Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world. In fact, over 64% of Americans enjoy coffee on a daily basis.
Not only is coffee energizing and delicious, but its consumption is associated with positive health outcomes, such as a lower risk of liver disease and heart disease-related death.
While plain coffee offers impressive benefits, some coffee blends are made with additional ingredients, like medicinal mushrooms, which are thought to enhance coffee’s positive effects on mood, energy, and more.
Here’s what you need to know about mushroom coffee, including what it is, its potential health benefits, downsides, and more.
Mushroom coffee is a blend of coffee beans and ground medicinal mushrooms or mushroom extracts.
Though the types of mushrooms and other fungi used in these coffee products vary, most contain one or more of the following fungi:
- Chaga
- Turkey tail
- Reishi
- Lion’s mane
- Cordyceps
These fungi are considered medicinal because they offer health benefits beyond the nutritional value found in common edible mushrooms like portobello mushrooms or button mushrooms.
For example, some of these mushrooms, including lion’s Mane and reishi mushrooms, are considered adaptogenic mushrooms. Adaptogens are substances that increase the body’s resistance to stress and protect against stress-related damage. Adaptogens help your body deal with stress by influencing the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA axis), which is the body’s main stress response system.
Some research supports using adaptogenic mushroom supplements, like lion’s mane supplements, for improving stress levels. For example, the 2023 study that included 41 healthy adults mentioned above found that supplementation with 1.8 g of lion’s mane for28 days was associated with lower stress levels compared to a placebo treatment.
Additionally, studies have shown that supplements containing medicinal mushroom extracts or ground mushrooms may help improve certain aspects of health, including heart health and cognitive function.
Based on these findings, mushroom coffee companies claim that drinking coffee with added medicinal mushroom extract or powder can help with anything from reducing your stress levels to improving your immune function.
Unfortunately, there’s no solid evidence linking mushroom coffee to any health benefits.
Human studies on the effects of medicinal mushrooms are relatively limited, and some findings are mixed. Also, although medicinal mushroom supplements may offer several health benefits, it’s unclear how drinking mushroom coffee impacts health and if it offers any significant benefits.
In addition to medicinal mushrooms, some mushroom coffee products contain other active ingredients, such as herbs like ashwagandha and amino acids like L-theanine. Some products also contain ingredients such as added sugar and coconut powder, so it’s important to read nutrition and ingredient labels, especially if you have allergies, intolerances, or dietary restrictions.
Health Benefits of Mushroom Coffee
Drinking mushroom coffee may benefit health in several ways. However, keep in mind that most of these benefits are related to drinking coffee, not mushroom coffee specifically.
May Improve Energy, Mood, and Cognitive Performance
Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant, meaning it impacts neural activity in the brain, which increases alertness and helps you feel more energized.
A cup of coffee provides around 96 milligrams (mg) of caffeine, which can temporarily boost your energy levels. In addition to improving energy, studies show that drinking coffee positively influences long-term mental health and boosts cognitive performance.
A 2023 review of 29 studies found that drinking around one cup of coffee per day was associated with a 4% reduction in the risk of depression.
Coffee intake has also been linked to better performance on cognitive tasks and improved focus, which is why so many people depend on coffee to get them through their workday.
Mushrooms commonly added to mushroom coffee blends may also improve certain aspects of cognitive health. For example, Hericium erinaceus or lion’s mane, Ganoderma lucidum or reishi, and Trametes versicolor or turkey tail, have been shown to have cognitive-boosting effects when taken in supplement form.
A 2023 study that included 41 healthy adults found that those who were supplemented with 1.8 grams (g) of lion’s mane experienced immediate and long-term cognitive benefits. Acute consumption of lion’s mane supplements helped improve performance on a cognitive test, while long-term 28-day consumption was associated with lower stress levels compared to a placebo group.
However, these results can’t be applied to mushroom coffee as the majority of mushroom coffee products contain proprietary mushroom blends that don’t disclose the amount of each ingredient included per serving. For this reason, it's impossible to know if these products contain doses of medicinal mushrooms necessary to influence health.
May Lower the Risk of Common Health Conditions
Coffee consumption has been associated with a decreased risk of common health conditions such as heart disease, certain cancers, liver disease, and diabetes.
What’s more, drinking coffee may help you live a longer and healthier life. A 2022 study that included data on 468,629 people between the ages of 40 and 69 found that, compared to non-coffee drinkers, people who drank half a cup to three cups of coffee per day had a 12% lower risk all-cause mortality and a 17% reduced risk of heart disease-related mortality.
Though coffee has been shown to positively influence health and disease risk, it’s unclear if drinking coffee with added mushroom extracts or powders would offer any additional benefits.
Contains Protective Plant Compounds
Coffee is a rich source of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds such as ferulic acid, chlorogenic acids, caffeic acid, quercetin, and quinic acid. In fact, coffee is the primary source of antioxidants like phenolic acids and polyphenols in the diets of habitual coffee drinkers.
Medicinal mushrooms and other fungi commonly added to coffee, such as cordyceps, Phellinus (Phellinus linteus), Chaga (Inonotus obliquus), Agaricus mushrooms (Agaricus blazei), reishi, Turkey Tail, and lion’s mane, are concentrated in compounds that have immune-enhancing, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties.
For example, cordyceps, a type of fungi that grows on certain insects, contains cordycepin, a biologically active compound that’s been shown to have antitumor, immune-modulating, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, anticancer, antidiabetic, and anti-obesity effects. Chaga contains a variety of flavonoids and polyphenols, both of which have powerful antioxidant effects. Additionally, a number of medicinal mushrooms, such as Chaga and Phellinus, are rich in polysaccharides such as β-glucans. β-glucans are types of soluble fibers that are present in the cell walls of mushrooms that have immune-supportive, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer properties and may support and protect health in several ways.
Though research investigating the antioxidant profile of mushroom coffee is limited, findings from a 2020 study suggest that coffee made with a blend of mushroom extracts provides several substances that could promote overall health, including β-glucans. The study found that green coffee beans mixed with extracts from cordyceps, Phellinus, and Chaga mushrooms contained higher levels of total polyphenol antioxidants than regular coffee and also contained cordycepin and β-glucans, which regular coffee does not.
This means that drinking mushroom coffee over regular coffee may help increase your intake of certain antioxidants and beneficial plant compounds, such as polyphenols andβ-glucans.
However, it’s unclear if mushroom coffee offers any significant health benefits over regular coffee as there are no studies investigating the effects of mushroom coffee on human health.
The main downside of most mushroom coffee products is that they don’t disclose the amount of mushroom extracts or ground mushrooms used in their product. While some companies list the total weight of proprietary mushroom blends, it’s still unclear how much of each mushroom you’re consuming. Though ingesting medicinal mushrooms in specific amounts may offer health benefits, most studies have used higher doses of either ground mushrooms or mushroom extracts in supplement form. Unless a product lists the amount of each mushroom in a mushroom coffee product, it’s impossible to know how much you’re consuming.
Just because a product contains an ingredient, whether it be medicinal mushrooms or vitamins and minerals, it doesn’t necessarily mean it provides enough of the ingredient to have any meaningful effect on health.
Also, most human studies investigating medicinal mushrooms have studied the effects of supplements containing a single mushroom type, not multiple types. This makes it difficult to assess how a product containing more than one medicinal mushroom in undisclosed ratios will impact health.
Additionally, there’s no human evidence suggesting that drinking mushroom coffee benefits health more than drinking regular coffee. People who are interested in using medicinal mushrooms for a specific purpose, such as stress reduction, are much better off using a single-ingredient supplement that contains a high enough dose to influence health.
What’s more, though most medicinal mushrooms are safe to take in supplement form, they’re not appropriate for everyone.
For example, reishi mushroom products may cause side effects such as headache and dizziness and aren't recommended for people with certain health conditions, such as bleeding disorders.
Also, the safety of medicinal mushrooms during pregnancy and breastfeeding hasn’t been researched, so people who are pregnant or breastfeeding should avoid drinking mushroom coffee and taking other medicinal mushroom products.
It’s important to avoid ingesting medicinal mushroom products like mushroom coffee if you’re taking certain medications, such as blood pressure-lowering medications, or have one or more health conditions. Some medicinal mushrooms have been shown to interact with common medications and may not be safe for those with medical issues, so it’s best to check with your healthcare provider to ensure medicinal mushroom products are the right choice for you.
Lastly, mushroom coffee is much more expensive than regular coffee. For example, a 12-ounce bag of Earth & Star Hazelnut Mushroom Coffee costs more than double the price of a 12-ounce bag of Jim’s Organic Hazelnut Ground Coffee.
Because there are no proven benefits of mushroom coffee and because most mushroom coffee products don’t disclose the amount of medicinal mushrooms in their products, mushroom coffee may not be worth the cost.
A Quick Review
Mushroom coffee is a blend of coffee beans and one or more medicinal mushrooms and other fungi, such as reishi, lion’s mane, and cordyceps.
Though studies have shown that supplementing with certain medicinal mushrooms could positively influence certain aspects of health, there’s no evidence that consuming mushroom coffee benefits health any more than drinking plain coffee.
If you’re interested in experimenting with medicinal mushrooms, it’s best to work with a healthcare provider who can recommend safe mushroom products and effective and appropriate dosing.
