Is Mushroom Coffee Healthier?

Coffee can be incredible for mood and alertness (just check out this double-blind study by the National Institute of Health). But add mushrooms and those benefits go far beyond a little energy kick. 

Mushroom coffee offers an enhanced brew that infuses your coffee with powerful super ‘shrooms for 🦠 immunity, 😓 stress, 🍽️ gut health, 🧠 fo​cus, and more. It also helps with the dreaded crash from regular coffee by giving you more sustained, balanced energy. ⚡ This means less jitters, crashes, or drain on your adrenals.

 

Is mushroom coffee the fix to regular coffee’s dark side?

Almost! Not all mushroom coffees are created equal. It's easy to pick a seemingly beneficial mushroom coffee that is full of fillers, ineffective ingredients, and even toxins. But don’t worry! 

This is the everything-you-need-to-know guide when it comes to picking a mushroom coffee. Because you really can have it all! Keep the morning ritual you love. Add incredible benefits like greater focus, more energy, better digestion, a stronger immune system, and more. And the cherry on top: ditch the jitters, crash, and restless nights that often come with regular coffee.

 

Hold up, but is mushroom coffee psychedelic?

Nope, those mushrooms are far different from the ones in most mushroom coffees. There are actually thousands of mushrooms in the Fungi Kingdom (~6x as many species as the Plant Kingdom!). Each has drastically different compounds. 

Psychedelic mushrooms most often contain the psychoactive constituent psilocybin. 

Culinary mushrooms are those you might find on your pizza, the portobellos, and criminis of the world (which by the way, are actually the same fungi at different stages of their life cycle!). 

Then, there are functional mushrooms. These are mushrooms that have an astonishing number of beneficial and medicinal compounds. That's how they get their many health benefits!

 

What are Functional Mushrooms?

Functional mushrooms (like reishi, chaga, and lion's mane) are not psychedelic. Instead, they offer incredible health benefits. These mushrooms are among the most nutrient-rich foods on earth. 🌎

They can support your immune system, gut, stress management, energy, focus, and more. They each have unique properties that outshine most “superfoods” on the market today. 

Plus, they’re totally legal and you can find them at most grocery stores!

Mushrooms With Research-Backed Benefits

Functional mushrooms can supercharge focus, ignite energy, boost your mood, and reduce stress. And there are hundreds of studies and thousands of years of use cases to prove it.

Lion’s mane is one of the most popular functional mushrooms. It's renowned for improving focus and supporting a clear mind. One study shows that 250 mg of lion's mane taken 3x a day, significantly supported cognition in just 4 months*.

It’s not just lion’s mane! Chaga is another powerful mushroom. It works like an internal anti-aging serum with about 1,300x more antioxidants than blueberries. In a study on chronic fatigue syndrome, reishi mushrooms helped reduce fatigue markers.*  Research on cordyceps mushrooms shows it can improve VO2 max. It's also a favorite among Olympic athletes. The benefits of functional mushrooms are almost endless.

 

 

The best “mushrooms” for real benefits

Some mushroom powders don’t actually contain the real mushroom (the part you’re currently picturing in your head). Most studies use the fruiting body of the mushroom. That's the part you think of as the actual mushroom (and has more active compounds). 

 

There are several parts of fungal anatomy 🍄

1️⃣ The part of the mushroom visible to the human eye, what most of us think of when we visualize a mushroom, is actually called the fruiting body. (Think of this like the apple on a tree!).

2️⃣ Spores are the reproductive "seeds" that hold a mushrooms DNA and allows it to spread to new areas.

3️⃣ Below ground or within the substrate the mushroom is growing on (often trees, when it comes to functional mushrooms), is a vast network that can very colloquially be thought of as the “mushroom roots”, known as mycelium. Note: they are WAY different from plant roots and do serve many critical functions for the health of our ecosystems and almost all plants on Earth! Mushrooms have a root system, called mycelium. Many brands use mycelium in their mushroom coffee, not the fruiting body. So the benefits you can expect to feel are quite different. 

Mushroom coffee with mycelium almost always means lots of fillers!

This is because mycelium is grown on grains, most commonly rice or oats. When processed, the substrate (what the mycelium is growing on) is ground up with the mycelium. Products selling mycelium are actually 90-95% grain!  Don’t be fooled by paying for expensive oats when you intend to get the powerful benefits of fruiting bodies. 

 

Are Functional Mushrooms Safe?

You bet! Functional mushrooms are safe, nontoxic, and sold as dietary supplements worldwide. As with any dietary or herbal supplement, pay attention to your body's response. Consult your doctor if you're pregnant, breastfeeding, or have underlying health conditions.

The main thing to be watchful of is the quality of the mushrooms. Mushrooms are like sponges (aka bioaccumulators). 🧽 They soak up everything in their environment. This is great if they're grown on nutrient-rich trees or logs (just like in nature). But it's bad news if your mushrooms are grown on substrates that contain pesticides, herbicides, or heavy metals.

All mushrooms you eat, both culinary and functional, should always be: 

• USDA certified organic
• 3rd party tested for toxins (heavy metals, mycotoxins, molds, yeast, and irradiation)

 

 

How to Choose the Best Mushroom Coffee?

It's essential to consider several factors. First, you want to ensure you get the best quality and effectiveness. But you’ll also want to consider what tastes the best and fits your current habits. 

Functional mushrooms work best when used consistently over time. So the closer the taste and texture to regular coffee, the more likely you’ll continue to use it. And build up the benefits! 

Here's a breakdown of what to look for and why each aspect is important:

 

Mushroom Coffee Quality & Effectiveness

• USDA Organic: this is important for everything you consume but especially for coffee. ​​Conventionally, there are terrible synthetic chemicals and fertilizers used to grow coffee beans. But by removing those, it’s much better for you, and the planet. 

It's also critical that the mushrooms are organic. Mushrooms are bioaccumulators. This means they easily absorb the nutrients from the substrate they're growing on. 🧽 This is part of what makes mushrooms so nutrient-rich. But it also means they can absorb a large amount of toxins. If they’re grown on poor-quality substrates, you may have lots of pesticides or heavy metals.

 

🌱 TIP: Look for the USDA Organic Certification on packaging

• Extracted: if the mushrooms are not extracted, your body can’t access the many beneficial compounds. Extracting mushrooms breaks down chitin, a tough compound found in their cell walls (similar to what you'd find in shrimp, lobster, or crab shells). This allows the beneficial compounds to be bioavailable to your body. 

 

🔎 TIP: Look for the word "extract" on the Supplement Facts panel to make sure your body can actually utilize the mushroom.

• 3rd party tested for toxins: testing is crucial to confirm the product doesn’t contain heavy metals, mycotoxins, molds, yeast, or irradiation. Because mushrooms are bioaccumulators you need to be extra cautious.

• Avoid mycelium, use fruiting bodies: the actual mushroom part of the fungi (the fruiting body), contains the highest concentration of active compounds. Mycelium are the roots of the mushroom (which have less active compounds than the fruiting body). These products tend to have lots of fillers! They’re grown on grains like rice or oats making 90-95% of the "mushroom powder" filler grains.

 

🚫 TIP: avoid “cultured on mycelium” or “myceliated oats/rice/grain” in the Supplements Fact panel.

Real fruiting-body mushrooms consistently test high for beta-glucans, triterpenoids, and estergolsterol. AKA the compounds that give functional mushrooms their benefits. 

For an even deeper dive into fruiting body vs mycelium, check out our blog here.

• Start at 500mg: An effective dose of extracted functional mushrooms is between 500 mg - 1500 mg. Always start small and slowly build up after a few days as your body allows. Benefits start plateauing around 3,000 mg/day.

 

👍TIP: you can combine functional mushrooms with vitamin C rich foods to improve the absorbency of the mushrooms.

• Grown on wood: When it comes to mushrooms, they are what they eat! So the quality of the substrate they’re grown on matters. It's best to look for wildcrafted, or grown on logs to ensure your mushrooms are as nutrient-rich as possible. 

In nature, functional mushrooms grow on trees. (Cordyceps being one of the only exceptions. Read more on that here.) 

 

 

Ideal Mushroom Coffee Taste & Texture

• Smooth texture without grit: Some mushroom coffees contain sediments that can make it very unsatisfying to drink. 

When particles from the mushroom coffee mix fall to the bottom of the cup, this is called "settling." It happens when the particles are not fully dissolved or suspended in the liquid. This causes them to separate and settle at the bottom of the container. 

For a better experience, choose mushroom coffee that dissolves easily. Better dissolvability means less sediment at the bottom of the cup. Poor dissolvability may be a sign of low-quality ingredients or fillers.

• Real flavors from the ingredients: Look for products with real flavors that come from the ingredients. Not “natural” or artificial flavors. It's deceiving but “natural” flavoring might not be what you expect.

For example, Castoreum is a common natural flavor for vanilla and raspberry. This comes from the castor sacs of beavers. Yup, you read that right! It’s a secretion that beavers use to mark their territory. Unfortunately, it finds its way into our food as a “natural” flavoring.

❌ TIP: avoid any sort of “flavorings.” Artificial and natural flavors both mean you’re not getting the real ingredient. Instead, it's from an additive.

 

Top Mushroom Coffee Brands Ranked

We did a deep dive on the biggest brands for mushroom coffee so you don’t have to. We saved the best for last… AKA 1st in this list!

#1 Four Sigmatic

(Just a little disclaimer: we are Four Sigmatic!)

But we truly believe we’ve crafted a better cup of mushroom coffee (and countless others agree). Not only have 100,000+ consumers subscribed to our mushroom coffee, but here are just a few others that ranked us as #1: Taste of Home, Best Reviews, The Quality Edit, Quench List, Body Nutrition.

We're the 1st mushroom coffee brand in the US (and still #1 today)!

Our best-selling Think Organic Coffee features ground Arabic coffee infused with lion’s mane and chaga mushrooms. Great for your brain, and delicious for your morning cup! It's also consistently the #1 ground coffee on Amazon. You can also feel good about the fact that our coffee comes from a small family-run co-op in Honduras.

👉 We wanted to make sure our mushrooms were the highest quality, and most beneficial possible:

• USDA Organic - always! Not just our mushrooms but our coffee too.

• Only fruiting bodies (no filler grains or mycelium here)

• Dual extracted for maximum bioavailability

• Grown on wood (directly from the wild or on logs)

• Packed with 500 mg of log-grown lion’s mane and wildcrafted chaga for focus, a clear mind, and immunity

We also know that you need to love what you’re drinking to brew it daily and unlock the true potential of our mushrooms. That’s why we use real coffee that tastes just like your typical cup. Seriously, you can’t taste the difference with a regular, dark roast coffee.

And if you’re still uncertain–try it out risk-free! We have a 💸 money-back guarantee. 💸 That’s just how confident we are that you’ll love the taste and feel the difference.

 

 

#2 Everyday Dose

This mushroom coffee uses fruiting body mushrooms that have been properly extracted. While the mushrooms are bioavailable, Everyday Dose is not vegan-friendly. That’s because Everyday Dose adds collagen to their mushroom coffee. 

The coffee they use is not stated organic, while other leading brands use USDA organic coffee. And if you’re hoping for a caffeine pick-me-up, you may be disappointed with only 39 mg of caffeine.

 

 

#3 VitaCup’s Focus Coffee

Vitacup’s Focus Coffee is not organic. This means the mushrooms (which are bioaccumulators)  easily soak up everything in their environment. Including nasty pesticides! While their chaga is grown on bark, the lion’s mane mushroom is grown on grains like rice or bran.

Their mushroom coffee does taste pretty similar to a typical cup of coffee. They use actual coffee sourced from Brazil and Mexico. However, similar to the mushrooms, their coffee isn’t organic either.  So those coffee beans were likely grown with synthetic chemicals and fertilizers. These are not only bad for you but also for the environment.

 

 

#4 Laird’s Perform Coffee

Laird’s Perform Coffee is organic, but only some of its mushrooms are shown as extracted on the ingredient label. Any mushrooms that aren’t extracted (chaga and cordyceps in this case) are not bioavailable. So they won’t provide the benefits you expect from functional mushrooms. 

They also don’t use just the mushroom fruiting body. Laird uses mycelium which has less bioactive compounds. You’ll also find the ground-up substrate mixed in with the “mushrooms” in their Perform Coffee. This means you get filler grains instead of just pure mushroom extracts. Plus, Laird doesn’t grow their mushrooms only on wood. Many functional mushrooms (like chaga, lion’s mane, and reishi) grow on trees in nature. Instead they grow their mushrooms on a cheaper substrate like oats or rice.

 

 

#5 MUD\WTR’s Rise

This mushroom coffee will taste the least like your typical cup of coffee. It's more similar to a chai latte with a. It’s made with masala chai and a range of spices like cacao, with hints of ginger and turmeric. This could make it hard to switch from regular coffee to mushroom coffee and actually stick to it. You need to use functional mushrooms regularly to feel the difference. So a switch you aren’t able to commit to daily isn’t going to yield the best results.

Plus, there’s no actual coffee in their mushroom coffee. So if you’re looking for a caffeine boost you may be disappointed with only 35 mg of caffeine in your cup.

Outside of taste, the mushrooms in their products are not from only fruiting bodies. They use mycelium (and therefore have substrate-like oats instead of just beneficial mushrooms). This means the product contains filler grains. So you’re getting very little of the most beneficial, nutrient-dense part of the mushroom. Instead, you’re getting lots of filler grains and mycelium instead of the beneficial fruiting body. and mushroom roots (with less active compounds)

Plus the mycelium mushrooms you do get are not extracted. This means your body can’t absorb the beneficial compounds inside the mushrooms. 

 

 

#6 Ryze

While Ryze mushroom coffee does contain some coffee, it doesn’t taste very similar to the coffee you know and love. Of all the brands we looked into, Ryze’s taste is our least preferred. Ryze has one of the strong earthy, umami flavors of the top mushroom coffee brands. Their coffee beans are grown in Mexico and spray-dried into a pure instant powder. There’s only 48 mg of caffeine per cup. 

They also use the ‘full spectrum’ of mushrooms, including myceliated oats. So filler is a potential issue here. They claim to separate the actual roots from the substrates they grow on. But our research shows it's impossible to separate mycelium from the substrate. Mycelium intertwines and is completely inseparable from the substrate it is grown on.