This idea isn’t new, even though it’s a popular coffee mix right now. Online sources claim that Finland used mushrooms in place of coffee beans during World War II. Asian cooking and medicine, particularly Chinese medicine, have long utilized mushrooms due to their health benefits.
This article examines the evidence surrounding mushroom coffee and provides an expert opinion on the purported health benefits.
What is mushroom coffee?
Take a deep breath and picture a cup of coffee with mushrooms floating on top. That’s not what this is. The gentle combination of ground mushrooms and coffee beans yields a dark, smooth, and nutty coffee.
Mushroom coffee often uses extracts from medicinal mushrooms rather than common cooking mushrooms like shiitake and portobello. This trendy coffee often incorporates common medical mushrooms such as lion’s mane, chaga, turkey tail, reishi, and cordyceps.
A number of customer reviews say that mushroom coffee doesn’t taste all that different from regular coffee. But mushroom coffee’s supposed health perks, such as lowering anxiety and making the immune system stronger, give it an edge in the market.
Lower in caffeine
We tell people that mushroom coffee mixes contain less caffeine than regular coffee. Coffee beans, cocoa beans, and tea leaves naturally contain caffeine, an addictive chemical. Labs also add it to other foods and drinks.
People who are pregnant or breastfeeding, kids, and people who already have heart problems are more likely to have bad effects from caffeine, so they should be careful how much they drink.
Up to 400 mg of caffeine a day doesn’t seem to have any bad effects, but this might be different for people who are sensitive to caffeine. In this case, even if you drink less coffee, you may still feel anxious, have a fast heart rate, have an upset stomach, and have other side effects.
As previously mentioned, we usually mix a specific amount of mushroom powder with the same amount of ground coffee beans to make mushroom coffee. Since mushroom powder doesn’t have caffeine, it cuts in half the amount of caffeine in the finished product compared to regular coffee.
This might not be true for all types of mushroom coffee, though. Often, the packages do not indicate the caffeine level.
Below is the caffeine content of one cup (about 10 oz) of three types of mushroom coffee, regular coffee, and decaffeinated coffee.
| Coffee | Product type | Caffeine |
| Folgers Black Silk Dark Roast | Keurig pod | 100–150 mg |
| Folgers Back Silk Decaf | Ground coffee | 1–4 mg |
| Four Sigmatic Instant Mushroom Coffee with Lion’s mane | Instant | 50 mg |
| Shrooms Reishi Mushroom Coffee | Instant | 53 mg |
| Tiger 2 Mushroom Coffee Lion’s Mane + Chaga | Ground coffee | 60 mg |
The caffeine content in mushroom coffee drinks is roughly half that of a regular cup of coffee, but significantly higher than that of decaffeinated coffee.
Health benefits
Traditional Chinese medicine has long used medicinal mushrooms. Medical mushrooms contain chemicals known as adaptogens. They may help the body deal with stress better.
Researchers have been interested in the adaptogens found in medical mushrooms since the 1970s because they might be good for your health.
However, it’s crucial to remember that the majority of research on medicinal mushrooms takes place in labs or on animals. Only a few well-designed clinical trials have included people. In other words, we can’t just apply these studies’ findings to people or diseases that affect people.
Furthermore, these studies aren’t just about mushroom coffee, and it’s unclear whether mixing mushrooms and coffee beans has health benefits or drawbacks.
Many health claims about mushroom coffee remain unproven. Both medical mushrooms and coffee have some known health benefits on their own.
Here are some scientific results that support the idea that medicinal mushrooms are good for your health:
- A better immune system: Test tubes have shown that turkey tail and its fermented bases boost the immune system.
- Cancer prevention: Studies Reliable sources have mentioned Lion’s mane, Reishi, Turkey tail, Chaga, and Cordyceps as possible supportive treatments for cancer patients, such as helping them deal with nausea and vomiting.
- Antiulcer: Rat tests showed that chaga mushrooms might be able to help heal sores.
- Anti-allergenic (food allergies): Studies conducted in test tubes have demonstrated that the chaga mushroom inhibits the immune cells responsible for triggering an allergic reaction to certain foods.
- Heart disease: It appears that Reishi products may be able to lower cholesterol levels in the blood, lowering the risk of developing heart disease.
Although there is some encouraging evidence, more research with actual people is required to confirm these health effects, particularly when it comes to mushroom coffee blends.
How is it made?
We remove the mushroom growing bodies and turn them into an organic powder without any fillers, carriers, or other additives.
We dry out the mushrooms, grind them into a fine powder, and mix them with ground coffee beans after extracting them twice. Typically, this process occurs one-to-one.
Here’s how to purchase mushroom coffee:
- Boxes of instant coffee
- Coffee pods
- Ground coffee blends
With mushroom coffee, you can make delicious mochas, lattes, and black coffee drinks in the same way you would with regular coffee.
Downsides
You may be eager to try mushroom coffee, but it’s important to be aware of some negative aspects.
The primary issue is the lack of research on the health effects of this substance on humans. The majority of studies have focused on test tubes or animals. Further studies on humans are necessary to validate those health claims.
This implies a lack of knowledge regarding the safe dosage, the potential benefits and risks of this product, and whether medicinal mushrooms interact with other medications. This may make people worry about their safety.
Additionally, mushroom coffee is expensive. A 12-ounce (340-gram) bag of this coffee is often twice as expensive as a standard bag.
One possible explanation for the higher price is that medical mushrooms are grown in their natural environments rather than on farms for profit. As a result, it may be difficult to locate them.
The bottom line
Recently, mushroom coffee has become popular. It is made by mixing standard coffee with extracts of medicinal mushrooms like chaga, cordyceps, reishi, lion’s mane, and turkey tail.
There are a lot of health claims about how mushrooms and mushroom coffee can help with different health problems, but most of them haven’t been proven yet, and more study with real people is needed.
It might be safe for most people to try, but if you’re on medicine or already have a health problem, you should always talk to your doctor before you do it.
