden Teachers trip as: “Your brain is being shaken. Things that happened last week, and things that happened in your childhood are experienced at the same time. Your journey may go deep into your insecurities or may help you understand something that’s been bothering you lately. Either way, you’ll learn something & you’ll feel great while you’re learning.”
As more research into psilocybin has been conducted, this phenomenon is easily explained:
Psilocybin causes parts of the brain who normally don’t communicate, to start chatting:
I always give the same advice to people if it’s their first trip with Golden Teachers:
DON’T BE ALONE WHEN THE PEAK IS OVER.
Like I just mentioned, Golden Teachers gives most people an “outsider-looking-in” peek into their own mind. If you don’t have anyone to chat with, your thoughts tend to become very loopy. You can’t resolve any thoughts that comes up, and some people end of up in a dark place. So stay near the fire (literally and figuratively). Make sure you’re around your friends & share your spiritual journey & insights with them.
Some people refer to Golden Teachers as Mother Nature’s psychedelic guide.
Your “teacher” has something to tell you about yourself. The journey is so much fun and even if you just laugh with your friends, your golden “teacher” has given you a precious experience.
Golden Teachers are perfect for beginners and for experienced users. I recommend everyone start their psychedelic journey with a Golden Teachers trip.
Blue Meanies
Blue Meanies is actually the name for two separate species of magic mushrooms. Panaeolus Cyanescens it the species I recommend you try. It has double the amount of psilocybin compared to most other strains (like Golden Teachers). Therefore the visuals tend to be more potent at lower doses. A friend once described the strain as: “consuming a 3.5g bag of Blue Meanies will result in acid-like visuals for more people”.
My personal journey to purchase real Blue Meanies in Toronto
I had quite the experience trying to purchase real Blue Meanies.
During the summer of 2021, I had sent $750 CAD in Bitcoin to someone I had met on Instagram. We chatted with on Wickr, and he ended up ghosting me after I sent him the money. Local suppliers I found were charging $1000 CAD or more for a pound of Blue Meanies, so his $750 sounded like a great deal. To be honest he could have sold me a Rolls-Royce for $750 CAD in BTC since he never delivered anything to me…
The next month, a coworker told me that his weed plug had Blue Meanies for $500/pound. As a guy who had just been scammed out of $750, I was pretty skeptical. I asked the obvious question (why would you be buying shrooms from someone who sells weed?), but he told me “my guy is legit”. Anyway, a week and $500 later, there was a pound of Blue Meanies at my desk. That Saturday night, I ate 2 grams. After 2 hours of feeling the same, I ate another 2 grams. By 8:00pm I had eaten six total grams. Besides music sounding slightly better, and being way more paranoid than normal, nothing remarkable happened.
During the rest of that month, I found out that “Blue meanies” refers to two separate species of magic mushrooms. It looks like I had gotten the low-visual strain, and not the high-visual species of shrooms. Or my coworker’s weed plug just had bad shrooms.
My search continued.
In November, my Golden Teachers supplier finally had Blue Meanies in stock. They had been out of stock for months. So I ordered $700 worth of Blue Meanies and waited 4 weeks for them to arrive. That month, there was a giant flood in BC. I hadn’t paid for the Xpresspost or Priority shipping, so my package was stuck in a BC warehouse, waiting for the roads to be clear so the package could be “driven” to Toronto…
Blue Meanies appearance:
When my order finally got here, I was skeptical because it actually looked identical to the Blue Meanies my coworker had purchased. In fact, if I’m being honest, it didn’t even look that good.
The stems were long & white, and unlike Golden Teachers, there weren’t many caps. There were more stems then there were caps. The caps were golden or black (like Golden Teachers). There were blue marks around every part of the mushroom that had been broken. In fact most of the white parts had a bluish hue.
My first experience with Blue Meanies:
I was going to watch Nightmare Alley at Silvercity Richmond Hill, and decided to test out the shrooms during the movie. I weighed out two portions of two grams each, and had my friend pick me up. We picked up the strongest flavoured tea from the Tim Horton’s drive-through across from my building, and waited for the tea to cool. I dropped 2 grams into the tea and stirred it. The first thing I noticed about Blue Meanies was how rotten they smelled (and later tasted). I mean shrooms aren’t known for being delicious, but these were rancid. In fact the lemon tea with 5 honeys I added were no match for the Blue Meanies. I drank the tea and filled up the remainder with water. I stirred again & finished the liquid.
When we got to the theatre, we sat at the back of the theatre. As the lights started to dim and the previews started, I noticed a pleasurable feeling in my stomach. Similar to the feeling you get when you’re going up the first hill of the roller coaster - apprehensive but excited.
When the movie started, people around us started whispering, but then I realized that it was the movie and also realized that no one was anywhere near us. The two cups of tea I had drank caught up to me in the first 30 minutes, and I walked myself to the washroom. The hallway looked like something out of Charlie & The Chocolate factory, and in the washroom, the walls were bending. I apologized for staring at the guy washing his hands next to me, only to realize I was talking to myself in the mirror. I hadn’t recognized my own face…
The movie was pretty interesting, but dark. A carnival hand is taught by a professional psychic how to “read” people and make educated guesses just by looking at their appearance, clothes & mannerisms. His abilities improve as the movie progresses, and before you know it, he’s making thousands of dollars by “reading” people professionally. The movie was filmed in the GTA, and I kept on noticing familiar Toronto landmarks:
By the middle of the movie, people’s faces were contorted, and I kept on thinking to myself “I wonder if Bradley Cooper’s nose normally looks like this”. The powerful body buzz was making me twitch & bounce around in my seat.
When we walked to the car, it had been two hours and I was still tripping. The sky looked like we were in Blade Runner 2049. We walked through the fog to my buddy’s car. My buddy kept on insisting there was no fog, but I was still smiling & enjoying the glowing orbs of light from above. The way the car headlights cut through the “fog” still makes me smile thinking about that parking lot trek. People passing us in the parking lot still seemed surreal to me. They seemed to be floating instead of walking…
On the way home, I called me coworker and told him to “tell your plug his shrooms were garbage.” I told to him that I only needed 2 grams of real Blue Meanies to have a great psychedelic trip.
I ate some food at home, and surprisingly went to sleep within 2 hours. Besides the stronger visuals, the other difference was the lack of intrusive thoughts. Unlike Golden Teachers, I barely “looked at myself in the mirror”. It was more of a fun, visual trip, then anything spiritual or meaningful.
Blue Meanies effects:
A potent body buzz
Visuals start appearing at 2 grams and above. The visuals are pretty wavy during the peak. Colours & objects look pretty magical.
Compared to Golden Teacher, there’s not as much introspection.
Blue Meanies are often called the “LSD of shrooms.” No matter how much you consume, I find it almost a pure body & visual strain, without any of the deep psychological twists & turns that normally accompany a high-dose Golden Teachers trip.
I personally find Blue Meanies to be a “cooler” strain. It’s not as warm or as spiritual as Golden Teachers, but the visuals are super intense & enjoyable.
Blue Meanies are perfect for beginners or experienced users.
Penis Envy
To be super honest, I hadn’t heard of this strain in 2021. By 2022, I was getting asked about it everyday.
Penis Envy is universally known as one of the strongest magic mushrooms strains to exist. However, it should be noted that there are several varieties.
Penis Envy appearance:
For example the first time I ordered Penis Envy from my supplier, they sent me stuff that looked like this:
The feedback on the first Penis Envy was amazing. Everyone felt it was “twice as strong as Golden Teachers”.
The 2nd time I ordered Penis Envy, they sent me Albino Penis Envy (yet another member of the Penis Envy family):
The feedback on these were identical to the first Penis Envy strain. One positive difference was that “these look so unique”.
During the spring of 2022, I got sent Penis Envy Chubs. I would consider this variety the most potent of the already-potent Penis Envy family:
Penis Envy has thick, pure-white stems, with plenty of blue marks. The caps can be wide like Golden Teachers (original Penis Envy), or can be golden and smaller (like Penis Envy Chubs).
Here’s some of the memorable feedback I’ve gotten from people who have done Penis Envy:
“I got stuck in my bathtub for 6 hours”
“I saw the beginning, the end, the light & the darkness during my trip … but I came back to the light”
“OMG this is what I was looking for!!!” (My buddy texted this to me two hours into his first Penis Envy trip).
Penis Envy effects:
Here’s how I would characterize a Penis Envy trip:
a) An intense body buzz that increases throughout the trip.
b) Kaleidoscope visuals that encompass the entire visual spectrum.
c) An intense mental journey with plenty of twists & turns, causing you to go deep into your own psyche.
Most people are surprised by the potent body buzz that starts immediately after consumption. Visuals encompass the entire visual spectrum, and the mental trip gets so intense that most people can’t talk during the peak.
Pro-Tip:
I don’t recommend any of the Penis Envy strains if you’re a first time user. If you wish to consume Penis Envy as a first-timer user, start with a smaller dose. After 90 minutes, you can always consume more if you wish.
Why you can’t judge shrooms by their appearance:
There are 200 different strains of magic mushrooms. Some of them can look completely different from each other.
For example Golden Teachers & Albino Tidal Wave look completely different from each other:
However, certain strains of magic mushrooms can look identical to other strains. For example Yeti I purchased in 2023, looks identical to Albino Tidal that I purchased in 2022:
Conclusions:
While there are 200 different strains of magic mushrooms, they don’t all result in unique experiences when you consume them. First of all, some strains have almost zero psychedelic effects, while other can take you to the moon and back in a single trip. Magic mushrooms can therefore be grouped into categories like: body, visual, mental, or all-of-the-above.
Different batches of the same strain can look different, while different strains can look identical to other strains. To ensure you actually get what strain you ordered, pick a reputable vendor, and if you enjoy their products, order again.
I reviewed three popular magic mushrooms that most dispensaries & shroom delivery companies sell in Toronto. As you read above, each strain has a different experience when consumed, as well as a very different appearance. Golden Teachers is very warm and spiritual, while Blue Meanies is more of a visual trip. Penis Envy is an extremely potent strain that can easily take your mind to a distant galaxy if you’re not careful.
Final Thoughts:
Toronto is a vibrant place, and in my opinion, twice as vibrant and sparkly when you do shrooms and go for a walk downtown. In fact, you don’t have to leave Toronto to take a “trip”…
With almost 20 magic mushrooms dispensaries, and over 50 same day magic mushrooms delivery services operating in Toronto, magic mushrooms have never been easier to find.
I hope this guide was helpful.
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