In the most recent season of Clarkson’s Farm, the Amazon Prime show that follows Jeremy Clarkson as he tends his Cotswolds farm in the UK, the eponymous gearhead-turned-agronomist finds a lucrative sideline growing fungi in a converted bunker.
But his mushrooms aren’t just destined for risotto: They’re dried and powdered to be added to your morning cup of joe, resulting in so-called mushroom coffee—once the confine of hippies and biohackers, but now evidently as mainstream as it gets.
Startup bros, alt-health gurus, and baristas have been trying to reinvent coffee for years. We’ve had bulletproof coffee, turmeric lattes, CBD coffee, and now the mushroom variety. A slew of startups are trying to push this latter trend further, packing more and more supposedly beneficial ingredients into a single cup.
Their products are often marketed as “functional” or “adaptogenic”—adaptogens being substances purported to help modulate stress. They boast claims of improving focus, promoting calm, and enhancing creativity. Essentially: They promise more from your coffee than just a caffeine buzz.
People are clearly intrigued. Google Trends shows interest in “mushroom coffee” climbing steeply since summer 2022, and the overall functional drinks market—which also includes things like conventional energy drinks and protein drinks—is predicted to reach $307 billion by 2029. But can these new mushroom-enhanced drinks really take the place of your go-to caffeinated brew? Do their claims stand up beyond the Instagram ad hype? Most importantly, do they taste like mushroom soup?
California-based Four Sigmatic is an early innovator in the space, having been founded in 2012. Founder and CEO Tero Isokauppila credits his upbringing on a Finnish farm for his interest in adaptogens: Finns, he says, are “very pro-mushroom.” The country also has a history of mushroom-based drinks; in the Second World War, coffee rationing led people to make a tea out of steeped chaga mushrooms.