this discovery will likely have little impact on the taste of what's being consumed, or the subjective quality of the trip.
the bad taste is the result of either a) the flesh of the mushrooms, or b) (in the case of isolated psilocybin) the alkaloid being a bitter "chemical" tasting chemical. in either case, the problem can be mitigated without understanding the mushroom's psilocybin synthesis pathway.
the bad trip has to do with the alkaloid itself, and a the reaction of particular brain that's been dosed with it at a particular time. again, understanding the mushroom's synthesis path isn't going to change the end result. it might help chemists discover new and worthwhile paths to synthesizing other tryptamines with a lower potential for bad trips, but it's not like there's a shortage of viable methods for producing novel tryptamines at the moment.
still, really really cool discovery. not trying to downplay that. just saying the parent and GP i'm replying to are talking about things that are pretty much orthogonal to this discovery.
EDIT: ok, i can imagine one situation where this could impact flavor: in a world where psilocybin is legal, one might imagine boutique engineered mushroom strains that have desirable flavor characteristics, and which produce psilocybin. this discovery could help with engineering that sort of thing. i don't actually think that's a worthwhile use of anyone's time (again, there are ways to mitigate the taste issue, and determining the amount of mushrooms you eat by anything other than the desired intensity of the trip seems like a flat out bad idea). but still, i stand partially corrected.
You are right, I'm sure. Just a cheeky response to a cheeky response. (Though, with the hopeful side-effect of luring more learned answers, like yours :))
I dunno. I mean, anecdotally, I get a a different kind of drunk on regular beer, fancy beer, and different kinds of liquors. People seem to swear by the different weed strains. I wouldn't be surprised if the rest of the composition of the mushroom has a noticeable effect on the trip.
To me, this just means it'll be easier to try blending substances together; I can totally imagine designer packs that use time-release and a collection of substances to create particular experiences.
Alcohol is alcohol. The differences you are noticing are probably due to the amount of water you're consuming with your alcohol (two pints of 5% beer contains a lot more water than one pint of 10% beer), how fast you're drinking (some liquors you shot, some you sip for example, sweeter drinks get drunk faster than bitter drinks), and possibly also related to the amount of sugar you consume (as is common in sweeter mixed drinks).
I could go on listing other substances in alcoholic drinks, but ethanol is far from the only substance in alcoholic beverages with biological and psycholical impact.
Cannabis has multiple psychoactive compounds, mainly THC and CBD. That's the reason different strains can have very different effects.
On the other hand, there seems to be a lot of arguing about different experiences with the same compound, not just with alcohol, but also with other drugs like LSD, MDMA, etc., if you look at forums... I'm skeptical and think most underrate the effect of previous mood and dosage in the effects of drugs.
Bad trips are a ...doozy, to say the least.