Mushroom coffee is exactly what it sounds like: ground coffee with powdered mushrooms mixed into it. But these mushrooms aren’t the types you find at the grocery store. They’re medicinal mushrooms (not psychedelic) varieties that may have health benefits and healing properties, says Lee. For example, some types of medicinal mushrooms can improve immunity, cognitive functions like memory and focus, cardiovascular health and athletic recovery, as well as reduce stress, anxiety and inflammation, says Dr. Brynna Connor, a family medicine doctor based in Austin, Texas.
Many mushroom coffees are also a low-caffeine alternative to standard coffee — a cup of mushroom coffee usually has about one-third of the amount of caffeine that’s in a cup of standard coffee, says Dr. Michael Aziz, an attending physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. It’s less caffeinated because brands essentially dilute coffee grounds with mushrooms — the more mushrooms in a blend, the less caffeinated it is, says Connor.
While shopping for mushroom coffee, experts suggest keeping the following factors in mind, all of which I considered while compiling my list of recommendations.
Mushroom type: Chaga, turkey tail, lion’s mane, reishi, king trumpet, shitake and cordyceps (not exactly the ones from “The Last of Us”) are some of the most common types of medical mushrooms that brands add to their coffees, says Aziz. Each type has different potential health benefits — I detailed some of the main ones in the FAQ section below, and experts also recommend reading through brands’ websites, which often tell you the exact benefits its coffees aim to target via specific mushrooms.
Taste: Ground mushroom coffee tastes the most like standard coffee — there’s more coffee than mushrooms in a blend, so while the flavor may be slightly earthy, there’s no overpowering mushroom taste. Many instant mushroom coffees, however, are made with more mushrooms and other ingredients than coffee — there might be a coffee essence to the beverage, but its flavor is entirely different, so it takes some getting used to.
Additional ingredients: To boost the potential benefits of mushroom coffees, brands add additional ingredients, like medicinal herbs, prebiotics, probiotics, collagen and vitamins, to formulas. You’ll find these ingredients listed on the coffee’s nutrition label — talk to your doctor if you have questions about them in relation to your health.
Caffeine level: A standard cup of coffee has about 150 milligrams of caffeine, says Aziz. Mushroom coffee is typically much less caffeinated — there’s usually about 50 to 60 milligrams of caffeine per cup, he says. If you’re sensitive to caffeine, choose a mushroom coffee that’s on the lower end of that range — caffeine level is typically printed on a bag of mushroom coffee or listed on the brand’s website. Some mushroom coffees are even less caffeinated with around 30 to 45 milligrams of caffeine.
Brand reputation: Lee recommends reading reviews to learn about brands’ reputation among customers, and combing through their websites for information about their products’ ingredients. For example, check to see if the brand you’re interested in buying from is transparent about where it sources mushrooms from. Lee also suggests buying from a brand that’s been around for a while. “The longevity of the company can tell you a lot about how trusted it is,” she says.
Below, I rounded up the best mushroom coffees to try. The NBC Select staff and I tested some ourselves, while others are highly rated picks from popular brands.
“Four Sigmatic is the gold standard for mushroom coffee as far as I’m concerned,” says NBC Select SEO editor Nikki Brown. She’s been drinking it for about a year and buys the brand’s cold brew grounds since she prefers an iced beverage. “I don’t feel jittery while drinking it and the chocolate-y aftertaste isn’t completely offensive, compared to normal coffee,” says Brown. “The aftertaste isn’t the strongest, but it’s still pleasant enough that I can drink everyday, though I usually have it a few times a week.”
Four Sigmatic’s Focus Organic Mushroom Coffee looks and smells exactly like standard coffee grounds. I brewed them using a French press.Courtesy Zoe Malin
Four Sigmatic’s Focus blend is a dark roast coffee from Honduras made with lion’s mane and chaga mushrooms. It has about 150 milligrams of caffeine per 12-ounce cup, which is about the same as standard coffee. That makes it ideal for people who want the flavor and energy boost coffee offers, plus the potential health benefits of the medicinal mushroom — in this case, lion’s mane may improve memory and focus, and chaga mushrooms may boost immunity, says Connor.
This mushroom coffee is low in acidity and has a smooth taste with notes of dark chocolate and nuts. It comes ground so you can add it to a drip machine, French press or pour-over. Four Sigmatic also sells mushroom coffee pods that work with some single-serve machines, and instant coffee in individual packets that Brown keeps at her desk.
Ryze is an instant Arabica coffee blend made with six medicinal mushrooms: cordyceps, lion’s mane, reishi, shitake, turkey tail and king trumpet. There’s also powdered organic coconut milk and MCT oil in its formula, the latter of which is primarily extracted from coconut oil and adds flavor to coffee, says Aziz. It’s designed to help you focus better and support your energy levels, gut health and immune system, according to the brand. One serving of Ryze Mushroom Coffee has about 48 milligrams of caffeine.
Everyday Dose is another popular instant mushroom coffee that the brand says helps with gut health, energy, focus and clarity, as well as managing your mood and stress levels. There’s lion’s mane and chaga mushrooms in the blend, which also has bovine collagen and L-Theanine, an amino acid that can help with focus and sleep quality, according to the brand. One serving has 45 milligrams of caffeine and it’s also a low-acidity option with prominent chocolatey notes.
Similar to Four Sigmatic’s Focus blend, you can brew Atlas Coffee Club’s Elevated Focus blend using a drip machine, French press or pour-over. It has single-origin Nicaraguan coffee, lion’s mane, L-theanine, green oat extract and eleuthero root (also known as Siberian ginseng) in its formula. The mushroom coffee tastes very similar to a standard cup, so I found it easy to get used to the flavor. After a few sips, I forgot that I was drinking mushroom coffee. The beverage helps with focus and energy, multitasking and immunity, according to the brand. It has about 80 to 100 milligrams of caffeine per 8-ounce cup.
This brand also sells an instant mushroom coffee superblend, which is low in caffeine at about 45 milligrams per cup. I found it to have a bitter flavor that didn’t resemble coffee much at all, so I prefer Elevated Focus. Atlas Coffee Club is a subscription coffee company, but you can cancel the subscription after one shipment if you want to try it before committing.
I tried Atlas Coffee Club’s Elevated Focus Mushroom Coffee and Mushroom Coffee Superblend. The Superblend is an instant coffee, while Elevated Focus comes ground so you can brew it.Courtesy Zoe Malin
Despite the lack of research, the doctors I talked to say mushroom coffee is generally safe for most people to drink in moderation. But because there’s no standard of care around the beverage, talk to your doctor before trying it, says Connor. After clearing it with them, start with one small cup a day and monitor your body’s response, says Aziz. If you experience any negative side effects, like digestive issues, for example, stop drinking it. Also, remember that the health benefits aren’t fully substantiated by large-scale clinical trials, so manage your expectations about positive side effects, says Connor.
Researchers haven’t done enough wide-scale clinical studies about mushroom coffee yet to determine if it positively impacts your health, says Lee. There’s plenty of anecdotal evidence — after replacing regular coffee with mushroom coffee, some people say they sleep better, think more clearly and feel less anxious. But doctors mainly attribute these “benefits” to consuming less caffeine, not necessarily to medicinal mushrooms.
Depending on their type, medicinal mushrooms have a range of different health advantages. Here’s what to know, according to Connor:
Lion’s mane mushrooms may have cognitive benefits like improved focus and memory, and be able to support overall brain health.
Chaga mushrooms are high in antioxidants, which can support immune function and reduce inflammation.
Cordyceps mushrooms may help with athletic performance, specifically around oxygen uptake and cardiovascular health.
Reishi mushrooms, which have been prominent in Chinese medicine for centuries, can promote relaxation, reduce stress and support the immune system.
Two specific medicinal mushrooms, reishi and cordyceps, are also adaptogens, active ingredients in certain plants and mushrooms that can help your body manage stress and return to a balanced state, says Aziz. When you’re stressed, your body produces more cortisol, a hormone that plays a role in your response to stress, aka fight-or-flight. Consuming adaptogens can lower cortisol levels, making you feel more level-headed, says Aziz. (Be sure to talk to your doctor before taking adaptogens.)
All that said, you have to consume “massive amounts” of high-quality medicinal mushrooms to experience their potential benefits, says Aziz. There’s very low doses of medicinal mushrooms in mushroom coffee, so drinking a cup or two a day doesn’t get you anywhere close to how much you’d need to consume to notice positive side effects. Brands also don’t always disclose where they’re sourcing mushrooms from, which can raise questions about potency and purity, says Lee.
It’s also important to note that most studies about medicinal mushrooms focus on individual species rather than coffee-mushroom blends, says Connor. There’s currently not enough information available about the impacts of mushroom-coffee blends to determine if it’s beneficial.
Medicinal mushrooms are completely different from psychedelic mushrooms. You can’t get high off medicinal mushrooms because they don’t have psychoactive compounds that could potentially alter your state of consciousness. Getting high off medicinal mushrooms via coffee isn’t a concern whatsoever, according to the experts I spoke with.
While the benefits you get from the actual mushrooms in mushroom coffee are up for debate, the benefits of drinking less caffeine are not. Caffeine is a stimulative substance that makes you more alert, but it raises cortisol levels, so it can also lead to symptoms like anxiety, disrupted sleep and heart palpitations, says Aziz. If you swap your daily cup of standard coffee for a low-caffeine mushroom coffee, you may sleep better, feel more relaxed and maintain an overall even mood once your body adjusts to the change.
“A regular cup of coffee has about 150 milligrams of caffeine, while most mushroom coffees have roughly one-third of that amount at about 50 to 60 milligrams of caffeine per cup,” says Aziz. “If you’re drinking less caffeine, which lowers your cortisol level, that can have a calming effect.”
Before you try mushroom coffee, it’s a good idea to check in with your doctor, especially if you take prescription or over-the-counter medication. Medicinal mushrooms may interact with certain medications, although this is mostly a concern in high amounts, which isn’t the case with mushroom coffee, says Lee.
If you’re allergic to any type of mushroom, you shouldn’t drink mushroom coffee, says Aziz. You can read ingredient labels to learn what specific types of mushrooms the coffee is made with, but overall, it’s not worth taking a chance.
Also, although mushroom coffee doesn’t have much caffeine in it, there is some — if you’re very sensitive to caffeine, and experience symptoms like jitteriness, headaches and insomnia even when you have a little, avoid mushroom coffee, says Connor. Those who tend to have frequent digestive issues shouldn’t have mushroom coffee either. There’s a lot of fiber in some mushrooms, which could lead to an upset stomach, says Connor.
Finally, people who are pregnant or breastfeeding shouldn’t drink mushroom coffee. There’s currently not enough research about the effects of taking medicinal mushrooms while pregnant or breastfeeding to consider it safe for those groups, says Connor.
The taste will heavily depend on the ingredients in its formula. Those made with coffee grounds and powdered mushrooms typically taste the most like standard coffee with an earthy, nutty aftertaste. However, instant blends usually have extra ingredients like cinnamon, coconut and plant-based extracts, which somewhat masks the earthy mushroom flavor. These instant blends have a coffee essence to them, but there are other flavor notes present, moving it closer to a latte of sorts.
Despite a recent uptick in interest, mushroom coffee isn’t a new concept. It’s been around since the 1940s during World War II. There was a coffee shortage in Finland, so people started “brewing” ground mushrooms, which made a beverage that looked like coffee and had a somewhat similar bitter taste, says Aziz. As far as a wellness trend, however, mushroom coffee started gaining traction in the 2010s, although people around the world have used mushrooms medically for hundreds of years.
At NBC Select, we work with experts who have specialized knowledge and authority based on relevant training and/or experience. We also ensure that all expert advice and recommendations are made independently and without undisclosed financial conflicts of interest.
Dr. Michael Aziz is an attending physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, and the author of “The Ageless Revolution.”
Dr. Amy Lee is a medical nutritionist based in Orange County, California, and the founder of Nucific.
I’m a reporter at NBC Select who’s covered health and wellness for five years, including topics like electrolyte powders, honey for allergies and prebiotic sodas. To write this article, I talked to three doctors about mushroom coffee and tried a few varieties myself, which brands sent me as courtesy samples.
