DIY Perfect Cup Of Coffee: How To Make Mushroom Coffee?

A few years ago, drinking coffee made with mushroom was unheard of. You'd probably be labeled crazy too. But thanks to biohacking, mushroom coffee has made its way into several podcasts and health and wellness websites.

And this trend shows no signs of slowing down. Every day more and more people are discovering the excellent health benefits of adaptogenic mushrooms and seeking new ways to include them in their lives.

Mushroom powder in coffee can provide an added natural health boost. Numerous dietary supplement businesses are advertising products that may not even contain any mushrooms while making grand claims about the advantages of medicinal mushrooms. That's why DIY mushroom coffee is gaining traction.

But how to make mushroom coffee? It’s as easy as adding mushroom powder to coffee. But knowing the product, how it's made, and what it can do for you is the key to the ideal mushroom coffee brew.

Here we outline mushroom coffee and its benefits and even include a DIY mushroom coffee recipe. So, if freshly brewed coffee is part of your morning ritual, let’s make it loaded with mushroomy goodness!

Let’s begin.

What Is Mushroom Coffee?

Simply put, mushroom coffee is ground coffee with mushroom powder. It's a way to combine your morning cup of coffee with a daily habit many of us already have, adding the nutritional benefits of medicinal mushrooms to your diet. Various kinds of mushroom coffee will have unique combinations, coffee/mushroom ratios, and a range of potential health benefits.

Medicinal mushrooms are a new concept in North America, but in traditional eastern medicine, mushrooms have been utilized for thousands of years. They boost immunity, general health, vigor, and longevity.

People are now adding mushrooms to their coffee for focus, energy, clarity, and mental performance to gain an edge and feel fantastic daily. These benefits of functional mushrooms stem from beta-glucans, potent tiny molecules typically locked up in the cell wall of the mushroom's fruiting body. They are extracted using hot water, which softens the thick cell walls of the mushrooms and renders them bioavailable.

Benefits Of Mushrooms Coffee

Mushroom coffee has two straightforward benefits. First, it reduces caffeine intake, and second, it contains health-boosting compounds,

Decreases your caffeine intake

The most apparent advantage of mushroom coffee may be that it decreases the overall caffeine content of your morning cup. As most mushroom powders are devoid of caffeine, your cup of mushroom coffee may contain up to half as much caffeine as a cup of conventional coffee.

Most of us don't have problems with a cup or two of conventional coffee in the morning since it doesn't contain enough caffeine. Still, for those who are sensitive to it or are restricting their intake for other reasons, this may mean they may enjoy their coffee worry-free in the morning!

Packed with nutrients

From a nutritional viewpoint, adding mushroom powder to coffee adds fiber and complex B vitamins to your diet. Niacin, riboflavin, and pantothenic acid are present in most functional mushrooms. Together with the B vitamins found in coffee beans, they help the body liberate energy from fat.

Health-promoting mushroom nutrients include vitamins, minerals, flavonoids, carotenoids, and polysaccharides. We know the benefits of vitamins and minerals, but what are these additional substances?

The complex carbohydrates your doctor or nutritionist advises you to consume more are called polysaccharides. They feed the good bacteria in your gut, and those bacteria then break down the complex carbs so you can also benefit nutritionally.

Antioxidant substances like polyphenols and carotenoids are thought to improve health. Polyphenols can enhance immune system health and reduce inflammation. When added to your diet, carotenoids can also help prevent Vitamin A deficiency. Only foods derived from plants (or fungi, for that matter!) contain either of these types of compounds.

The most popular mushroom extract powders added to coffee are Chaga, Cordyceps, Turkey tail, Maitake, Reishi, and Shiitake. These mushrooms have unique health benefits and can be picked depending on your preference.

• Are you looking for immune support? Try Turkey Tail.
• Are you looking to relax? Use Chaga or Reishi.
• Are you looking for focus and mental clarity? Try Lion’s Mane.
• Are you looking for increased energy and endurance? Use Cordyceps.
• Are you looking for blood sugar support? Try Maitake

How To Make Mushroom Coffee

You can dehydrate and grind fresh mushrooms to make mushroom powders for coffee. But this can be cumbersome and won’t be sustainable in the long run.

Instead, you can buy a high-quality mushroom powder and mix it with your favorite type of coffee.  If you want to use whole beans, store the beans and the powdered mushrooms separately and combine them when you grind the coffee for brewing.

You can make mushroom coffee the same way you make regular coffee in the morning using a french press, a percolator, or a pour-over setup. You can use the same filters and quantity of ground coffee (combined with the mushroom powder) as you would for regular coffee. Most people will add 1-2 grams of mushroom extract to a single cup of coffee. The addition of the mushroom powder is the only extra step.

Why Make Mushroom Coffee?

Given their potential benefits, it shouldn't be surprising that brands are taking notice of these incredible fungi and are eager to use them in their products. Unfortunately, however, they can sometimes have the opposite effect. In reality, many supplements on the market in the United States that advertise the virtues of their mushroom constituents don't include any mushrooms.

Making your own mushroom coffee saves money, which is another reason. A 12-ounce bag of regular coffee might cost twice as much as a mushroom coffee.

The quality of the ingredients is another thing you can control. Instead of using the actual fruiting bodies of the fungus, some commercially available mushroom coffees use ground myceliated grain, the grain that the mushrooms were cultivated on.

When you make your own mushroom coffee, you can pick the highest quality mushroom powder for coffee. Select mushroom powders that contain the highest concentrations of active medicinal compounds are pure, organic, and derived from 100% fruiting bodies. Compared to mycelium-based solutions, this will provide a more potent and concentrated matrix of the medicinal compounds of the mushroom.

Finally, you can choose which mushrooms go in your coffee. For instance, you can skip Chaga from your brew if you don't want to consume the oxalates it contains.

Here are other benefits of making your own mushroom coffee:

• DIY mushroom coffee enhances the flavor and experience. Instead, you will omit the freeze-dried instant coffee and use fresh, locally roasted coffee beans.
• As you pick your mushroom and coffee, you can trust the sources of all the ingredients you consume.
• You can customize your coffee to get health benefits and desired flavor profiles.
• You will reduce the unnecessary waste from prepackaged, single-use mixed packets of mushroom coffee to save money and help the environment.

FAQs About How To Make Mushroom Coffee

References

1. Yamabushitake mushroom (Hericium erinaceus) improved lipid metabolism in mice fed a high-fat diet, (1)https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20622452/
2. Medicinal mushroom reduces obesity by modulating microbiota, (2)https://www.nature.com/articles/nrendo.2015.114