How to make mushroom keto coffee

Chances are if you’ve walked into any health store in the past few months (or even gotten close to a health website online) you’ve seen all kinds of products labeled “keto” and wondered what it is and why it’s everywhere lately.

To keep it short (but not too sweet because, well, it’s keto) the term “keto” is used to reference foods, drinks, or other substances that fit into the guidelines of the “ketogenic” or “keto” diet. 

The keto diet is a very low carb, high-fat, and moderate protein diet that excludes sugar, grains, legumes, and other high-carb veggies and fruits. It’s often used for weight loss, focusing on shifting your body’s primary energy source from glucose (aka: carbs) to fat.

On any normal day, your body uses glucose from carbs as its main source of fuel. The problem with this is that if you are constantly consuming heavy amounts of carbs, your body never gets the chance to switch into fat-burning mode, which can make shedding fat difficult. 

Going on a low carb or keto diet forces your body to make the switch to burning fat for energy by restricting the amount of carbs it receives, thus encouraging weight loss. When this happens, your body enters a state called “ketosis” where it breaks down fat in your liver, releasing ketones. 

So how does all of this translate into coffee? One of the principles behind the keto diet is that adding more healthy fats throughout the day can help your body switch into fat-burning mode faster. 

This is where keto “coffee” comes in. It’s infused with medium-chain fatty acids (MCTs or MCT oil), which make up roughly 50 percent of the fats in coconut oil. [*] These are unique fatty acids that aren’t processed by your liver; instead, they go straight to your bloodstream to provide energy.

Other popular versions of keto coffee, commonly called Bulletproof coffee, contain ghee or butter alongside MCT oil.

The fats in keto coffee not only help with weight loss by getting you into ketosis faster, but have also been studied for a wide range of other benefits. 

MCTs in particular have shown in research to help promote cognitive function. [*] In addition, other studies show MCTs can improve exercise endurance—a biggie when we consider that while on a keto diet we are deriving most of our energy for exercise from fatty acids. [*]

In the keto recipes we’ve crafted below, we’ve added a dose of the functional mushrooms, like Lion’s Mane, Chaga, Reishi, Cordyceps and all others found in our various Mushroom Coffees. 

All of our Mushroom Coffees have less than 1 gram of carbs, making them an excellent choice to easily fit into a keto coffee.

Total time: 5 minutes

Serves: 1

This is a great keto coffee recipe alternative if you’re sensitive to dairy. Here we substitute ghee for either pure MCT oil, which you can purchase online or in your local health food store, or coconut oil.

• 3 Tablespoons functional Ground Coffee 
• 1 cup hot water
• 1 Tablespoon MCT oil or coconut oil
• ¼ tsp vanilla extract or a couple drops of liquid stevia for sweetness (optional)

• Add your choice of functional Ground Coffee to your coffee maker or french press. Brew using one cup of water.
• If using a blender, add all ingredients and blend for 20 seconds, or until a light foam layer develops. 
• If not using a blender, simply dissolve all ingredients in your coffee and stir to combine, adding an optional dash of unsweetened almond milk for creaminess.