What Makes Mushroom Tinctures Different From Capsules and Powders?

If you've been looking into functional mushrooms, you’ve probably noticed there’s no shortage of ways to take them.

Capsules. Powders. Drinks.
And then there’s another option you might have seen: tinctures.

At Bed Stuy Fungi, we focus on mushroom tinctures for a reason.
Here’s why tinctures are different — and how they unlock the true benefits of mushrooms.

What Most Capsules and Powders Actually Are

Most capsule and powder supplements are exactly what they sound like:
Dried mushrooms (or sometimes mycelium) ground into a fine powder, and packed into capsules or sold loose.

Sounds simple enough.
But there’s a catch.

Grinding mushrooms into powder doesn’t automatically unlock their full potential.

Many of the most important compounds in medicinal mushrooms — beta-glucans, triterpenes, hericenones, and others — are locked inside tough cell walls made of chitin.
Human digestion isn’t very good at breaking down chitin.
That means if the mushrooms aren’t properly extracted first, your body can’t access everything that’s inside.

You can eat the powder, but you might not absorb the full benefits.

Why Extraction Matters

Extraction is the key to making mushroom medicine truly effective.

- Water extraction pulls out water-soluble compounds like beta-glucans (important for immune support).
- Alcohol extraction pulls out alcohol-soluble compounds like triterpenes (important for stress support, liver health, and more).
- Ultrasonic extraction (sonication) physically breaks open the mushroom cell walls, making both water and alcohol extraction even more effective.

At Bed Stuy Fungi, we use a triple extraction process — water, alcohol, and sonication — to ensure that the full spectrum of active compounds is unlocked.

Tinctures are made through this careful extraction process.
Instead of just grinding up the raw mushroom, tinctures use water, alcohol, and ultrasonic energy to draw out the bioactive compounds — separating what your body actually needs from what it can’t digest easily.

When done correctly, tinctures provide a more concentrated, bioavailable form of mushroom support.

The Stability Advantage

Another major difference: stability.

Mushroom powders can lose potency over time if they’re exposed to light, air, or moisture.
And because they're often shipped and stored for long periods, it’s hard to know how much active strength they have left by the time they reach you.

A properly prepared tincture, on the other hand, is more stable.
Alcohol acts as a natural preservative, protecting the delicate compounds inside.
If stored correctly, a tincture can maintain its strength for years without significant degradation.

Why We Focus on Tinctures

When we started Bed Stuy Fungi, we weren’t looking for trendy products.
We were looking for real results.

Tinctures, when made with true fruiting body mushrooms and extracted through water, alcohol, and sonication, offer the best balance of potency, stability, and real-world effectiveness.

They’re not the easiest or fastest way to make a mushroom product.
But we’re not here for shortcuts.
We’re here to honor what mushrooms are capable of — and to make that power available in a way your body can actually use.

That’s why we do what we do.