"In their own way, though, they're very magical."
Mason Taylor is the founder of SuperFeast, a tonic herbalist and a passionate health educator. Mason and I go back a long way. He started SuperFeast at the Northern Beaches markets in 2011, the same year and the same area where I started my first business.
I had Mason on my first podcast, Talking Clean With Irene, and it was the most downloaded episode I ever had. Ten years later, he came back to join me again, this time on my podcast with Lee, The Lee & Irene Show. I learn so much from Mason every time I speak with him, and this was our mushroom 101 chat.
Are functional mushrooms magic?
My first question, I had to ask: are your mushrooms magic? Mason said "we get it all the time. In one way, they are magic. But no, we're not talking about, definitely not talking about psychedelic mushrooms and we're not talking about culinary mushrooms either. We're talking about tree-growing mushrooms, whether it's on a living tree or dead wood tree. And so, in their own way, though, they're very magical."
Tonic herbalism and a long, healthy life
"That's what I actually do at SuperFeast, is tonic herbalism. And especially that comes from ancient Chinese Taoist tradition where there were strong intentions for longevity, to have a lifestyle that really lightened the body, made sure that we were aging gracefully."
"These particular herbs and mushrooms were included in the diet so that we could support those intentions to have a nice, long, healthy life."
"Life's on. We need herbal friends. And it's just a piece of the puzzle."
Jing and burning it at both ends
I asked Mason, have you got a mushroom that can help so I'm not feeling exhausted all the time? "There is a particular energy and it lives within the kidneys. It's our primal essence. And it's called our Jing."
His SuperFeast Jing blend "has six herbs, one mushroom, and the others are roots and barks and also an orchid." It's "the blend that a lot of people start with because burning it at both ends, exhausted, can't really get through the day."
"Basically, the Western lifestyle where we burn it at both ends and we're not sleeping appropriately."
"Sometimes we ought to really look at our lifestyle and go, is this supporting my Jing or is this, am I leaking my Jing with it? And then you just make little tweaks. It's not a morality conversation, just little tweaks, little tweaks."
Ten years later on The Lee & Irene Show, I asked him where to start, and his answer was the same: "everyone else listening who's starting, get onto Jing."
Can I add them to my coffee?
In my first interview with Mason, the first thing I wanted to know was whether I could add them to my coffee. I told him I'll just have more coffee as soon as I start hitting the three or four o'clock tired, and that's the only way I'm going to get this in me every day.
Ten years later on The Lee & Irene Show, I told him I'd started putting the Jing in my coffee after that first chat. He said "you stack it into anything you're already doing." That's exactly how I've made it easy for myself.
"I'm not about like, no, you can't do coffee anymore." "Coffee is something I don't like to demonize. It's just a herb and it happens to be a stimulant herb and a diuretic herb. But it's not a tonic herb."
"If you're doing it, why not stack these adaptogenic tonic herbs in there?"
"That's why we have a challenge called the 30 Days of Jing... you just include the Jing instead. And then over 30 days, you can slowly take that dose of coffee down." It's "a non-judgmental challenge."
"Just make sure if you're gonna be having a coffee, make sure it's like nice and hot or you add the Jing to like the bottom of the coffee so you can dissolve it all so it's not clumpy. Or you can blend up your coffee and that makes it really easy."
How much should you take?
Can I mix it? Can I add a teaspoon of both or a quarter of a teaspoon? "You definitely can." "We start at a quarter teaspoon. And then we get up to like maybe like half a teaspoon to a teaspoon."
You need to tell me that because for me, I'm just going to put a lot more in. "It's not necessarily a more is better kind of thing with the tonic herb."
"Some days, I just don't feel like Jing. I actually really just feel like mushrooms. Or I just actually really feel like the Beauty Blend... It's a lot of intuition. But in the beginning, it's just go, yep, quarter teaspoon, get up to a half or a teaspoon, and just do that in a way that's going to keep you compliant."
Ten years later on The Lee & Irene Show, I reminded Mason what he'd told me. The ones that taste better, you can have more of, and the ones that taste bad, have less of. "That's nature's way of telling you how much to have." So I have a little bit of Jing in my coffee, and with the Tremella, I put quite a lot in. I have it on top of my cereal or straight out of the jar. It's so delicious.
I asked, how long does it take to work? "A couple of hours... I'm joking, everybody. And look, sometimes it's a month. You know, sometimes it's a year. It kind of depends on where your hormone's at because the herbs can only do as much as your lifestyle allows."
How SuperFeast grows and tests them
I see a lot of mushroom blends out there now, and I do question the harvesting process. So what makes yours sort of unique and special? "We're testing for pesticides, heavy metals, microbes, aflatoxins, and a bunch of other things. We even go to the extent of doing fingerprint chromatography to make sure that the herbs that we're actually growing and getting from our independent farmers is the exact genus that we want."
"We only use groundwater, spring water, really. So it's water that's been underground for tens of thousands of years."
What does adaptogen mean?
I asked, what does adaptogenic actually mean? The word adaptogen was coined by Soviet scientist Nikolai Lazarev in 1947, and in the 1960s Soviet researchers studied herbs like Siberian ginseng to work out what they had in common. Mason explained the three things an adaptogen does.
First, "they're causing no additional harm or stress to the body. And I like to add the caveat there when you're doing it in appropriate dosages."
Second, "they have a nonspecific action on the body, and that's the most important part." They "support you come back into balance."
Third, "it has an accumulative effect on the body." "The longer you do it and more consistently you do it, the more you're going to accumulate the benefits over time."
"I think it's kind of my job to make sure that we remember, you know, they're just herbs."
Reishi before bed
Do you have a herb to help sleep? Because we're not getting enough sleep. "Definitely the one that is the most effective in supporting it is that reishi mushroom."
Reishi mushroom "is an incredible herb called the herb of immortality through ancient China," and "reishi mushroom is the primary shen tonic in that whole system." Shen is "our spirit, also interpreted as the mind."
Before bed, "something really like a nervine like chamomile tea with your reishi in there." "Or you can just have like a moon milk." That's milk infused with lavender and chamomile, with reishi blended in.
Make it enjoyable
"We want long-term and compliance here. We want it to be enjoyable."
"And so if you have to have a day off, okay, cool, I'll have a day off." "If you find yourself not naturally going and taking it, oh, let's find another way to get it in where I'm actually going to enjoy this."
Always read the label and use only as directed.
About the Author
Irene Falcone is the founder of Clean Nectarine and co-host of The Lee & Irene Show. She started her first clean beauty business in 2011 with $100 in her garage and grew it to $20m in four years. She has spent over 15 years reading the backs of beauty and wellness labels, is a Telstra Business Women's Awards winner and an EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, and has been featured on A Current Affair, The Project, Sunrise, Channel Nine Mornings and Sky News.
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