- Cortado
The Real Health Benefit of Mushroom Coffee
Updated: Jul 16, 2020
Mushroom coffee has quickly emerged as one of the hottest trends in the coffee industry. On Pinterest alone, mushroom coffee has seen a 471% year-over-year jump in searches, and the global mushroom market is predicted to exceed $50 billion by 2022. It’s safe to say that the mushroom trend won’t be going away anytime soon. But what is sparking the trend?

Mushroom coffee is simply black coffee mixed with medicinal mushroom powder. The mushroom powder consists of dried out and ground up mushrooms picked from their natural habitat. Mixing mushrooms with food and drinks isn’t actually a new phenomenon, fungi has been used in Chinese medications since the Han dynasty in 200 AD. While mushrooms have been used for hundreds of years, there are not enough clinical studies and trials to make a real claim on the exact health benefits.
In our opinion, the real health benefit of mushroom coffee is that it helps balance the digestive system and caffeine related issues that regular coffee can cause.
The high amounts of acidity in coffee can aggravate the stomach lining and can also use up your body’s production of hydrochloric acid. Your body uses hydrochloric acid to digest meals, so if the body uses all of this acid for every cup of coffee you drink than it might not have as much left for food. That’s where mushrooms can help. Mushrooms boost the production of healthy bacteria in your gut, which can help give your digestive system the boost it needs to run smoothly.

Additionally, high levels of caffeine can disrupt the body’s circadian rhythms which are responsible for brain activity, hormone production, and cell regeneration. Many people have chronic sleep problems that prevent them from getting the rest they need every night, and caffeine certainly doesn’t help. Mushroom coffee has less caffeine than regular coffee. For example, Four Sigmatic Instant Coffee has 50 milligrams of caffeine, compared to almost 100 milligrams of caffeine in a regular cup of coffee. Mushroom coffee also helps another caffeine related issue known as the coffee “jitters.” Mushroom coffee helps with this because it contains less caffeine than a regular cup of coffee, and also helps reduce stress because mushrooms are natural adaptogens, non-toxic plants that help the body reduce stress and anxiety.
Mushroom coffee, and all its health benefits, might make for your next favorite morning drink to seize the day. If you’re curious about mushroom coffee, we recommend checking out our friends over at Four Sigmatic. Use our referral code “CORTADO” at checkout!