We’ve listed pros and cons, flavors, and unique characteristics of Mushroom Coffee, and why we think you should try this.
Mushrooms bring delicious flavors to our tables, and we are seeing products like mushroom jerky and mushroom broth go mainstream. However, another mushroom-based innovation that is gaining widespread attention has become even more popular than other trendy mushroom products: mushroom coffee.
What is mushroom coffee? When I first heard of mushroom coffee, I had the eyebrow-raising visual of tiny button mushrooms floating in my morning java much like miniature marshmallows float in a cup of hot cocoa. It’s nothing like that. You can’t taste the mushrooms in mushroom coffee. In fact, if you didn’t know you were drinking mushroom coffee, you would be able to close your eyes and imagine yourself enjoying a cup of the kind of satisfying old-fashioned coffee your grandmother used to make.
What Is Mushroom Coffee?
Danielle Ryan Broida is a registered clinical herbalist and holistic nutritionist who serves as the national educator for Four Sigmatic, one of the world’s leading sellers of mushroom-based coffee. In an interview with Martha Stewart Living, Broida explained, “Functional mushrooms overall are immunomodulators; they help our bodies find balance to keep our immune systems working optimally whenever we need it.”
The Origins of Mushroom Coffee
During World War II, coffee was rationed in most countries. In Finland, dedicated coffee drinkers were forced to find alternatives to substitute for their favorite hot beverage. As the country with the world’s highest coffee consumption, the beverage is clearly important to Finnish people.
Finnish author and founder of Four Sigmatic, Tero Isokauppila, explains that his ancestors foraged the country’s native birch trees for Chaga mushrooms that they steeped and pressed to create an alternative “coffee” beverage. Although Finnish people weren’t the first people to use mushrooms to aid wellness, they were the first people to replace coffee with mushrooms.
Health Benefits of Mushroom Coffee
While coffee has numerous health benefits, the world’s favorite caffeinated beverage can also have negative side effects. When you add functional mushrooms to coffee, they help to counter the adverse effects of coffee, including the following common side effects of caffeine consumption.
- “The jitters”
- Dehydration
- Indigestion
- Insomnia or disrupted sleep
- Dependency
- Headaches
Mushrooms in general may support overall wellness, decrease stress, and offer valuable immune system support. Because these mushrooms are adaptogens, they can help combat the well-known afternoon crash that most of us experience during the workday.
Functional mushrooms help to calm coffee’s “jitter” effects because they’re adaptogens that support the body’s adrenal glands. For this same reason, mushrooms may help your body fight the occasional stress that we all experience. Here are some of the other potential benefits of mushrooms.
-Non-toxic
-Not habit-forming
-Aid digestion
-Promote memory and focus
-Naturally occurring
Another significant benefit of mushroom coffee is that it gives you a powerful boost without the dreaded mid-day caffeine crash that’s so common with coffee.
Four Delicious Mushroom Coffee Products
Below, we’ve listed four of the most popular mushroom coffee products.
1. Ground Mushroom Coffee with Lion’s Mane
Four Sigmatic’s Ground Mushroom Coffee with Lion’s Mane is a delicious mushroom coffee blend that brews dark and smooth. Equally important, this blend is remarkably crash-free and gives you hours of focus. Ground Mushroom Coffee with Lion’s Mane contains coffee plus Chaga and Lion’s Mane, delivering up a deliciously balanced brew for your brain and body.
On Four Sigmatic’s website, this blend has nearly 2,000 reviews with a rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars. Reviewers say that they can drink this mushroom coffee during the day without experiencing jitters. Like all Four Sigmatic products, Ground Mushroom Coffee with Lion’s Mane meets the following criteria.
- Rigorously lab-tested
- Organic
- Fair Trade Certified
2. Adaptogen Focus with Lion’s Mane
If you prefer getting your focus via a delicious fruity beverage shot, Four Sigmatic also has you covered with Adaptogen Focus with Lion’s Mane. Available in a six-pack of 2.5-ounce bottles, these powerful little shots taste like a tropical vacation.
Each Adaptogen Focus with Lion’s Mane shot has only one gram of sugar. Moreover, they’re organic, gluten-free, vegan, and third-party lab-tested. These shots are flavored with all-natural pineapple and lime juice.
When your brain feels like mush in the afternoon, you can sip productively and enjoy all of the benefits of organic non-GMO Lion’s Mane. Additionally, these powerful little shots have Rhodiola extracted from the mountains of Tibet, Rose Hip, and 50mg of naturally occurring caffeine from guayusa, a holly tree that’s native to the Amazon rainforest.
3. Mushroom Coffee Latte with Lion’s Mane
Replace your overpriced sugar-laden latte with Four Sigmatic’s delicious Mushroom Coffee Latte With Lion’s Mane. The Chaga and Lion’s Mane in this coffee latte helps keep the caffeine under control to give you clean, focused energy. Sweetened with vitamin-packed organic lucuma and one gram of organic coconut palm sugar per serving, this latte is perfect as not just a morning brew, but also for an afternoon treat with benefits.
Mushroom Coffee Latte With Lion’s Mane gets its creaminess from coconut milk powder sourced from the “Tree of Life” in Southeast Asia. When you add hot water, you end up with a smooth, creamy latte with 50mg of caffeine. The power of caffeine is complemented by mucuna pruriens, an adaptogenic herb traditionally used in Ayurvedic medicine.
4. Instant Mushroom Coffee with Lion’s Mane
With Four Sigmatic’s Instant Mushroom Coffee With Lion’s Mane, you get all of the benefits of Lion’s Mane coffee, but in single-serve packets. The great thing about this product is that you can slip a couple of packets into your pocket or bag and enjoy the focus it gives you wherever you land in the afternoon.
The coffee for this blend is grown in Columbia in the shade. The beans are carefully roasted and brewed, then concentrated by evaporation. They finish it off by spray-drying it into pure instant powder. The result is a smooth and delicious hot beverage that will keep you focused and on point.
More Benefits with Mushroom Coffee
In general, both mushrooms and coffee have significant health benefits, and this fact has been supported by scientific studies. Combining mushrooms and coffee in such a delicious way makes sense. If I can get my morning (and afternoon) coffee with a boost of nutrients and antioxidants, I’m here for it. Let us know what your experience has been with mushroom coffee.