Organized by the Psychedelic Club of Denver, a nonprofit educational group, the Psychedelic Cup has been in the works since Colorado voters approved the decriminalization of psilocybin, DMT, ibogaine and mescaline, according to lead organizer Jonathan Cherkoss. The competition followed the state's new psychedelics cultivation, possession and display laws, he says, with each grower submitting their magic mushrooms to a psilocybin testing lab.
The award show, held Thursday, November 2, at Denver's Mile High Station, had over 400 attendees, according to Cherkoss, as well as 512 competition submissions from 211 different mushroom growers. The event wasn't just a spectacle, but an opportunity to gather information.
"That was by far the biggest data collection of home growers, for sure. And, I would argue, it's a larger and more diverse data set than any other research done so far," Cherkoss says.
After going over the seven-panel test results that covered psilocybin and a handful of other alkaloids and fungi compounds, the Psychedelic Club of Denver announced winners in seven categories, including highest psilocybin content, highest overall alkaloid content, highest psilocybin content on average and highest overall potency.
Several submissions hit a psilocybin content level of 2.5 percent, which triples the average amount most labs see.
The Psychedelic Cup included an on-site beauty competition measuring the biggest and bustiest mushrooms.
Evan Semón
"I wouldn't want something that strong," Cherkoss admits, "but the winners were all very experienced genetics people, and they really dialed in a strain to get something to win."
There was also a beauty contest aimed at finding the biggest, bustiest magic mushrooms in Colorado. Unrelated to the lab-tested portion of the Psychedelic Cup, the beauty contest was meant to educate and entertain — with a few security measures to ensure no exhibitions were stolen or nibbled on, Cherkoss notes.
"There was a line almost the entire time of people waiting to go to vote for the beauty contest. I was absolutely shocked," he details. "It seemed like people really enjoyed it and appreciated it. It was an opportunity to see forty different mushrooms. Even if you grow mushrooms, you're not going to see that kind of variety."
Cherkoss says the Psychedelic Club of Denver plans to host another Psychedelic Cup next year, and that homemade edibles or extracted products could be on the table. Down the road, plants containing DMT, ibogaine and mescaline (excluding peyote) could be added as well, he says.
Club organizers say that while they were confident in the legality of the contest, carrying out a months-long psilocybin cultivation competition and celebration that was open to the public and not shut down by law enforcement was still a big win for Colorado's new psychedelic-centric event space.
"I think there is a lot of opportunity for people to get involved, start growing mushrooms and doing more of that stuff. We're not looking at commodification unless it went on the ballot, so it's really about helping people grow for themselves. I think there is a ton of opportunity for more events like this. It's tons of fun," he explains. "At the same point, psilocybin is still less commodified than marijuana. The decriminalization part really gives us the chance to do a lot of cool stuff and not have to hide. It can be done, it can be done responsibly, and it can be done again."
The Psychedelic Club of Denver will release its Psychedelic Club lab data and an analysis within the next two weeks. In the meantime, find some of our favorite photos from the November 2 awards ceremony below:
