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In recent years, mushroom coffee has gained significant popularity among health-conscious consumers seeking alternatives to traditional coffee. The unique blend marries the robust flavors of coffee with the potential health benefits of potent medicinal mushrooms.
This surge of interest is thanks to recent scientific discoveries highlighting potentially positive effects certain mushrooms may have on cognitive function and immune support. There's also plenty of vitamins and minerals within these mushrooms, meaning your mushroom coffee may help you to plug any nutritional deficiencies within your diet.
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What makes things difficult however is that this upsurge of interest in mushrooms has led to a flood of mushroom coffee brands all trying to get you to spend your money with them. They're not all created equal though, so reviewers for this article have put together a list of what they have found to be the most trustworthy and impactful brands out there today.
Best Non-Coffee Alternative: Elm and Rye Mushroom Coffee Creamer
While it's not technically a mushroom coffee, Elm and Rye have thought outside the box and managed to solve a problem many people have with mushroom coffee, and that's that they have to change from their favourite coffee brand.
To get around this, Elm & Rye created a mushroom blended coffee creamer, meaning you can add the fantastic potential health benefits of mushroom coffee to your favourite tasting coffee beans, getting the best of both worlds.
Pros
Great tasting Creamer.
6 medicinal mushrooms.
Easy to use
Mostly positive reviews.
Cons
May seem expensive.
Coconut flavor may not be to everyone's taste.
Ingredients and Health Benefits
Cordyceps
Increases the body’s production of ATP, possibly improving oxygen use during exercise. Contains antioxidants that may reduce fatigue and boost strength. May enhance immune function and has potentially anti-inflammatory properties.
Reishi
May enhance the function of white blood cells. May also improve well-being and reduce symptoms of fatigue and depression.
King Trumpet
Rich in B vitamins, selenium, and antioxidants.
Shiitake
High in vitamins and minerals such as vitamin D, copper, and selenium.
Turkey Tail
Contains polysaccharopeptides that may enhance immune response and promote healthy gut bacteria.
Lion’s Mane
Has potential anti-inflammatory effects that may reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression. May also protect against ulcers in the digestive tract
Bacilus Coagulans (1 billion CFU)
May promote healthy gut microbiome.
Conclusion
It's a bit of a wild card option but still something the reviewers for the article thought would be worth bringing to your attention, as many people are quite particular about what coffee beans they enjoy.
The only real downside is that it does have some vanilla flavouring and as the name suggests, adds a creamy flavour to your coffee that some dedicated black coffee drinkers may not enjoy.
Best Mushroom Coffee – Nootrum Coffee
Nootrum Mushrooms is a leading producer of mushroom supplements, capturing a significant market share with its various mushroom products, including their excellent mushroom capsules, gummy supplements, and coffee blend.
What makes Nootrum stand out from the crowd is its extraction processes, providing what may be some of the purest and highest concentrations of nutrition from every individual mushroom used in their products. Which means you may actually get a full dose of the erinacines from lion’s mane and the beta glucans that could boost your immune system in general, something that may not be managed by any other ground mushroom coffee.
With the infusion of Lion's Mane and Chaga mushrooms, it may encourage clarity and enhanced focus that extends beyond the first hour and could be maintained throughout the rest of the day.
Pros
Dark roasted Brazilian Coffee beans taste delicious
A great reputation despite being a young brand
Slightly sweet and nutty notes
Great value
Cons
It's easy to drink it all too quickly and then you've gotta wait for the next batch (or just increase your purchase quantity)
Ingredients and Health Benefits
Chaga mushroom extract:
Chaga mushrooms are rich in antioxidants, which may protect brain cells from oxidative damage, and they're even known to possibly improve immune support thanks to their abundance of Beta Glucans. This may also help to reduce blood sugar spikes, helping to potentially reduce the risk of diabetes and certain liver diseases.
Lions Mane mushroom extract:
Lion’s Mane is known for its ability to potentially improve memory and cognitive function. It contains compounds like erinacines and hericenones that may stimulate nerve growth factor (NGF) production, which are essential for brain health. In fact this stimulation of growth in brain cells may even help to ward off neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease.
Conclusion
Many people are going to come into Mushroom Coffee not really knowing what to expect, and this is why so many brands are offering products of varying quality, simply relying on the effects of the caffeine to convince you that the mushrooms are helping.
Nootrum is different, offering great extracts with fantastic results. They've not bothered fluffing up the formula with non-essential mushrooms, instead providing clinically significant doses of the two you really want, Chaga and Lion's mane. This may provide a potent boost to focus and energy levels that could last throughout the entire day.
Flavor: Slightly sweet and nutty notes.
Ingredients Country of Origin: Brazil
Manufacturer Country: USA
Product Form: Ground coffee
Runner-up: Vitacup Focus Mushroom Coffee Pods
Vitacup Mushroom coffee is a well-established company that offers many different mushroom coffee options, from instant easy to use sachets and pods to ground beans. Made with 100% Arabica beans infused with Lion's Mane and Chaga mushroom extracts.
Vitacup was founded in 2017 by an owner who had issues with numerous vitamin deficiencies, and with the added issues of forgetting to take the prescribed vitamins, realizing that not just himself but by introducing mushroom extracts into the coffee he might be able to control his vitamin intake with his daily coffee.
Pros
May sustain energy levels throughout the day
May improve mental clarity and focus
Convenient pods for easy brewing
Fully recyclable
Good range of vitamins and mushroom extracts
Cons
Earthy mushroom flavour comes through
Can only brew with a pod machine
Ingredients and Health Benefits
Lion’s Mane Mushroom
Known for its ability to potentially enhance mental clarity and focus.
Chaga Mushroom
Contains powerful antioxidants and possible anti-inflammatory properties
Vitamin B12 (Cobalamin)
Vital for neurological function and DNA
Vitamin D 3
May help regulate mood and reduce the risk of depression
Vitamin B1
Thiamine may metabolize nutrients into energy.
Conclusion:
VitaCup offers a fantastically convenient mushroom coffee for anyone with a coffee pod machine, providing an excellent collection of mushrooms and vitamins. Some may or may not enjoy the subtle medium roast flavor, which may not completely mask the mushroom flavour.
If this is something you prefer, then VitaCup may be the right choice for you, providing an excellent potential boon to cognitive function and mental clarity.
Flavor: Slightly earthy and medium flavor
Ingredients Country of Origin: Unkown
Manufacturer Country: USA
Product Form: Liquid coffee pods
Four Sigmatic Half Caf Coffee
Four Sigmatic High Caffeine Mushroom Coffee K-Cups is another well-established manufacturer that has various ranges of mushroom coffees, but unlike VitaCup they've opted for a dark roast bean sourced from a farm in Honduras. On top of this strong flavour, this one comes with quite a generous helping of caffeine, providing a potentially stronger and more instant increase to mental focus and energy.
The dark roasted bean of Four Sigmatic may not be as smooth as Nootrum, but they do a much better job than some of covering up that earthy mushroom flavour, creating a good middle ground to anyone with a pod machine.
Pros
High-Caffeine Mushroom Coffee.
K-Cups
Recyclable plastic pods
Keto
Organic coffee beans
Cons
Yacon research ongoing.
High Caffeine, may not be suitable for everyone
Mostly positive reviews.
Yacon may effect some users.
Ingredients and Health Benefits
Lion’s Mane Mushroom
It is known as one of the primary medicinal mushrooms and has been scientifically researched to show potential in improving mental clarity and focus.
Yacon Root
This herbal supplement is gaining popularity for its potential health benefits. Although more comprehensive scientific research and human trials are necessary to substantiate these claims, existing animal and preliminary studies show promise.
In animal trials, Yacon root has been shown to have potentially positive effects in helping regulate blood sugar by preventing the body from absorbing simple sugars, thereby supporting the liver in possibly reducing fasting glucose levels
Conclusion:
While this is overall a great mushroom coffee, there are a few small points that need addressing.
First is the high caffeine content, which is higher than most traditional pod coffees. This is different thn some other mushroom coffees, which may offer a more subtle and sustained boost to energy levels throughout the day.
Then there's Yacon, which has a lot of promising data supporting its use, but it may adversely impact some users.
Flavor: Slightly sweet and nutty notes.
Ingredients Country of Origin: Unknown
Manufacturer Country: USA
Product Form: Liquid coffee pods.
Best instant mushroom Coffee: Rich Gano Reishi Coffee
The Rich Gano Ganoderma coffee combines the Reishi mushrooms with a smooth, robust and unique coffee flavor that may heighten your senses and gives you that morning boost!
It's a non-GMO, vegan-friendly product that is packaged in convenient and simple to understand single use sachets. Unlike some other brands, Rich Gano has actually reduced the amount of caffeine within their blend, relying on the mushrooms more to potentially improve focus and energy levels.
Ganoderma Extract is more commonly known as Reishi and is one of the most widely researched medicinal mushrooms, backed by much research.
Pros
Sachets, easy to use and take on the go
Scientifically researched medicinal mushroom.
Mostly positive but limited reviews.
Helps reduce those morning jitters.
Cons
Not many reviews.
Coffee beans, Country of origin not listed.
Instant coffee, some many prefer ground beans.
Ingredients and Health Benefits
Reishi mushroom extracts:
Reishi mushrooms may enhance immune function through their effects on white blood cells, which help fight infections. They also may help reduce fatigue and improve well-being, possibly even in people with conditions like neurasthenia and breast cancer.
The bioactive components in reishi mushrooms, such as triterpenoids, have antioxidant properties that may help protect the body against oxidative stress, possibly improving health at the cellular level.
Conclusion
The convenience here can not be understated, providing such an easy alternative to other brewing methods. In this case, amore subtle coffee flavour has been chosen, allowing some of that earthy taste to seep through. Reishi is also a pretty puzzling choice, as while it is a very well researched medicinal mushroom with health benefits, it may not improve cognitive function.
Overall however it's still one of the better mushroom coffee blends out there, especially when compared with the other instant coffee options.
Flavor: Slightly earthy and nutty notes.
Ingredients Country of Origin: Unknown
Manufacturer Country: USA
Product Form: Ground coffee
Shroomi Cofee
Shroomi Lions Mane coffee is another great mushroom coffee brand, formulated with a smooth, yet slightly nutty flavor, with some earthy undertones from the Lions Mane mushroom extract.
Shroomi are one of the least well-known manufacturers within this review, but the product is potentially the smoothest of all the coffees, but it may lack for some the punch of many of the other coffees here.
Pros
Smooth taste
Fair Trade approved
Mostly positive reviews
Cons
Taste may be too smooth for some
Ingredients and Health Benefits
Lions Mane
May help with mental health and well-being, as well as potential anti-inflammatory properties to help reduce anxiety, depression and stress.
Conclusion.
There is a lot to like here, coming in many different flavours and even offering half the caffeine in some of their other products, which could be very ideal for some. While it was one of the smoothest tasting coffees here, some users may want something stronger.
Flavor: Slightly earthy and nutty notes.
Ingredients Country of Origin: Nicaragua
Manufacturer Country: USA
Product Form: Ground coffee
FAQ
Navigating the Mushroom Coffee Market
The mushroom coffee market can be overwhelming, with many brands and products available. Consider factors such as extraction method, mushroom variety, coffee quality, caffeine content, and ingredient transparency. Look for brands that are transparent about their ingredients and sourcing practices.
Health Benefits of Different Medicinal Mushrooms
Lion’s mane mushrooms may offer improved cognitive function and memory. Reishi mushrooms may offer immune-boosting properties and reduce stress. Chaga mushrooms may offer antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Cordyceps mushrooms may offer improved physical performance and endurance.
How to Choose the Best Mushroom Coffee for Your Taste
When choosing a mushroom coffee, consider your personal taste preferences. Look for brands that offer a range of flavors and blends. Consider the caffeine content and potential health benefits of each brew. Read reviews and try different brands to find the best mushroom coffee for your taste.
Final Thoughts
The Elm & Rye Creamer suits those who prefer white coffee and want to stick to their favorite brew. It offers a great way to enjoy the potential benefits of these mushrooms along with your go-to coffee.
But if you’re looking for straight up coffee that stood out for its taste then it’s Nootrum Lions Mane and chaga mushrooms, which uses dark roasted Brazilian beans. This blend gives off a great smell before you take your first long sip. The two mushrooms mixed into this coffee may help with brain function, energy, mental clarity, and reducing brain fog. Studies have backed up these potential benefits with potential scientific evidence.
While the cut caffeine in Four Sigmatic might be some customers' perfect morning coffee.
