Golden Emperor shrooms are a strain of magic mushrooms. They’re classified as a member of the greater Psilocybe cubensis species of mushrooms, which itself is just one of over 100 different species of psychoactive fungi.

Most people by now have heard of strains like Golden Teachers — but few are familiar with its kin, the Golden Emperor.

The Golden Emperor strain isn’t as famous as GTs, but it’s every bit as exciting, providing insightful and meaningful trips that are notably strong but have less propensity for pushing you into the deep end compared to other magic mushroom strains.

Golden Emperors are the progeny of the famed Golden Teachers strain and therefore share similar potency and effects.

Like their parent strain, Golden Emperor shrooms are reliable for taking deep introspective dives and microdosing alike. These shrooms can be very strong but are less likely than other strains (such as Penis Envy) to force you into psychedelic dimensions you’re not ready to enter.

Related: View All Magic Mushroom Strains

Golden Emperor Magic Mushrooms Specs

History of Golden Emperor Magic Mushrooms

Golden Emperor shrooms were derived from Golden Teachers, the most famous of all shroom strains. The spore vendor, Sporeslab, is credited with isolating and developing the Golden Emperor strain — so they’re considered the best source for this strain.

Golden Emperor and Golden Teacher are similar in their overall appearance and psilocybin content, but Golden Emperors produce larger mushrooms overall.

Golden Teachers has been around for decades already — they first entered the market sometime in the 1980s. Prior to this, the term “Golden Teachers” referred to psilocybe cubensis as a whole because it’s common for this species to gold-colored sport caps. It’s believed the original sample was taken from somewhere in the Gulf region of the United States — but this has not been confirmed.

Golden Emperor Magic Mushrooms Potency & Psilocybin Content

Most psychoactive fungi, including the Golden Emperor shrooms, contain three active ingredients — psilocybin, psilocin, and baeocystin. Ranking potency quantitatively requires measuring the averages of these tryptamines across as many samples as possible.

At the moment, there are only a few limited tests on Golden Emperor mushrooms, but the data is growing every year.

So far, analysis has found the Golden Emperor shrooms to be above average in terms of potency. This matches the anecdotal reports posted online as well as the experience of our own team here at Tripsitter.

Sporeslab, one of the leading spore vendors in the US and Canada, suggests the average tryptamine content of Golden Emperor shrooms to be around 1.8% — which is almost double what’s considered common for this species of mushroom. It’s unclear what the specific breakdown is between psilocybin and psilocin, however.

For comparison, we consider “average” to fall somewhere between 0.5% and 0.9% (psilocybin and psilocin combined). As such, you can expect Golden Emperor shrooms to provide a relatively high potency.

With that said, knowing the average potency of a strain isn’t as useful as you might think. The growing conditions play a major role in the potency of a mushroom. Two samples of the same strain grown under different conditions may have wildly different potencies.

The Oakland Hyphae Psilocybin Cup is another good place to turn for identifying the estimated potency of a magic mushroom strain. Samples are submitted for the competition, scanned in a laboratory, and then graded according to potency. The figures are all posted at the conclusion of the competition.

Unfortunately, there have not been any Golden Emperor samples submitted in any of the previous 4 Psilocybin Cups.

Golden Emperor Magic Mushrooms Variations & Genetic Relatives

Golden Emperor is not the most popular strain, by far, so there haven’t been any noteworthy variations created. However, there are some genetic relatives that are quite popular in the world of psilocybin mushrooms.

Golden Teacher Strain

We’ve covered this strain a lot already as it’s the parent of the Golden Emperor strain.

Golden Teachers are ubiquitous in the world of magic mushrooms — in most cases if a specific strain isn’t mentioned, it’s Golden Teachers.

Golden Emperors are similar in appearance, psilocybin content, and growth habits, but they are quite a bit bigger in size — especially for grain spawn or manure-grown samples. Both strains are easy to cultivate and stand up well to disease and mold.