Mushroom Coffee Trend Deep Dived
As a coffee enthusiast, I have avoided the mushroom coffee trend for a plethora of reasons. To start, as someone that cares about the sourcing of a product, I am very concerned about the quality of these mushroom products. It’s now a race to the bottom where every company has a mushroom coffee option to cash in on this fad. When a fad becomes mainstream, scam artists and snake oil salesmen will make false claims to get you to buy their low quality, and often times dangerous, product.
If you’ve learned anything from my blog, it’s that most companies source the lowest quality raw materials as possible which is what I am trying to steer away from you. Now that mushroom coffee is so popular, there’s no doubt tons of low-quality distributors online from the likes of Alibaba and Amazon (basically the same company) are selling you contaminated and potentially dangerous mushroom infused products.
I believe mushroom coffees can provide a health boost to our bodies, but now we are inundated with so many products that the marketing is over saturated and confusing. Just type mushroom coffee into Amazon and you’ll see what I mean. 100% of them are going to make health claims that you do not have the time nor resources to verify them all. That’s what I aim to do for you starting here. Let’s go.
When Did We Start Drinking Mushrooms?
My research shows that mushroom coffee as we know it has officially been around officially since the 1940s when Finland was ramping up for WWII and coffee was scarce. Chaga mushrooms, native to Finland, were dehydrated and ground up and brewed just like coffee. Apparently, the flavor is sweeter and quite earthy compared to coffee but similar enough in flavor and texture that it sufficed as a substitute.
However, that’s just mushrooms brewed as coffee in a modern setting; humans have been drinking mushrooms for much longer (among other herbal concoctions). For example, kykeon, a Greek beverage renowned for its psychoactive properties, dates back to 3,500BCE and contained “ergot”, a psychoactive fungus. Seemingly every culture had a locally procured herbal infusion that ranged from medicinal to recreational, often times containing mushrooms/fungi.
When Did Mushroom Coffee Become Popular?
We’ve now established that mushrooms have been consumed in beverage form for thousands of years, but contemporary mushroom coffee has only started to make headlines in the last decade. I searched around and couldn’t find much on mushroom coffees before the 2010s so I’ll research many of the popular companies to see when they were established and how long they’ve offered mushroom coffee. As consumers are looking for more ways to boost their health, more and more companies continue to take advantage of these potentially fast fads with cheap ingredients, while the more reputable businesses struggle to stand out. That’s where I come in.
Does Mushroom Coffee Have Health Benefits?
Mushroom coffee has many health benefits that range from immune boosting and metabolism regulation. Mushrooms also contain plenty of antioxidants, so infusing your daily beverage with them is a great way to increase your nutrient intake. However, there are a lot of variables that affect the flavor, absorption, and nutritional content of your mushroom coffee. Where consumers get lost is the different types of fungi being used and what their health benefits are. This doesn’t take into account their sourcing, either, or the processing of the mushroom after it’s been harvested. Trendy companies know this so they attract customers with flashy advertising with many buzzwords instead of factual information. All this to say, mushroom coffee has been shown to have positive health benefits, but those benefits can greatly vary based on a near infinite number of factors. That’s why it’s important to put our dollars into companies that are transparent about their supply chain and back up their claims with science.
Are There Downsides to Drinking Mushroom Coffee?
There are some downsides to mushroom coffee but are usually non-life threatening, outside potential allergies. Each type of mushroom has its own pros and cons when it comes to how it reacts with your gut health and organ function.
For example, chaga mushrooms are high in oxalates, just like spinach, which means they can increase the likelihood of kidney stones. Reishi mushrooms can act as a blood thinner, which is not much of a concern for a healthy adult, could have serious consequences for someone prepping for surgery where blood thinners are usually prohibited. Thinner blood can also slow the healing of cuts and bruises, cause headaches, and most importantly, reduce the ability for the body to clot blood.
The Importance of Sourcing from Credible Producers
Since mushroom coffee is a race to the bottom to cash in on this fast fad, you’ll never know which companies are using good quality mushrooms and those sourcing from questionable sources on Alibaba. Mushrooms, just like every other agricultural product, absorb many toxic metals from the environment and during the harvesting process, such as lead. Lead is the most avoidable of toxicity as it’s usually a consequence of using leaded gasoline and factory exhausts. Cadmium on the other hand is absorbed through the soil and much more difficult to remove. Cadmium is naturally occurring in my regions but can also come from external factors as seen with lead.
On top of heavy metals, mushrooms and legumes suffer from carcinogenic toxins such as mycotoxins and aflatoxins. These toxins are highly dangerous to humans and can be prevalent in foods that were poorly sourced. It’s important to know where a product was sourced, if it was tested, and how transparent the company is about it. 90% of companies will never share this information because most of them know they would fail in the eyes of the consumer and do not care about your health.
You will hear this line almost every single time for almost every single company that doesn’t provide testing: “We source from the best of the best so just trust us”. I paraphrased this, but the number of times you’ll read this is basically every time. That’s why it’s important to promote companies that are transparent about their sourcing so they can continue building improving their harvesting and growing conditions.
What Mushrooms are Used in Mushroom Coffee?
Knowing which mushrooms provide what health benefits is a battle consumers will never win. Even the name of the product “mushroom coffee” doesn’t take into consideration mushroom variation. There’s a handful of mainstream mushrooms found in coffee as well as many other consumable products such as bread, meats, and pasta. Here is a list of some popular mushrooms and why they are liked:
- Chaga: Aids in cellular protection against free roaming radicals
- Lion’s Mane: Beta-glucans and anticancer properties
- Cordycep: Promote ATP production or simply, energy produced by the mitochondria.
- Reishi: High in polysaccharides (aids in metabolic regulation and boosts white blood cell activity)
- Turkey Tail: Studies show anti-cancer/tumor properties
There’re many more mushrooms that could be added to this list, but these are the main ones I found. What they all have in common is their ability to fight free roaming radicals and their anti-inflammatory properties. There’s merit in choosing what type of mushroom you want in your coffee based on your nutritional requirements and medical history, but the average person would benefit from any of them. But an example would be in my research I found turkey tail mushrooms are effective at fighting certain types of cancers and even helped with chemotherapy tolerance. That’s a bit too deep for this overview.
Mushroom Coffee or Adding Mushroom TO Coffee?
Should you buy mushroom coffee, or just buy the mushroom extract yourself and fortify your own beverage with the mushroom of your choice? There are many variables to consider here when deciding to buy a fortified product or to fortify it yourself. For starters, buying mushroom infused coffee is convenient and requires little thought or disruption to your daily ritual. However, you will lose the quality control of both the coffee and the mushrooms. The coffee may not be great, the mushroom selection may be limited, and the quality of those mushrooms maybe low quality. The consequence of buying infused products is that it’s not uncommon for the quality to be lower due to increasing profit margins or the fact most consumers will not taste the difference. Sourcing your own coffee and mushroom extract ensures you get the best of both worlds with the downside that there will be a lot of research and extra steps to your routine until you find your stride.
Another added benefit of sourcing your own mushroom and coffee is variety. You may find some mushroom extracts pair well with certain types of coffee, offering plenty of room to experiment with different flavors. Furthermore, you can use your mushroom extract in other foods, such as smoothies or to fortify your meals for that extra boost to your nutritional goals.
Conclusion on Mushroom Coffee
I’ve learned a lot about mushroom coffee during this deep dive. The most important takeaway for me is that mushroom coffee isn’t just a fad (it technically is right now), but historically mushrooms have been consumed as a beverage since the dawn of civilization.
With that said, let’s be very clear on what I did uncover. While mushrooms have been scientifically proven have a wide range of health benefits, the studies about them in coffee haven’t been studied all that much nor have their long-term benefits been concluded. Humans have been drinking mushroom infused beverages for thousands of years; scientists are still studying the application of these fungi.
The key takeaway here is that mushroom coffee will most likely have minimally noticeable health benefits but nothing life changing that a healthy diet, routine fitness, and mental wellbeing couldn’t do. Mushroom coffee could boost an already healthy person to feel improved, but it’s not going to drag someone out of an unhealthy lifestyle, however it could be the catalyst!
Perhaps the real benefits might be that someone quits soda or energy drinks, starts exercising, or improves brain fog and become more proficient at their job. Just remember that each mushroom has its own downsides, so be sure to research any health predispositions you have and align it with the correct mushroom for you—such as avoiding oxalates (chaga mushrooms) if you’re prone to kidney stones.
Otherwise, I hope this article helped you navigate the world of mushroom infused coffee! Be healthy and be alert out there!